Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Let trial users pick which day they get the reminder before being charged
Tested; added friction but built trust and delayed cancel decisions. No numbers given
Workednotificationspaywall
What they did
Default: a notification is sent about 2 days before the free trial expires. Test: at trial signup, let the user choose which day they get that reminder. The extra step draws attention to the fact that a reminder is coming and they can cancel later, so users wait until day 5 or 6 to judge whether they are getting value instead of cancelling immediately.
What happened
Guest calls it a counterintuitive win that increased confidence in starting the trial; no lift figures.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Clarity and Personalization Help Drive Duolingo’s Growth – Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo“And we decided to test, "Well, what if we let you choose which day you get that reminder?" And counterintuitive, normally you would think that friction is probably not a good thing”
“That buys us enough time so that you wait 'till that fifth day or sixth day to decide really, "Okay, am I getting value out of this?"”
Related topics
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More from Duolingo
All 32 Duolingo tactics- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- 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
- Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
- 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
- Make paid features free when a test shows they earn littleTook a small revenue hit on purpose to grow free users
More from this episode
- Duolingo: Show what happens on each trial day and exactly how refunds workGuest says clarity beats persuasion for trial starts; no numbers
- Duolingo: 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
- Duolingo: Ask new users in onboarding if they want to learn with or without adsSignificantly higher uptake; one of the biggest wins of the year
- Duolingo: Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Duolingo: Offer the same user a free trial three or four times over timeEffective in aggregate across attempts, per guest; no numbers
- Duolingo: 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
- Duolingo: Give users one free AI video call from the top tierEffective lever for getting people to try the feature, per guest
- Duolingo: Give the free 3 days as a reward right after a finished lessonFelt more rewarding than on the learning path; no numbers
- Duolingo: When free days end, say 'Your benefits have ended' and show how to rejoin
- Duolingo: Use each user's signals to pick between your own upgrade ads and paid adsGood wins, per guest; no numbers
- Duolingo: Let a bandit algorithm pick which upgrade ad each user sees after a lessonSome wins so far, still improving; no numbers