User activation is one of the most important KPIs for your app, predicting your long-term success and revenue.

Increasing your revenue through efficient user activation is something not every aap is successful at doing. 

In this article, we will explore 5 different ways you can improve user activation for your app, as well as examples of successful companies that managed to develop their user activation strategy. 

Ready? Let’s dive in. 

What is User Activation? 

User activation is the precise moment when your new user completes the user onboarding steps for the first time. The process involves a series of steps, specific events, or predetermined goals that your user needs to complete in order to be considered activated.

User activation can include signing up, creating a profile, and finishing the first task successfully. It may also include beginning a free trial, finishing the onboarding tour, or inviting other users to collaborate within the app. 

User activation isn’t only about activating new users. It can also refer to existing users, such as the moment they use or unlock a new feature, or when they move from a basic to a premium plan. 

What’s the Difference Between an “Aha moment” and the User Activation Stage? 

The “Aha moment” and user activation can easily be confused between each other. A number of people think that the “Aha moment” and user activation are the same and are just labeled differently. 

But that is far from the truth. 

Simply put, the “Aha moment” is a mental state that occurs when a user perceives the value you’re offering and realizes how much they like using your app. 

On the other hand, user activation is the moment when your user actually received a value. It’s an action, rather than a feeling, and is when a user fully interacts with the features of your app. 

It’s important to note that the “Aha moment” is very important in every app’s user journey. Its purpose is providing your users with the push they need to activate the full features of your app. User activation is the process that actually activates your users who then use your app’s full features. 

User activation events give your users value for their own business, so it’s vital to optimize your user activation in order to attain as many premium users as possible.

5 Ways to Boost Your App’s User Activation Strategy 

Now that we’ve covered some of the foundational principles of user activation and its importance in your app’s user journey, let’s explore some proven methods you can use to improve your customer activation strategy.

1. Send Call-to-Action Email Notifications 

Receiving email notifications on a repeated basis can be very overwhelming, unless the emails are specifically tailored for the user. 

The use of call-to-action emails can be successfully observed in the case of Docsify, a brand that has improved its user activation with a simple email, inviting them to try how their product works. In fact, according to WordStream, emails with a single CTA button can increase clicks by 371% and revenue by 1,617%.

This shows the power of a single, call-to-action email in fostering user activation. A call-to-action email is also a great way of seeing the successful effect of breaking down the learning process into smaller, more clearer tasks.

2. Create Behavioral and Personalized User Onboarding 

Given personalized marketing trends today,  it’s vital to personalize your user experience and thus user activation based on user behavior and data as well. 

You can personalize your user activation in numerous ways, such as making use of:

• user role
• user state
• milestones
• user behavior

There are two central ways you can focus on to improve your app activation in more detail. The first one is through behavioral nudges, where you try to determine triggers from your users’ behavior or lack of behavior. 

The second is through personalized user onboarding, where the more data you have about a user, the more you can tailor their user experience to match their exact needs. 

To understand behavioral triggers, you can track your in-app events or characterize your user personas. 

Analyzing your in-app events can help you create the events of your user onboarding process, which determine your user journey towards activation. 

To analyze your in-app events, make use of analytics tools and study a group of users who recently signed up and saw the promised value of your app. You can then examine what kind of features or actions are most desired by users among that group. 

This process can be repeated for many different groups, or demographics, such as users with a similar role, age, knowledge and so on. As a result, you will understand the role of your “aha moment” and user activation for different user groups and personas. This will in turn help you create different behavioral triggers based on their behavior, leading to an increase in user activation and adoption.

3. Reduce Excess Work

The first few days of your user activation process are very important. Once the user is set to use the full features of your app, you can start to reduce unnecessary work for your users by helping address or simplifying any issues they may come across while they use your app’s full features.  

For instance, if you notice that your users have data that they’d like to convert from one format to another, you can help them by creating built-in tools that enable them to do just that. This helps convert more trial users into paid customers for your app. 

The goal of your app in its user onboarding process is to indicate the value you are offering to potential customers. For this reason, it is vital to maintain a simple and smooth user experience and activation process as well. 

The simpler your user onboarding process is, the quicker you allow your users to experience the “Aha moment” and eventually activate them.

4. Offer Extensive Customer Support 

After you’ve activated your users, you can adopt a dedicated customer support team that helps your users locate answers fast and anytime they need them. 

Whether it be through them asking direct questions in a chat pop up, calling you or reading your detailed guides, you can offer invaluable support to your users that will help activate or even retain already-activated users. 

Showing your users that their comfort and ease is at the top of your priorities will encourage them to keep engaging with your app and activate users who may be on the verge of converting from a free to a paid user.

5. Delay User Onboarding Email Confirmations 

When a user is signing up for an account on your app, receiving a message that requires them to verify their email straight away may turn them off from using your app.  

This is because the initial excitement and attention they had for signing up to your app has decreased with this added step that seems a bit unnecessary. 

One of my best practices is to delay email activation steps in a user onboarding process. You can still ask people to activate their email address, but you can do it at a slightly later stage in their interaction with your app, such as the second time they are using it.  

By doing this, you know that you are requiring a favor from a user who already uses your app and would be happy to verify their email for you, rather than doing it before even trying your app for the first time. Developing your onboarding email strategy also highlights your app’s focus on delivering value to your user without demanding something in turn from the get-go. 

Conclusion 

Ultimately, the purpose of user activation in apps is to convert your trial users into paid customers by understanding the value of your app and wanting to use it again and again. 

Your app’s user journey is made of 4 main steps: converting website visitors to trial users, creating the “aha moment”, user activation, and finally, user adoption.

Essentially, user activation plays a crucial role in every user experience, and you just  need to pay enough attention to it. 

Need help with boosting your app’s user activation? Get in touch with us. 

When it comes to developing your app’s acquisition strategy, there are a number of metrics that you can track. 

Even though you’ll need to collect a lot of data regarding your app’s performance, such as customer lifetime value, activation and retention, you’ll typically need to find one metric that will determine what you should be focusing on to grow your app. 

This article will help you identify how to determine the one metric that matters (OMTM), by detailing what it is, why it’s so important, one metric that matters examples, how it compares to North Star Metric, how to determine OMTM, and what to do after you’ve found your OMTM.

