Set Up Promotional Pricing
Promotional pricing provides you with a way to offer discounted prices for customers who purchase a subscription through in-app purchasing (IAP). You can choose to target only lapsed customers who are resubscribing, or you can target both new and lapsed customers. You can configure promotional pricing in the Developer Console. To get started with promotional pricing, watch the video tutorial.
For more details on how to set up promotional pricing, follow the instructions on this page.
- Promotional pricing terms
- Promotional pricing customer segments
- Set up promotional pricing
- Change promotional prices
- Appstore SDK and Receipt Verification Service
- Promotional pricing FAQ
Promotional pricing terms
You can extend promotional pricing offers to customers under one of the following terms:
- One-time upfront discounted price for a period of n terms. The term can be different from the regular subscription term. For example, if a subscription regularly costs $9.99 per month, you can offer a one-time discounted price of $19.99 for the first three months. For valid term values, see One-time price durations.
- Recurring discounted payment for up to n terms. The term must be the same as the regular subscription term. For example, if a subscription regularly costs $9.99 per month, you can offer a recurring discount of $6.99 per month for the first three months.
For either offer, the customer defaults to the regular subscription IAP price after the promotional pricing term expires.
Promotional pricing customer segments
Promotional pricing also allows you to target a particular customer segment. Customer segments are classified as follows:
- All customers. Includes new subscribing customers, and resubscribing customers.
- Lapsed customers. Includes only resubscribing customers. To be eligible for the promotion, a lapsed customer must not have had an active subscription to this product for a minimum period of time. You must configure a minimum lapsed period.
Set up promotional pricing
To set up promotional pricing, use the following steps
- Open your app in the Developer Console.
- Navigate to Subscription terms. Select the Subscription period, SKU, and paid status.
- Select a free trial status. If you offer a free trial, the promotional pricing takes effect after the free trial ends.
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Select Yes for promotional pricing and make selections in the available fields, shown below, to customize your offer.
- Complete the terms, pricing, customer targeting, and dates for your promotional price. The date fields use the UTC time zone.
- For details on one-time charge configurations, see One-time promotional pricing.
- For details on recurring charge configurations, see Recurring promotional pricing.
- For details on targeting all customers, see Targeted promotion for all customers.
- For details on targeting lapsed customers, see Targeted promotion for lapsed customers.
One-time promotional pricing
To set up a one-time upfront discounted price, use the following steps
- In the How would you like to charge? field, select One time charge.
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In Duration of promotional price, select the duration of the one-time charge. For possible values, see One-time price durations.
- Select Set pricing.
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In the Set subscription pricing field, enter your promotional price and the regular subscription price after the promotional period ends. Choose if you would like Amazon to calculate the price for other marketplaces or if you would like to manually enter them. Click Save.
Important: The regular price entered here sets the price for this subscription product. If you change it here, it will change the existing price for the subscription. - Click Submit IAP to finalize the promotional pricing.
Recurring promotional pricing
To set up a recurring discounted price, use the following steps
- In the How would you like to charge? field, select Recurring charge.
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Select the duration of each recurring charge. You can add and remove charges. For possible values, see Recurring price durations.
- Select Set pricing.
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In the Set subscription pricing field, enter each recurring charge and the regular subscription price after the promotional periods end. Choose if you would like Amazon to calculate the price for other marketplaces or if you would like to manually enter them. Click Save.
Important: The regular price entered here sets the price for this subscription product. If you change it here, it will change the existing price for the subscription.Note: The combined duration of first and second promotional price cannot be more than 12 weeks for weekly and bi-weekly, or 12 months for the other terms. See Recurring price durations for possible values. - Click Submit IAP to finalize the promotional pricing.
Promotional pricing durations
The durations for recurring promotional pricing and one-time promotional pricing have different possible values.
