Book summary app A/B test: too many free options killed conversion
A book summary app ran an A/B test on how much free content to offer. Users were split into three equal groups of 33%. One group got one free book summary per day, announced with a daily .
Another group got more than 20 free book summaries to try all at once. The third group kept the existing setup with no free options at all, paywalled. The daily-free-summary group converted best and also came back to the app more often.
Among users given over 20 free summaries, not a single person converted to paid. The daily-free group converted at a 10% rate. Giving away too much free content appeared to hurt rather than help it.
Key points
- Users split into three 33% groups to test different free-content policies
- Group 1: one free summary/day + daily — 10% , most repeat visits
- Group 2: 20+ free summaries available upfront — zero
- Group 3: no free options (existing paywall- setup)
- Offering too much free content can reduce instead of boosting it