Flexible Sampling

## Why Is Flexible Sampling Important? Prior to **flexible sampling**, First Click Free was the main paywall method that websites had to use, which was originally established in order to prevent [cloaking](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/cloaking), a [black hat SEO technique](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/black-hat-seo). Businesses and publishers were not fond of the First Click Free policy, because it required them to enable a certain amount of free views, and it was perceived that Google was essentially in control of their business model. **Flexible sampling places more control in the hands of business and publishers** and is also better for [UX (User Experience)](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/user-experience-ux) because it allows a user to get a taste of the content offered before subscribing. This means less alienation, lower [bounce rates](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/bounce-rate) and higher [dwell time](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/dwell-time). While free content is always preferable, flexible sampling won’t necessarily hold your website back. Mixing free and paid for content is a great strategy. And ensuring your paid-for content can’t be seen anywhere else will give you a boost. ## How Does Flexible Sampling Work? There are two main types of flexible sampling. ### Lead-in Sampling Lead-in sampling provides users with a brief snippet of a page’s content, for example, a single paragraph. It then utilises a [CTA (Call To Action)](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/call-to-action) in order to persuade them to subscribe for the full content. An alternative form of lead-in sampling involves providing a summary of the web page, which can be a more effective strategy for good UX. Displaying integrated [target keywords](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/target-keyword) in the header is good practice here. Delivering questions related to the page topic, as H2 and H3 headers, and including brief answers to these questions is also effective. ### Metered Sampling Metered sampling provides the user with a much more usable and natural experience by allowing them to view a set amount of articles before being presented with a paywall. ### Hard Paywall The alternative to these two options is a hard paywall, which completely closes off a website’s content. A hard paywall, however, is not part of a viable [SEO strategy](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/seo-strategy). This is because it prevents searchers from viewing any of your content at all, which leads to poor engagement metrics if they aren’t willing to pay for anything. ## How Should You Use Flexible Sampling? To use **flexible sampling** on your website, businesses and publishers must mark-up their content. To do this, they must use the structured-markup [JSON-LD](https://moz.com/blog/json-ld-for-beginners). Doing this will make a web page [crawlable](http://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/google-crawlers), and prevent it from being flagged up for [cloaking](https://growhackscale.com/marketing-glossary/cloaking). ## How Can We Help? Considering using flexible sampling on your own site but not sure how to best approach it? Give us a call and we can organise a free strategy session for you and your team. If you don’t have a team, we could also pair you with one through our matching service - you never know, you might get paired with us personally! In the meantime, keep an eye on [our blog](https://growhackscale.com/blog) for all the latest updates and tips in the marketing world.