GTM Sauce

DOWN · B2C · casual dating app

Test app icons in a color no competitor uses, with playful characters

Current winner after hundreds of icon tests; no lift numbers given

Workedaso

What they did

Mapped competitor icons in dating search results (Tinder, Bumble, HER in reds/oranges/yellow; Hinge, Feeld, Pure in dark, clean typeset styles) and designed to contrast: a deep purple no competitor uses, the D and O of the logo personified as two flirty characters, and hints at the product (devil horns on the O, flirtatious eyes, tongue out). The icon matters most because it appears everywhere in search results, while screenshots need a tap; DOWN's traffic comes mostly from its top ~20 keyword searches. Has A/B tested hundreds of icons and keeps testing.

What happened

This icon is the one currently performing better in tests
Stage
Scale (mature app)
Effort
Hundreds of icon variants tested over the years
21:33
“at DOWN, we've tested hundreds of icons, right?”
Colin Hodge
“So we go with a a deeper purple that none of our competitors are using”
Colin Hodge
22:40
“we do hint a bit more at what it's about, with the devil horns on the O, the little flirtatious eyes there, and the tongue coming out.”
Colin Hodge
24:04
“the icon is pretty much everywhere when you search. Um and especially we get a lot of our traffic from keyword searches, not from necessarily people browsing the category.”
Colin Hodge

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