Shorter sign-up form: +16% free sign-ups, but paid fell 0.97% to 0.72%
Test run byMarketingExperimentsResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA shorter, streamlined first sign-up step raised free sign-ups from 49.29% to 57.39%, but paid memberships fell from 0.97% to 0.72% (33 to 26) and revenue dropped about 6%.
MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this seven-day test for a paid-content membership site.
Several changes shipped together, so the result can't be pinned on any single one.
- Free sign-ups: 49.29% to 57.39% of registration-page visitors (1,670 to 2,084), about +16% relative.
- Paid memberships: 0.97% to 0.72% (33 to 26), about -26% relative. This is the main loss.
- Revenue in the test week: $1,263.50 to $1,187.00 (-6.1%).
- Average transaction rose from $38.29 to $45.65, which the source puts down to the more visible annual plan.
- The paid counts are very small, so the paid and revenue drops could be noise.
The change
Shorter first step, new button text and a cleaner layout, all shipped together.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The original registration page, where visitors chose a free or paid membership and filled in a longer first page of details.
Variant
A shorter first page asking only for name, email and password, with new button text and a cleaner form layout. The year-long paid option was also more visible.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Making the free path easier may have pulled people who would have paid on the spot into the free tier instead.
- With a lighter first step, the free option became the path of least resistance. Fewer visitors stopped to weigh up the paid plan.
- The higher average transaction suggests the people who still paid were more likely to pick the annual plan.
- The source argues the extra free members could convert to paid later by email, but this test did not measure that.
Caveats: Bundled changes (form length, button text and layout) tested for seven days in 2004, with only 33 vs 26 paid sign-ups. The source's later 14.74% monthly revenue lift is a before/after comparison after more changes, not part of this split test.
Who ran it
MarketingExperiments ran this test for a paid-content membership site and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MarketingExperiments →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we cut the first sign-up step down to name, email and password, then more visitors will finish sign-up because the form feels quicker, without hurting paid conversions.
- Primary metric
- Paid sign-ups (or revenue) per registration-page visitor, measured over at least 30 days so later upgrades count
- Guardrails
- Free sign-up rate
- Free-to-paid upgrade rate after sign-up
- Average transaction value
- Who should test it
- Freemium SaaS and membership sites that sell paid plans on the same sign-up path as a free tier. If you have no free tier, or your free users rarely upgrade, judge the test on paid sign-ups alone and expect a smaller gain.
Questions
Do shorter sign-up forms always help?
They usually raise completions, but not always the ones you want.
Here free sign-ups rose while paid ones fell, so check what the extra sign-ups are worth.
Should a freemium test be judged on free or paid sign-ups?
On paid conversions or revenue, over a long enough window to catch people who upgrade later.
Free sign-ups alone can hide a revenue loss.
How long should a sign-up test run?
Long enough to collect a few hundred of your main conversion per version.
Seven days with around 30 paid sign-ups per side is too little to call.
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