01 /Case Study · SaaS · CRO
Dropbox's SEM pages were builtfor Google, not for buyers.
As part of an ongoing retainer at PMG, I led the design of a new baseline landing page for Dropbox's non-branded SEM campaigns. The redesign delivered a statistically significant +9% lift in trial starts and was implemented as the new baseline.
Senior UX Designer
Dropbox's paid media team came to us with low-converting pages, built to rank on Google, not to convert paid media traffic. Pages were hard to scan, value propositions were unclear, and there was no visibility into what competitors were doing differently.
The task: identify what was blocking conversion and redesign for it.
A note on constraintsNote: Dropbox's design system is tightly controlled with limited component variants. Our design decisions were focused on content, messaging and imagery rather than component-level changes.
- 01Competitor review
I analysed 10 SaaS competitors including Notion, Box, NordLocker and Google, logging 900+ observations, surfacing 82 thematic insights and producing 32 actionable recommendations covering language, layout and psychological tactics.
- 02User testing
I analysed all 12 unmoderated user test recordings, conducted with core audience segments via UserTesting.com, mapping the full journey from SEM landing page to checkout.
- -Designed a new landing page for high-intent users arriving via focused SEM campaigns.
- -Used social proof, authority stats and customer logos to build instant trust and signal that others benefit from Dropbox.
- -Established the key value proposition clearly and early, as user testing showed it wasn't landing on the original page.
- -Introduced progressively disclosed messaging for Dropbox's key audience segments, so each persona saw content directly relevant to their needs.
Price shown early
The brief was clear: NB SEM visitors arrive without brand familiarity, having searched a feature keyword, not Dropbox. Competitor research showed that surfacing a ‘From £xx’ price point above the fold was standard practice, and that users who couldn’t find pricing quickly dropped off. We surfaced price early to set expectations and filter for high-intent users before they got further down the page.
Price surfaced in the hero before any other commitment.
After 3 months we concluded the experiment. Running in a low traffic environment meant we couldn't reach full statistical significance on every metric, but the variant showed a significant lift in Trial Starts (our primary metric) and strong directional wins across GNARR. We implemented it as the new baseline, replacing the existing page across all Dropbox non-branded SEM campaigns.
The design went on to inform the structure of subsequent campaign pages.
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