What is the One Metric That Matters (OMTM)? 

One Metric That Matters or OMTM is a number that is used as your main focus in your daily work as an app growth hacker or growth hacking team. 

Every marketing function that you carry out has to relate to the growth of this metric. OMTM is the number on which a growth hacker expects to experience the most growth in the next 2-4 months.

The term itself was first mentioned in 2013 by Alistair Croll in his book Lean Analytics, when he realized that startup founders and marketers are easily distracted by “vanity metrics” and other numbers that don’t necessarily contribute to a business’ growth.

Why is OMTM Marketing So Important? 

One Metric That Matters helps you focus all your time and energy on one thing, so you can perform more successfully in one area rather than do things in many areas that don’t produce enough results. It is an essential component of a growth hacker’s mindset. 

Locating your One Metric That Matters can help you: 

• Know exactly what to do to grow your app without being distracted by other metrics. 
• Reach faster results by completely focusing all your actions on one goal. 
• Create long-term influence by focusing on something that needs to be continuously improved. 

What Are Some OMTM Examples?

Based on your app’s model, you’re going to have an OMTM that may differ from other apps’ OMTM. 

For example, if you have a hotel bookings app, your number of nights booked would make a great metric to focus on, since it combines both the value of the booker and the lessor. If you have a marketplace that earns revenue from transaction fees on payments, then you may find that your OMTM is your gross processing volume, or GPV. 

So, generally speaking, your OMTM will reflect the type of your app you have and what its main revenue-earning function is, so that you can focus on developing the best version of that as possible.

One Metric That Matters vs. North Star Metric

There are a few key differences between OMTM and North Star Metric. North Star Metric is a single quantitative indicator that enables the growth of your app, and there’s typically only one North Star Metric for each business.

The North Star Metric is equivalent to your app’s profit, lifetime average revenue, or customer realization of value.

The North Star Metric you choose should build a link between your internal stakeholders and your app. Your app product management team can then evaluate what part of your app needs optimization.  

Granted, it can be hard to select just one metric that reflects your app’s growth. This is the case if your app model offers a vast range of products or services for different types of users. 

For this reason, One Metric That Matters (OMTM) lets you choose one specific metric for each one of your app’s sections. 

Each OMTMs is a separate key performance indicator (KPI) for each one of your departments. This allows every member of your growth hacker team to track metrics that should be optimized individually.

How To Determine Your One Metric That Matters? 

Your One Metric That Matters is always going to change according to your app’s context. Ultimately, you should choose an OMTM that directly reflects your app’s performance in a specific period. 

Now, let’s look at the steps you can take to determine your own OMTM.

1. Determine what stage your app is at 

It can be difficult to pinpoint which stage your app is at right now, but you have to define it because this is what defines your OMTM. If you’re in the maturity stage of your app, then your main focus should be acquisition and user expansion.

Defining your app’s stage is vital because you need to create different marketing strategies for every stage. If you have a new app, your goals will be drastically different to an app that’s been around for many years. 

In your app’s initial phase, you begin to work on understanding what issues you need to address within your app. 

In the next stage, you can start researching the market and your competitors to see if your app is doing well in that market. Your app’s value should relate to the needs of your existing and potential users. 

After that stage, you need to focus on optimizing your channel-product funnel, where the nature of your app should match its distribution channel. 

In your app’s growth phase, you can start to allocate resources to different areas of the app that you know are crucial to its growth.

In your app’s maturity stage, your goal is to acquire users and bring about revenue increase through your retained users.

2. Uncover the bottleneck of the pirate funnel

A pirate funnel can accommodate the nature of your app. 

The 6 stages of the pirate funnel are AAARRR, which stands for awareness, acquisition, activation, revenue, retention, and referral.

• Awareness –  Potential users get to know you through your promotional activities. 
• Acquisition – Visitors signup for a trial. 
• Activation – Trial users realize the value of your app, reaching their “a-ha moment.”
• Revenue –  Users generate revenue and spend more money through upsells, cross-sells, and add-ons.
• Retention – Users renew their subscriptions because they get continuous value from you.
• Referral – Users become loyal advocates for your app and brand, giving positive reviews, and providing word-of-mouth marketing.

You can discover the bottlenecks in the pirate funnel and develop your OMTMs by using the conversation rates between any of these two steps.

3. Specify your app’s goals 

Your OMTM depends on your app’s goals, which is determined by your app’s stage. So if you’re in the growth stage, you can study your customer base based on your revenue, feedback, and product usage rate.

This lets you address the high-risk zones in your app and determine your OMTM accordingly.

4. Create a regular reporting schedule for OMTMs

Finally, you can create a reporting schedule for each one of your OMTMs.

Once you’ve determined an OMTM for a specific period, regular reporting schedules can help you study and understand the journey towards achieving your goal.

It also ensures that your growth hacking team is always working for the benefit of your OMTM. For instance, if your goal is to achieve your OMTM within 5 months, you need to create monthly reports and analyze your progress through short sessions.

What to Do After You Find Your OMTM? 

Once you’ve determined your OMTM, you can use the “Squeeze Toy Test” to find your next One Metric That Matters. The inventor of the concept, Alistair Croll,  describes it as when you squeeze a squeeze toy like a stress ball, and how everytime you squeeze it in one place there is new pressure appearing in another place. 

Here are some examples of how the “Squeeze Toy Test” can help you determine your next OMTM: 

• If you only have a few new users, you will have to make sure that they keep coming back to your app by working on your retention strategy. 
• If you manage to secure a high ranking in SEO, you will have to cause your Lead Magnet to be downloaded more frequently.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve studied the definition “One Metric That Matters,” your growth hacking team can start to use it to experience sustainable growth.

It’s good to keep in mind that OMTMs are able to change from time to time and will depend on your app’s goals at a given time. 

Do you have trouble improving your app’s key metrics and determining your OMTM? Get in touch with us now. 

Given that more and more apps are competing in the market, it’s becoming more difficult for app developers to stand out from the crowd. Because our generation has a relatively short attention span, app developers must find an exciting way to keep users engaged for a long time. 

Today, you can choose from a variety of user engagement and retention strategies that can be implemented, including social media management, in-product customer experiences, giveaways, tailored discounts and more. These strategies help keep  companies stay competitive. 

