Reworked SaaS sign-up flow: about +50% free trials
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReworking the sign-up process for Appointment Reminder led to about 50% more free trial sign-ups.
Patrick McKenzie ran this A/B test in 2014 and mentioned it on the Kalzumeus blog in a year-in-review post. The specific changes were not described.
- Free trial sign-ups: about +50%.
- Sample size, test length and confidence were not shared.
- Trial-to-paid conversion after the change was not reported, so it is unclear how many of the extra trials became paying customers.
Control
The original sign-up process for Appointment Reminder's free trial, which asks for a credit card up front.
Variant
A reworked sign-up process. The write-up does not say which steps or fields changed.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A card-up-front trial asks a lot at sign-up, so friction in that flow costs more trials than it would in a no-card flow.
- Sign-up flows built early in a product's life are rarely revisited, so a first round of testing often finds large gains.
- We don't know what changed, so these reasons are general, not specific to this test.
Caveats: The result comes from one sentence in a year-in-review post. The changes, sample size and confidence were not shared, and the effect on paid conversion is unknown.
Who ran it
Patrick McKenzie ran this test and published the results (Kalzumeus (patio11) blog). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Patrick McKenzie →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we remove friction from our free trial sign-up flow, then more visitors will start a trial because fewer of them will drop out between steps.
- Primary metric
- Free trial sign-ups per visitor
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Payment failures or abuse at sign-up
- Activation within the trial
- Who should test it
- B2B SaaS founders whose sign-up flow has several steps or asks for a card up front, and who have never tested it. If sign-up is already one short form, gains will likely be smaller.
Questions
Should a SaaS free trial require a credit card?
It depends on the product. Appointment Reminder requires one to prevent abuse and because it makes trial users more serious, which pushes up trial-to-paid conversion.
What should I test first in a SaaS sign-up flow?
Start with the step where most people drop out.
Measure trial starts and paid conversions together, so you don't gain sign-ups that never pay.