3 lessons from Bumble’s onboarding
An early activation and monetisation masterclass
Not only was Bumble the second most downloaded app in the US last year, it also has a whopping 40 million monthly active users and 1.8 million paying users.
Bumble’s metrics are seriously impressive.
How do they do it? How does Bumble activate users early on? How do they monetise so many single-and-ready-to-mingles?
This article looks at three key lessons from Bumble’s activation flow (onboarding and after), touching on how they calm stressed-out daters, create a light onboarding experience, and progressively disclose key features later on.
First things first, let’s dive into some dating psychology.
Lesson 1: calm users' nerves as early as possible
Dating is scary. Putting yourself out there, getting ghosted, sifting through profiles, trying to be witty— it’s exhausting.
The first thing that jumped out to me in Bumble’s 15-step onboarding flow was how they put users at ease as soon as possible. From as early as the second and third onboarding screen, users are clear:
- How their information will be used
- Whether they can edit their inputs later
Small text descriptions next to the eye icon on Bumble’s intro screens calm the fears and anxieties of new users, such as:
We only show your age to potential matches, not your birthday (birthday)
You can always update this later. We got you. (gender)
You’ll only be shown to others in the same mode (select Bumble date, BFF or Bizz)
It is true that not all users read small text (the old saying of just because you write it doesn’t mean people will read it is certainly true for me), however the copy is there for the more hesitant, risk-averse users.
What I like about it is that it’s consistent and subtle. Like a little voice on your shoulder helping you along.
Interestingly, this may not be aimed at a minority of users. In a 2021 report by KPMG, 86% of respondents said that data privacy is a growing concern for them:
- 83% won’t willingly share their data, even to help make better products
- 47% think that their devices are listening to them (I’m in this bucket for sure…)
- 40% of respondents don’t trust companies to use their data ethically
Bumble’s small trust & privacy details in onboarding set a precedent for caring for users and their privacy. Built trust early on, and you’ll reap the benefits of retained users later.
Lesson 2: ask for low-effort inputs
When zooming out on Bumble’s onboarding flow, I noticed something super interesting. There are no free text entry fields aside from your name.
Every time we ask users for information, we lose their energy and attention bit by bit. On a scale of easy to hard, information gathering goes from: yes/no questions > multi select > free text entry (hardest)
The further right you go, the higher the cognitive load for users. Write a catchy bio? No thanks. Select some interests? Yes, please. The easier the better.
The longer it takes for users to make a decision and submit an input, the more likely you are to loose their attention and cause churn.
Bumble has made it as easy as possible to fill out an full profile with no free text entry. Maximum impact for minimal effort from users. Similarly, connecting to social media to select photos reduces the need to scroll through your 18K+ camera role (…I’ll delete some one day, promise).
The second part of helping users breeze through onboarding is helping them fill out harder sections with prompts.
Where there is an actual decision to make (what photo to pick, what interests to select), Bumble helps by telling users what makes a good profile.
The brand voice comes through nicely in the screenshot below, as well as the specific stats “43% more likely to get a match”. More matches for me please.
Lastly, make it fun. People are used to filling out long onboarding flows, selecting their interests and photos etc etc...it becomes a robotic, automatic task. I love that Bumble has thrown in a curve ball in their interests section to wake me up, pay attention and giggle a little:
Again, they reinforce why I should pick interests with the value proposition match with people who love the same things I do. Hitting home the why.
Lesson 3: progressively disclose app features
After breezing through the light-weight onboarding screens, I landed in the app for the first time (well, at least the first time since I was dating in 2018).
What lies after the onboarding flow is what was the most interesting in Bumble’s activation journey.
Swipes 1 → 5:
Within the first 5 profiles, I’d been introduced to the top three actions:
- Swipe left
- Swipe right
- Rewind
Never two at once. After each swipe, I was introduced to a new action via small UI changes, tooltips and confirmation prompts to check I understood.
