Cutting Cost-Per-Qualified-Investor in Half for a Regulated Art Investment Platform
Designed a multi-funnel performance ecosystem. Navigated compliance requirements throughout while delivering results that improved schedule meeting rates and nearly halved acquisition costs.
Fintech
Regulated Industry
Quiz Design
Paid Social
ROLE
Sr. UI/UX Designer & CRO Specialist
ENGAGEMENT
4 months
TOOLS
Figma, Hotjar, UserTesting
METHODS
Competitive Research, User Interviews, Surveys
The Challenge
Masterworks, the leading securitized art investment platform with 780K+ members and $853M AUM, was running the same performance pages without experimenting with new formats.
Two problems were quietly hurting their funnel:
1. Low-quality leads: The "5 Free Shares" offer was attracting users with small portfolios who weren't showing up to advisor calls — wasting advisor time and distorting CAC metrics.
2. No investment context at entry: Potential investors didn't know what they'd actually be investing in, reducing motivation to take action.
The added complexity: as a regulated financial platform, every design decision had to pass compliance review. The goal is to attract more qualified investors, not just more leads.
Key Decisions & Results
Opened with competitive research before proposing any new formats
Before recommending a new landing page, I mapped the competitive landscape across Webull, Fidelity, and Fundrise. I wanted to understand industry conventions and identify where Masterworks can differentiate itself.
Results:
Research validated a recession quiz as a legitimate format for this audience and gave the client confidence to try something they'd never done before
Designed the quiz flow to build conviction progressively
Rather than asking for a meeting immediately, I structured the quiz to move users through their own reasoning. Starting with economic concerns, then introducing art as a recession hedge, then presenting Masterworks as the solution. The CTA came after users had already self-identified as a fit.
Results:
43% of quiz leads scheduled a meeting vs. 21% BAU and 26% from Five Free Shares — more than 2x the meeting rate
Designed the first-ever current offerings page to make investing feel real and credible
Masterworks had never shown potential investors what they'd actually be investing in. The platform's value proposition — fractional ownership of blue-chip art — was abstract without a tangible example. We designed a current offerings page that surfaced real paintings available for investment, like a multimillion dollar Basquiat, giving users something concrete to connect with.
This did three things simultaneously: it made the investment opportunity feel real and exciting, it built credibility by demonstrating that Masterworks actually had significant assets under management, and it gave users a reason to act now.
It was the first time Masterworks had ever put their actual inventory front and center in a paid experience. For a high-consideration financial product where trust is the primary conversion barrier, showing the product turned out to be more powerful than describing it.
Results:
47% lower cost per qualified investor
($4.54 vs. $8.50 for control)
$10.22M meeting portfolio value from 6 users vs. $7.07M from 35 users. Fewer leads, dramatically higher value
Key Takeaway
For high-consideration products, optimizing for lead volume is the wrong goal. The real metric is lead quality. A smaller number of better-qualified users who show up, engage, and invest is worth far more than a large pool of low-intent signups.
This engagement shifted the team's entire KPI framework — moving away from CPL toward downstream conversion value. Knowing how to read that distinction, and communicate it as a strategic recommendation, is as much a design skill as the Figma work.