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500K+ New Organic Users Every Month

Project Overview

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Role: Senior Product Manager (Packaging, Billing and Support team)
Company: Philo (Live TV Streaming Service)
Scope: Integrate FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) into our current product
Team: 1 backend engineer, 1 frontend engineer, 1 data analyst, expanded cross-functional team later

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​Background

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Our company already had FAST channels in our content lineup, but it wasn’t accessible as a true free entry point for users. I was tasked to answer a high-stakes question:
 

| Can we use FAST as a free acquisition lever without cannibalizing our paid subscription business?

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Key Questions

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1. Will introducing FAST more prominently cannibalize our paid product?

2. Can FAST be used as a low-friction acquisition and reactivation lever?

3. How do we safely test this without risking core subscription revenue?

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Hypothesis

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If we offer a curated FAST experience as a re-entry point for users who are reactivating, then we will:

  • Increase reactivations

  • Generate additional ad revenue

  • And convert a meaningful portion of these users into paid subscribers
    …without cannibalizing our existing paid user base.

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Approach

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Start with Reactivation Flow on Web

We deliberately started on web (direct billing) with a small, controlled test where risk was lowest and iteration was fastest.

 

Experiment:

  • Target: Deactivated subscribers

  • Design: A/B test

    • Control: Standard reactivation flow (paid-only path)

    • Variant: Reactivation flow that offers FAST as a free option alongside the paid reactivation path

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Metrics monitored:

  • Reactivation rate (users who resume a paid subscription)

  • Any payment events

  • Ad revenue 

  • Behavior of users who entered via FAST:

    • How many later upgraded to paid?

    • Time-to-upgrade after entering FAST

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Key Discovery

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To our surprise, the results were not cannibalizing at all — they were additive.

 

We observed that:

  • More users reactivated overall in the variant with FAST offer.

  • Users who entered through FAST:

    • Engaged with content, generated ad revenue, and

    • A meaningful percentage upgraded to the paid product shortly after.

  • The “free first” approach essentially:

    • Reduced friction

    • Rebuilt trust with users

    • Increased ad revenue

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Iterations & Expanded Testing

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With the initial hypothesis validated and no signs of cannibalization, we expanded our testing:

 

1. New Entry Points & Cohorts

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We began to test FAST:

  • In different areas of the product experience

  • With different user cohorts​

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We continued to monitor:

  • Subscription conversions

  • Retention

  • Ad revenue

  • Cannibalization

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2. External Billers

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Our product supports external billers / platforms.

We tested FAST experiences across:

  • Different billers

  • Different platforms

  • Different user cohorts

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The goal was to ensure:

  • The positive behavior we saw on web was consistent

  • No specific partner or platform exhibited unexpected cannibalization or negative revenue impact

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Once we had data-backed confidence that FAST was:

  • Not cannibalizing paid subscriptions, and

  • Actually creating a positive combined revenue effect (ad + subscription)

…we secured buy-in to staff a larger cross-functional team to turn this into a scalable, polished experience.

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Universal Search & Distribution

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The next major unlock came from distribution via universal search across major streaming platforms.

 

Integrating FAST into Universal Search

We integrated FAST content so that it appears in platform-level search results, such as Roku universal search.​

This meant that when users searched for content on their devices, our FAST content could appear as a free way to start watching immediately.

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Why this matters:

  • These are high-intent users already searching for content.

  • We could acquire users without incremental advertising cost​

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Results

After rolling out FAST through universal search and scaling our experience:

  • We achieved 500K+ new organic users every month

    • No additional advertising spend to acquire them

  • These users:

    • Drove meaningful ad revenue

    • Upgraded to paid experience

  • We preserved the health of our core subscription product, and in many cases:

    • Improved overall monetization per user when combining ad + subscription revenue

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