Customer.io campaign 50 · reviewed 20 August 2026

Welcome modal review

The pop-up every new signup is meant to see at trial start gets clicked by 1 in 4 people, but the button goes nowhere, half the audience is held back for a test that can never conclude, and the copy asks for nothing. Here is the modal, what is wrong with it, and what it should become.

Before and after

Left: a faithful recreation of the live modal (template 279). Right: an illustrative mock of the recommended version. Final copy and destination to be decided.

NowWhat new signups see

1The button is a dead end. "Get Started" opens an empty URL, then closes the modal. 23% click it and land right back where they were.
2Eight features, zero actions. A list to read, nothing to do.
3Oversized art, dark theme. A 998px image squeezed into a 650px modal, alt text says "Get Started", and the styling matches nothing in the product.

RecommendedIllustrative mock

→The button goes somewhere: straight into the setup dashboard.
→Personal: first name and profession from the signup questions.
→One job: start setup, with an honest exit for people who want to look around.
→Looks like the product: light card, Roboto, product purple.

What the numbers say

Engagement is strong; proof of conversion impact is not there and never will be at this traffic. Figures from the aligned A/B window, 30 May to 9 July.

People engage with it

Of everyone the modal is sent to

Sent the modal100%

View it86%

Click "Get Started"23%

A 23% click rate is excellent for an in-app message. Every one of those clicks currently leads nowhere.

But the A/B test can't prove payoff

Became a paying customer within 35 days

Saw the modal · 34 of 1,8631.83%

Holdout, saw nothing · 26 of 1,7911.45%

Looks like a lift, but it is not statistically significant (p = 0.38). Proving a gap this small needs ~17,000 people per group; at ~45 a day per group that is over a year. Keeping the holdout buys nothing and hides the modal from half of all signups.

The other first impression

A branch added in April means signups who have not enabled payments can get this instead, as the very first thing the product says to them.

Booking a sales call is a big ask at second zero, before the person has seen a single screen of the product. The offer is good; the position is wrong.

Recommendation: let everyone get the welcome first, and show the payments pitch as the second touch, once they have something to take payment for.

Six fixes, ranked by impact

Point the button somewhere

Send "Get Started" to the setup dashboard. Cheapest win: 23% already click.

End the holdout

Show the modal to 100% of signups. Doubles reach the day it is done.

One action, personalized

Replace the feature list with a single next step, using first name and profession.

Measure something faster

Judge changes on day-one activation or setup completion in PostHog, not 35-day paid conversion.

Payments pitch second

Welcome first for everyone; the book-a-call offer after.

Tidy the visuals

Right-size the hero, fix the alt text, match the in-product look.

Done already: live template and campaign wiring reviewed (nothing changed in the running campaign), A/B result pulled from the 9 July analysis, and a parked Todoist task ("Improve the trial-start welcome modal") holds these six fixes with your four actions as sub-tasks. Handoff doc: 06-Agent-Work/handoff-welcome-modal-improvements-2026-08-20.md.

Where it lives: Customer.io campaign 50 "Reverse Trial In-App" · welcome modal is action 343 / template 279 · payments variant action 375 / template 317 · holdout branch action 510. Engagement and A/B figures are from the 30 May to 9 July window; fresh numbers would not change the conclusions.