Yousician · B2C · music learning app
Before calling a paywall test, wait two weeks and check refunds and chargebacks
Refunds show up fast and can erase a paywall win; no numbers
What they did
In their words
Stop Celebrating Conversion Wins Before Checking Renewals – Sara Grana, Yousician
Sara Grana… probably [inaudible 00:13:14]. What usually happens is that the share for those different cohorts is changing over time. And this is what bringing you fluctuation on renewal rates. It might be different when you're doing a specific experiment, that might change that, but I think it's really always good to look at what are those things and make a difference that are upper funnel, as upper funnel as it gets, so to say. And then look for that.
Sara GranaAnd then when it comes to when I'm looking at a test that I do in the paywall one, then I'm looking at revenue per user of course, but then I'm also having a look always on pre-funds or chargeback. So I always wait a couple of weeks what is happening there because that's like an immediate effect that you can see. And then always after some months, recheck the cohort. What has happened with these people? Sometimes it's a bit frustrating because you have the majority of users buying a 12-month subscription, so you won't see it until later on. But maybe there's something that you can do if you see that the one month behaving in a particular way, maybe you can assume that the same would happen for the 12 months.
Sara GranaYou can also look when you have the result, make some scenarios of renewal rates of those different... If the one month was to renew at this 10% less or 5% more, whatever you want based on the result of your test, what would happen. And then you can know once you have some really easy way to check in a way, in a sense. You keep an eye, okay, if this goes below 10, then I know we are in trouble. I know that probably the winner is actually the …
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More from this episode
- Chart revenue from new, upgrading, renewing and returning subscribers, then explain each spikeSurfaces which past decisions moved revenue, e.g. a lifetime plan launch; no numbers
- Set calendar reminders to recheck price tests at 3 and 6 monthsCatches price 'wins' that flip once renewals come in; no numbers
- Send an offer to people who turn off auto-renewLooked great, but users refunded first and then took the offer; net negative
- Judge a new lifetime plan against what a subscriber pays over timeTests otherwise wrongly crown lifetime, e.g. 250 vs 100 instead of 250 vs 300 euros
- Split renewal rates by plan, discount, and web vs app before reading themWeb buyers renew much better, so blended renewals rise from mix shift alone
- Use monthly-plan renewals to set a warning threshold for yearly-plan test winners
Tags: refunds, chargebacks, paywall-test