Free trial framed as part of the plan, not an add-on: +37% enrollment
Test run byOptimizelyTesting and CRO tool
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPresenting a free trial as a built-in part of the subscription plan, rather than as an add-on, lifted subscription enrollment by 37%.
Optimizely reported this test for a retail subscription brand it works with, published in its Field Notes use cases. The brand is not named.
- Subscription enrollment: +37%, the headline result of the test.
- Incremental revenue: Optimizely credits this change with about $2.7M in extra revenue. How that was calculated is not shared.
- The larger $21M figure on the same page covers roughly 500 campaigns overall, not this test.
- Optimizely says the early win led the brand to roll the change out globally.
The change
The free trial moves from a separate add-on into the plan itself.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The subscription page offered the free trial as an add-on to the subscription, something extra on top of the plan.
Variant
The same free trial was framed as a built-in feature of the plan, so the trial came with the subscription by default.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- An add-on feels like one more decision. A built-in trial removes that step.
- Calling the trial part of the plan makes it feel like included value, not a separate offer to judge.
- A trial that comes with the plan lowers the felt risk of signing up, which is the reason Optimizely gives in its hypothesis.
Caveats: This is a vendor-reported result with no sample size, test length or confidence level shared, and the brand is anonymous. The date of the test is not stated.
Who ran it
Optimizely ran this test for a retail subscription brand (Optimizely customer) and published the results (Optimizely Field Notes use case). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Optimizely →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we present the free trial as a built-in part of the subscription plan instead of an add-on, then more visitors will enroll because the trial lowers perceived risk without adding a decision.
- Primary metric
- Subscription enrollment rate
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Cancellations in the first billing cycle
- Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Retail and consumer subscription brands that already offer a trial but show it as an optional extra. If you have no trial, or most trial users cancel before paying, this framing may raise sign-ups without raising revenue.
Questions
Should a free trial be shown as an add-on or included in the plan?
In this test, framing the trial as part of the plan beat showing it as an add-on by 37% in enrollment.
Including it removes an extra choice and makes the trial feel like built-in value.
Does a higher subscription enrollment rate mean more revenue?
Not always. Trials can bring in people who cancel before paying, so track trial-to-paid conversion and early churn alongside enrollment.
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