Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
When users run out of hearts, offer a free trial so they keep their lesson progress
Users much more likely to start a trial; no numbers
Workedpaywallupsell-expansion
What they did
When a learner runs out of hearts/energy mid-lesson, position the choice as: if you don't continue you lose your progress; pay gems or start the free trial now to keep your progress and finish the lesson. Still shows a sense of progress so it isn't punitive.
What happened
Users 'much more likely' to start a trial with this framing.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Clarity and Personalization Help Drive Duolingo’s Growth – Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo“users are just much more likely to start a trial when the decision or when we position it as like, "Well, if you've run out of hearts or energy, if you don't continue, you're going to basically lose your progress."”
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: Let trial users pick which day they get the reminder before being chargedTested; added friction but built trust and delayed cancel decisions. No numbers given
- Duolingo: Show what happens on each trial day and exactly how refunds workGuest says clarity beats persuasion for trial starts; 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