Turning Ad Confusion into Confident Purchases, Achieving a 41.35% Sign-Up-to-Paid Conversion Rate
Sole Product Designer
Year
2024
DirectHub is a self-service advertising platform that helps small business owners understand, choose, and purchase digital ad services without specialized expertise. As the sole product designer, I led the 0–1 design from product discovery to delivery, as well as building the design system. During the pilot, 41.35% of sign-ups converted into paid orders.
THE PROBLEM
Small business owners wants to advertise online, but they don’t have the expertise.
Unfamiliar terminology is across all ad platforms.
Setting up ads requires too many questions to answer.
Users don’t know what to expect when the ad results come later than purchase.
THE VISION
I worked with product, ad operations, and support teams to translate a complex ad service process into a clear self-service journey. Through competitive research, stakeholder interviews, and usability testing with small business owners, I helped the team align around one principle:
Use their language. Break down complexity. Build confidence at every step.
01 · Understand before signing up
I introduced the value of each advertising product with reduced cognitive load and learning science principles, explanation of ad terms with plain-language, impact-oriented visuals and motions, and realistic examples helped users connect each option to their business goal.
02 · One step at a time
I reorganized a long, intimidating form for campaign set up into focused steps with one to three questions per page. Progress indicators and supportive microcopy explained why each question mattered and reduced the feeling of effort. At the same time remain technical feasibility within tight timeframe.
03 · Know what comes next
Because advertising results take time, users needed to know what would happen after purchase. I made the post-purchase journey explicit: our support team would guide them from campaign setup through launch, performance reports would show how their ads were performing, and ongoing recommendations would help them adjust future strategies toward their goals.
From an undefined brief to MVP launch
The project began without an established roadmap. As the sole designer, I mapped the end-to-end journey, aligned product, ad operations, support, marketing, and engineering, and used prototypes to make trade-offs visible.
With only two engineers for the MVP, I protected the smallest complete experience: enough guidance to build trust, enough information to launch a campaign, and a flow the team could realistically ship
IMPACT
The pilot achieved a 41.35% sign-up-to-paid conversion rate, with 43 of 104 new users placing an order. The product also maintained 91.33% average monthly retention across 2024–2025, while 78% of users completed registration.
41.35%
Sign-up to Paid
91.33%
Monthly Retention
78%
Registration Completion
