"Sent" -> "Viewed" proposal funnel

[alexandernovikov]

Hi!

I see that my proposals are rarely viewed. Out of last 14 i placed, only 3 were viewed. What can a client see about a proposal before they click to view it? That is, what can be the factors that negatively impact my "viewed / sent" ratio? I assume it is the rate, but what else?

Alexander

[martina_plaschka]

As far as I know, you can't see if a client views your proposal at all. If you are talking about the views in your stats page, those don't come from proposals you sent. 

[alexandernovikov]

No, i don't mean "profile discovery" (that is indeed unrelated to proposals, and is also so frequently broken i stopped paying any attention to it years ago). I mean the stuff like on the screenshot attached: 15 proposals posted, 3 of them viewed, 0 interviewed and 0 hired.

This is why i am interested what are the pieces of data a client sees on a proposal before "viewing" it...

[martina_plaschka]

A client can see the first two lines of your proposal, and your name and picture, not quite sure what else, probably your JSS. If he never opens it, that is probably counted as not viewed. 

[alexandernovikov]

Can they also see my rate with which i applied, and/or my profile rate?

[fb49ce2e]

This is a screenshot from a YouTube video dated 10 May 2022. I couldn’t show the video here because it shows other freelancers’ names and photos.

But this order raises an important question! Would freelancers lose the “Best Match” label when they bid highest with connects (boosting proposals)? Or a thunder icon can show next to “Best Match” label?

Because I don’t think losing “best match” label to be one slot above with just thunder icon (by boosting) is a prize.

[00137e0a]

I honestly think both "boost" and "best match" are terrible features. Boosting is completely unfair, and their "best match" algorithm is tremendously inaccurate.

Clients are not babies. They are perfectly capable of making their own choices without any external guidance. 

As far as honesty goes, I think Upwork shouldn't interfere with how proposals are displayed at all. They should be displayed in order of arrival and that's it. 

[fb49ce2e]

Upwork "Best Match" algorithm is not tremendously inaccurate.**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[alexandernovikov]

They may be not babies, but there are usually too many proposals for a real world client to go through. For *best* clients (and best client is the one who's time is the most expensive i.e. richest) it has the biggest negative impact. People who have the time and patience to go through 50-100 (mostly garbage) proposals are the worst clients... Because they have time and attention but not money, so they will have high requirements (being capable of testnig your work thoroughly), and pay little.

So the game for Upwork is to be able to filter best matches in the most accurate way possible. Having such a large database of client/freelancer relationship and messages these relationships started from, they are positioned best in the world to make it happen, that is, to actually rank freelancer proposals in the best way possible. That is the main competitive advantage apart from just scale.

[00137e0a]

Still, their "best-match" algorithm is atrocious. Letting the client sort through dozens of proposals is way better than using a half-baked algorithm to choose for them. 

[706448b1]

It’s a big marketplace and it has control. John told all about it last night. "people doesn't like to scroll down" and "if you on the second page of search results, you're not a business"