One of the most effective user engagement strategies is developing a gamified app, and this article will focus on how you can use it to enhance the visibility and usage of your app. 

Gamification is an element that can be found not only in apps but also in your personal or professional life, such as being rewarded by a teacher or earning loyalty points from a shop. In these cases, students are encouraged to accomplish tasks to earn rewards and shoppers are driven to shop at the same store so that they earn more points. 

To keep on track with your app’s marketing efforts, you need to understand the status of games as an app category (13.66% of apps are within the game category). So if you have an app that is outside of the game category, you may want to adopt some modes of gamification, such as badges, points, internal currency, scoreboards and rewards. 

What is App Gamification? 

In a few words, gamification is the way through which you can include game-like properties in your app to increase user engagement and retention. It’s all about making the process of using your app more fun for your users. 

It’s important to keep in mind that your app gamification strategy is not just about its design and development, but also about retaining as many users as possible, which can be achieved in the following ways: 

• Address issues you need to fix – If your app isn’t getting enough conversions, for instance, you may want to know why. So your gamification efforts should align with your elements with your app’s goals. 
• Include social opportunities-  See how you can drive your users to come together through socializing or collaboration, and have them be rewarded for it.
• Simplify everything – For a user to understand which stage they’re currently in and what they should do next, the process should be as clear and smooth as possible. 
• Have an easy-to-use reward system – Instead of implementing one final reward at the end of the game, try to divide it into smaller rewards that are given every time a user completes each minor milestone.

Why is App Gamification Important? 

Before gamifying your app, you want to know what benefits you’re hoping gamification will bring you, specifically in terms of your user engagement. 

Gamification in mobile apps, including non-game apps, are proven to release dopamine in users’ brains, making them want to engage with the app longer in order to complete milestones and achievements. 

Gamification can also influence your users’ emotions  in several ways, namely: 

• Increasing curiosity – Your users will be motivated by game-like elements in order to gain more rewards. 
• Encouraging competition – A presentation of other users’ achievements can encourage players to achieve more and compare their results with each other.
• Creating a sense of control – Users are given the feeling of being in control as they can decide which milestone they are going to complete. 

How to Gamify Your App 

To gamify your app, you have to begin with the design elements before adopting your gamification workflow. The design elements typically include the following: 

• Badges –  These act as a visual form of your users’ achievements, showcasing their performance within the app. For instance, if you have a food delivery app, you could implement a badge for every time a user places an order. 
• Levels – With each level, the difficulty of the game increases, pushing the user to want to keep playing as they want to reach the next milestone. 
• Scoreboards – These are lists that portray your users’ rankings in order to see who is performing the best at a certain activity. It indicates the performance of a user compared to the performance of others. 
• Performance charts – These illustrate how a player performed in relation to their previous results and traces their individual records.
• Points – These are rewards that your users get for reaching a milestone as they continue playing the game.  
• In-game currency – This is how your users can access game-related benefits , such as extra points or lives. In-game currency can be received as a reward for certain achievements as a daily bonus. 

Gaming elements can be implemented with specialized gamification software, such as Apple’s Game Center and Google Game Services. 

8 Examples of Apps Using Gamification for User Acquisition and Retention 

Gamification can be found in numerous app industries, so no matter what category your app belongs in, you can find a gamification method that will suit it best. To show you the different possibilities that app gamification can take, we’re listing 8 app gamification examples in order to attract and retain their users. 

1. Khan Academy 

This popular education app has incorporated gamification methods that brought it very successful results in their students who pursue higher education. They do this by implementing various gamification strategies such as: 

• Epic Meaning & Calling – Khan Academy uses epic meaning & calling to encourage donors, teachers, and volunteers to assist their mission. Because their mission is to provide free education to everyone forever, they have managed to attract companies who have donated over $10,000,000 each.
• Social Influence & Relatedness – The app uses the power of social influence & relatedness to recognize and motivate their interns from around the world.

2. Monefy 

This personal finance app tries to make the process of money management easier. It does by utilizing a design that motivates users to keep tracking their daily expenses on a regular basis, as well tracing spending that they wouldn’t be able to notice.

3. McDonald’s 

There is no need to introduce this brand. The app uses the gamification tool of location to bring about a number of in-app experiences, activities and notifications.  Users can search for restaurants nearby, receive location-based deals and discounts and even play location-based games, like looking for Monopoly-inspired Chance Cards to unlock rewards.

4. FitBit 

Fitbit is a wearable fitness tracker that connects to an app that includes various gamification elements, such as: 

• Badges – These are allocated to a user when they have completed a certain milestone, such as walking a specific number of steps, and may even resemble the nature of that milestone.
• Social interaction – The app allows you to locate friends who also use it and challenge them to various sports activities. 
• Unique challenges –  The app allows you to walk around any city of your choice so that you can explore it and stay fit at the same time. 

5. Starbucks 

The app makes use of Starbucks Rewards in order to reward a user every time you place an order with them. It keeps track of how much you spend in particular ways like the time, what you ordered, which outlets you visit, how much you spend, and more. This data is then used by Starbucks to offer rewards to their customers which encourage them to continue buying from them. 

6. MangoHealth 

The app reminds users when they need to take their medication and records each dose they take. What distinguishes Mango Health from other gamified apps is that users get real-life rewards, such as store coupons. However, it also uses other game-like elements such as rewards when their users take their medicine on time. 

7. Snapchat 

This social media platform makes use of scorekeeping (giving points to its users) to keep track of their users’ activity and how many people this activity manages to impact. 

Snapchat also allows its users to create avatars with a range of profiling accessories, and keep track of where their friends are in real time. One of the most obvious methods of gamification Snapchat uses are the mini-games that users can play with others.  to its users in which they can compete with others, too. 

Filters are also an example of the app’s gamification methods, as they’re used to change your appearance, location or even have mini quizzes that make taking pictures more fun and exciting.

8. Shopkick 

The app uses gamification by sending notifications to its users that inform them about where they can collect points. While in the store, the user can open their app to see the items that offer them these points, known as “kicks.” They can then find the product in-store, scan it with their phone’s camera, and exchange all kicks earned for gift cards by their favorite brands. 

