Cost per Trial Started: Trial Acquisition Cost

Cost per Trial Started measures the average advertising spend required to acquire one free trial user.

Formula

Cost per Trial Started = Channel Spend ÷ Trial Started

Formula Components

Metric	Definition
Channel Spend	Total advertising spend across all channels
Trial Started	Count of trial start events

Metadata
Type	Currency
Data Source	Upstack Pixel
Aggregation	Ratio

Example

Your SaaS company spent $36,000 on acquisition in June, generating 1,800 trial starts.

Channel	Spend	Trial Starts	Cost/Trial
Google Ads	$15,000	850	$17.65
Meta	$12,000	600	$20.00
LinkedIn	$6,000	250	$24.00
Content Syndication	$3,000	100	$30.00
Total	$36,000	1,800	$20.00

How It Works

The metric divides total advertising spend by the number of trial start events tracked by the Upstack Pixel. This is a critical PLG metric because trial starts represent the beginning of the product experience and the primary opportunity for conversion.

When to Use

Scenario	Action
Set trial acquisition targets	Define acceptable cost per trial user
Optimize channel mix	Shift budget to lower-cost trial sources
Calculate CAC	Multiply by inverse of trial conversion rate
Benchmark performance	Compare against industry trial acquisition costs

Metric	Relationship
Trial Started	The denominator in this calculation
Trial Started Value	Revenue to compare against cost
Cost per Trial Converted	Full conversion cost metric

See all Funnel Conversion metrics →