Payment & Metrics
First Bill
The first successful billing/charge from a new customer on a subscription or COD offer.
First Bill is the first successful billing or charge from a new customer on a subscription or cash-on-delivery offer — the moment a card is actually charged or the delivered order is paid for. It is the conversion event many nutra, dating, and subscription offers pay out on, sitting one step deeper than the sign-up or trial start.
The gap between trial starts and first bills is where these verticals hide their economics: users enter card details for a trial, and the offer only pays when the real charge clears days later. Buyers must track the trial-to-bill rate per source, because aggressive creatives fill trials with users who cancel before billing. On COD offers, the equivalent leak is unconfirmed or refused deliveries — approve rate and buyout rate are the numbers to watch.
In buyer speech
“Trial volume looks great but only 40% survive to first bill on that source — check whether the creative oversells the free period.”