'Sniper link' to inbox on confirm screen: +7% email confirmations
Test run byGrowth.DesignResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsGrowth.Design added a button to its post-sign-up screen that opens the user's webmail filtered to show only Growth.Design's emails, and email confirmations rose 7% in an A/B test.
Unconfirmed sign-ups fell to about 6%. Growth.Design ran the test on its own sign-up forms in 2022 and published it as a case study.
- Email confirmation rate: up 7% in the A/B test.
- Unconfirmed sign-ups: down to about 6%.
- Growth.Design says this adds thousands of sign-ups a year, but no sample size was shared.
The change
The variant adds a button that opens webmail filtered to the sender's emails.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
After signing up, users saw a screen telling them to go check their inbox, with nothing to click.
Variant
The same screen added a button linking to the user's webmail, such as Gmail, through a search URL that shows only emails from the sender's domain, including the spam folder.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The screen stops being a dead end: users get one click to the right place.
- The search link hides the crowded inbox, so the confirmation email doesn't compete with other messages.
- Including spam means users find the email even if it was filtered.
Caveats: Growth.Design's own experiment on its sign-up forms in 2022; no sample size or duration given.
Who ran it
Growth.Design ran this test for a UX case-study publisher and course seller and published the results (Growth.Design case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Growth.Design →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a button on the confirmation screen that opens the user's email provider filtered to our messages, then more users will confirm because finding the email takes one click.
- Primary metric
- Email confirmation rate
- Guardrails
- Time from sign-up to confirmation
- Activation of confirmed users
- Errors for unsupported email providers
- Who should test it
- Any SaaS or lead-gen sign-up that requires email confirmation, especially with many Gmail or Outlook users. It matters less if you don't require confirmation or most users use business email on unknown providers.
Questions
What is a sniper link?
It is a link to a webmail search that shows only emails from your domain, including spam.
Users land right on your confirmation email instead of a busy inbox.
Does it work for every email provider?
It needs a provider with a web search URL, such as Gmail.
For unknown or business domains, show a generic message or skip the button.