<- Back to all posts

The ROI of Product Copy

Ellie from Ditto
|
December 9, 2024

Product teams are constantly looking for ways to improve the user experience of the products we’re building. The industry is full of systems, processes, and entire job functions dedicated to making products easier, stickier, and more valuable. But what about investing in a system around product copy?

Clear, consistent product copy isn’t a “nice to have”, or a quick checkbox before you ship. It can have serious impact on the user experience — as Paul Boag, UX Consultant and Design Leadership Specialist, says, “If you care about the user experience, you must care about copy.” And with the right system to iterate and improve your product copy, you can unlock some serious ROI.

We’ve seen it in some of the biggest players in the industry:

  • Asos swapped “Create an Account” to “New to Asos?” and saw cart abandonment drop by 50%.
  • Google Travel got a 17% engagement boost by changing “Book a Room” to “Check Availability.”
  • Pinterest experimented with the copy in a pop-up modal that resulted in $27M ARR.
  • Microsoft Azure’s design team were able to decrease user test errors by 44% after making simple copy changes.

But how do we communicate the ROI of investing in clear, consistent, effective product copy? Let’s get into the specifics — here are a few of the (many) ways businesses can measure a massive return on investment in product copy:

1. More conversions and feature adoption

Text is one of the main tools to guide users through important steps like setting up an account, upgrading, or trying new features. The right words can give a gentle nudge or clear things up enough to get people to say yes to whatever your product’s offering.

ROI in action: You can iterate and A/B test your product text to make small tweaks that lead to massive improvements in user behavior and conversion rates.

Netflix has been able to increase views of certain titles by 20-30% just by running simple A/B tests on their platform copy.

2. Less Confusion = Fewer Support Calls

Nothing’s more frustrating than getting stuck because of a confusing error message or vague instructions. When text is straightforward and helpful, users don’t feel like they’re going in circles—and your support team can spend their time on the big stuff.

ROI in action: If better copy reduces support tickets by 10%, that’s a direct cost savings in support hours and resources.

3. Increased retention, less churn

A product with great text doesn’t just draw people in—it helps keep them there. When users know what they’re doing and see the value clearly, they’re more likely to make your product a habit. They see its value, and they’re less likely to leave.

ROI in action: Increasing retention, even by something as small as 2%, can translate to thousands, if not millions in long-term revenue and lifetime value.

4. Ship better product copy, faster

No matter how many checks we put in place, manually copy/pasting product text from google docs, spreadsheets, or Figma files is error-prone. Whether your engineers have to go back in to fix typos, update a “UI Nit,” or manage multiple versions of similar lines of copy, you can save a lot of engineering hours by building an integrated system for your copy.

ROI in action: Let’s say you could help save 1 hour per week removing removing tedious copy-related updates for your team of 50 engineers. Those hourly savings could tally up to nearly $200,000 in resources saved in just the first year (and just a heads up, these are really conservative time savings estimates).

Fintech company Stash is able to save 12,000 hours every year by iterating on and shipping copy with an integrated system.

5. Speed up global expansion

For SaaS companies expanding internationally, consistent, localized text makes a huge difference. But you shouldn’t have to manage versions and translations in a daunting spreadsheet. Investing in one system to manage text versions across languages and cultures, all synced to one design file, means that your team can move faster and users around the world can get a personalized experience in your product.

ROI in action: Smooth localization processes can shave days off every product release cycle, which means reduced engineering expense, and faster entry into new markets.

When SaaS companies take product text seriously, they’re not just helping users—they’re optimizing for real, measurable gains. Investing in a system to manage, review, and iterate on product text is one of the most cost-effective ways to make a big impact — small changes can move the needle on the metrics businesses care most about.

Words matter. And when we put the right systems in place, we transform product copy from an afterthought to a growth driver.

Sources: Userpilot blog, McKinsey & McKinsey Digital, AdaptIT, Deloitte, Instrumental, MadX

Success! 🥳 Look forward to Ditto updates in your inbox.
Oh no — something went wrong while submitting the form. Please try again!