From Crisis to Cash Cow: How Funnel Optimization Transformed an AI SaaS Startup

In early 2023, Eightify launched as the first AI tool that could summarize any video in one click, right in the YouTube tab. Tech influencers praised it, industry leaders recommended it—Eightify even earned a spot in Andreessen Horowitz's Top-100 Gen AI App list. User numbers quickly reached 440,000.

Soon, the founders started working on their next AI project. With their attention divided, Eightify's summary quality became inconsistent, product updates grew rare, and users began dropping off. At the same time, well-funded competitors launched their own YouTube summary tools, offering more features and free plans.

The situation became critical when Google banned Eightify's domain, citing issues with AI-generated content. Monthly traffic crashed by 95% - from 6.5M to 0.3M visitors. This revealed a core problem: Eightify had grown through word of mouth and viral success, but lacked key systems to consistently attract, engage, and retain users.

The founders needed someone to transform Eightify back into a self-running business. They hired a CEO with expertise in scaling tech companies, who brought in specialists - including me as a growth consultant - to rebuild user acquisition and retention.

Rebuilding User Experience Step by Step

Before making changes, we needed to understand the competitive landscape. I tested every major YouTube summary tool in the market, analyzing their complete user flow—from trial signup to cancellation. I tracked how they converted free users to paid customers, how they communicated, and what they did to encourage long-term usage.

The result: a Miro library of industry best practices we used throughout the project.

And looking into Eightify's user surveys and app reviews revealed opportunities throughout the entire customer journey—from first website visit to subscription renewal. So, rather than searching for one big solution, we decided to improve each interaction point progressively.

Improving How Users Find Us

We started with how users found Eightify. I improved the main landing page's structure, copy, and design, then used it as a template to create SEO-optimized variations that increased our average search position by 73%.

Before/After: The redesigned landing pages not only ranked better but also converted 16% more visitors into users.

Next came the app stores: I optimized descriptions and visuals for Chrome Web Store, App Store, and Google Play, testing multiple different messaging and screenshot designs until we found the highest-converting combinations.

Test 1: Detailed feature explanations vs simple benefits. The minimalist original outperformed these screenshots. Users preferred straightforward messaging.

Test 2: YouTube-style interface vs original design. Matching YouTube's visual patterns improved performance, confirming users' preference for familiar interfaces.

And our Google ad campaigns consistently delivered cost-effective user acquisition by highlighting benefits that resonated with our target audience—insights we gathered directly from customer feedback.

The top-performing ones (CTR >4%).

Increasing ARPU

Next came user activation. We built onboarding from scratch, explaining key features at the right moments.

iOS users generated 14% more revenue after implementing onboarding, and Android users showed the biggest improvement at 37.5%.

Through multiple paywall tests, we developed a version that increased revenue by 16% for desktop users. Can you guess which one it was?

Maximizing User Retention

I created email sequences that showed how Eightify helped users balance learning and living. Monthly reports translated time savings into meaningful activities, like "7 hours saved = 9 HIIT workout sessions"—while highlighting knowledge gained: "12 new ideas extracted from 3 hours of video." This showed users they could stay informed while reclaiming time for what matters.

To drive regular usage, we also shared top-summarized videos trending across YouTube.

Reducing Customer Churn

I designed a two-stage retention system for users considering cancellation. First, we created a win-back page that collected cancellation reasons and offered personalized discounts. For those who still cancelled, we launched a reactivation email sequence with time-limited special offers and significant product improvements that could address their original reasons for leaving.

This retained 33% of trial subscriptions, 17.8% of annual subscriptions, and 20% of monthly subscriptions.

To better understand user satisfaction, we implemented a smart review collection system. When users rated Eightify 4-5 stars, they were directed to leave public reviews on app stores. Lower ratings opened a private feedback form, helping us identify and fix issues before they led to cancellations.

When Lightning Struck Twice

As our improvements started showing results, Google banned Eightify's domain again. While working with Google representatives to fully resolve the first ban's underlying issues, the CEO decided to build a more sustainable solution.

We acquired a clean domain with existing traffic—previously a nature sounds website—and transformed it into Noiz by Eightify.

Building a Parallel Growth Channel

The team developed a smart traffic strategy for Noiz: offering free AI tools like PDF summarizers and text analyzers, each promoting Eightify through promo banners. This allowed us to capture search traffic from keywords beyond video summarization.

My role included developing SEO-optimized pages across Noiz's ecosystem: tool pages, promotional pages showcasing "Noiz by Eightify," and the blog structure. Each was designed to capture different search intents while maintaining consistent messaging.

Weekly unique users grew from 426 to 14,100.

I also developed a two-prompt system that let any team member create on-brand blog covers: one prompt generated cover concepts from the article headline, another turned the chosen concept into an image with Midjourney. This ensured consistent visuals across our growing content library.

Eight Months Later. The Results

Our strategy succeeded on both fronts: while Eightify's domain was fully restored, Noiz established itself as a second stable traffic source. Together, these improvements delivered clear outcomes:

• User base grew from 440,000 to 630,000 (43%)
• Revenue increased by 44%

Most importantly, we achieved the founders' goal: Eightify transformed into a self-running business. The product now operates smoothly with minimal oversight, supported by automated systems for user acquisition, conversion, and retention.

Key Insights

If you are a Growth Leader looking to optimize or automate your business, consider these:

• A product crisis can be exactly what you need. Without the Google ban exposing systematic problems, Eightify might have continued its decline through accumulated small issues.
• Sometimes, the best solution isn't fixing the original problem. Instead of fighting Google's ban for months, creating Noiz gave Eightify a second traffic stream and opened new possibilities.

Most importantly: there's no such thing as a "set it and forget it" product, but you can get very close. The key is maximizing effectiveness of every customer touchpoint systematically before stepping back. If you're looking to transform your startup into a self-running business, let's connect and explore how systematic funnel optimization can help.