uxgigs Update #2: The results of my MVP

Almost two months ago, I launched my MVP for uxgigs.co.

I wanted to test the appetite for a job board specifically for contract and freelance UX/UI designers after I found the process of finding these types of jobs frustrating.

I put together a one-page site with a list of jobs (see my previous post for more details) and then sent traffic to it using Google Ads.

I decided on the following metrics as my measure for success:

• Ad Impressions
• Ad click-through rate (CTR)
• % of users who clicked on a job on the site
• Email newsletter sign up rate

I felt ad impressions and ad CTR would give me a rough idea of whether the user need existed. The other metrics would give me an idea of whether there was interest in my solution

My goal was to see at least an industry average PPC ad click-through rate (~2%) and email sign up rate (1-5%). I also wanted to see a few hundred impressions each day.

Metrics	Results	% Change
Duration	3 Days	-
Ad Impressions	2,400	-
Clicks	89	-
Click-through Rate	3.97%	-
% of users who clicked on a job	43.8% (39 clicks)	-
Email Sign Up Rate	2.2% (2 sign ups)	-

My keywords were broad for this campaign. This helped to get impressions but I think it brought in low-quality traffic.

For example, some people were visiting the site after searching for "graphic design jobs" (not my target audience, unfortunately).

I decided to spin up a new campaign to be more specific with my keywords. I also made a few changes to the site, adding pagination and job categories.

Metric	Results	% Change
Duration	4 Days
Ad Impressions	394	-83.58%
Clicks	21	-76.4%
Click-through Rate	5.3%	+33.5%
% of users who clicked on a job	9.5% (2 clicks)	-78.3%
Email Sign Up Rate	0% (0 sign ups)	-100%

I saw much smaller numbers. There was a significant drop in the number of users clicking a job (possibly because of the site changes or the jobs weren't right for them), but seeing nearly 60% of users tap the "View all jobs" at least showed there was some interest to browse.

I also wanted to test appetite for a newsletter-only approach instead of a job board.

I put together a separate landing page with an email sign up form and sent some traffic to the site using Google Ads.

Metric	Result	% Change
Duration	4 Days
Ad Impressions	346	-12.18%
Clicks	20	-4.76%
Click-through Rate	5.78%	+8.30%
Email Sign Up Rate	35% (7 sign ups)	+7

Again, small numbers but it was promising to see a higher email sign up rate!

The purpose of this MVP was to see if there was an appetite for a job-site specifically for freelance/contract UX and UI designers.

My goal was to get at least a 2% ad click-through-rate and an email sign up rate of 1-5%. I also wanted to see if there were enough search impressions to make this worthwhile.

I managed to meet those goals. Across all campaigns, my ad CTR was on average 5% and the email sign up rate was on average 12.4% (1.1% if you don't include the landing page test).

As I'm targeting a niche market, I wasn't expecting huge numbers. However, the daily average impressions were much higher than I expected (based on what I saw with Google Keyword Planner).

Now, being honest, I don't think I'm on to the next Facebook or Airbnb — that has never been the intention of this project.

However, I do think there is some potential in this problem space and I've seen enough to give me the confidence to progress this to the next stage.

I'll follow up with another update soon to share that and explain why I decided to pivot on my solution — so stay tuned!