A simple pricing trick to double your digital product sales

Nauman_here

Nauman_here

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If you are selling an e-book, a course, or a service, the "Decoy Effect" can be your best bet to instantly increase your average order value.

Here is how it works:

Imagine you offer two options:
  • Option A (Basic): $50
  • Option B (Premium): $100
    • Most people will choose the $50 option because it feels safer.
Now, introduce a Decoy (Option C) that makes the Premium option look like a steal:

  • Option A (E-book only): $50
  • Option B (Video Course only): $95
  • Option C (E-book + Video Course): $100
Suddenly, Option B looks completely useless, and Option C looks like an absolute no-brainer because it's "only $5 more." By adding a terrible middle option that nobody wants, you subconsciously force the buyer to choose your most expensive tier.

Has anyone experimented with this on their landing pages? What kind of conversion lifts did you see?
 
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I do that with my SEO services. It's a common tactic, since I want customers. I offer more for less. and also mention per link price in bulk link packages. That makes the customer feel like they're getting a better deal. In the end, it's a win for them and a win for me.
 
alonelywriter said:
I do that with my SEO services. It's a common tactic, since I want customers. I offer more for less. and also mention per link price in bulk link packages. That makes the customer feel like they're getting a better deal. In the end, it's a win for them and a win for me.
Click to expand...
Exactly, every individual associated with sales or even others must use it... Its most of a psychology play
 
it works best for digital stuff where fulfillment is zero cost. if you try this with actual services sometimes it backfires because people aren't dumb, they see the obvious trick and it hurts trust. i tried a similar three-tier pricing on a scraping tool last year and actually saw conversions dip slightly because it made the checkout flow feel too manipulative. simplified it back to two clean options and sales went up. decoy is good but you gotta test it because sometimes simple just converts better...
 
@The WP Nerd has a point about the trust thing. The decoy works way better when the middle option isn't obviously garbage. If option B is too clearly useless people sniff it out, especially in 2025 when half your buyers have read the same Ariely book you did.

What worked for me was making the decoy actually plausible... like it has to be a real product someone could theoretically want, just priced badly. Then the brain does the math without feeling tricked.

Also the order matters more than people think. Show premium first, anchor high, then the "deal" lands harder. tested it on a course funnel and the AOV bump was real but nowhere near the 30-40% people online claim. more like 8-12% for me. still worth it tho.

@Nauman_here one thing... watch your refund rate after. sometimes the decoy pushes people into a tier they didnt really want and they bounce later.
 
I’ve seen it work better when the decoy is not the middle one but the “almost there” one. Like $49 basic, $89 pro, $99 pro + templates + monthly update... people dont feel pushed, they feel like they found the obvious deal themselves. Biggest lift I got was on a small info product funnel, around 10% AOV, but only after changing the copy so the cheap plan looked intentionally limited, not crappy. If the audience is cold and the offer already looks sketchy, decoy pricing just adds more friction imo.
 
You can also have a ridiculously expensive option as well so everything else looks cheap in comparison.

It works better if the first thing a lead sees is the most expensive option.

That way they get price anchored.

Option A) $2000

What a lot of people don't realise is that if they listed the cheapest option first and then see the most expensive option it unfortunately works in reverse.

They'll think wow that's so expensive compared to these other options.

Whereas if the most expensive option was the first thing they see they'll think wow everything else looks cheap in comparison. What a deal!

Which is great obviously.

Also keep in mind: Price increases the perceived value people attach to a service/product as well even if nothing actually changed.

So a £100 service is perceived less valuable than a £1000 service even if nothing actually changed about the product/service.

"When goods with similar characteristics differ in price, a reasonable prior is that the more expensive good will, on average, be of a higher quality."

Source: https://wine-economics.org/wp-conte...nce-from-a-Large-Sample-of-Blind-Tastings.pdf
 
One small thing that made a diff for me was not just the prices, but the names of the tiers. If you call it Basic / Premium / Ultimate, people already know they’re being walked somewhere. I had better results with outcome-based names, like “DIY”, “Done With Templates”, “Fast Start Pack” etc... feels less like a pricing trick and more like choosing the right path.

Also don’t hide the cheap plan too much. When the low tier looks fake or crippled, trust drops fast. Better to make it genuinely useful, then make the higher one save time or remove pain. That’s where the upsell happens without looking desperate.
 
Nauman_here said:
If you are selling an e-book, a course, or a service, the "Decoy Effect" can be your best bet to instantly increase your average order value.

Here is how it works:

Imagine you offer two options:
  • Option A (Basic): $50
    • Most people will choose the $50 option because it feels safer.
Now, introduce a Decoy (Option C) that makes the Premium option look like a steal:

  • Option A (E-book only): $50
  • Option B (Video Course only): $95
  • Option C (E-book + Video Course): $100
Suddenly, Option B looks completely useless, and Option C looks like an absolute no-brainer because it's "only $5 more." By adding a terrible middle option that nobody wants, you subconsciously force the buyer to choose your most expensive tier.

Has anyone experimented with this on their landing pages? What kind of conversion lifts did you see?
Click to expand...
More like option a basic
When they get In
Up sell with option b and c
 
Nauman_here said:
If you are selling an e-book, a course, or a service, the "Decoy Effect" can be your best bet to instantly increase your average order value.

