Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'
Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
What they did
What happened
In their words
Why Your Free Users Are Your Real Growth Engine – Cem Kansu, Duolingo CPO
Cem KansuAnd of course, for the record, we're talk a lot about monetization. That's not the only place in the app where we're doing this. Our onboarding flow is the same. Our session end is the same. Our lessons are the same.
Cem KansuSo we take maximal care into improving all these flows, but monetization is no exception. But that button copy, we've experimented a lot. And that is one learning that I honestly didn't have or didn't really expect. What you say in the purchase button makes a massive difference on your revenue curves.
Cem KansuWe have tested many things. There's a couple magic strings that were, you look at the graph and you're like, "There must be a measurement mistake. Why are the numbers so green?" The two specifically were, we went from, I think, start my free trial.
Cem KansuSo I think we said something like, "Subscribe." That's your baseline. And then we tried many things, but one of the big uplifts was, 'Start my free trial." That was very good. And then we tried, what did we say? "Try for free," that was better. And then we tried, "Try for 0.00."
Cem KansuWeirdly, that is the string that, I think, hacks your brain to really grock that button is entirely free. 0.0, two zero decimals. Now I think that's what's live in the app, if I'm not mistaken. And that performed really well.
David BarnardAnd just changing try for free to try for dollar sign 0.00, you saw a meaningful uplifting conversion?
Cem KansuCorrect. Yes.
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More from this episode
- Keep lessons free and sell learners' translations to news sitesSmall revenue; dropped by 2016 (price race and low translation quality)
- Charge $1-3 to fix a broken streakA good share of users paid; showed how much users value their streak
- Show one ad only after a lesson ends, and test it against retentionRetention mostly neutral, at most a slight hit, across ad tests
- Count ad complaints per million users and compare them to other complaintsMissing-course complaints were 3x ad complaints; ads launched
- Block gambling and sketchy ad types, even if it costs revenueAccepted lost ad revenue for better experience; no numbers
- Sell ads directly to brands and have app characters introduce themUsers like the format; slow to sell because it's custom
- Use the end-of-lesson ad slot to advertise your own paid planGuest says house ads beat programmatic ads; no numbers
- Run 3-6 month holdouts for changes whose effects show up lateNew push lifts can turn negative after about 6 weeks
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- Launch a plan with no ads, offline use, and 'support our mission'About half of early buyers paid to support the app; started a run rate
- Offer a free trial even though the app is already freeOne of the biggest unlocks; guest had expected it to flop
- Tell users on the paywall you'll remind them on day 5 of a 7-day trialWon A/B tests by easing fear of subscription traps
- Give subscribers unlimited hearts so mistakes never stop their lessonsBig turning point: raised subscription conversion and retention
- Make paid features free when a test shows they earn littleTook a small revenue hit on purpose to grow free users
- Add new subjects inside the main app instead of launching new appsSeparate apps were 'hard mode'; in-app works better, but many users still don't know
- Offer live human tutors on demand in a higher-priced planFailed: users joined, panicked and left; later replaced by AI video call
Tags: cta-copy, button-copy, free-trial, ab-test