We ran rapid pricing and onboarding experiments on the web to see how pricing influenced churn. Because we could change price and offers without a store release, we tested many permutations quickly and watched which price points and onboarding flows produced lower churn.
What mattered most was not the headline price but the first bill experience and the perceived value during the trial. Some cheaper offers brought higher initial conversions but more churn. Higher-priced plans that matched a clearer value proposition reduced churn.
One operational caveat: as you scale you need to manage test budget and sample sizes carefully. Quick wins come from small, measurable changes and a tight experiment cadence.
Which pricing experiment gave you the clearest signal on churn and how did you decide whether it was price or onboarding causing the drop?
I ran a 2x2 test: price tier and onboarding length. Web made it trivial to flip the price and keep the same experiment id.
We measured trial length and 30 day churn and discovered onboarding clarity mattered more than a small price delta.
Price tests on web are fast and cheap.
I segment by initial plan and onboarding variant, then compare 30 day retention. Using a web-first builder I can change offers mid-experiment and re-run without an app update which lets me validate whether churn is price driven or UX driven.
We lowered price and saw more signups but higher churn.
Then we tightened onboarding and the retention improved. Price wasn’t the only issue.
price test then tweak onboarding see which moves churn
Run price experiments with factorial design: price x onboarding flow. Track short and medium term retention and engagement. If cheaper price lifts conversion but engagement and retention drop, it’s likely you attracted lower intent users. If retention improves at higher price with similar activation metrics, then price was filtering for better fit.
A simple experiment: offer a lower first month vs full price and measure cohort retention. We saw better long term retention from users who paid full price and completed onboarding. That told us onboarding clarity delivered more long term value than an initial discount.
We tried a low first month price and tracked 60 day churn. It flagged a quality problem more than price sensitivity.
Also test billing cadence. Monthly vs annual had different churn patterns than price alone.