Anyone have data on free trials?
I have a mobile app that has in app subscription purchases. However I don't offer a free trial. Like most apps, my app has a freemium model where you have some features that are free and the best features you have to pay for, like most apps. However I noticed that almost all of my competitors have anywhere between a 3 to 14 day free trial, before they charge their in app purchase of their subscription to that free trial user.
So my question is, does anyone have any hard data or research on the difference between offering a free user a free trial of the paid features and how much more that converts them to an actual paid customer after the free trial, versus just having them upgrade directly without a free trail.
Hello Weymoney;
Rather than spending your time and energy on such research, consider trying it out in the real world with a free trial for however many days you can afford. The risk you take may be rewarded by a high number of subscriptions.
Alternatively, if you are very confident that your app is better than competitors, go for freemium. Again, there is a risk of overestimating the real situation.
IMHO, if you find a comparative research and rely on it, there is also a risk: a) how reliable that research is? b) will you use the right judgement placing your app either in the middle of the bell curve of that research or in the outliers area?
Hope it helps and good luck whatever position you take!
I agree that I need to try it and I will - I just like case studies and data before completely changing something major like that. It sounds like an easy change but it's not - it's a very complicated change over two platforms. Do you have a product that you have tried it with? And if so, what were the results of freemium2Paid only vs free trial2Paid?
GrowthHunter,
I super appreciate the time you put into this response - especially the variety of the 3 approaches AND what Shopify does (which is probably most relevant to my user flow as well). Thank you! This really helps me a lot and I appreciate it! I am going to act on some of this and I am checking out your website too - cool mission!
Hey @Weymoney, while I do not have specific data, what I gathered from my database of founders' strategies in regards to free trials was that this is a way to lure the users in and then move them along a funnel to conversion.
Some case studies I've got:
Shopify has a free 14 days trial. But the important part is that they help the users to build up almost everything they need that it became very hard for the users to abandon the store that they've built after the 14 days -> forcing them to convert to a paid plan.
Baremetrics have a different approach: a land-and-expand strategy. According to their founder: " you “land” customers in with a lower-cost introductory product, like a free trial or basic plan. Then over time as you build a relationship with them and help them grow, you’re able to “expand” the relationship through upgrades"
Navexa also has another interesting approach: giving users a free 1 week trial, extend their trial when they complete certain tasks and visited certain pages.
The goal here is to " incentivised to learn the value of our product ", which can retain actual valued customers who sees the good in your product.
You can check out more examples at my database / site at https://GrowthHunt.co/
Cheers!