By turning the shopping experience into a scavenger hunt, Shopkick manages to gamify a regular, everyday experience into something that’s both fun and rewarding. On top of that, partner retailers are rewarded with higher sales and awareness for their brand.

Conclusion 

Gamification is increasingly becoming one of the top tactics to increase user engagement in an era where app users’ attention span is becoming shorter and shorter.  

It is an effective method to stay ahead of the competition by turning a boring routine into a fun challenge. The best gamified apps know this. 

As seen by the examples mentioned, various app industries use gamification, such as food and drink, healthcare, education, and ecommerce. The reason it’s so successful in all these different categories is that it satisfies the human mind’s thirst for an exciting challenge. 

Are you thinking of gamifying your app but don’t know where to start? Get in touch with us. 

Given the millions of apps that can be found on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store today, the probability that your app will be found without any form of user acquisition strategy is very slim.

This means that you have a lot of competition to tackle. Even if your app is the best one among all, it wouldn’t be as successful without its downloads. For users to download your app, they need to come across it. This is where App Store Optimization, or ASO, steps in. 

Conducting an ASO audit can help you feel confident about your app retaining and increasing its visibility. 

Most users will download an app after searching for it,  making App Store Optimization a very important strategy for all apps. 

Your app’s ranking will depend on the number of downloads you experience. Without a proper ASO strategy, there is a lot of organic traffic that you would be losing. 

What is ASO Strategy? 

Put simply, ASO marketing is the strategy you need to use in order to increase your app’s organic visibility in the Google Play Store or App Store. 

Users who find your app after organically searching for it are the users who engage with it the most. To acquire your target users who will search for your app, you need good ASO tactics that will lead to higher visibility, and this can be done in various ways. 

Why is ASO Important? 

Because of the competition being faced by app developers, they cannot target growth by only depending on their app’s quality. 

ASO helps you increase the organic visibility of your app, making it easier for users to find it and encouraging them to download it. 

What is ASO Auditing? 

ASO auditing is when you analyze various factors that point to your app’s visibility, such as your app indicators, your competitors’ apps, what keywords work, who is getting more positive reviews, and so on. 

How To Conduct An ASO Audit Step By Step: 

In today’s app market, you don’t have to create an app that is original or even something extraordinarily useful. Your app’s visibility will determine your app’s success, and the best way to increase your visibility is through ASO auditing. 

In this article, we will share the 10 steps required to conduct a full ASO audit for your app, which will lead to an increase in your app’s visibility, growth and overall conversions by using ASO tools such as Mobile Action. 

Ready? Let’s dive in.

1. Identify Your Audience

The first step you want to take is understanding your audience. This helps you see your app from a third party’s point of view, making you determine why they search for your app and which keywords they would use to search for it.

A Keyword Tracking page will help you track generic keywords for your app, which are most usually associated with the category of your app, such as Business or Travel. 

This will help you see where you are in the competition with other apps. Another good way to locate keywords is by analyzing your Search Scores and Chance scores. 

The search score will help you track the search volume of any keyword, and the chance score will help you determine the possibility of ranking in the top 10 for any keyword. When it comes to keywords, make sure to target them with high search and chance scores so you can generate higher organic visibility.

2. Analyze Your Competitors 

The second step of your app store optimization audit is to check out the Category Rankings that help you discover your competitors.

After you’ve established your target keywords, you can use them to discover the apps that use these keywords by discovering more competitors. 

Being one of the most important steps of ASO auditing, analyzing your competitors will help you understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses so that you can undertake the strategies that have proven to be successful, and dismiss the ones that have failed.

3. Optimize Your Keywords & Graphics 

After you’ve collected about 10-20 keywords, you can start writing your metadata. The factors that affect your rankings will greatly differ in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. 

In the Apple App Store, you will need to index your title, subtitle, and keyword list. Whereas in Google Play Store, you will have to index your title, short description, and long description. 

There are also some differences in the character limitations in these app stores. In any case, it’s good to take advantage of both spaces to leverage as much data as possible. 

Through Keyword Optimization, you can oversee your keyword pool, existing metadata, including your competitors’ metadata in a single page which makes your decision process so much simpler. You’re also able to try out various versions of your new metadata.

When you are writing your metadata, try to prevent yourself from using too many keywords. You need to make sure that your metadata is meaningful yet short and cohesive. You can do this by prioritizing the most important keywords in your title and leaving the ones that increase difficulty in the keyword list for iOS and long descriptions for Android. 

For your graphics, you want to make sure that it is representative of your app’s brand. An icon is very important for your app because your target users will learn to associate your app with it. 

Try to experiment with your logo’s background color, fonts and sizes. Using A/B testing will be of great help in making you decide which is the best option.

4. Optimize Your Screenshots 

Screenshots form a part of your Creative assets, which are vital to your app’s success. Since it’s usually one of the first impressions that is left on your target users, you want to make sure you’re optimizing your screenshots as best as you can. 

When designing your screenshots, you should try and mirror your user experience. Whether you use vertical or horizontal screenshots will depend on how you will want your users to use your app. Overall, the screenshots should help you tell your app’s story, which will help attract new users. 

Your app icon and screenshots should be aligned with one another. It is recommended that you use screenshots with smartphone mockups, along with a short promotional text of how your app can benefit potential users. 

You can also switch landscape screenshots with portrait ones. To experiment further, you can also add a video in place of the first screenshot.

5. Analyze Your Click-To-Install Conversion Rate 

A number of factors can play a difference in your click-to-install conversion rate, including texts, graphics, ratings, popular reviews, traffic quality. 

To calculate your mobile conversion rate, take the number of conversions and divide that by the total number of app visitors. According to research, most mobile apps have a 1-2% conversion rate on average, so if you reach anything above 2%, you should see it as a strong conversion rate.

Your conversion rate can also vary according to each traffic acquisition channel you use. It is one the most challenging steps of ASO, but it holds immense potential in fostering the highest download rates.

6. Study Your Reviews 

If you gather positive reviews and ratings, these are crucial to the algorithm and your app’s ranking as it is still seen as being relevant. So, it’s crucial that you plan a good review and rating management strategy. 

To get an overview of reviews and user opinion for any app, you can use the Most Mentioned Keyword Analysis in the Reviews feature.

