May 27, 2026 · Research compiled from 25+ sources · Applied in PR #472
The landing page primary CTA was "Get a free score report" linking to the demo. The demo asks visitors to write a full timed bar exam essay before seeing any value. 94% of people who start the demo abandon before submitting.
| Stage | 9-Day Count | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Demo started | 321 | 9.9% of pageviews |
| Demo submitted | 18 | 5.6% of demo starts |
| Trial started | 45 | 1.4% of pageviews |
| Purchase completed | 14 | 31% of trials |
| Model | Visitor to Signup | Signup to Paid | Paying per 1,000 Visitors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opt-in trial (no CC) | 4.5% | 8.9% | 4.0 |
| Opt-out trial (CC required) | 3.5% | 31.4% | 11.0 |
| Freemium | 9.0% | 5.6% | 5.0 |
| Ungated freemium | 7.0% | 8.0% | 5.6 |
Source: Kyle Poyar, Growth Unhinged, "The 2026 free-to-paid conversion report" (Feb 2026). Data from 200 B2B software products in partnership with ChartMogul and ProductLed.
SHEP's trial-to-paid (31%) is 3.5x the industry median. The bottleneck is getting people INTO the trial, not converting them once they're in.
| Scenario | PV to Trial | Trials (9 days) | Purchases (at 31%) | Revenue (at $129) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current | 1.4% | 45 | 14 | $1,806 |
| Conservative (5%) | 5% | 163 | 50 | $6,450 |
| Moderate (7%) | 7% | 228 | 71 | $9,159 |
| Aggressive (10%) | 10% | 325 | 101 | $13,029 |
| CTA Copy | Lift vs. Baseline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "Start my free trial" vs "Start your free trial" | +90% CTR | ContentVerve / Unbounce |
| "Start my free trial" vs "Sign up" | +104% CTR | Unbounce |
| "Start 14 days free, no card required" vs "Start free trial" | +24% CTR, +11% conversion | SiteGrade 2026 |
| "Try free for 7 days" vs generic CTA | +38% CTR | Heurilens 2026 |
| "Start free trial" vs "Get started" | +9% | Digital Applied (2,000 pages) |
Two biggest levers:
Sources: ContentVerve/Unbounce (A/B test data), SiteGrade 2026 ("CTA Buttons That Convert"), Heurilens 2026 ("CTA Design That Converts"), FoundryCRO 2026 ("CTA Button Conversion Rate Benchmarks"), Digital Applied 2026 (2,000 pages tested).
MojoAuth + Reforge 2025 PLG Benchmarks: magic link signup (no password at registration) produces 20–35% higher signup completion and 8–15% trial-to-paid lift. Notion, Linear, and Vercel all use this pattern.
Source: MojoAuth "Passwordless Conversion Impact Report" (May 2026), Reforge 2025 PLG Benchmarks.
CIAM Compass (2026): 5–15% completion rate drop per additional required field. A 7-field form completes 30–60% as often as a 1-field email-only form on the same traffic.
Source: Deepak Gupta, CIAM Compass, "Customer Onboarding and Progressive Profiling" (May 2026).
Formstack: multi-page forms achieve 13.9% conversion vs 4.5% for single-page. HubSpot: multi-step forms convert 86% higher for 7+ field forms. But for short forms under 5 fields, single-step wins.
Replaced 7 registration screens with 1 single modal. Result: form completion time reduced by 4x, activated trials doubled (8 to 16 per week), 100% increase in trial activations.
Source: Anna Diyanova, Medium, "Conversion killer: how we replaced 7 registration screens with one" (Feb 2026).
Kyle Poyar (2026): Ungated freemium produces 5.6 paying customers per 1,000 visitors vs 4.0 for gated opt-in trials. 3x increase in visitors who start using the product.
OpenView Partners: "SaaS companies are launching ungated free product experiences. These companies let prospective users immediately try out the product — no sign-up required — and then ask for an email address only if users want to save their progress."
Chameleon: "An ungated experience shows confidence. It says, 'Our product can sell itself.' When users voluntarily opt in at the end, it's often a stronger signal than forcing the form upfront."
Sources: Kyle Poyar, Growth Unhinged 2026; OpenView Partners, "Your Guide to Ungated Products"; Chameleon, "Gated vs. Ungated Demos."
ProductQuant (2026): Full premium access from day 1, downgrade after N days. "A standard trial is about future potential ('maybe I'll find this valuable'). A reverse trial activates loss aversion ('I have something valuable now, and I'll lose it')." Benchmarks: 20%+ conversion for reverse trials.
Smashing Magazine (2026 UX Decision Tree): Modals work well for simple, focused tasks where users need to maintain context. Registration is simple enough for a modal. "Avoid blocking the entire UI. Have a dialog floating, partially covering the UI."
UX Stack Exchange: "A lightweight sign-in that allows the user to stay right where they are. Modals work well for 'interruption' tasks — user stays mid-task, sign in overlays, then back to where they were."
Atticus Li (A/B testing research): Showing a preview of what the user will access after completing signup, plus social proof on the signup page itself, measurably increases completion.
Source: Over the Top SEO, "Landing Page Optimization: A/B Testing Lessons from 100+ Experiments" (Apr 2026).
| Metric | Average | Good | Great | SHEP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage to trial signup | 2–5% | 5–7% | 7–10% | 1.4% (pre-swap) |
| Trial to paid (opt-in, no CC) | 8.9% | 15–20% | 25%+ | 31% |
| Pricing page to purchase | — | 15–20% | — | — |
| B2B SaaS landing page conversion | 3.8% | 4–8% | 8–15% | — |
Sources: Kyle Poyar 2026, Aimers.io 2026, Unbounce 2025 Conversion Benchmark Report, Daydream 2026, Pulseahead 2026.