Increasing MRR by +85% YoY through 200 Mobile App Experiments

TomTom GO Navigation facing pressure from free giants like Google Maps and Waze. Our goal was to used experimentation as our competitive edge, to transforming the app into a fast-learning, data-driven engine and achieve revenue results.

Challenge

The global navigation-app market is big (valued at $911 million in 2020, +10.8% CAGR), yet dominated by free, pre-installed apps.

TomTom's app monetisation depended on subscription revenue, but the growth curve was flattening, facing mainly 2 challenges:

  1. Competing with free: convincing users to pay for navigation when 70% of the market used free tools.

  2. Improving onboarding: turning downloads into paying subscribers while showcasing TomTom’s premium features.

The challenge was to scale experimentation across the organisation to systematically discover what truly drives engagement, retention, and revenue.

Results

  • +85% YoY increase in monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

  • 400 K daily active users across 26 million downloads.

  • 200+ tests run, with ~33% win rate.

  • 90% cost reduction on A/B testing operations.

  • 5× faster testing cycles, 10× faster UI delivery.

  • TomTom ranked #2 globally in the 2023 Location Platform Effectiveness Index.

+85%

Monthly recurring revenue

+200

mobile app tests

5x

Faster test cycles

Process

Building an Experimentation Engine:
I build and led the foundation of continuous experimentation system, defining processes, governance, and quality standards. Partnering with Purchasely, we unified paywall design, onboarding, and pricing tests in one environment.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with product, CRM, design, and data science to align around shared goals and metrics.

Test Velocity & Efficiency:
We launched 200+ experiments across onboarding, paywalls, pricing, and trial conversion in 12 months. Rapid-experimentation and quality going hand-in-hand.

ROI driven:
Collaborated with management to connect each experiment to OKRs and KPIs for activation, retention, and revenue.

“Bjarn’s build our experiment program from the ground up. He didn’t just deliver results , but experimentation is now our default way of making decisions.”

Rick Vlaar

Head of Growth | TomTom

Conclusion

Through process, structure, and cross-team collaboration, we turned experimentation into a strong growth engine. By linking every test to business outcomes, we increased revenue by 85% YoY, over achieving our ecommerce revenue targets.