7. Analyze Your User Churn Rate 

Analyzing your user churn rate (the rate of users who uninstall or stop engaging with your app) can help you understand your users and why they use your app, retain older users and track your competitors’ activity. 

You may notice that your churn rate will increase when your competitors launch promotions, discounts, or updates, until you come up with new features that tackle that competition. 

You can calculate your churn rate by dividing the number of churned users by your total number of users, even though your result may be affected especially if you own an app with a much larger user base.

8. Keep Re-Optimizing 

As much as you have tried to perfect your ASO strategy. Since algorithms and competitor actions are constantly changing, you need to make sure that you are planning for long-term success by treating your ASO as a process that is always developing and keeping up to date with the latest updates and trends. 

The App Update Timeline lets you track changes in your competitors’ actions and how successful their latest tactics have been. A Custom Alert can be created to help you stay alerted about the updates that are being made by your competitors as well.

9. Optimize Your Long Description 

After getting your app seen by your target user group, you need to encourage them to download it. This is where your long description comes in, as it will be what your users tune into and so act as a huge contributor to your conversion rate. 

Especially in the Google Play Store, your long description gets indexed so filling it with appropriate keywords is your best bet. The Keyword Optimization feature helps you analyze long descriptions and compare it with your competitors as well. 

The main goal of your long description should be to draw attention to the value that your app brings to potential users, including details about what your app is about, what makes it original, and why it should be downloaded. 

In the end, you need to make sure that your long description’s readability is easy and can engage with a general audience. The Google Play Store allows you to experiment with different formats by using features like bullet points or bold titles. If you don’t know what will work best, try doing a A/B test to play with different ideas and understand what attracts the most users.

9. Localization 

In a few words, App Localization is the process of getting your app to fit in a certain language, culture and other factors of a specific country where you intend to have your app available. 

In ASO auditing, App Localization means optimizing the important category ranking factors of your app, such as what keywords and visuals you’re going to use in your app profile. 

Mobile App Localization can lead to more downloads in the App Stores belonging to other countries. This is because Google and Apple like to feature apps that are localized, which are guaranteed to provide users with a better experience. 

It also helps your app rank higher in countries where English isn’t spoken a lot, as people may choose to engage with an app in their native language.

But it also helps with ranking in English-speaking countries, as there are significant differences in the keywords searched by users in the UK, US, and Australia. 

App localization goes beyond simply translating your app’s metadata. It also includes adapting your creative assets to the culture of a particular market. This can be anything from images, videos or even the currency being used. 

Taking all of these factors into account, it is safe to say that app localization helps boost your conversion rates and user engagement, helping you to grow your brand awareness on a global level.

The first step of localization for your app is internationalization, which means that your value proposition and app are not locked into a single language in order to operate. Your app can be coded in such a way that you can change the language without needing to overcomplicate it. 

A good point to consider is to learn words and phrases used by the people of the culture you are targeting so that you know you are expressing a certain meaning or feeling as best as possible. This can be easily accomplished by hiring a native speaker as a proofreader for the language you are thinking of adapting your app to. 

Conclusion 

All the steps that we’ve mentioned form a part of the checklist you need to conduct a full ASO audit for your app. Followed carefully, this ASO tutorial is guaranteed to make your app reach the Features tab of the Google Play Store or App Store. 

To experience the full benefits of ASO auditing, try to be experimental. See what text and visuals appeal to your target user group, and notice any shifting trends that take place. 

In this way, you can stay up to date with the latest trends and avoid having your app losing its visibility. 

You may want to see which combinations of words, screenshots or banners work to attract the users that you seek. 

For the App Store, there are a number of ASO audit tools including Mobile Action that you can use to help you with the process, such as Raise Metrics and SplitMetrics. These tools help you achieve the results you seek in a short amount of time, provided that you complete each step properly. 

Need help with conducting an ASO audit for your app? Get in touch with us. 

With iOS 15 recently integrating in-app events, app developers are provided with a brand new marketing tool that they can use to promote their events, challenges and any other new content being released by their app. 

Incorporating in-app events is a great way to reach a wider user group, engage with existing users, and even re-inviting past users. 

In this article, we’ll explore what in-app events are, how they influence app store optimization or ASO, how you can set up events, in-app events examples that you can promote, and what type of data you can analyze from in-app events. 

What Are In-App Events? 

In-app events are events that take place in real life. They’re events that engage with users as they’re taking place, such as competitions, movie premieres, live streams, or any other live experience. 

You can use these events to reach new users, retain your current users, or re-engage with users who stopped using your app. 

In-app events can appear on your product page, search results, and various curated pieces on the App Store, including recommendations in  tabs labeled as Today, Games or Apps.  

You can run an event for as long as you think it’s necessary for your own app. You can run it for 5 days like SimCity BuildIt, all the way up to 27 days like Fishdom.

How Do In-App Events Influence ASO? 

Event cards (cards that display your in-app events) will be shown all throughout the App Store. 

In other words, in-app event ASO can increase your app’s visibility in the following ways: 

• Appearance in the Today, Games, and Apps Tabs: In-app events are shown in editorial collections that are released in the Today, Games, and Apps tabs, and this can bring about a massive boost in visibility. The new iOS 15 App Store widget can also highlight any upcoming events featured in the Today tab.  

• Higher Search Results: When a user searches for a specific event, like a new song release, the event card will be shown alongside the app that has created it.  You can further increase your apps’ visibility by optimizing specific keywords or creating new ones.

• More Options for Existing Users: When a user searches for your app, the event card will replace the screenshots that appear in the search results for users who have already downloaded your app. This means that you can increase engagement with existing users who may not have used your app in a while. In effect, you’re able to maintain your app’s visibility in search results for existing users and prevent competitors from gaining increased visibility. 

You can create event cards in App Store Connect and need to submit them to be reviewed. The maximum number of in-app events you can create in App Store Connect is 10, but only up to 5 events can be published in the App Store at a time. This is why you need to assess the exact kind of in-app events that you want to promote with event cards.

How Do You Set Up Events? 

When you create your in-app event, there are specific assets and metadata you need to produce to release the event via App Store Connect. 

