Removing the 'log in as guest' link: no change in trial sign-ups
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsRemoving a small log-in-as-guest link from the registration form made no significant difference to trial sign-ups, though guest sessions fell sharply.
Patrick McKenzie ran this split test with A/Bingo on the web version of Bingo Card Creator and shared it on the Kalzumeus (patio11) blog.
No numbers or sample sizes were published, so we treat it as flat.
- Trial sign-ups: no significant difference. Flat.
- Guest sessions dropped sharply without the link, as expected.
- No sign-up numbers, sample size or test length were shared.
The change
The guest login link removed from the registration form
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The registration form included a discreet link letting people log in as a guest instead of creating an account.
Variant
The same registration form with the guest link removed.
Why it likely came out this way
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- People who used the guest option were mostly not people who would have registered anyway.
- A low-key link doesn't pull much attention from the main form, so it neither helped nor hurt registrations.
- The guests had little business value, so losing them didn't show up in sign-ups.
Caveats: No numbers, sample size or duration were shared. The author kept the guest option after the test.
Who ran it
Patrick McKenzie ran this test and published the results (Kalzumeus (patio11) blog). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Patrick McKenzie →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we remove the guest option from our sign-up form, then more visitors will register because skipping sign-up is no longer an easy way out.
- Primary metric
- Trial registrations per sign-up page visitor
- Guardrails
- Guest-to-registered conversion
- Total product activation
- Trial-to-paid rate
- Who should test it
- SaaS products that offer a guest or demo mode next to sign-up. If guests often convert later, removing the option may cost you more than it gains.
Questions
Does a guest login option hurt SaaS sign-ups?
Not in this test. Removing the link didn't change trial sign-ups, though it cut guest sessions.
Should SaaS products offer a guest mode?
It depends on whether guests later convert. Here guests brought little value, but the author kept the option anyway.
What should you measure in a guest-mode test?
Look at registered sign-ups, guest-to-account conversion and paid conversions, not just the number of guests.