$10 bundle with a 'Sale' headline at the top: revenue fell
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsOnSwitch added a new $10 bundle at the top of its in-app pack list with a 'Sale' headline, and revenue fell after an initial spike.
OnSwitch ran this test in its lighting app, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
A later version of the same bundle, placed and labelled differently, did better.
- Revenue: up briefly, then down. This is a negative result; no figure was shared.
- The early spike faded, so a short test could have called this the wrong way.
The change
The variant adds a $10 'Sale' bundle at the top of the pack list.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The in-app store showed the usual list of packs with no larger bundle.
Variant
A new $10 bundle sat at the top of the pack list under a 'Sale' headline.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A big bundle at the top may have pulled attention from smaller packs that users were more willing to buy.
- 'Sale' alone did not explain what was in the bundle, so its value may have been unclear.
- The early spike may have come from the novelty, or from the few users who were going to buy a lot anyway.
Caveats: No figures, sample sizes or durations were shared, and the source page is no longer online.
Who ran it
OnSwitch ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on OnSwitch →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a larger bundle at the top of the price list, then revenue per user will rise because some buyers will trade up to the bigger package.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per user
- Guardrails
- Purchase conversion rate
- Sales of single packs or plans
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps and SaaS products that sell add-ons or tiers and want to try a bigger package. Run it long enough to get past any early spike, and expect it to fail if the bundle's contents are unclear.
Questions
Does adding a bundle increase revenue?
Not always. OnSwitch's $10 bundle at the top of the list lifted revenue at first, then lowered it.
A relabelled version with a clearer explanation later turned it into a gain.
How long should a pricing test run?
Long enough to get past early spikes. In this test the first days looked good before revenue dropped.