Subscriptions reporting: Trials and TTP- Issue 195

A deep dive into Trials: benchmarks, calculations, navigating challenges, and using data from subscription analytics apps

Welcome to the Data Analysis Journal, a weekly newsletter about data science and analytics.

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It seems like every app now offers subscriptions. As I continue to receive more questions on reporting subscription metrics, I’ve decided to launch a Subscriptions Series to go over the technicalities and reporting challenges of every subscription lifecycle:

Trial → Subscription → Renewal → Churn → Re-subscription

Today, many subscription plans offer a trial. Thanks to payment providers, setting up plans with different trial durations is easy. Rarely do mobile apps and companies offer plans without some form of trial.

Trials, however, can be tricky when trying to calculate LTV as they may affect the LTV:CAC ratio and result in over-reported subscriptions. Yet, if used wisely, the volume of trials can serve as an early predictor of user churn or as an indicator of revenue shifts during price experiments.

In this publication, I will discuss the different types of trials, cover the top trial metrics, compare the dynamics of freemium vs. reverse trials, share trials and TTP benchmarks, and walk through subscription reporting from common subscription analytics apps, including RevenueCat, Recurly, ChartMogul, etc.