Some of these assets and metadata are a part of ASO and can be used as a way to improve the visibility of your app even more. Increased visibility can be sourced from the following in-app event criteria:

• The name of your event (up to 30 characters)
• A summary of your event (up to 50 characters)
• Extra information about your event (up to 120 characters)

Optimized keywords will be shown in the name, short description, and metadata of your app. 

So the steps to publishing an in-app event on the App Store is quite simple. All you need to do is follow these three steps: 

1. Log in to your App Store Connect account 
2. Enter the metadata of your event, select regional availability (if relevant), and more 
3. Submit your event for review and wait for it to be approved

While the process is very simple, you don’t want to publish any random event. You need to carefully think about what type of events will attract your viewers, and this can be understood by understanding your user’s preferences. 

Once you’ve decided on your event, you need to make sure that your content is original. This is done by producing original content for your in-app event metadata that your users will love and want to engage with. 

What Type of In-App Events Can You Promote?

You can promote certain events that aren’t very typical, including: 

• Competitions: If you have a gaming app, you can create player tournaments and battles that your users can look forward to. 

• Live Streams: This is especially useful if you have a news app or any niche that allows users to access live videos. 

• Challenges: You can create a challenge where users have to complete a given number of lessons to receive a badge or unlock gems. This lets your users feel like they need to keep coming back to your app by looking forward to unlocking different milestones. 

• New Seasons: This can include new content such as a new game character, design or level. These can appear in the search results when a user looks for an app with those kinds of features, so there is lots of excitement built around the updates. 

• Special Events:  These are limited time events that can be used to promote your app in the App Store, which will appear on the product page and in the search results. 

• Big Updates: With these, you can gain much more visibility and re-engage users in a way you haven’t been able to before. 

• Premieres: This is especially useful if you have a streaming app. Premieres can be used to engage users and target new ones to your app. A new premiere or exclusive content can lead you to get more eyes on your app.

Analyzing Data From Your In-App Events

With Apple releasing analytics for in-app events in January 2022, it is very easy to keep track of useful data offered by your events. There are many key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can make use of through in-app event tracking, including:

• Downloads 
• Impressions
• Notifications 
• Opens 

On the standard App Store Connect dashboard, you’ll find some of the following KPIs: 

• Amount of impressions: This indicates how many times your app has shown up on the App Store, and if an in-app event will increase this number or not. 

• Amount of First-Time Downloads: This showcases if in-app events will target more users to download your app. 

• Product Page views: This shows you if an in-app event will cause more users to come across your app’s Product Page. 

• Conversion rate: This highlights your in-app event’s ability to attract general users on the App Store and convert them into users of your app.

Conclusion  

The emergence of in-app events is a very promising new feature of the App Store. You can use events to promote various aspects of your app, making it more visible to potential and existing users. 

All of these advantages are great sources of growth for ASO. This is why it is important that you familiarize yourself with in-app events, what they are and how you can use them to your app’s benefit. 

To get a head start, make sure that you and your team have started planning your in-app event cards and the goals you want them to help you achieve beforehand.

Need help with coming up with in-app events to launch? Get in touch with us.

As an app developer, one of the most important keys to guaranteeing success for your app with your target users is knowing how to categorize it. In a sea of apps that are released in the app store every day, specifying which category your app belongs to can boost your app’s recognition. 

Some types of mobile app categories tend to perform better than other categories. Due to changing trends and user preferences, certain categories tend to make more money than others, and it’s good to know which categories these are during the development of your app. 

This article will emphasize what app categories are, what type of apps are popular, and how you can categorize your apps. It will then list the top 8 categories of apps you should know of so that you can launch an app in a category that is guaranteed to be both popular and useful. 

Ready? Let’s get started. 

What Are App Categories? 

A mobile app category is a category you assign to your app which helps your potential users discover it in the Google Play Store or App Store. It is a vital part of targeting your app to your ideal user group. 

What Type of Apps Are Popular? 

Out of the 30+ mobile app categories, some of the most popular app categories in 2022 are Education & E-learning, Restaurant & Food, Dating, Ecommerce, Social Media, Internal Business, Gaming, and Entertainment. 

The most popular examples of apps today are most relevant to social media, such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. 

1. Education & E-learning Apps 

Given that many people are seeking learning opportunities outside of schools and universities, education and e-learning apps have seen a significant rise in popularity. 

A number of individuals are using e-learning apps to gain new skills or credentials. For example, Duolingo saw an increase of 148% in new user signups in a single month in 2020. 

Especially for kids, e-learning apps have experienced a great demand. For example, Kids Learning Tube made its own e-learning app after its YouTube channel fostered more than 615 million views. This shows that the potential to create an app out of an audience that already exists is tremendous, and will only keep increasing. 

Some examples of popular education and e-learning apps are Google Classroom, Coursera and Khan Academy.

2. Restaurant & Food Delivery Apps 

Due to the pandemic over the last two years, the food & drink industry has experienced major changes. With more people preferring to order their meals online, restaurant & food delivery apps have increased accordingly. 

To understand the importance of this app category, have a look at the US food delivery app revenue report within the past six years. 

Interestingly, Statista found that 67% of people in the US prefer to order food from a restaurant’s website or mobile app, rather than eat out. 

You can also use a restaurant app to manage reservations, send special promos, set up a customer loyalty program, and much more. It is a great way to keep track of conversions as well, since customers may keep their payment information and address in the system for the next time they order 

Some examples of popular restaurant and food delivery apps are GrubHub, UberEats and DoorDash.

3. Dating Apps 

So far, there have been 323 million people around the world who have used an online dating app. This is a significant number to take notice of.  

Given the digitization of everyday tasks, many people have opted to complete the task of finding a stable, committed partner through an app as well. 

The dating app category generates about $602 million every year, which indicates it is a very profitable venture. 

Some examples of popular dating apps are Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid. While these apps are targeted at a general user group, there is plenty of space left for dating apps that are targeting users of a certain demographic or with more specific interests.

4. Ecommerce Apps 

Given the rise in remote working and the interest to make passive income online, ecommerce apps have significantly grown over the last few years, and it shows no sign of declining anytime soon. 

To see the success of ecommerce apps as opposed to ecommerce websites, simply look at the conversion rate comparison between mobile browsers and mobile apps in the ecommerce niche. 

