I moved our onboarding and paywall to a web funnel because releases were slowing every test. Once the flow lived on the web I could swap screens, pricing, and copy in hours instead of weeks.
What surprised me most was how differently web visitors behaved. Small changes — an extra explanation step or removing a field — moved conversion by several percentage points. Having a person or small team own the web funnel made iteration faster. We also learned to compare direct web signups versus web → app installs to spot where dropoff was happening.
Have you run the same split tests on web and app side by side? What test uncovered the biggest leak for you?
I ran the first few tests myself with a simple web flow. Saved me from waiting on store review.
I used a small JSON driven tool to push variants without engineering time. We could change three onboarding screens and see results in a day.
If you want speed focus on one metric per test and keep the variants tight.
I treat the web funnel as my testing lab. Build a variant, run it for a week, and measure activation and trial conversion.
Using a web-first platform let me iterate offers and copy fast. Changes appeared in the app without new builds which kept velocity high.
For me the paywall headline and trial messaging were the fastest wins.
We moved one onboarding path to the web and saw where people paused on the third screen.
I kept the first tests simple and only changed one thing at a time. That made the results actionable.
Web tests cut our iteration time from weeks to days
When we moved onboarding to web the first thing I did was map conversion by step and UTM. That let me segment by source and see which channels drove low quality users.
Run A/Bs that change only one variable at a time. Track an activation event you care about not just purchase. Use holdout cohorts to measure incrementality and watch downstream retention, not just first conversion. That tells you if a change reduces churn or just front loads revenue.
We learned to prioritize experiments that impact activation. For example we tested removing optional questions and conversion rose.
Also track trial to month 1 retention. A tiny conversion bump that kills month 1 retention is not worth it.
If you can, dedicate someone to own the web funnel. It avoids back and forth with app releases and speeds up learning.
Treat the funnel like a product with its own roadmap.
Track where people exit but also tie that to UTM. That gave us the clearest view of which ads brought low intent users.
Start with small tests and enough traffic. We wasted time with underpowered tests before learning that lesson.