Project Overview
Deliverable
User Research
Key Outcome
Launched Product
Closed year-long contract with client, product is live and generating predictable revenue with ~400 MAU
74k Users
Conducted A/B tests with over 74,000 users across 2 experiments
64% Payflow
Of the users who begin our checkout flow, 64% complete it
Problem Definition
Problem: Online publishers have low conversion
We found that news publishers’ average conversion rate is 0.5%, which they struggle to increase, despite an urgent need for revenue. This is true even with respected publishers with 1mm+ visitors per month. They also struggle with costs associated with churn.
Opportunity to monetize a difficult-to-convert visitor segment
Through interviews with the High Performance Computing Office and Office for Sustainability at Harvard, we sought to understand the transition to the hydro-electric powered MGHPCC, which was completed in 2013. The Office for Sustainability led the effort. Due to their ability to implement institution-wide policies, we came to believe this could be the most impactful place to intervene to drive results for other institutions making a similar transition.
Experiments
Are visitors willing to provide their phone number?
We hypothesized that mobile visitors would be more likely to enter a phone number than an email on a registration paywall. If true, we could provide a customized offer.
Mobile visitors more likely to enter phone number
Mobile visitors were significantly more likely to enter a phone number than an email on a registration paywall. 13.2% of unique visitors put in their phone number. 8.5% of unique visitors went through the full experience. Tested with 9,698 users over 3 days.
Would visitors pay a premium to not subscribe?
If so, we can recover lost revenue from the segment of Press Herald’s traffic that is least likely to subscribe. $4.99 for 48 hours is a 10x premium on the cost of a subscription.
Visitors willing to pay a premium to not subscribe
Mobile visitors were willing to pay a 10x premium for one-time access, recovered revenue from visitors who would have never subscribed. Tested with 64,200 users over 7 days. Press Herald reported that there was no change in their subscription conversion rate during the experiment.
How AccessPass works
Launched Product
Introducing AccessPass
After several experiments, we closed a year-long contract with the Portland Press Herald (Maine Trust for Local News). We deployed to PressHerald’s most conversion-resistant segment, first time visitors accessing articles older than 6 months. Users pay $4.99 for 48 hours of access using a fast, optimized checkout experience, with option for ApplePay, GooglePay, or card. Customers pay a premium to use AccessPass, about 10x more than a subscription. We operate on a revenue share model, so we send publishers a payout, they never pay us.
Live user flow: AccessPass checkout
AccessPass is an all-in-one offer and checkout experience. Online publishers can allow timed access to paywalled content for a one-time fee. We use a reader's phone number as a unique identifier which is a resilient way to control access in a post-third-party cookie internet. It also allows reliable analytics compared to cookies, and reduces misuse.
Validation for a novel conversion funnel
The results speak for themselves. Due to success on the Press Herald, we have expanded to the Sun Journal, Central Maine, and the Times Record.
Footnotes
AccessPass shut down
AccessPass was live for 6 months. We demonstrated that an underserved customer segment would convert with the right offer: for first time visitors reading articles older than 6 months, many were willing to pay $4.99 for timed access. We were proud of our product though we ultimately made the decision to shut it down due to a small obtainable market and slow sales cycle.