Does teasing a digital product increase or decrease conversion?

Question

We built a SaaS that takes product serial numbers from users and generates codes from them that users pay for - these codes are used to unlock functionality in those products and so have real-world value, making them our primary product. We decided to show the code partially obfuscated on the payment page like so:

Your code is available in our database:

1*******

To reveal your complete code, enter your payment details into our one-step payment process.

...on the assumption that this would make the code seem more real and make the web app feel less scammy - and ultimately that it would make users more likely to convert over doing something like:

To generate your code, enter your payment details into our one-step payment process.

However, just based on the amount of started but unfinished payments I'm seeing in the Stripe dashboard, the abandonment rate for the payment page seems a lot higher than it should be based on other metrics from Google Analytics and Ads, and I'm wondering whether this strategy is likely to be responsible. Could it somehow have the opposite effect of making the web app seem more scammy? Has any data been published on something like this?

Answer 1

Teasers provide scent of information. The reason to show a teaser is to affirm to the user that the thing that you have is the thing that they want. The user wants to feel like they're on the right track before committing to an action - "Aha! This is probably the one."

Examples of this are:

• The first few sentences of an answer to a question (on a question forum, advice column, etc.)
• A picture and a first name on a dating site

I'm not sure that showing the first number of a software license would entice a user to convert. Your user probably trusts that the license number will make the app work, but what you need to convince them of is that the paid version of the app will solve their problem, and be worth the money they parted with.

There's something else that's causing the user not to convert. If they're getting all the way to the purchase page and then abandoning, you need to do some user research.

• Does your checkout page look trustworthy? Or, like you said, "scammy"? Can it be redesigned to look more professional?
• Is your price point correct for the users who have downloaded the app? Are you attracting the right audience? Do you need to adjust the price downward?
• Is the user unclear on what they're purchasing? Do they need more value propositions?

Talking to users (or even sending a survey to the ones who are at the free level) would likely help you figure out what will move them to convert.