Personalized APY progress bar in the app: +36% account funding
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a personalized progress bar that showed each user's debit card spend toward a higher APY lifted account funding by 36% and APY offer conversion by 25%.
NorthOne ran this as a 50/50 A/B test in its business banking app before rolling it out to everyone.
The story was published as an Appcues customer story.
- Account funding: +36% versus the control half. Users put more money into their accounts when they could see their progress.
- APY offer conversion: +25%. More users hit the spend needed to unlock the higher rate.
- Card awareness and transactions: reported as improved, but no figure was shared.
- Sample size, test length and confidence level were not shared.
The change
The variant embeds a personalized APY progress bar and a View Card button on the home screen.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The mobile app had no in-app tracker for the new APY offer. Users had to work out on their own how close they were to the monthly debit spend needed to unlock the higher rate.
Variant
A horizontal progress bar was embedded in the app next to core content, filling in 10% steps and showing each user's own APY tier and card spend to date. After launch, a "View Card" button was added so users could reach their virtual card in one tap.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A visible goal with a clear finish line gives users a reason to act now. The spend threshold resets monthly, so the bar gives a fresh target each month.
- Personal numbers (their own tier and spend) make the offer feel concrete, not generic.
- Placing the bar where users already look during daily use means they see it without hunting through menus.
- The later "View Card" button cut a step to the virtual card, so users could start spending before the physical card arrived.
Caveats: Published by Appcues, which sells the embed tool used, so the write-up may lean positive. Sample size, duration and significance were not shared, and the "View Card" button was added after launch, so it is unclear how much of the result it covers.
Who ran it
NorthOne ran this test. Source: Appcues customer story. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we show each user a personalized progress bar toward an unlockable reward, then more users will reach the threshold because the goal and the remaining gap are always visible.
- Primary metric
- Share of users who unlock the reward (offer conversion)
- Guardrails
- Account funding or deposits per user
- Support contacts about the offer
- Churn or account closures
- Who should test it
- Fintech and other apps with a threshold-based reward, such as a rate, tier or bonus unlocked by usage. It probably won't help if the reward is small, the threshold is out of reach for most users, or you can't show accurate personal data in real time.
Questions
Does a progress bar work outside banking apps?
It fits any app with a reward users unlock by doing something, like a streak, a tier or a usage goal.
It works best when the gap is personal and the user can close it soon.
Do we need engineering time to ship this?
NorthOne built it with a no-code embed tool and fed in live user data from Segment.
You still need reliable per-user data, or the bar will show wrong numbers and hurt trust.
Should the bar reset each month?
NorthOne's threshold reset monthly, which gave users a new target each cycle.
If your reward is one-time, test whether a bar still matters after users unlock it.