Personalized upgrade screen after onboarding: +10% upgrades
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsGrammarly reported that an upgrade screen built around each user's onboarding answers lifted upgrade rates by 10% or more.
The screen echoed the goals the user picked, showed matching features, and pointed to the plan that fit, such as Business for team goals.
Grammarly ran the test; it was published as a Growth.Design case study.
- Upgrade rate: up 10% or more, per Growth.Design. The exact figure, sample and duration were not shared.
- Growth.Design describes the change as three steps: show you understand the goals, show the features that help, then show a personal path to upgrade.
The change
The variant ties features and the suggested plan to the user's onboarding answers.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
New users reached an upgrade step at the end of onboarding that did not reflect anything they had told Grammarly.
Variant
The upgrade screen played back the goals chosen in the onboarding survey, listed the features that serve those goals, and suggested the matching plan.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The offer connects to something the user just said they want, so it reads as advice rather than a random upsell.
- Naming a specific plan removes the work of comparing tiers.
- Asking questions first and then using the answers shows the survey was worth filling in.
Caveats: Growth.Design states the lift but cites no primary source, sample or duration. It also notes the personalization was easy to miss, so a clearer version might perform differently.
Who ran it
Grammarly ran this test for a writing-assistant SaaS and published the results (Growth.Design case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Grammarly →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we show new users an upgrade screen that repeats their onboarding goals and recommends the plan that matches, then more of them will upgrade because the offer feels relevant to their stated needs.
- Primary metric
- Upgrade rate from the onboarding paywall
- Guardrails
- Onboarding completion rate
- Refund or downgrade rate in the first 30 days
- Free-plan activation
- Who should test it
- SaaS products with an onboarding survey and more than one paid tier. If you don't collect goals during onboarding, or have a single plan, there is little to personalize.
Questions
What is a personalized paywall?
It is an upgrade screen that changes based on what you know about the user, such as goals picked during onboarding.
It shows the features and plan most relevant to them instead of a generic list.
Should the recommended plan be the most expensive one?
Not by default. In this case the suggestion followed the user's answers, for example Business for team goals.
Recommending a plan that doesn't fit can hurt trust.
How do I make personalization noticeable?
Say it plainly, for example by noting the plan is based on their answers.
Growth.Design pointed out that Grammarly's version was easy to miss.