'Free Trial' button next to 'Buy Now': +158.6% free accounts
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a "Free Trial" button next to the "Buy Now" button on the homepage lifted free account sign-ups by 158.6%.
GetResponse, an email marketing platform, ran this A/B test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
The team expected paid sign-ups to fall, but they reported no drop.
- Free account registrations: +158.6%.
- Paid accounts created from the homepage: no negative effect reported. No exact figure was shared.
- The case study's headline calls the metric click-through rate, but the text says free accounts rose 158.6%.
The change
A 'Free Trial' button is added beside the existing 'Buy Now' button.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage had one prominent "Buy Now" button. A free trial existed but was only offered on some inner pages.
Variant
The same homepage with a "Free Trial" button added next to "Buy Now".
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Many visitors aren't ready to pay on a first visit. A trial gives them a low-risk next step instead of leaving.
- Visitors who were ready to buy still had "Buy Now", so the trial added an option rather than replacing one.
- The trial had been hard to find. Putting it on the homepage made an existing offer visible.
Caveats: No sample size, duration or confidence was shared. The case study labels the metric inconsistently, and it was published by the testing vendor.
Who ran it
GetResponse ran this test for email marketing platform and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on GetResponse →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a free trial button next to our buy button on the homepage, then more visitors will create accounts, because hesitant visitors get a low-risk option.
- Primary metric
- New accounts (free and paid) per homepage visitor
- Guardrails
- Paid sign-ups from the homepage
- Trial-to-paid conversion rate
- Revenue per visitor over 30 to 90 days
- Who should test it
- SaaS companies with a free trial or free plan that isn't promoted on the homepage. If trial users rarely upgrade, more trials may not mean more revenue.
Questions
Does a free trial button cannibalise paid sign-ups?
GetResponse expected it to, but reported no drop in paid accounts while free accounts rose 158.6%.
Track paid sign-ups as a guardrail in your own test.
Should a SaaS homepage show one CTA or two?
Here two side-by-side buttons, "Buy Now" and "Free Trial", beat one.
A second option can help when visitors are at different stages.
What should I measure after adding a trial?
Look past sign-ups to trial-to-paid conversion and revenue.
A big rise in trials only pays off if enough of them upgrade.