How To Use Product Tours To Drive Adoption

Product tours are walkthroughs that take users through an app’s main functionality and features. They help new users understand how the product works, without using lengthy and complicated external documentation or relying on . Users can quickly get to grips with your app and realize its .

Linear tours vs. contextual tours

Product tours usually fall into two categories: linear and contextual. In linear tours, the steps appear in order and don’t change or deviate—they stay the same for everyone. They’re mainly used for more straightforward apps or when users need to learn a specific workflow before they can start using your product.

Contextual tours are slightly more flexible. Steps or prompts are triggered based on a . They might only appear when someone explores a new area of your product or struggles with a function. Until then, the tours stay hidden, ensuring the user isn’t given too much information at once.

Product tours are most effectively used during the onboarding process. A new user is keen to explore what your app is all about, so a short product tour is a great way to engage them and give them the tools to get started.

Other times to use a product tour include:

• Introducing a product update or new features
• Helping users discover underused functions
• Making workflows easier to understand
• Supporting users in your self-service model, where live support can be limited

However, you can’t include everything about your app in a product tour. These walkthroughs work best when you can explain the process in a few minutes (at most) or when there aren’t many caveats. Think app overviews or basic tasks (e.g., setting up a new ).

Product tours might not be the best fit for longer tasks or things that require the user to leave the app (e.g., ). can also benefit from more hands-on onboarding, particularly if dealing with entire businesses and higher costs.

Product tours play a massively important role in driving and —both of which are essential for measuring .

Reduce time to value (TTV)

Product tours guide users toward their first faster—that’s when they realize your product can solve their problems and understand how it fits into their lives. You can use the tour to clearly demonstrate your product’s main —likely the reason a person signed up in the first place.

Minimize user frustration

Providing quick, proactive guidance means users are less likely to feel confused or annoyed while using your app. Using , you can anticipate the trickier moments within your product and offer demonstrations to help users overcome roadblocks. A product tour during onboarding also minimizes users' initial overwhelm.

Increase feature discovery

Product tours are excellent ways to highlight your most important features—the ones that make your app worth the investment. Putting these functions front and center during onboarding ensures users engage with them, helping to by showcasing your value. You can also use tours to demonstrate additional or more advanced features once users are comfortable with your product.

Improve activation rates

When left to their own devices, users may spend too much time in the exploration stage. They could end up clicking on every feature, wandering down rabbit holes, or leaving the app to wade through the docs pages. Product tours keep your users focused and engaged. You show them what they need to know to get started and how to reach meaningful usage faster. The deeper understanding can come later, building on their knowledge and actions.

Reduce the burden on support teams

These benefits mean product tours naturally reduce the pressure on your support teams. Users can self-serve their onboarding and any subsequent queries. If your tour addresses everything it needs to, your team shouldn’t be inundated with repetitive basic queries. Instead, they can concentrate on solving more complex cases, or even upselling.

Not all product tours are the same—different approaches work best for different use cases. Let’s break down the main types and when to use them.

Interactive walkthroughs

Interactive walkthroughs are the most common type of product tour. They’re primarily used during onboarding sequences. When users first open your app, they are taken through multiple steps that they must interact with to proceed.

As walkthroughs are very hands-on, they’re best reserved for new users or when introducing new functionalities and layouts. You can use them to ensure users have interacted with what you’re highlighting (usually something necessary and straightforward).

Feature callouts

Feature callouts do precisely that: call out specific features. You can use tooltips or pop-ups to draw attention to new or underused functions, providing a quick overview of what they do, how to use them, and why.

They’re often used to help existing users discover an update or secondary features they may not have used yet. Timing feature callouts at important moments (such as when users have been using your app for a certain amount of time or if you recognize signs of a ) can help boost or reignite engagement.

Checklists

Checklists are another popular onboarding device. Users don’t necessarily have to complete each step to move forward, but the task-based guide gives them a firm idea of where to start.

They’re helpful for products that may take a little longer to learn—users can explore each step (i.e., feature) at their own pace before checking it, then pick up the next one when they want it.

Checklists can encourage users to explore your features more deeply and give them a sense of structure and satisfaction when they tick things off. They’re also incredibly practical—one study reported a for this self-serve tool.

Embedded images, video, or GIF tutorials

More and more apps are using visuals in their product tours—, according to one study. These are typically embedded images, videos, or GIF tutorials that provide a quick, top-level explanation of the feature or interface.

These visuals may appear when the user opens the app for the first time after an update, or when the product is straightforward to use and users can dive right in. Users can acknowledge them then swipe them away—they’ve learned passively, and their experience isn’t interrupted.

An excellent product tour should seamlessly guide users, not slow them down. Here’s how to keep it user-focused and engaging.

Keep it short and actionable

Product tours are most effective when they focus on one task. Is the goal to help a user make their first design? Set up a dashboard? Demonstrate a feature?

Setting clear intentions beforehand can influence how you design the tour, ensuring you avoid overwhelming people with something long and complicated. One report found that tours with had lower completion rates.

Hyper-personalize based on user segments

Product tours are a chance to show you’ve listened to your users’ needs and recognize their differences. You can provide users with a tailored experience based on their:

• Role in a company—how a manager uses your app may differ from that of a lead.
• Experience level—are they a returning customer?
• —which features have they interacted with most and least?