Recurring price durations
The duration of a recurring promotional price can have the following values:
- Weekly— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 weeks
- BiWeekly— 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 weeks
- Monthly— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 months
- BiMonthly— 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 months
- Quarterly— 3, 6, 9, or 12 months
- SemiAnnually— 6 or 12 months
- Annually— 1 year
One-time price durations
The duration of a one-time promotional price can have the following values:
- 7 Days
- 14 Days
- 1 Month
- 2 Months
- 3 Months
- 6 Months
- 1 Year
Targeted promotion for all customers
To set up a targeted promotion for all customers, use the following steps
- All customers is selected by default, leave this selected.
- Set up the start and end date for the promotion to be available to customers. The start date must be in the future. Dates use the UTC time zone.
Note: It is important to plan ahead. Submit your promotion at least 48 hours ahead of your planned start date to ensure the promotion goes live on your selected date. Your promotion will start publishing at 00:00 UTC of the chosen start date. The publishing process typically takes one hour.
Targeted promotion for lapsed customers
To set up a targeted promotion for lapsed customers, use the following steps
- Select Lapsed customers.
- To be eligible for the promotion, a lapsed customer must not have had an active subscription to this product for a minimum period of time. Choose a duration to indicate this time period.
- Set up the start and end date for the promotion to be available to customers. The start date must be in the future. Dates use the UTC time zone.
Note: It is important to plan ahead. Submit your promotion at least 48 hours ahead of your planned start date to ensure the promotion goes live on your selected date. Your promotion will start publishing at 00:00 UTC of the chosen start date. The publishing process typically takes one hour.
Change promotional prices
You can change the promotional prices or terms at any time in the Developer Console. Any change is available only for customers that sign up after the change. See Create and Submit Single IAP Items to learn more about changing IAP prices.
Appstore SDK and Receipt Verification Service
When setting up promotional pricing, you can programmatically check the availability of your promotion plans with the Appstore SDK and the status of your customers' promotions with the Receipt Verification Service (RVS).
To learn how to integrate the Appstore SDK with your app, see Implement Appstore SDK IAP. Using the getProductData()
method, you can check if a customer is eligible for promotions and get promotion details. For more details, see Implement getProductData method.
To learn how to use RVS with your app, see Receipt Verification Service for Appstore SDK IAP. You can use RVS to get the promotion status for a customer's receipt. For details, see Promotions in RVS.
Promotional pricing FAQ
The following are frequently asked questions (FAQ) about promotional pricing.
- Q: Can a current subscriber sign up for promotional pricing or see a promotional price offer?
- No, a current subscriber isn't eligible for promotional pricing and can't see a promotional price offer. Only lapsed and new subscribers, as determined by your offer configuration, can be eligible for promotional pricing and can see the promotional offer. However, a current subscriber that unsubscribes from your product and later meets the criteria of your offer can be eligible for promotional pricing at that time.
- Q: Which customers are eligible for a promotional pricing offer?
- Lapsed and new subscribers, as determined by your offer configuration, can be eligible for promotional pricing and can see the offer. Additional conditions might apply based on your customer segment configuration.
- Q: If an existing customer cancels their subscription and resubscribes later, will they be eligible for promotional pricing?
- Yes. A customer can be eligible for promotional pricing under the following conditions:
- they haven't used promotional pricing in the past
- they used promotional pricing in the past, but have been unsubscribed from the product for 12 or more months
- Q: Can a customer who is currently enjoying promotional pricing, cancel the subscription and get promotional pricing again on resubscribe?
- Yes, but only if they have been unsubscribed from the product for 12 or more months.
- Q: Can I use promotional pricing with other discount offers?
- No, promotional pricing cannot be combined with any other price discount.
- Q: What happens if the promotion dates are changed and published when the current promotion is already live?
- The current dates are overwritten with the new configuration, and the promotional price is granted to new and lapsed customers who haven't already enjoyed this promotion. For details, see Change promotional prices.
Last updated: Jul 01, 2024