After my first 5 people and all the core actions explained, I was then hit by an introductory screen explaining Bumble premium’s key features. I’ve had the chance to learn the basics, then I’m hit with a monetisation screen at the earliest possible opportunity.
Bumble is a freemium product, therefore there’s a balance to be struck between activation and monetisation. You don’t want to promote premium too soon — else users who just want to get to use the product for free might churn. In order of priority it is 1) core actions 2) monetisation.
Swipes 5 → 10:
After happily swiping on another five, I’m suddenly in another full screen popup for (you guessed it) another monetised feature: compliments.
What’s interesting about this feature is that I’m able to try it out for free. A core principle of product-led growth is letting the product sell itself — i.e. give parts for free so users can try it out.
Once I’ve used my free compliments, the next time I try to compliment I’m hit with a paywall to buy the feature as a one-off (very sneaky of Bumble, I didn’t know I was using my free compliment, would have said something funnier…).
Enabling features as one-off payments is a huge way to boost revenue, something Ravi Mehta, ex-Chief Product Officer at Tinder, talks about in Lenny’s podcast.
A small % of users (called whales) will purchase over and over. This behaviour, whilst only in the single digit percentage points of users (<10%), drives a disproportionate amount of revenue. At Tinder, whales had ~10X the revenue per user compared to average.
Swipes 10 → 15:
Five swipes later, I was introduced to yet another paid feature. A slightly different delivery this time, instead of an in-your-face-please-pay-us-full-screen pop up I saw a small, not-so-annoying bottom sheet (around 1/3 to 1/4 of a screen tall). Followed by the same tooltips on the profile card, making sure I knew where to find it.
I wonder if Bumble toned it down given super swipes are relatively well-known in the dating mechanic. Or, perhaps a third full screen monetisation pop up within 15 profiles was seen as too much.
Bottom sheets and full-screen interrupters, if used too much, cause users to switch off due to banner blindness.
In user psychology, banner blindness describes the fact that users will ignore content that looks like an ad, or is in the place where an ad usually is located.
Given that many people are likely to dismiss the interruptors, both compliments and super swipes are the two actions continuously located on the user profiles.
Swipes 15 → 20:
I’m getting a liiiitle frustrated now. Every five swipes (roughly) I’m hit with another interruptor. This time, another full-screen premium advert.
What’s more compelling about this is that its contextual to me (or at it least feels that way): ‘Someone likes you!’. Promoting the most popular part of Bumble’s subscription: see who likes you.
What’s clear from my first 20 swipes is that Bumble is progressively disclosing its paid features.
Progressive disclosure reduces the cognitive load for users by showing a small number of features at first. Once users get deeper into the experience, more complex features are slowly introduced. This can also be true for features that are not core to the experience but are nice-to-have (like compliments).
There is a lot more complexity in Bumble than you think. Specifically when it comes to monetisation.
When I explore my profile, I can see that there is not just premium but also boost. If I’d been introduced to boost in the first 20 swipes, they would have lost me completely.
To conclude
By the end, I’m tired of the colour yellow, and feeling bombarded by paywalls. Here’s three key take-aways from my first session with Bumble:
- Calm users fears and anxieties by being transparent about how data will be used, why you’re asking for each input and whether they can edit later on
- Ask for easy inputs: opt for multiple choice over free-text entry where possible to avoid the chance of churn during onboarding. Make it fun to cut through
- Progressively disclose your complex features: Bumble has a suite of monetised features which, if disclosed too early or aggressive, can turn users off. Be mindful of what’s important for users when — if they don’t really need to know, save it for later
Some areas for further testing:
- Balance user needs and business needs: is there a way to be more subtle in the early experience? Could they take out the poor-performing interruptors to allow me to swipe freely?
- Avoid banner blindness: ensure your interruptors don’t all look the same. Bumble does a good job of this (although I’m done with the colour yellow for about 6months after).
What do you think about Bumble — too pushy or just right?