Ecommerce apps are a great way to experiment with personalization, speed, convenience, customer support, user experience and checkout optimization. 

If you have previous experience with ecommerce, having a mobile app for your brand is essential. Even if you’re a small company that wants to increase its online presence, an ecommerce platform like Shopify is your best friend.

Some examples of ecommerce apps are WooCommerce, Ebay and Gumroad.

5. Social Media Apps 

Given the increase in technology that allows us to keep in touch with our friends, family and colleagues, it isn’t a surprise that social media apps have been on the rise over the last couple of years. 

Social media apps are platforms where you can find new friends or connect with like-minded people who would like to discuss or share similar thoughts. 

Some examples of social media apps are Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp.

6. Internal Business Apps

HR apps and employee communication apps have become the new normal for the modern workforce. With so many remote employees and field service workers today, internal business apps that help keep colleagues in touch are on the rise. 

Within these apps, you will find an effective self-service functionality of the apps, like quick access to crucial information, company news and more. Many apps even add a social media style function where employees can converse and share stories.

You can also use internal business apps to schedule changes, training lessons, employee safety and onboarding and much more. 

Whether you want to cater to a small business or a larger organization, this category of apps will continue to grow in popularity in the years to come. 

Some popular examples of internal business apps include LinkedIn, Google Workspace and Slack.

7. Gaming Apps 

Gaming apps are among the most popular app categories in 2022, and this is because of the incredibly immersive experience that they provide to users.

According to Statistica, there were 1.2m gaming apps out of the 3.8m apps in total for March 2022. 

Of all the popular types of games, action games rank as one of the highest. 

Since gaming apps use a lot of the device’s hardware resources, you need to ensure that your app will be hosted on a phone device that will be able to accommodate a smooth gaming experience. 

Some popular examples of gaming apps include PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile and Pokemon Go.

8. Entertainment Apps 

In this day and age, entertainment is a much needed commodity in our busy lives.  Whether it be watching a TV show or indulging in short, 15-second video clips, entertainment apps provide us with the relief we seek. 

Creating an entertainment app is the best way to engage with as wide a user group as possible, since many individuals have a type of entertainment they like to spend their time on. 

Some popular examples of entertainment apps include Netflix, TikTok and Twitch.

Conclusion 

Today more than ever, we’re met with an incoming flood of apps that are being launched every day. For this, it’s very important to keep track of the most popular mobile app categories at a given time. 

Knowing the type of apps that are performing really well among users is key to helping you determine what you should do next. 

During your app’s development process, you will come across big questions such as “How should I categorize my app?” 

Pinning down the category for your app can help you set the path to understanding how and why your users are interacting with it, which will in turn help you reach your bigger goals such as profit-making and brand awareness. 

The app categories in the list above have been given to you after being researched according to the most recent trends and statistics. Here is a full list of the most popular app categories you should be aware of, especially in the Google Play Store. 

The main characteristic you will want to have as a developer is knowing what type of category has a lot of opportunity to create an app in, and from there, the possibilities are endless. 

Need help with building or growing your app? Get in touch with us. 

As an important part of app development, tracking your app’s conversions helps you see the full picture. Without it, it would be hard to fully understand where your app is headed and what needs to be fixed. 

An app conversion is any action your user takes in order to download your app. There are specific app conversions that may be more crucial to track than others, even though all actions that you can track are important in developing and improving your app. 

This article will highlight mobile app conversion tracking in full, covering how important it is, the types of conversion data available, how to use it successfully, and the various tools you can use to help you track and analyze conversions. 

How Important is App Conversion Tracking? 

You may have an app that is conventionally successful: It has a lot of users, has a good design, and provides your users with value. But even if your app has all of this, tracking your app conversions is still as important. 

Whatever stage your app may be in, you will need to improve it accordingly, such as updating its design and features which are competing with other apps in your niche. Tracking your data can make you understand just how your users are engaging with your app. 

Conversion data is valuable because you can then examine how to make the relevant updates or improvements. 

Your existing users can show you which features they’re using or not using, and which actions contribute to more app conversions, or meeting your app’s larger goals, such as profits, engagement with users, or brand awareness.

The data you manage to track will allow you to take relevant steps in optimizing your app for the type of users that you’re already engaging with. 

Given the app market’s competition, conversion tracking provides you with a boost in your user acquisition strategy as a whole.

What Type of Conversion Data Can You Collect? 

App conversion tracking can make you access a large amount of data. Most of the tools you use to track your conversions will indicate various data, including but limited to: 

• Number of apps installed
• Number of app deletions
• Actions that users take in your app
• Channels that caused app downloads 
• Number of users, including paying users 
• Actions that led to an in-app purchase or other action-goal 

All these forms of data show the ability of conversion tracking and analytics in helping you strengthen your grasp of your app. According to the goals you have in mind, you can collect suitable data. 

For instance, you can categorize conversion data based on the channels that led users to download your app or make an in-app purchase. 

You can also see what type of users are deleting your app, which platforms they’re using, their device and app version and other such characteristics to gain a better view of why users are leaving your app. This helps you plan what actions you can take to solve specific issues and retain more users.  

How to Successfully Use App Conversion Tracking? 

Now that we’ve established the amount of data that you can gain from app conversion tracking, let’s look at how you can most effectively use such data. 

The data that is the most valuable will depend on the exact goals that you have planned for your app, and brand more generally. 

Most conversion tracking tools that you can use will be able to track main conversions, such as first app-launches after downloads or re-installs, and in-app or retail purchases. 

Despite the value that can come from such conversion data, the data that you need for your own app may not be indicated directly. 

Different conversion tracking tools can help you customize your own conversion actions. You can create a conversion action for when a user carries out a certain action in your app once or multiple times, or create a conversion action that can appear when a user has spent a specific amount of time on your app. 

The conversion actions you pick are ones that should contribute to your overall goals for your app. If your goal is to make profits, a good conversion action can be your user creating a new profile, sharing your content, or saving their payment information.  

This is why the best way to plan your conversion actions is by noting down the goals you have and what actions will help bring about your app’s success or failure. 

Once you have understood the type of data that is valuable from your conversion tracking, you can easily use analytical tools to create custom conversion actions and goals that align with your goals. 

