# Time-limited discount for trial users: 1.87% vs 2.08%, inconclusive

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Pricing page (SaaS)
- Elements: Discount
- Date shared: 2010-11
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/11/01/how-a-half-broken-halloween-promotion-smashed-revenue-records/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-site-wide-discount/

Showing a time-limited discount to all logged-in trial users moved purchases from 1.87% to 2.08%, a gap too small to be statistically significant. Patrick McKenzie ran this two-week test on Bingo Card Creator during a Halloween promotion and published it on the Kalzumeus blog in 2010. We count it as inconclusive, and after the $5 lost on each discounted sale, full price made more money.

## Result

**1.87% vs 2.08%, inconclusive**

- Purchases were 2.08% with the discount and 1.87% without it, about 11% higher in relative terms.
- Not statistically significant, so this is treated as a flat result.
- Each discounted sale earned $5 less, so the full-price version did better on revenue.

## Control

Logged-in trial users saw no discount.

## Variant

Trial users saw a time-limited discount promoted on the first screen after login and on the pricing page.

## Why it likely came out this way (our reading)

- New trial users had not yet decided the product was worth paying for, so a lower price did little to sway them.
- The deadline was set a few days after the peak buying window, which likely weakened the sense of urgency.
- The same discount worked very well in email to past accounts. Those people already knew the product and needed a reason to come back.

## Caveats

Two-week test with no sample size shared, and the gap was below statistical significance. It ran during a seasonal peak in 2010.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show trial users a time-limited discount after login and on the pricing page, then more will buy because the deadline gives them a reason to act now.
- Primary metric: Trial-to-paid conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per trial user
- Guardrail: Refund rate
- Guardrail: Full-price purchases after the promotion
- Who should test it: SaaS products with a seasonal buying window or a self-serve upgrade path. If your discounts already work for reactivating old accounts, test them on new trials separately rather than assuming the same lift.

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Credit: Patrick McKenzie ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-site-wide-discount/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.