The Best Freemium Data Visualization Ever

Cohort Conversion Rate Over Time

I want this graph in an analytics product so badly it makes me dizzy.

Look closely until you are sure you understand the power of this visualization.

This is not the Evernote conversion rate to premium over the years they have been in business. This is the cumulative conversion rate for a group of users, as they live with the product for several years.

A 1% conversion rate after 6 months is maybe even quite low for the free-paid world in general (though this is one heck of a large world). It doesn’t matter, because they look at conversion over years. The likelihood that a new user will convert, lifetime, is 5.5%. However you slice it, that is absolutely sick performance.

This explains why the CEO invests in the free product when 30-day conversion rates to premium GO UP! This is very counter-intuitive, and it is the heart of their freemium success.

Phil Libin realizes that the key to Evernote’s success is to first ensure that their users will user their product for years. Period, end of story.

This is Herb Kelleher shit if you ask me, and not yet well understood.

Via Fast Company