Here is how it works:

Imagine you offer two options:
  • Option A (Basic): $50
    • Most people will choose the $50 option because it feels safer.
Now, introduce a Decoy (Option C) that makes the Premium option look like a steal:

  • Option A (E-book only): $50
  • Option B (Video Course only): $95
  • Option C (E-book + Video Course): $100
Suddenly, Option B looks completely useless, and Option C looks like an absolute no-brainer because it's "only $5 more." By adding a terrible middle option that nobody wants, you subconsciously force the buyer to choose your most expensive tier.

Has anyone experimented with this on their landing pages? What kind of conversion lifts did you see?
Click to expand...
It's very useful technique, it always works, but if you have to make a strategy of the option b, because you have to offer worthless option in option b or you have to award a more than good thing in option c with less profit.
 
Yeah @The WP Nerd is right about the trust drop. I tried running a decoy setup on a landing page for an info product last year and cold traffic absolutely hated it. Conversions actually went up when I ditched the three-tier decoy and just did a single clean offer with a one-click upsell on the next page instead. People are too cynical now... if they feel like they are being funneled into a specific option they just bounce. I think the decoy only really works if you have a massive brand where people already trust the value, otherwise it just looks like a cheap sales trick.
 
CTRWizard7 said:
Yeah @The WP Nerd is right about the trust drop. I tried running a decoy setup on a landing page for an info product last year and cold traffic absolutely hated it. Conversions actually went up when I ditched the three-tier decoy and just did a single clean offer with a one-click upsell on the next page instead. People are too cynical now... if they feel like they are being funneled into a specific option they just bounce. I think the decoy only really works if you have a massive brand where people already trust the value, otherwise it just looks like a cheap sales trick.
Click to expand...
you are right sometimes, who knows it's a trick they don't get into it. If he wanna secured those persons who are really into this technique then he must be very clever in this situation, he can offer them some discount on option b in order to make decay effect normal.
 
Nauman_here said:
If you are selling an e-book, a course, or a service, the "Decoy Effect" can be your best bet to instantly increase your average order value.

Here is how it works:

Imagine you offer two options:
  • Option A (Basic): $50
    • Most people will choose the $50 option because it feels safer.
Now, introduce a Decoy (Option C) that makes the Premium option look like a steal:

  • Option A (E-book only): $50
  • Option B (Video Course only): $95
  • Option C (E-book + Video Course): $100
Suddenly, Option B looks completely useless, and Option C looks like an absolute no-brainer because it's "only $5 more." By adding a terrible middle option that nobody wants, you subconsciously force the buyer to choose your most expensive tier.

Has anyone experimented with this on their landing pages? What kind of conversion lifts did you see?
Click to expand...
Nice trick psychological tip! Where did you find it? As a buyer I would definitely would "fall" for it!
 
This works for me too, just in a slightly different setup. Main ebook is $19, then I add 3 small supplements, around 15-20 pages each, for $5 each. A lot of buyers grab at least one or two, so the cart value goes up nicely.
 
Dan Ariely popularised it in his book Predictably Irrational. It’s years since I read but if I am right he was talking about an experiment possibly done by Kanheman.

The original experiment involved a newspaper subscription with 3 tier option

Digital Only
Print Only
Print and Digitial

They used the decoy effect to price the options based on which one they wanted the subjects to choose.

It should be noted that in the experiment no one actually bought anything but were asked which one would they buy. It’s a suble but important difference.
 
The classic decoy effect often kills trust with today's cold traffic. If your goal is scaling a multi - million dollar business, avoid cheap pricing tricks. Instead:
  1. Anchor high - show your most expensive, outcome - based option first.
  2. Keep it simple - sell one core product on the front - end, then use one - click upsells on the back - end.
    Build trust, not forced choices
 
the classic decoy where the middle option is just bad value is pretty dead for cold traffic. people are too cynical now and it just tanks checkout conversions because they feel manipulated. what still works for me is using manual labor or time as the decoy... like option a is the basic software for $49, option b is software + manual setup done by my team for $149, and option c is software + setup + templates for $159. people get why option b is expensive because labor costs money, so option c looks like a genuine deal rather than a cheap pricing trick. otherwise honestly a clean landing page with a solid 1-click upsell on the next step usually beats three-tier pricing anyway.
 
one thing nobody really mentioned... the decoy works way better when the price gap does the talking instead of the wording. like if you have to write a paragraph explaining why option C is the smart pick, youve already lost. the numbers should make people feel it on their own.

i ran a version on a digital product where the middle tier wasnt garbage, it was just missing the one thing everyone actually wanted. so it looked legit but useless at the same time. that converted better than making B obviously bad. agree with the trust stuff though, on cold traffic it can backfire fast. warm list or repeat buyers is where it really pays off imo. cold people just smell the funnel and bounce.

also watch the refund thing someone said earlier, thats real. pushing people up a tier they didnt want shows up later as chargebacks and it eats the gains.
 
the thing that finally made decoy work for me wasnt the pricing at all, it was where i placed it. on the sales page it screams trick. but if you only reveal the three tiers AFTER someone already clicked buy on the mid option, the decoy reads as "oh nice theres a better bundle" instead of a setup. small reframe but the bounce dropped a lot.

also nobody said this yet but the decoy and your refund rate are kinda linked to who you anchor. if you push cold people up a tier they feel buyers remorse by week two and chargeback. warm list doesnt do that cause they already wanted the thing. so imo decoy is less a pricing trick and more an audience filter... it only pays on people who were gonna buy anyway, it just moves them up a notch.

and yeah the labor-as-decoy idea someone mentioned is the only version that still holds up cold. people forgive a price when they can see where the cost went.
 
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