'Trial for free' instead of 'Sign up for free': +104% trial starts
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsGoing changed its homepage button from 'Sign up for free' to 'Trial for free', and premium trial starts rose 104% month over month.
Going's growth team, led by Forrest Schaffer, ran the A/B test in Unbounce, and it was published as an Unbounce customer story.
The button also changed where visitors went: a two-week premium trial instead of the limited free plan.
- Premium trial start rate: +104% month over month.
- Going says its conversion rate from paid channels went above organic for the first time after the change.
- No sample size, test length or significance level was shared.
The change
Main CTA changed from free plan sign-up to premium free trial
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage button read 'Sign up for free' and sent visitors to Going's free plan, which has limited features.
Variant
The button read 'Trial for free' and sent visitors to a two-week free trial of a premium paid plan.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The test changed the offer as well as the words. Pointing people at the premium trial naturally sends more of them into trials.
- A trial lets people see the full product, which Going believed would lead to more paid plans than a limited free tier.
- 'Trial' signals that the full product is on offer for a while, which may feel more valuable than a cut-down free plan.
Caveats: The lift is reported month over month with no sample size or significance. Because the button also changed the destination offer, the result reflects free plan versus premium trial, not just three words of copy.
Who ran it
Going ran this test for flight deal alert subscription service and published the results (Unbounce customer story). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Going →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we point our main homepage CTA at a free trial of the paid plan instead of the free tier, then more visitors will start premium trials because they get to try the full product before deciding.
- Primary metric
- Premium trial start rate
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion rate
- Total sign-ups (free plus trial)
- Refund or early cancellation rate
- Who should test it
- Freemium SaaS and subscription products with both a free plan and a paid trial. It may not pay off if the trial asks for a card up front or if most revenue comes from free users upgrading later.
Questions
Is a free trial better than a free plan for SaaS?
It depends on the product. A trial shows the full value for a limited time, while a free plan keeps users around longer.
Going saw far more premium trial starts by pushing the trial.
Can changing CTA text alone double conversions?
Rarely on its own. In Going's case the new text also led to a different offer, which likely explains much of the jump.
What should I measure when testing trial versus free plan CTAs?
Measure trial starts, but also track how many trials convert to paid and whether total sign-ups drop.