Explore peer-reviewed field experiments and meta-analyses on SaaS trials, email, paid search, referrals, content sharing and choice design. Compare methods, context and limits.
Track customer lifetime across channels when estimating paid-search value. Include repeat purchases and offline or sales-assisted spillovers instead of stopping at a platform-attributed conversion.
Plain-English take
Customers acquired through Google search advertising had higher transaction rates than customers from other channels in this study.
Separate cancellation from quiet nonuse when measuring churn. Build retention reporting that includes product inactivity and communication response rather than treating account status as the only signal.
Plain-English take
Overt churners were often more active before leaving, while many silent churners disengaged early and rarely canceled formally.
Compare the long-term value of discounted and full-price cohorts, accounting for selection and acquisition cost. A lower initial conversion cost can bring customers with weaker repeat economics.
Plain-English take
In both datasets, deeper acquisition discounts were associated with lower repeat-buying rates and lower customer asset value.
Track post-trial retention and value by acquisition cohort, and test onboarding or communication interventions. Do not assume free-trial signups have the same economics as organically or sales-acquired customers.
Plain-English take
Average lifetime value for free-trial customers was 59% lower than for regular customers in this study.
Use as a bounded example of customer acquisition and retention spending: an analytical model and empirical investigation; compare its context and design with your own market before applying its result.
Plain-English take
Acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive than retention cost to market position and competition; market leaders have a substantial acquisition-cost advantage but no comparable retention-cost advantage.
Use as a bounded example of a methodology for linking customer acquisition to customer retention; compare its context and design with your own market before applying its result.
Plain-English take
Acquisition sources differ in downstream retention value; evaluating acquisition without later retention can misallocate marketing resources.
Use this paper as evidence about the added value of social media data in b2b customer acquisition systems: a real-life experiment in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Plain-English take
Facebook data were the most informative source for qualifying prospects and complemented the other sources, further improving predictive performance; results were reported in prospect-to-customer conversion.
Use this paper as evidence about hunting for new customers: assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Plain-English take
Prospecting and conversion have an implicit trade-off with a sweet spot maximizing acquisition. More-experienced salespeople acquired fewer new customers; advertising support and extrinsic rewards improved conversion more for experienced reps.
Use this study as a bounded example related to model-supported business-to-business prospect prediction based on an iterative customer acquisition framework; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Plain-English take
The iterative framework produces a higher-than-average prospect-to-lead conversion in preliminary tests and can be implemented without human interaction in a web application.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 2024
For your marketing
Use to shape a locally controlled channel or message test; account for audience, timing and attribution limits before reallocating budget.
Plain-English take
Field experiment provided causal support for reallocating direct mail toward prospects/high-value segments and email toward current customers (as described by the paper).