Trial timeline paywall: +13.6% conversion, trial-to-paid held
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA paywall with a trial timeline design raised conversion by 13.6% over Stardust's video background paywall, with no drop in trial-to-paid.
Stardust, a cycle and pregnancy tracking app, ran this A/B test.
The case study was published on the Superwall blog.
- Paywall conversion: +13.6% versus the video background paywall. More users started a trial.
- Trial-to-paid conversion: unchanged (flat). The extra trial starts did not convert worse.
- Across all four of Stardust's tests, Superwall reports paywall conversion up 465%, install-to-paid up 252% and proceeds per user up 408% over the original paywall.
The change
A trial timeline is added to explain the free trial step by step.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The control was the previous winner: a video background paywall with a 7-day free trial on the $24.99 yearly plan, a yearly discount badge and weekly equivalent pricing.
Variant
A trial timeline design that lays out what happens during the free trial. The source does not describe the timeline steps.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A timeline makes the trial terms clear: when it starts, when you get a reminder, when you pay. That can ease the fear of a surprise charge.
- Because the timeline is honest about billing, it likely brought in users who meant to stay, which fits the flat trial-to-paid rate.
- It built on a paywall with tuned pricing, so the design change only had to remove the last doubts.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and the exact timeline design were not shared. The 465% overall gain stacks four tests and is not from this test alone. Superwall published this and also sells the paywall tool used, so the write-up may lean positive.
Who ran it
Stardust ran this test. Source: Superwall blog. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we show a timeline of the free trial on the paywall, then more users will start a trial because they know exactly when and how they'll be billed.
- Primary metric
- Trial start rate
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid
- Refund rate
- Proceeds per user
- Who should test it
- Apps that offer a free trial and auto-renew into a paid plan. It's less useful if you don't offer a trial or your trial is very short.
Questions
Does a trial timeline hurt trial-to-paid?
Not in Stardust's test. Trial starts rose 13.6% and trial-to-paid stayed the same.
What goes on a trial timeline?
Stardust's exact steps weren't shared. A common pattern is today (full access), a reminder before the trial ends, and the day billing starts.
Did the timeline replace the video?
The source says the timeline was tested against the video paywall but doesn't say whether the video stayed. We've drawn it as kept.