We weren't as clear as we should have been here. Apologies for that!
The total number of subscribers you get at the end or total ARR is the key metric as you say, trial to paid is an important metric that goes into that analysis and is a good leading indicator.
You are 100% right that more friction makes people more likely to bail, lower the number of people who start a trial.
Credit cards in particular are an interesting one, because you are effectively asking people to sign up twice if you don't require them for the trial. Once when they create an account and again 7 or 30 days later when the trial ends.
That friction being added for people to continuing to use the product has worse outcomes that getting the friction out of the way up front.
I'm sure it just depends on each product. Where it gets tricky is when customer service costs increase with trial users who aren't paying for the product. I mean, this isn't rocket science. Do you make more money with similar lead generation from credit card upfront or not?
Comments
We weren't as clear as we should have been here. Apologies for that!
The total number of subscribers you get at the end or total ARR is the key metric as you say, trial to paid is an important metric that goes into that analysis and is a good leading indicator.
You are 100% right that more friction makes people more likely to bail, lower the number of people who start a trial.
Credit cards in particular are an interesting one, because you are effectively asking people to sign up twice if you don't require them for the trial. Once when they create an account and again 7 or 30 days later when the trial ends.
That friction being added for people to continuing to use the product has worse outcomes that getting the friction out of the way up front.
I'm sure it just depends on each product. Where it gets tricky is when customer service costs increase with trial users who aren't paying for the product. I mean, this isn't rocket science. Do you make more money with similar lead generation from credit card upfront or not?