Yearly price 50% higher: -19% conversions, +25% proceeds per user
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsRaising the yearly price by 50% cut conversions by 19% but lifted proceeds per user by 25%.
BuyBye, a spending-limit and savings app, ran this A/B test on its paywall, and the result was published as a Superwall case study.
- Conversions fell 19%. This is a negative result on its own.
- Proceeds per user rose 25%, so the higher price more than made up for fewer buyers.
- Actual prices, sample size and test length were not shared.
The change
Identical paywall; only the yearly price is 50% higher.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The paywall showed the original yearly price with a trial.
Variant
The same paywall design showed a yearly price 50% higher, still with a trial. Price was the only change.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The original price was likely too low, so most users were not price-sensitive at that level.
- A yearly plan for saving money can pay for itself, which makes a higher price easy to justify.
- When price rises 50% and conversions fall less than a third, revenue per user goes up.
Caveats: Published by Superwall, which sells the testing tool BuyBye used, so it may lean positive. Sample size, duration and long-term renewal effects were not shared.
Who ran it
BuyBye ran this test. Source: Superwall case study. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we raise the yearly price by 50%, then proceeds per user will rise because the drop in conversions will be smaller than the price gain.
- Primary metric
- Proceeds per user
- Guardrails
- Trial start rate
- Trial-to-paid
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps that suspect they are underpriced and have steady paywall traffic to measure revenue per user. It is risky for apps that rely on volume, such as those with ad revenue or network effects.
Questions
Is a conversion drop a sign the price test failed?
Not on its own. BuyBye lost 19% of conversions but earned 25% more per user, so judge price tests on revenue per user.
How big a price jump should I test?
Big enough to show a clear signal. A 50% jump gave BuyBye a clear answer, while small changes can take a long time to measure.