Reducing Friction to Generate 360% More Qualified Leads

On the surface, leadership wanted more leads flowing through the site. But when you looked at the data, the picture was more complicated:

What was happening

Friction and roadblocks throughout the journey, designed to capture leads early rather than let users self-educate

Critical information for decision-making—pricing, reviews, location—was buried below the fold

Users dropping off before reaching community detail pages, where qualified leads naturally happened

Lots of leads, but many were unqualified—users who couldn't be served or weren't ready

Call center overwhelmed sorting through low-quality inquiries

The Underlying Issue

Lead Conversion Traps Block the Natural Funnel

High incoming traffic

Home Page Trap

Fake search bar that triggers lead form

High bounce rate

High unqualified lead rate

Few users find their local destination page

Destination Page Trap

Above-fold wizard obscures community listings below

High bounce rate

High unqualified lead rate

Escape hatch: Users scroll past the wizard

Community Detail Page Conversion

Natural conversion paths (pricing/availability)

Leads 85% more likely to qualify

High user intent and motivation

The site was optimized for lead volume to show investors growth, not lead quality to actually serve the business or users. Marketing held more influence with leadership than product, and they favored aggressive capture tactics—lead forms gating information, search bars that were actually lead capture traps, friction at every turn.

The irony was that data from FullStory showed qualified leads came from users who made it to community detail pages. But we'd built so many walls getting there that most users never arrived. We were optimizing for the wrong metric.

My approach was rooted in a simple idea:

This meant:

• Reduce friction to let users move deeper into the funnel
• Surface key information earlier (pricing, reviews, location)
• Make lead capture points contextual and natural, not traps
• Trust that users who self-educate make better leads

The challenge was that this approach would reduce overall lead volume in the short term, which made leadership nervous. They needed numbers for investors. The marketing team pushed back hard, arguing that removing gates would tank lead generation.

I had to prove that better-qualified leads from community detail pages would more than make up for losing window-shoppers upstream. The community detail page exemplified these problems and gave us the freedom to prove our approach:

1. No Page Navigation
Long scroll with no indication of available information below

2. Missed Lead Capture
Only CTA above fold was a phone number—we couldn't capture lead data or control the conversation

3. Competing CTAs
Similar communities featured prominently, encouraging users to leave before engaging

4. Pricing Buried
Pricing—a primary conversion driver—hidden below fold and often buried under long descriptions

5. Reviews Lacked Functionality
Reviews present but not actionable—no filters, no aggregated ratings from our own survey data

I used several approaches to build buy-in:

Analytics and Behavior Flow

We used FullStory to track user sessions and identify drop-off points. The patterns were clear—users would hit a lead gate, back out, try a different path, hit another gate, and bounce. We had traffic, but we were blocking our own funnel.

Competitive Analysis

I looked at direct competitors and adjacent markets like Zillow and Airbnb. The pattern was consistent: transparency builds trust. Sites that surfaced pricing, reviews, and location information upfront generated better-qualified leads.

Targeted Testing

We ran A/B tests on individual changes to prove the concept incrementally. When we reduced friction on test variants, scroll depth increased and users engaged more deeply with content. This gave us ammunition to push for broader changes.

The key was framing this as a business win, not just a user experience improvement. If we could get more users to community detail pages, we'd generate better leads even if overall volume dipped slightly.

Navigating Organizational Reality

This project spanned multiple PM changes and a shift in my direct management. Each PM came in with aggressive quarterly targets, and there was constant pressure to add more lead capture points—more forms, more friction, more gates.

Some battles I won. Some I lost. The marketing team's influence meant some decisions weren't driven by what data showed worked best, but by what felt safer to leadership. I learned to pick my battles and focus on protecting the core improvements that mattered most.

Three key design decisions shaped the redesigned experience:

Removing the Homepage Trap

The homepage generated the highest lead volume, but most weren't qualified. The hero search bar looked like it would search, but actually triggered a lead form—users felt tricked and bounced. We explored several options, knowing that destination pages also had their own wizard trap.

Appeared to search, actually triggered lead form

What We Tested

Option 1

Replace with more obvious lead form

Option 2

Actually perform a search and show communities

Option 3

Send user to closest destination page

What We Choose

Enter Location

Destination Page

Lead Wizard “Trap” Maintained Volume

Community Listings Below Fold

We chose destination pages as a compromise. True search (Option 2) generated better qualified leads but tanked overall volume too much for leadership to accept.

Destination pages maintained volume while letting serious users scroll past the wizard to reach community listings. The result: similar overall lead numbers with a meaningful increase in qualified leads

Restructuring the Community Detail Page

The original page prioritized a photo gallery and "similar communities" suggestions right at the top—optimized for SEO but not for users. Pricing was buried three or four scrolls down. Reviews were at the bottom. Users told us through research that pricing, reviews, and location were their top decision factors, in that order.

We restructured accordingly: condensed six gallery images into one hero image with a view-more option, brought pricing visibility to the top, surfaced reviews and ratings prominently, and added one-click map access. "Similar communities" moved to the bottom where they belonged—helpful for users who wanted alternatives, but not blocking critical information. The result: scroll depth increased to 65-75% (users were engaging with content instead of bouncing), and time on page improved significantly.

Jump navigation lets users scan available information and go directly to priority sections

Added filtering and surfaced aggregated ratings from our own survey data - making a top-3 decision factor more actionable

Reorganized content hierarchy based on user priorities - for example, moving similar communities to the end so they appear naturally after users have reviewed all community details

Creating Natural Conversion Opportunities

With users now engaging deeper into the page, we needed conversion opportunities that felt contextual rather than forced. We introduced multiple conversion points throughout the experience - gated pricing, review access, tour scheduling prompts, room availability, and expert consultation offers.

The sticky CTA emerged as the dominant conversion driver, generating approximately 85% of community detail page leads. Its persistent visibility combined with clear value proposition (unlock pricing + expert help) made it the natural path for users ready to take action.

The work paid off:

360% increase in leads from community detail pages

65-75% scroll depth - users engaging deeply with content, not bouncing

Improved lead quality - better ratio of qualified to unqualified inquiries

Improved page performance - pages became more content-rich and user-focused