Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Give the free 3 days as a reward right after a finished lesson
Felt more rewarding than on the learning path; no numbers
What they did
What happened
In their words
How Clarity and Personalization Help Drive Duolingo’s Growth – Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo
Anmol TiwariYeah. Well, the first thing is we usually always have copy that makes it absolutely clear that this is a three-day kind of free period or free preview. I think preview is another word phrasing that I've used in the industry.
Anmol TiwariThe other thing is we actually always position it as a reward and we say, "Hey, you just earned this." And one of the things that we used to initially have it on our... When you're learning through the course, there's a chest on the path, in your learning path. And we actually moved it towards after the lesson because it felt more rewarding to earn it after completing a lesson. And so I think when you position it as a reward, it helps signal that like, "Oh, I'm getting this as just a limited time benefit."
Anmol TiwariWe do use some type of timers or concepts of timers to help drive urgency. When you go to the subscriptions page, you'll also see that you can upgrade anytime, but it's super important to make sure that consumers understand that this is not going to suddenly charge you a different amount. One of the things that, of course... We talk about clarity, but clarity also is super important in just maintaining trust because if suddenly users don't trust …
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- Show what happens on each trial day and exactly how refunds workGuest says clarity beats persuasion for trial starts; no numbers
- When users run out of hearts, offer a free trial so they keep their lesson progressUsers much more likely to start a trial; no numbers
- Ask new users in onboarding if they want to learn with or without adsSignificantly higher uptake; one of the biggest wins of the year
- Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Offer the same user a free trial three or four times over timeEffective in aggregate across attempts, per guest; no numbers
- Give 3 free days of the paid tier, no card needed, even to current subscribersEffective for free-to-paid and for upgrading subscribers to the top tier, per guest
- Give users one free AI video call from the top tierEffective lever for getting people to try the feature, per guest
- When free days end, say 'Your benefits have ended' and show how to rejoin
- Use each user's signals to pick between your own upgrade ads and paid adsGood wins, per guest; no numbers
- Let a bandit algorithm pick which upgrade ad each user sees after a lessonSome wins so far, still improving; no numbers
Tags: reward-framing, free-taste, timers, copy