Sandbox Presentation. March 2019, Milan.

1. How do subscriptions actually work?
THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA — PIANO.IO

2. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 01
Piano works with hundreds of subscription websites, manages thousands of daily
transactions, and tracks billions of monthly user interactions, giving us unique
benchmark data on digital subscriptions and valuable insights.

3. All subscriptions are not created equal.
At each stage of the purchase funnel, we see great variation between best-in-
class and worst-in-class subscription marketers.
Success
19%
2%
1%
15%
5%
2%
35%10%
5%
PurchaseReach EngagementExposure

4. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 4
Yes, most users bounce.
Most of the audience visiting a typical
publisher site is coming once and never
returning. On average that’s nearly 70%
of the audience. For Piano sites, the
lowest we’ve seen is 50% and the highest
is nearly 90%. Of course the most
valuable visitors are what we call Direct &
Dedicated, which account for about 12%.
68%
20%
12%
Direct & Dedicated Casual One-off
Composition of unique users

5. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 5
But bouncers are not
where the money is.
Looking at pageviews, while the Direct
& Dedicated visitors are only 12% of the
audience, they account for 55% of page
views. These are the visitors most likely
to move through the funnel – they’re
more engaged, more loyal and more
likely to encounter an offer.
22%
23%
55%
Direct & Dedicated Casual One-off
Composition of page views

6. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 6
BEHAVIOR BEFORE CONVERSION
MEDIA
N
AT LEAST ONE HOMEPAGE VISIT 59%
AT LEAST ONE DIRECT VISIT 53%
AT LEAST ONE RECIRCULATED
PAGEVIEW 83%
The home page matters
Visitor loyalty and engagement is one of
the best predictors of likelihood to
subscribe. Piano data on engagement
shows that homepage visits, direct visits
and most of all, recirculation are all
correlated with later conversion.

7. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 7
Most users never see an offer
Piano data shows a median 2% of visitors to our customers websites ever see an offer to subscribe. On
metered paywalls, low exposure rates could be because of a high page view limit. On freemium sites, it
could be that the paid offering is poorly promoted.
2%
50TH PERCENTILE
19%
90TH PERCENTILE
1%
25TH PERCENTILE
PURCHAS
E
REACH ENGAGEMENTEXPOSURE

8. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA
Ironically, an ad can be where a
conversation starts.
Visitors who were asked to view a video ad
in order to read an article were significantly
more likely to register later — whether or not
they viewed the ad.
The same sort of increased engagement is
true of ad blockers — after turning off their
ad blocker, users typically increase their
article views and total page-views.

9. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 9
Registration, newsletters, and guest passes drive results.
It’s well-known that newsletters are an important step on the path to subscriptions. Any
tactic that moves visitors from anonymous to known boosts conversion. The average
conversion rate of registered users is 10 times that of anonymous visitors.

10. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 10
Just like in the real world,
frequency matters, not
just reach.
It frequently takes a while to get users to click an offer. This chart shows the average across publishers of the share
of total conversions driven by each offer shown. Some users convert quickly, but the majority take multiple offers to
subscribe. Business model – metered, freemium or hard paywall – and promotion and offer tactics can have a big
impact on results. Recent Piano research shows that price paid increases along with number of offers.
Averageshareofconverters
Offers shown

11. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 11
When users click.
When users see an offer, about 5% click. Users click most often on metered sites if they’re highly loyal – so
frequently hit the meter wall. They also click on metered, freemium and hard paywall sites when the offer is
compelling – a free trial or initial low price. They rarely choose to pay to keep their ad blocker on if they are
given an alternative, e.g. whitelisting or registering.
PURCHAS
E
REACH ENGAGEMENTEXPOSURE
5%
50TH PERCENTILE
15%
90TH PERCENTILE
2%
25TH PERCENTILE

12. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA
Conversion rate lift — Median difference
Closable vs. Non-closable modals
12
14x
Non-closeable offers
perform much better
Piano analyzed sites running both
closable and non-closable modals.
Non-closable modal, which we call
“stops,” had a 14X conversion rate
compared with closable modals,
which we call “notifications.”

13. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 13
Piano Benchmark Data
Few articles drive most acquisition
Visitors are much more likely to convert on high-value content. Just 2% of
articles generate 80% of new subscriptions bought on articles.
Cumulativepercentage
Percent of articles published

14. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA
PURCHAS
E
REACH ENGAGEMENTEXPOSURE
10%
50TH PERCENTILE
35%
90TH PERCENTILE
5%
25TH PERCENTILE
At the bottom of the funnel, friction is the frontier.
10% of users at the bottom of the funnel will actually complete a purchase. There can be multiple factors standing in
the way. Bad user experience post-click is the most common – seeing a paid offer when you don’t expect one, or a
higher price than you expected. Making payment easier can improve performance – one Piano client saw a 41%
increase in mobile transactions after implementing Apple Pay.

15. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 15
Cancellations are front-loaded.
Many factors — trial vs non-trial, monthly vs annual — effect cancellations, but
in most cases, new subscriptions have the highest churn risk.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A third of cancellations occur the first month
Two-thirds of cancellations occur in the first 6 months
ShareofCancellations
Month

16. THE BUSINESS PLATFORM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA 16
Engagement remains critical after conversion.
0%
3%
7%
10%
13%
Light engagement (1-5 Active Days) Moderate engagement (6-15 Active Days) High engagement (16-31 Active Days)
Churn rates by engagement level
ChurnRate

17. Cumulative subscription revenue
UX change
Design update
Split test variant
MAR2017 JAN MAY JUL SEP NOV MAR2018 JAN MAY JUL SEP NOV
More actions drive more results.
This chart from the case study for a Piano case study
shows how hundreds of marketing optimizations and tests
drive revenue growth.

18. piano.io
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New York, NY 10007 USA
+1 646 350 1999