Grow your in-app-purchase conversion rate by adding a free trial to your app

We’re living in a world where users don’t want to pay for something until they know that a) they’ll like it and b) it’ll work. Your users shouldn’t have to take a chance on you — especially when most users think that in-app-purchases aren’t refundable.

The learning app Memrise was able to increase its IAP conversion rate by 50% by offering a free trial

A/B-Tests shows that adding a free trial period to your app increases IAP conversion rates. Don’t believe it? Go ask Spotify. Or Netflix. Or Hulu. Their free-to-paid customer conversion rates are huge. Sadly, Google doesn’t offer a built-in way to try IAPs. I’ve always found it a lot of work to implement a trial from a technical standpoint — once you’re done developing the core of your app, you want to publish it as soon as possible, not spend 1+ days adding the code needed to properly implement a trial period. Using a low-tech solution like storing the installation date in the SharedPreferences works, but can be very easily circumvented even by non-technical users via uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

Your users shouldn’t have to take a chance on you

That’s why I’ve developed a server-side solution that’s very flexible and customizable — you can implement “try once per device” or “try once per Google account” trials, set custom trial periods, and even add multiple trials to a single app (one for each IAP, for example). It uses offline grace periods and caching, so users don’t have to be online all the time. I’ve decided to publish this as a library and open it up to everyone — you can check out the Android sample here.

To get started, grab a free API key. Add the library to your app using gradle:

dependencies {
  compile 'io.trialy.library:trialy:1.0.5'
}

Initialize the library in your main activity’s onCreate() method:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // Initialize the library and check the current trial
    // status on every launch
    Trialy mTrialy = new Trialy(mContext, "YOUR_TRIALY_APP_KEY");
    mTrialy.checkTrial("YOUR_TRIAL_SKU", mTrialyCallback);
}

Add a callback handler:

private TrialyCallback mTrialyCallback = new TrialyCallback() {
  @Override
  public void onResult(int status, long timeRemaining, String sku) {
            switch (status){
                case STATUS_TRIAL_JUST_STARTED:
                    //The trial has just started
                     break;
                case STATUS_TRIAL_RUNNING:
                    //The trial is currently running
                    break;
                case STATUS_TRIAL_JUST_ENDED:
                    //The trial has just ended
                    break;
                case STATUS_TRIAL_NOT_YET_STARTED:
                    //The user hasn't requested a trial yet
                    break;
                case STATUS_TRIAL_OVER:
                    //The trial is over
                    break;
            }
  }

};

To start a trial, call mTrialy.startTrial("YOUR_TRIAL_SKU", mTrialyCallback); Your app key and trial SKU can be found in your Trialy developer dashboard.

Regardless of which solution you’re using to offer a free trial, there are three things you need to get right in order to grow your conversion rate:

Make sure your trial period is long enough. Your first instinct is probably to make the trial period as short as possible to not give away too much for free. However, consider that users don’t know your app as well as you do and need to explore the value of your premium features. Give them enough time to get “hooked” — your conversion rate will thank you.

You can only manage what you can measure. Use an analytics solution like Google Analytics to track how your users are using your app’s trial. Give them gentle nudges via in-app hints to point out cool premium features they should try before the trial period runs out. Measure your trial-to-paid user conversion rate (Trialy already does this for you) to see if your trial is working and adjust it accordingly. Use A/B testing to find the optimal trial length.

Make it easy to use your trial. I’ve found that automatically starting the free trial period on the first launch of your app works best. Make sure you’re informing your user about how they can make the most of their trial. Alternatively, have a try for free button near your IAP purchase buttons.

The bottom line is that free trials work, and you should use them wherever feasible to boost your IAP conversion rate.