Landing pages judged by the users they keep
Members of the Growth work group start from what the visitor came for, then work out how to measure a page past the signup and when a signup prompt earns its place.
Updated
A landing page converts when it shows visitors what they came for before asking anything, puts one next step where they want more, and is judged by how many visitors reach first value and come back.
- Show the result before the ask. Casey Winters says a Grubhub search for "Santa Monica Thai" could land on a page of Thai restaurants that delivered there, built by city, neighborhood and cuisine. At Pinterest, visitors scrolled a grid of relevant content before a prompt to sign up to see more, and that test raised signup conversion 50%. He adds that a signup is a weak win if the user never activates.
- Answer the question that brought each visitor. Luc Levesque separates visitors by intent: someone searching to buy needs a different headline, proof and next step from someone looking for an explanation. Albert Cheng would match the headline to that intent and show the specific thing the visitor can do. For a writing product, he says, "find the right words for your team" says more than a list of AI features, and it was the benefit Grammarly emphasized.
- Stop polishing once motivation is the limit. Luc ran about seven homepage iterations at TripWow. The first three, which cut friction in the homepage and signup flow, had a lot of impact. Later changes such as button colors, UI tweaks and adding "free" to a button brought diminishing returns, so he now checks whether visitors are motivated enough before another round of small friction cuts.
- Measure the whole path and the whole session. Albert would split results by traffic source and track landing to signup, signup to first value, and return use, testing the promise and the first step separately. Archie Abrams says a Udemy page change lifted that page's conversion about 7% while session revenue rose only about 2%, so he compares purchases or activated users per visitor. Where the page shows a partner's product, as with Udemy's course pages, he would bring that partner into the test.
- Test a signup prompt as a complete path. Casey says Pinterest users who reached the app activated at three times the mobile web rate, so he would compare a web path and an app path, counting visitors lost in the handoff. Luc would test a signup prompt the same way: randomize visitors after they see the content, count activated users per original search visitor, split by query intent and device, and watch that organic entrances to the page hold.
- Start where the funnel drops first. Hila Qu would pick a high-traffic page and find its first clear drop. A weak start to signup points to the value proposition and CTA, weak completion to confusing fields or missing trust cues, and weak activation to whom the page promises to help. She would ship only when the original visitors convert better and activation holds, split by traffic source. Casey would review high-traffic, low-activation search pages first.
Ask a follow-up
Growth
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you choose a startup's first growth channel?
Pick a channel the product can feed, test it with one narrow segment on a set budget and date, and judge it by how many users reach value and come back.
What should a founder check first when growth stalls?
That the data is right, then cohort retention split by segment and channel. If curves trend toward zero in every slice, fix the product before spending more on acquisition.
How do you tell a growth problem from a product problem?
Bring in a small batch of users from one clean channel and read their cohorts. If they activate and return but there aren't many, it's distribution. If they leave within the first week, product owns the fix.
What moves activation in a new user's first few days?
Find where users drop, then match the lever: pre-answer setup for users who stall, make the first action an earned win for users who feel nothing, and bring back users who got value.
Who should own acquisition and retention, growth or marketing?
Most members would split near signup, with marketing on channels and the promise and growth on the path to first value. The line still has to follow the growth model, and both teams judge channels by the cohorts that stay.
Should a growth team report to product or marketing?
Wherever the biggest lever is. For most product-led companies that is product, next to core rather than inside it, and once paid spend matters too, one growth leader owns acquisition and activation.
Which lifecycle emails should a team build first?
The ones aimed at the steepest drop on the retention curve, usually the activation email. Depth and renewal emails come next, and win-back to fully churned users comes last.
How do you bring back signups who went quiet?
Watch a few try the next step and fix where they stall, then test the message with and without the fix against a holdout, and count retained use rather than opens.
When should a product-led company add sales?
A founder can start working accounts where usage is spreading and retaining. A sales team follows once deals need security reviews and procurement that self-serve can't handle.
Which self-serve accounts should a sales rep call?
Ones big enough to pay for a rep's time, with use spreading inside the company and a need self-serve can't meet. Hold some flagged accounts back to check that sales added value.
Which early action should count as activation?
Use two measures: an early action onboarding can move as the team's operating metric, and a later repeat action to check that those users came back. Randomize the onboarding change so motivated users don't skew the read.
What makes a good north star metric for an early product?
A retention measure built from how often the problem occurs, the action that solves it and the user it describes, with activation as an input. Drop it if the team can raise it without users getting more value.
Should a new marketplace build supply or demand first?
Whichever side gets a buyer to a completed transaction while giving the supplier a reason to stay. Start in one narrow market and track matches, supplier earnings and repeat buyers.
When can a marketplace copy its first city?
When service holds after subsidies come down, a new manager can run the launch playbook without the founders, and the team knows whether the channel behind market one's demand starts warm or cold in the next market.
Should a startup with a few dozen users stop acquisition?
Stop broad acquisition but keep a small hand-picked flow from one segment, onboard those users live, and count only return visits nobody prompted.
How does a B2B startup find its first paying customers?
Have founders sell by hand to one narrow buyer, starting with warm intros and asking for payment early. Then check who actually paid, and at what price, before choosing a channel to scale.
