Piano optimizes multi-channel experiences for over 550 publishers worldwide. By analyzing customer behavior across over 140 billion page views each month, we are in a unique position to deliver insights for personalization, conversion, and retention. Our second annual Subscription Performance Benchmark Report provides industry best practices among publishers in 2022.

This year’s report looks at behavior throughout the customer journey, from overcoming registration obstacles and turning registered users into subscribers, all the way through engaging active subscribers and mitigating churn rates.

Among the 10 key pieces of unique data and analysis, we found:

• User experience impacts conversion. Today, 65% of digital audiences engage on a mobile device. Though paid offer click rates vary from 1.46% on mobile to 1.53% on desktop, 42.4% of paid offers are completed on desktop vs. 19.7% on mobile, highlighting the importance of minimizing checkout friction for a great user experience.
• The right algorithm can go a long way. Auto-optimized content recommendations produce 60% higher median click-through rates than manually set recommendations.
• Registration boosts conversion rates. One-year conversion rates range from as little as 0.5% to over 12%. The best-performing sites use registration as a step toward paid conversion, as the conversion rate for known users is 9.88%, compared to just 0.22% for anonymous visitors—a 45x difference.
• Omnichannel continues to convert. Users who come from both search and social have a 10x higher conversion rate than single-channel users, proving yet again that engagement and loyalty across channels is worth cultivating.

Consumer demand for content — including subscriber-only content — reached all-time highs fueled by the pandemic, but industry growth is far from over. To retain these users and build steady growth, media sites will use data-driven strategies to improve customer experiences. Our report is more than a collection of interesting data; the analysis is packed with valuable takeaways that you can put into action to drive engagement, conversion, and steady, sustainable growth.

Read the full report… and see how it stacks up against last year’s report.

Love webinars? Learn more about our findings in a presentation by Director of Research Patrick Appel and SVP of Strategy Michael Silberman to hear how we’re helping clients future-proof their businesses.

Read the Report