How to create a Paid Trial Subscription

This article applies to:

Create a pricing plan for a subscription to have an initial price (i.e. a start up price) and a recurring amount that differs.

Please Note! The following method can be used in some cases but not all. This does not work for purchases made through Paypal Smart Payment buttons (Max Classic does not capture credit card details to bill for the upsell order when purchased through Paypal.)

High-Level Overview:

  • Create two separate products, one for initial amount as a one-time purchase, and the other a subscription only.
  • Set up automation that creates a subscription order. Two ways to do this: Campaign Builder or Purchase Action

Important Note! After creating two products, as instructed in the step below, follow only "Steps for Campaign Builder Method", or "Steps for 'Purchase Action Method", based on your setup preference. Following both methods for the same subscription will result in duplicate subscriptions being created when a contact triggers the actions!

Create two different products

  • The first product will be for a one time product at the “one-time rate.” (i.e. 7 day trial for $7) Do not know how to create a product? Not a problem, follow the steps in this article.
  • The second product will be your subscription for the recurring amount (i.e. $49 monthly payment after 7 day trial) Follow this article to know how to create a subscription plan.

Steps for Campaign Builder Method

  1. Navigate to Marketing > Settings > Action Set
  2. Click Add an Action Set Button
  3. Give your Action Set a name that would reference what it does
  4. Select Create and Order in the drop down
  5. Click Save this Action link
  6. Type name of the subscription product created in step 1 then click Add
  7. Change "free trial days" to desired delay for this subscription to start billing (e.g. for a 7 day trial of $7, set free trial days to "7")
  8. Create a Campaign
    • Navigate to Marketing > Campaign Builder and click the 'Create New Campaign' button.
    • Start campaign with a Purchase Goal. Configure goal to the first product, or the initial product
  9. Create a new Campaign Sequence
    • Drag out "Action Set (Legacy)" snippet from Process tab
    • Select the Action Set created in previous steps
    • Set all elements to Ready, Connect your purchase goal to your sequence, and publish the campaign.

Steps for Purchase Action Method

  1. Create a Product Specific Purchase Action for one-time purchase product. Remember to create this purchase action for the initial product or first product.
  2. Select action to "Create an Order" and click "Save this Action" link.
  3. Type the name of the subscription product and click "Add" button.
  4. Change "free trial days" to desired delay for this subscription to start billing (i.e. for a 7 day trial of $7, set free trial days to "7")
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