Annual price cut from $59.99 to $44.99: +10% ARPU
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsCutting the annual plan from $59.99 to $44.99 raised ARPU by 10%.
SellRaze, an AI reselling app, ran this A/B test on its paywall, and the result was published as a Superwall case study.
The monthly price, the 3-day free trial and the copy stayed the same.
- ARPU: up 10% at $44.99.
- Conversion rate and plan mix were not shared, but the lower price brought in enough extra buyers to more than make up for the cut.
The change
Annual price lowered from $59.99 to $44.99; all else equal
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The paywall showed the annual plan at $59.99 per year, next to a monthly plan and a 3-day free trial.
Variant
The annual plan was priced at $44.99 per year. Everything else stayed the same.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A lower annual price likely made the yearly plan feel easier to say yes to.
- A bigger gap between monthly and annual pricing may have moved more buyers to annual.
- Only the annual price changed, so the result is a clean read on price.
Caveats: Sample size, test length, conversion rates and confidence were not shared. Superwall sells the paywall testing tool used here and published this result, so it may lean positive.
Who ran it
SellRaze ran this test. Source: Superwall case study. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we lower our annual price, then ARPU will rise because more users will subscribe and make up for the lower price.
- Primary metric
- ARPU
- Guardrails
- Annual plan share
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Monthly plan conversion
- Who should test it
- Apps whose annual plan converts poorly, with users who may be price-sensitive. If your users already buy annual easily, a price cut may just lose money.
Questions
Isn't cutting price usually a bad idea?
Not always. SellRaze earned 10% more per user at the lower price, because more people bought. The answer depends on your audience.
What should we watch after a price cut?
Watch ARPU, not just conversion. More buyers at a lower price only helps if total revenue per user goes up.
Should we cut the monthly price too?
SellRaze kept monthly the same. Changing one plan at a time keeps the test clean.