Brief

FlyFin is a seasonal product where users primarily engage with the platform during tax seasons. Consequently, customer acquisition costs (CACs) are very high during off-seasons. We had a limited budget and needed to find cost-effective ways to acquire consumers without heavily relying on performance marketing (ad spends).

Objectives

• Acquire new users at a lower cost of trial activation in the off-season.

• Engage users to improve retention rates.

Insights from Research

• Analyzed user behavior during non-tax seasons and found they interact with features related to expense tracking, deductions, and tax status.

• Conducted 10 user interviews, revealing that during non-tax seasons, users are interested in tracking their finances, knowing what they’ll owe, exploring tax-saving strategies, and consulting tax experts or CPAs for better tax planning.

• Discovered that most users are not willing to pay extra for new features—they consider them "good to know" rather than essential.

• Observed that many old users return and subscribe to file taxes during the tax season.

Strategy and Execution

Utilizing the Website for Engagement: The website serves as a lightweight interface to engage users, with the cost per visit (CPV) being less than 1/10th of the cost per install (CPI) for the app. This allows users to interact with the product and experience it firsthand.

• Creating Engagement Tools: Based on keyword research and competitor analysis, we created approximately 15 engagement tools (e.g., tax calculators, personalized reports, Ask a CPA, deduction tracker, tax guide, webinars) to attract users through SEO and paid ads.

• Implementing Conversion Flows: All engagement tools were designed with conversion flows aimed at encouraging users to activate a free trial. For example, for one of the enagagement tool - 1099 tax calculator - the conversion flow is as below

  • Step 1: Onboard the user with a few simple questions (work type, filing status, state, income).

  • Step 2: Ask questions regarding deductions, which are key for calculating taxes. These are generic questions and not specific.

  • Step 3: Get user commitment by requiring them to sign up to see results. 

  • Step 4: Create a hook to activate the trial. The result displayed will be "You owe $15,000 in taxes. However, you can save $5,000 by claiming deductions". In this case, we identified approximate deductions based on the user’s answers and to identify deductions accurately, calculate taxes, and learn tax-saving strategies, the user needs to take the trial.

Building CRM User Journeys: We designed user journeys with specific and customized value propositions for users who dropped out of the flow, aiming to re-engage them and encourage completion.

App Funnel: Install -> Signup -> Activate free trial -> Subscribe
Web Funnel: Visit -> Signup -> Activate free trial -> Download the app -> Subscribe

Winning Flows Identified:

• 1099 Tax Calculator: High keyword volume and a compelling hook for users to activate the trial to reduce calculated taxes further.

• Ask a CPA: AI tool allowing users to ask questions, with a trial activation required for deeper CPA consultations.

• Monthly Financial Tracker: Interactive tool for managing and tracking income and expenses.

SEO and Conversion Optimization: Created webpages as a combination of conversion flow and content, helping the page rank higher in search results and boosting conversions. Utilized backlinks to improve the quality score.

Results and Metrics

• Cost per visit ranged from $1 to $1.5.

• Overall trial activation cost dropped by ~40% compared to the direct app users while the spends on the website increased by 3x in the specified period

• Monthly visitors increased by 2.5x, boosting the overall SEO ranking.

• Since July 2023, we have acquired more than 200K users. Re-engagement flows for these users helped achieve a trial activation rate of 0.5% from the existing user base during the tax season.

Next Steps (WIP)

• While the initial goal was to achieve free trials, we noticed higher cancellation rates among these users versus the app. Hypotheses include:

  • Some users expect the entire flow to be on the website and tend to cancel when prompted to download the app.

  • Low-intent users are only there to try out the features.

  • Hooks used to activate trials may not be strong enough to drive subscriptions post-trial activation.

• Improve conversion rates in the direct funnel.

• Identify and develop more winning flows.