Paywall Strategies

How Sesamy lets you control which paywall is shown to which readers, enabling A/B testing and targeted conversion optimisation.

Overview

When a reader visits a premium article and lacks access, Sesamy decides which paywall to show. Because Sesamy controls this decision, you can serve different paywalls to different readers without changing your CMS templates.

This is handled through the paywall settings configured in the Sesamy dashboard and fetched by the <sesamy-paywall> component via its settings-url.

How it works

1. The <sesamy-paywall> component loads its configuration from a settings-url endpoint
2. The endpoint returns the paywall template, pricing, and display options
3. Sesamy can vary the response based on reader attributes -- user agent, geography, authentication state, or custom segments
4. The reader sees a paywall tailored to their profile

<sesamy-paywall
  settings-url="https://api2.sesamy.com/paywalls/YOUR_VENDOR_ID/YOUR_PAYWALL_ID"
></sesamy-paywall>

A/B testing paywalls

You can create multiple paywall variants in the Sesamy dashboard and let Sesamy distribute readers across them. This lets you test:

• Different templates -- article-style vs. box-style vs. login-only
• Different pricing -- monthly vs. annual, different price points
• Different messaging -- benefit-focused vs. urgency-focused copy
• Different call-to-action placement -- inline vs. modal vs. notification bar

Sesamy tracks which variant each reader saw and correlates it with conversion outcomes, giving you data to optimise your paywall strategy.

Targeting by user segment

Paywall selection can consider:

Signal	Example use case
User agent	Show a simplified paywall on mobile devices
Geographic region	Adjust pricing or currency by country
Authentication state	Show a login-only paywall to readers who have an account but no subscription
Referral source	Offer a discount to readers arriving from social media
Visit frequency	Show a more assertive paywall to frequent visitors

These rules are configured in the Sesamy dashboard and evaluated server-side, so no client-side code changes are needed.

Integration with Capsule

When using Capsule encryption, paywall strategies work transparently. If the reader lacks access, sesamy-js automatically injects the paywall configured for that article. The paywall component fetches its settings from the endpoint, which applies the targeting rules.

The flow:

1. sesamy-js detects DCA content and checks entitlements
2. Reader lacks access -- sesamy-js injects <sesamy-paywall> with the configured settings-url
3. The paywall settings endpoint returns the variant selected for this reader
4. The paywall renders with the appropriate template, pricing, and messaging

Next Steps

• Leaky Paywall -- Offer free articles before requiring a subscription
• Content Protection -- How content is locked and unlocked
• CMS Integration Overview -- The full recommended setup