Toplyne Labs #5: The Goldilocks moment

Triangulating the perfect moment to nudge your free users to conversion

Rahul Krishnan, Ruchin Kulkarni, and Chinmay Jha

Nov 17

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Hey, Ruchin here! 👋 Welcome back to Toplyne Labs - Edition #5

A weekly digest that covers unique insights on what makes PLG businesses tick, what signals make for the best PQLs, what sales teams get right, what they get wrong, and the meaning of life… Go figure 🤷🏻‍♂️

“Timing is everything.”

Sure, but does the cliche still hold water when it comes to free-to-paid conversions? Is there a goldilocks moment - a perfect time of day AND week - when users tend to make software buying decisions?

This week, Toplyne labs looked at a base of 3.3M free users across a spectrum of B2C products to answer a question that GTM teams think deeply about: “What’s the perfect time to nudge free users to conversion?”

Is timing really everything? Let’s dig in.

Disclaimer: While this analysis spans millions of free users, it also captures a breadth of behavior across various categories of B2C PLG products. We encourage you to use these insights directionally and thematically.

Rise, shine, and sign ☀️

Insight #1: 40% of all conversions occur between 7 AM - 12 PM

From a free user base of 3.3M across various B2C products with a PLG motion, conversions peak between 7 AM - 12 PM. In other words, around 40% of all conversions occur before lunch.

Takeaway: GTM nudges (in-app nudges, promo codes, discounts, etc.) are significantly more effective in the first half of the day.

Timing IS everything. You might even be driving away high-intent users with nudges past 3 PM. (more on this in an upcoming series)

To access these views by region, leave a comment👇

A case for nudges on Sundays 🔎

Insight #2: 62% of all conversions occur in the first half of the week, while 15% of users cross the pay wall on Sundays - on par with Fridays.

Across all regions, ~60% of all conversions occur within the first half of the week. Conversions start winding down after Thursday to a week’s low on Saturday until… *interestingly*, picking up the pace before the week even starts.

On Sundays.

15% of conversions occur on the least noisy day of all - suggesting an opportunity to capture a high share of attention among B2C users with a well-timed nudge.

Takeaway: The goldilocks moment for a GTM nudge is somewhere between 7 AM to 12 PM from Mondays through Thursdays, while Sundays are an opportunity to cut through the noise.

America upgrades on Thursdays 🆙

Insight #3: In North America, 20% of all conversions occur on Thursdays.

Takeaway: The peak time for free-to-paid conversions in North America is 7 AM - 12 PM on Thursdays, with a similar spike on Sundays. For GTM teams optimizing for conversion rates, this is an opportunity to capture a larger share of attention than usual.