Trial Expiry Reminder

When most trials run out without a paid plan or the core value event, or users ask support what happens to their data once the trial ends, this journey has a job to do. Before building, confirm that trial start and end dates, paid conversion and the core value event are tracked per account. You need the email address, in-app messaging for signed-in users, and push permission; settle the real post-trial access rules before writing the messages. If users cannot get past the first step inside the trial, look at the in-product setup flow first; a countdown reminder will not remove that obstacle.

Incremental paid conversion before expiry vs control

The real question is whether reminded trials convert to a paid plan before the end date more often than the control group does; an opened push or a visit to the pricing page is not a conversion.

How it is counted: Every active trial assigned at entry, journey group and control group together, is the denominator; the numerator is the accounts on a paid plan by the trial end date, and the follow-up window is that same end date for both groups. The gap between them is the journey's effect, and delivery or click status does not change the denominator.

Also track

• Activation rateAmong accounts that had not completed the core value event at entry, the share that complete it before the trial ends; the intermediate step the in-app message aims at, read separately for both groups.
• Conversion per touchCount paid conversions after the first touch, after the push and after the final email separately; if the final email brings no conversions, remember its job is to explain access, not to sell, and judge it on that.
• Result by activation stateCompare journey and control separately in the branch that reached value and in the one that did not; they start with different messages, and a total can hide one branch failing.
• Push opt-outs and unsubscribesPermission lost after the push and unsubscribes after the emails are the cost of this journey; if they climb, revisit the tone or the number of the closing messages.

• Trigger and entryA trial 7 days from its end enters the journey. Assign active trials at random, at entry, to the journey group or a control group that receives none of this flow's messages; make the split before the activation branch.
• Who must not enterAccounts already on a paid plan and trials that have already ended stay out; if a trial is extended, update the running instance's end date instead of opening a second one. Every instance tracks one active trial; accounts with no measurable usage stay out because they cannot be branched.
• Timing and channelsAt entry, accounts that completed the core value event get an email with the end date and plan options; the rest an in-app message with the missing step. With 3 days left, a push goes out unless the account has paid; with 1 day left, if still unpaid, a final email explains how access changes.
• Exit and handoffAn account that moves to a paid plan is removed the moment it pays; the checks at 3 days and 1 day catch it at the latest, the journey ends at Paid conversion completed and remaining messages are cancelled. After the final email the journey closes at the wait-for-expiry exit; no handoff to another journey.
• Frequency and consentNo trial gets more than three messages: email or in-app message first, then push, then email. Push goes only to accounts with permission on, email only to subscribed accounts, and the in-app message shows when the user signs in. What you say about access, data and billing must match the real terms exactly.

1. 1Should the journey group's paid conversion rate before expiry come in no higher than the control group's, the reminders only moved a decision those accounts had already made a few days earlier; opens and clicks do not close that gap. Put opt-outs and unsubscribes next to the conversion difference and decide on both.
2. 2What you learn applies to these three touches at 7, 3 and 1 days out, in this order: email or in-app message first, then push, then the final email. Do not credit a paid conversion that arrives after the trial has ended to this journey; the follow-up window closes on the end date, and later conversions are measured separately.
3. 3Paid conversion in the last week of a trial can be a fairly rare event, so small gaps blur into chance; work out the control group's conversion rate and the smallest gap you care about in the sample size calculator, then divide the trials needed per group by the daily number of trials entering to see how many days the test must run.
4. 4If a paying account was told its access ends tomorrow, the flows are not reading the same current state; fix those leaks before reading the result. The final email must not imply a charge where there is no automatic billing or deletion where data is kept; a conversion won on a false description of access does not last.