# Native-styled in-app onboarding flows: +20% first-week retention

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Onboarding (SaaS)
- Elements: Product tour, In app guidance
- Test run by: [ProfitWell](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/profitwell/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.appcues.com/customer-stories/how-profitwell-used-appcues-to-increase-first-week-retention-by-20
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-profitwell-onboarding-flows-retention/

ProfitWell added multi-step in-app onboarding flows for new users, and first-week retention improved by 20% within two months. ProfitWell's product team built the flows, and it was published as an Appcues customer story. This compares results before and after the flows went live, not a split test.

## Result

**+20% first-week retention**

- First-week retention: up 20% within two months of launch, as reported by Appcues.
- The story does not say whether 20% is a relative change or percentage points.
- No baseline, sample size or detail on the flow content was shared.

## Control

New users got no in-app onboarding flows. Adding even a welcome modal needed developer time.

## Variant

Multi-step onboarding flows were built in Appcues and given a theme so they looked like part of the product.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Any guidance can beat none when new users do not know where value is.
- Flows that look native may feel like part of the product rather than an ad, so users may read them.
- Letting a product manager ship flows without developers likely meant faster iteration.

## Caveats

Before/after with little detail on what the flows said or when they changed. Vendor-published, with no baseline or sample size.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add short in-app flows that walk new users to their first value, then more will return in week one because they understand what the product does for them.
- Primary metric: First-week retention of new accounts
- Guardrail: Flow dismissal rate
- Guardrail: Time to first key action
- Guardrail: Support contact rate
- Who should test it: SaaS products with no onboarding guidance today and a clear first-value moment. If you already have solid onboarding, expect a smaller gain from adding more.

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Credit: ProfitWell ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-profitwell-onboarding-flows-retention/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.