Freemium vs Free Trial Analytics - Issue 117
What is the difference between trials vs freemium? Read about the top metrics behind each model, and the challenges in reporting free trials vs freemium vs reverse trials in analytics.
It’s November and you know what that means - the upcoming planning, scoping, and budgeting for 2023 are around the corner.
I received a question from one of my readers about driving and supporting analytics for a company with a freemium model, and the best accompanying KPIs to scale growth and monetization. So today I will talk about the difference between freemium, free trial, and reverse trial, covering common metrics and challenges in analytics to measure and report the impact and growth for each.
In this publication, I won’t focus on the foundations of go-to-market strategies or break down monetization models (read Kyle Poyar, Elena Verna, and Jason Lemkin to learn more) but rather on the dark side reporting free trials / freemium analytics.
How PLG generation changed analytics
In today’s new PLG era, sales-driven models take a step back, while product freemiums and free trials become the foundation for growth and business strategy. Analytics has had to adapt as well, and as a result - a new product analytics domain has emerged to serve PLG's mission. It requires a slightly different skill set, mindset, and perspective from analysts compared to “classic” data analytics or business intelligence (which is on a journey into the sunset to retire soon).
What does this mean for analysts?
The speed of insight and report delivery outweighs its precision. More attention is put towards instant data monitoring. You have to learn to be efficient and super fast with SQL or Python to have a map or a distribution ready to show right away.
Data democratization is here and now at the fingertips of PMs, marketers, and everyone who adds “data-driven” to their CVs. Accept the mercy of product analytics tools like Amplitude, Heap, and Mixpanel and brace for the impact when things go south.
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