Fewer fields on doctor sign-up form: +30% new doctor sign-ups
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsDoctorBase, now part of Kareo Marketing, removed unnecessary fields from its doctor sign-up form and got 30% more new doctors.
The Kareo Marketing team, under founder John Sung Kim, ran the A/B tests in Unbounce, and the results were published as an Unbounce customer story.
The company estimated the change added about $1.56M in yearly revenue.
- New doctor sign-ups: +30%.
- The company estimated about $1.56M in added yearly revenue and a 40% rise in marketing ROI from this test. These are its own estimates.
- Each doctor brings an average of about 2,000 patients, so each extra doctor sign-up adds a lot of usage.
The change
Unnecessary fields removed from the doctor sign-up form
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The doctor sign-up form asked for several fields the team later judged unnecessary.
Variant
The same form with those unnecessary fields removed. The source does not list which fields were cut.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Every extra field is more work and another reason to quit. Busy doctors likely have little patience for a long form.
- Asking only for what is needed at sign-up makes the first step feel quick, and the rest can be collected later.
- Fewer questions also means fewer privacy worries, which matter in healthcare.
Caveats: The win came after 'a few' A/B tests, and the fields removed are not named. No sample size, duration or significance was shared, and the data is from around 2015.
Who ran it
Kareo Marketing ran this test for patient-doctor communication software for medical practices and published the results (Unbounce customer story). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Kareo Marketing →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we remove sign-up fields we don't need right away, then more prospects will finish signing up because the form takes less effort.
- Primary metric
- Completed sign-ups
- Guardrails
- Activation rate after sign-up
- Lead or account quality
- Sales follow-up success rate
- Who should test it
- SaaS products with multi-field sign-up forms, especially for busy professional users. Be careful if sales relies on those fields to qualify or route accounts; collect them later instead.
Questions
Does removing form fields increase sign-ups?
Often, yes. DoctorBase saw 30% more doctor sign-ups after cutting fields it didn't need.
The gain depends on how much effort the removed fields added.
Which sign-up fields should I remove first?
Start with anything you don't need to create the account or route the lead. Many details can be collected during onboarding.
Will fewer fields lower lead quality?
It can, so track activation and sales outcomes alongside sign-ups.
In this case the company reported a revenue gain, which suggests quality held up.