Microsoft 365 · B2C · Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps
Put 'Try free for one month' on the buy button, not 'Buy now'
Worked in tests; no lift numbers shared
Workedpaywall
What they did
When a free trial exists, the CTA button must say so ('Try Free for One Month'), not 'Buy Now' under a free-trial headline; users fear one-tap charges and hesitate to press buy buttons.
What happened
One of the plain ideas that really worked in A/B tests.
- Stage
- scale
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Optimizing your Keywords and Monetization ― Part 2 with Ramit Arora, Microsoft“I think CTAs, like if you have a free trial, make sure the CTA says it's a free trial. Like, "Try Free for One Month," something like that.”
“So basically, like you have a free trial wording up on the top, but then you have, say, something that says, "Buy Now," for example, people are just not comfortable.”
Related topics
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- Support every new Apple feature on launch day, like Dark Mode and Vision ProGuest credits it for keeping a leadership position; no numbers
- Buy attribution and messaging tools before the mobile apps had product fitDidn't work: privacy problems and big bills for tools barely used; redone years later
- Rank for both your brand name and the tasks people will pay forAims to hold a top-3 spot in most categories; no results given
- Rank every idea by how many users it affects; fix failed purchases firstFound 5-6% of purchases failing; simplest fixes often turn out biggest
More from this episode
- Microsoft 365: Pick App Store keywords for the jobs people do, like resumes or invoices
- Microsoft 365: Swap out keywords you've ranked top 3 on for a year; add new ones monthly
- Microsoft 365: Use search ads to find keywords that bring paying users, then target them organically
- Microsoft 365: Cap Android install costs far below iOS, since Android users pay much lessAndroid CPI caps up to 50x lower than iOS in some cases
- Microsoft 365: Show paywall benefits as cards with GIFs instead of lines of textConverted better in tests; no numbers shared
- Microsoft 365: Show the yearly price as a monthly amount, like $8/month for $99/yearVery successful in an A/B test; no numbers shared
- Microsoft 365: Put the pricier Family plan first as the default, above the Personal planBoth plans sold more; the cheaper plan sold a lot more
- Pre-select the $4 monthly plan instead of the $40 yearly plan20% more people converted to paying, per the host
- Add a video to the paywall because people don't readHost reports really good results; no numbers