A tour resonates far better than a generic one. Users will be more engaged and likely to .

Make it interactive

Reading a list of instructions isn’t the most exciting way to onboard users or showcase new features. Product tours should be interactive and encourage users to try the actions themselves.

Learning by doing rather than showing also helps people retain more valuable information. Users will feel more confident navigating your product and be able to explore its full potential. And, as we know, confident users = happier, long-term customers.

Offer an exit option

Despite product tours' many strengths, you need to be mindful that not all users will want to do them. If you can, enable users to skip or dismiss tours—they may prefer to explore your product independently.

This is different if you genuinely need to draw attention to something (such as a major feature that changes existing workflows). However, if the goal of the tour is just something you’d like users to be aware of, making it skippable can be useful. You’ve made it available for those who want the guidance, and haven’t frustrated those who don’t.

Use concise, clear messaging

The language in your product tour needs to be as clear and accessible as users' actions. Avoid jargon and make your instructions easy to follow. Give your users just enough that they have a solid understanding of how to use the feature, get started with your product, or learn what’s new in an update.

Test and improve based on user engagement data

After all that work designing and delivering your product tour, tracking how it performs makes sense.

• How many users complete the tour?
• Where do they drop off?
• How effective has it been in getting people to engage with the feature or product overall?

Your can help you see what’s working and where you need to improve. Look at them frequently and continue making changes based on how your users evolve and respond to the tour.

With so many options, choosing a product tour software can be intimidating. The one you go with depends on the nature of your product ( vs. a , for instance) and your current stack and resources.

That said, here are a few things to consider:

• Easy setup and customization: No-code or low-code solutions mean you can deploy the product tour quickly.
• Interactive and automation: Does it have the ability to trigger tours based on user actions?
• Multi-format support: Can you incorporate tooltips, modals, checklists, etc.?
• User segmentation and targeting: Are you able to personalize tours for different user groups?
• Analytics and reporting: Does the software provide insights into tour engagement and drop-off points?
• Integration with other tools: What platforms is it compatible with? CRM, customer support, testing tools, etc.

Data is the linchpin of any successful product tour. Without it, you’re just guessing what your users want, their behavior, and how you could improve.

Track completion rates

Tracking the completion rate of your product tours helps you see which areas users find valuable and where they might be disengaged.

• Are users dropping off after the first or second step? The introduction might not be compelling enough.
• Are they quitting midway? Your tour could be too long or intrusive.
• Are users rushing through, not interacting with anything? They may just be tapping “Next” to dismiss it.

Use the findings to improve your product tour. You may find you need to focus it, highlight the value sooner, or allow users to opt out or revisit the tour later.

Measure TTV

The measures how quickly a user reaches that aha moment we discussed earlier. Product tours should accelerate TTV by guiding users efficiently through the things that best highlight your app's value.

• How long does it take for a new user to complete an action with vs. without a product tour?
• Do users who take the tour (i.e., reach TTV) faster than those who skip it?
• Are users repeating certain steps, suggesting they may be confused?

Optimizing for TTV means making the product tour as slick as possible. Remove any unnecessary steps, make them contextual (if possible), and consider utilizing tooltips over full tours when introducing more minor features.

Compare guided vs. unguided users

As mentioned, not every user will engage with your product tour. Comparing those who take the tour against those who don’t helps you assess its actual impact on your most important product metrics: adoption, retention, and engagement.

• Do guided users engage more with key features?
• Do they retain better over time?
• Are guide users more likely to convert to paid plans (if your product uses a )?

If guided users are more likely to stay, you might want to make the tour more visible—e.g., make it a persistent checklist instead of a fleeting tooltip. If there’s no impact, the tour may be redundant or not targeted enough—consider revising its content or who you’re showing it to.

A/B test variations

Different users respond to different types of product tours. (where you show two groups different elements) enables you to determine which formats, messaging, and tour structures lead to better engagement and completion—a , according to one report.

You could test the following:

• Tour length—short vs. detailed walkthroughs
• Presentation style—modal popups vs. tooltips vs. interactive guides
• Call-to-action (CTA) phrasing—“Get started” vs. “Try it now” vs. “Learn more.”
• Sequential vs. non-linear—Does a step-by-step tour work better than a self-guided checklist?
• Triggering methods—On signup, compared to after a user takes their first action.

Once you’ve experimented with these variants and analyzed the , you can deploy the version that leads to the most significant increase in and rates.

A great product tour creates confident, capable users. It ensures they have everything needed to understand how and why to use your product effectively. But not all users need the same guidance: personalization is key.

With , you can go beyond generic product tours and deliver targeted, data-driven that adapt to each user’s preferences.

• Target users based on their behavior. Show new users onboarding steps, casual users the main features, and power users more advanced tips.
• Use in-app surveys to gather real-time feedback. Ask users if the tour was helpful, identify pain points, and refine future walkthroughs based on their responses.
• Measure how effective your product tour is with integrated . Track completion rates and see how quickly users take action.
• Optimize your tours with built-in . See which approach drives the highest activation and retention.

Enjoy a fully integrated platform—Guides and Surveys works alongside other parts of Amplitude, including , , , and .