Leveraging Search Queries
As Questrade became one of the first financial companies to launch the FHSA account, they wanted to test a framework that could drastically change how they market existing accounts.
Given the time constraints and limited resources, user interviews were not feasible. To establish a starting point, I analyzed user search analytics that led to our site. Some of the search terms and questions I collected included:
- tax free home savings account, tax free first home savings account
- first time home buyer savings account, first time home buyer account
- when will fhsa start, when will fhsa be available, when can i open a fhsa
- what is fhsa, what does fhsa stand for, what is an fhsa
Contextualizing Results
A significant amount of data was uncovered, which I needed to place into the context of our product offerings and the stage users were at. My analysis boiled down to four key steps regardless of the starting position: exposure, learning, understanding, and application.
Product Offering Focused
The typical journey on our site prioritized products to relate to users’ needs. This approach often required more effort from users to discern their needs while learning about the products. Given that our site was externally facing and aimed at acquiring new users, it was primarily used for marketing purposes with high traffic for retargeting. Analyzing organic traffic proved challenging, so I mapped out the marketing funnel with an organic approach to see how everything could fit together.
A/B Testing the Flow
I recommended conducting a paid A/B test, as the new flow required entirely new pages that didn't align with the current information architecture (IA). The test compared this new flow with a long-form learning article that led to account opening.
Users would land on different pages dedicated to the stage they likely belonged to based on their search term. I split them into three steps:
- Learning about the account type and its purpose
- Understand the benefits of working with us
- Exploring ways to invest through us
The "account type" page provided foundational knowledge, the "benefits" page introduced product offerings, and the "ways to invest" page detailed how each product could be customized based on user preferences and experience.
