Mobile App Optimization for User Acquisition, Activation, and Retention

Sean Oliver, Mobile Product Marketing, Optimizely

Mobile App Optimization for Acquisition, Activation and Retention March 12, 2015

@ThueLMadsen #KISSwebinar

Sean Oliver - Optimizely - @SeanOliver

Sean leads Mobile Product Marketing at Optimizely. Prior to Optimizely, Sean worked on Consumer Product Marketing at LinkedIn and Microso!. When he’s not optimizing all things mobile, he can be found hiking and traveling the world.

Thue Madsen - KISSmetrics - @ThueLMadsen

Thue is the KISSmetrics Webinar Wizard and Marketing Ops Specialist. Before joining forces with KISSmetrics, he was a Ly! driver in SF, which is also how he ended up as a KISSmetrics marketer. Whenever Thue is not trying to automate everything around him, you can find him fishing and hiking in the Sierras.

@SeanOliver #KISSwebinar

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

Startup Metrics for Pirates

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

Startup Metrics for Pirates

Push Notifications

Remarketing

App Store Listing

In-App Advertising

Social Advertising

ASO

New User Onboarding

Waitlist

In-App Purchases

Ads

Desktop Purchases

My App

Why Optimize?

“Your assumptions are o!en wrong and how you expect people to use your app is actually not how they use it at all. When you’re optimizing your app you can see that, iterate on it, and make a more usable product.”

— Ben Cole, Conversion Coordinator, MEC

WATCH WEBINAR RECORDING NOW

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Ge"ing Started What you need to know

To successfully start a process of optimization, you’ll need:

• Business case - what’s the goal and potential impact?

• Buy-in from the team and key stakeholders

• Developer know-how or support to install an SDK

• Bandwidth allocated in sprints for testing, or dedicated point person

• Bo!lenecks - what is the #1 metric you need to improve right now?

• Customer insights - analytics, qualitative feedback, etc.

What You Need to Get Started

Customer Acquisition Costs

Quantifying LTV:CAC

Monetization

Retention

Virality

Acquisition Costs

Lifetime Value

:

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Acquisition Activation Retention

Defining Acquisition

Acquisition: The process of driving users to install an application and/or use the app through either paid or organic marketing.

App Store Ads Referrals

Icon Design Ad Copy

App Title

Screenshots App Store Listing

Promotions

Referral Copy

Incentive

First-Time User Experience

Optimization for Acquisition

How Users Discover Apps

First Impressions Ma!er

App Store Optimization

Opportunities to influence a download decision

InstaSize Photo & Video

App Store Optimization

Icon

Title

Screenshots

• User testing

• Use as an ad

• Keyword in title

• Be aware of character count

• Keep consistent

• Treat as banner ads

• Add context & value prop

InstaSize Photo & Video

App Store Optimization

Test your value prop with assets you have

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Start Your Free KISSmetrics Trial

App Store Optimization

Use a landing page to test elements of ASO.

Low-cost traffic: - Social ads - AdWords - Retargeting from

Website

App Store Optimization

Or create a landing page that looks just like your app store listing.

Bring moments to Life with Flipagram #1 Free App in over 80 countries with almost 100 million users!

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2

Acquisition Activation Retention

3

Acquisition Activation Retention

Defining Activation

Activation: Converting someone who has downloaded an app into an active user. This metric also indicates the quality of your First Time User Experience (FTUE).

Activation Hurdles

81% of users say an app needs to make a good first impression for them to continue using it

81%

19%

56%44%

56% of users haven’t signed up for an app because the registration process was too long or confusing

Source

First Impressions Ma"er; Clarity + Speed

Keys to a Great User Onboarding Experience

Optimizing User Onboarding

Stay Focused

Show, Don’t Tell

Remove Friction

Indicate Advancement

Be Human

Keep Educating

More detail in this blog post

Increased activation from 25% to 66.5%

French Girls Optimizes Activation

• Optimizing quality of the first-time user

experience (FTUE)

• Create understanding of how the app works

• Activation = the difference between 1-2 days of use

and 7+ days of use

Activation—Retention

“For us, activation is directly correlated to retention. Without activation, retention is poor.”

— Jeff Farkas, Developer & Backend Architect, French Girls

Baseline Activation Rate: 25%

French Girls Optimizes Activation

French Girls Optimizes Activation

Baseline Activation Rate: 25%

Winning Variation

French Girls Optimizes Activation

Activation50%

When optimizing for activation, consider:

• Does your app require registration?

• What is the order of operations for first time users?

• Does your app help users complete actions on first-time use?

• Does your app live up to its value prop during onboarding?

Optimizing for Activation

3

Acquisition Activation Retention

4

Acquisition Activation Retention

Defining Retention

Retention: A measure of how many of your customers/users come back over time, o!en measured at specific intervals like “7-day retention”.

Mobile app retention varies widely by app category

Optimizing User Retention

Source

Optimizing for Retention

Install First-Time Use Repeated Use

Registration

Customization

Instant Gratification

Push Notifications

Email

App Flow & Dynamics

Notification Permissions

Retention Hurdles

iOS notifications are opt-in. Generally, less than 50% of users will receive push notifications.

50% 50%

95%

5%

Android notifications are opt-out, meaning nearly all users (95%) receive push notifications.

Source

Push Notification Differences: iOS and Android

Optimizing for Retention

Optimize when and how you ask for push notification permissions:

Opt-in prompts help to add context before making “the ask”

Customize future calls to action during onboarding:

Optimizing for Retention

User-specific information to personalize future messagingSource

Optimizing for Retention

Onboarding

Push Notifications

Direct users to actions that will make them valuable long-term users:

Ideas for Tests

• Think about push notification permissions in the context of your

FTUE

• Create a plan for enabling notifications beyond the first session

• Obsess over the quality of each email or push notification you send

• Encourage linking mobile and web accounts to bring customer data

together and personalize the experience

Optimizing for Retention

When optimizing for retention, consider:

• Are there network effects in my app that can pull my users back in?

• Is there a pa!ern or schedule of how users start their sessions?

How can it be encouraged?

• What information about my users do I have that can personalize

their future experiences?

• Can you apply any gamification techniques to your app?

Optimizing for Retention

4

Acquisition Activation Retention

5

Acquisition Activation Retention

BONUS: Reviews!

Reviews are important because they affect ASO

• Quality of reviews is important, but so is quantity

• Be thoughtful about how you ask for feedback

• Don’t interrupt your user’s experience

• Optimize when, where, and with what tone you ask

Optimizing for App Store Reviews

Best-in-Class: Circa

Optimize for App Store Reviews

Highly Recommend their Blog Post

3 Things They Optimized:

Optimize for App Store Reviews

Threshold (Timing) of Request

Location of Request

Flow of Request

10 Sessions 3x in 1 Week

Learn More in their Blog Post

The Result:

Optimize for App Store Reviews

More, High-Quality Reviews = Higher App Store Ranking = More Efficient Acquisition

Learn More in their Blog Post

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Acquisition Activation Retention Reviews

2015 KISSmetrics Guide KISSmetrics Demo

h"p://kiss.ly/growth h"p://kiss.ly/demo

Optimizely Mobile Guide Optimizely for Mobile

optimize.ly/appoptimization optimizely.com/mobile

Questions?

Sean Oliver Mobile Product Marketing

Optimizely @SeanOliver

Thue Madsen Marketing Operations

KISSmetrics @ThueLMadsen

THANK YOU

Sean Oliver @SeanOliver