What App Conversion Tracking Tools Are Available to Use? 

There are a number of third-party tracking apps that you can use to track your app conversions. The tool you eventually use will depend on the tools the type of app you have, including whether it is an iOS or an Android app. 

Both iOS and Android devices can host tools that are known as cross-platform apps, but tracking conversions is most successfully done when you use a variety of multiple tools so that you can gain the most amount of data possible. 

One tracking tool you can use is Firebase, a Google tool that brings together the different features and dashboards of Google Ads and Google Analytics. 

Firebase or Google Ads can also be used to track your app conversions on iOS devices, even though your ability to track iOS conversions will only include conversions that were made directly from your users engaging with Google Ads. 

It’s good to note that Android apps can gain a lot more analytic and conversion data using Firebase than iOS apps. Recently, Google enabled some features that help give iOS apps more detailed insights and conversion reports, but this data is only based on anonymous user information.

If you’re an iOS developer though, fear not. Apple has its own app conversion and analytics tracking tool called App Analytics. This tool can give you a full picture of your app, its ranking on the App Store, user conversion data, payment information, app performance and health, and other useful data. 

Now, even though Firebase and App Analytics are the two most effective conversion tracking tools, there are so many other tools that you can explore, such as Flurry Analytics, Countly, Localytics and App Annie.  

If your app is both on the Google Play Store and App Store, you will want to use different tools to gain the clearest view of conversion data that is relevant on both devices that host your app. 

Conclusion 

The data you collect from your conversions is one of the most important steps you can take in the development of your app. It begins to give you effective results when you aim to gather data from as large and various sources as possible to gain the clearest view. 

Tracking your app’s conversion data can help you decide which features and functions are working, and which could use a bit more improvement to attract new users or retain existing ones. 

Knowing exactly which tools to use for your tracking conversion data for your app can be challenging, so spending time getting to exact the vision for your app and the type of data you need to track the most can help you get started with choosing the right ones.

Need help with tracking your app conversion data? Get in touch with us.

In today’s digital age, so many app developers are competing for consumers’ attention. It is no surprise then that addressing your ideal audience becomes a great challenge. A number of well-known brands  have achieved massive growth through their apps. So naturally, one might think, how do they do it? 

The short answer is app growth hacking.

What is App Growth Hacking? 

In a few words, growth hacking is the process by which marketers are able to grow their products quickly. It forms a part of growth marketing, using data and experimentation to locate fast growth opportunities. Usually this growth results in a growing number of users, and an increasing user retention (also referred to as a product’s stickiness).

Growth hackers can stem from a variety of career roles, such as developers, managers, and marketers. But instead of focusing on the marketing aspect of growth, they concentrate on collecting data and carrying experiments that contribute to the growth they seek. 

In the sea of digital success stories, you’ll find that most have taken place thanks to growth hacking.

13 app growth hacking tactics you can start using today: 

In this article, we’ll share a list of 13 app growth hacking tactics that you can use to create your own app growth strategy, and offer practical examples of how these tactics can be used.

1. Team up with an influencer

Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful modes of marketing in 2022.  

All over social media and the internet, you will come across all types of content that have been sponsored by brands in order to gain awareness and build a bigger audience. 

As an app brand, you can team up with an influencer who is popular in the niche that your app is in, such as gaming, business or fashion.  

This figure will be able to use their existing audience to promote your product to them. The reason influencer marketing is so effective is because influencers already have a strong bond with their followers, so anything they promote will be considered seriously by those who come across it.

2. Create a blog

Many app growth hacking strategies don’t go without a blog. Blogs used to be thought of as ways to document one’s own life, but that’s not the only purpose. Today, especially, people with all sorts of questions will type in questions for subjects that they’re not sure about or want to learn more of, and the first pieces of content they’ll come across are – you guessed it, blog posts. 

Using a blog can be a great way of highlighting your app and how a customer can use it with a more general insight into the industry. It explains your app’s mission and purpose, and helps your audience connect with it more.  

The usage of internal and external SEO in your blog posts can attract users and convert them into potential loyal customers who will want to keep using your app. 

A subset of blogging is guest blogging, where you contract websites and blogs that post similar content to yours in order to contribute a piece and get more eyes on your app. A good rule of thumb is to be careful not to promote your app through the post, but to provide useful and interesting content that can then be linked to your app at the very end of the post. 

3. Use incentives

Apps that offer freebies are known to retain more users. Free incentives can include the option to try free trials of premium features of your app, or offer money to users who manage to refer other users. 

Promotional codes are an excellent way to attract new and existing users as well, and the best way to make people aware of this is by placing ads on suitable websites and inviting users to try your app with a free or discounted code. 

4. Cross promote

If you haven’t targeted a large audience yet, you can try to maintain the one you already have. You can do this by cross promoting your app’s services with relevant partners to reach more users without needing to pay for ads. 

Cross promotion tactics include co-marketing and product partnerships, such as partnered social media campaigns and events with an influencer or a brand that is in the same niche as yours. A good point to bear in mind is to partner up with a brand that emphasizes your own app’s uniqueness rather than compete for consumers’ loyalty.

Cross promotion, partner marketing or however you want to call it, is one of the biggest underestimated app growth hacks in my opinion. This tactic often requires strong networking skills and the ability to negotiate, but often result in massive growth.

5. App growth hacking doesn’t exist without experimenting

Experimenting is the strongest suit of app growth hacking. You will have to know what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to growing your app, and where any improvements may be necessary for mobile app growth. It’s a lot of trial and error, and that’s super important to understand.

One of the best ways to experiment as a growth hacker is by using A/B testing in the app and across various channels, such as email, SMS, advertising, landing pages, and so on, in order to understand what their users are attracted to.

6. Set up a solid push notification strategy

As mentioned in the intro, the desired output o app growth hacking can be divided into two parts: 1) user growth and 2) user retention. A solid push notification strategy is a must of (almost) every user retention strategy.

Push notifications are a great way to engage with your users because these are targeted, personalized messages that can be seen without asking for the user’s contact information, such as an email address. They just need to be approved by the users first.

When planning your push notification strategy, you will want to find ways that engage with your users and prevent them from being bored or disinterested. 

It turns out that the success rate of push notifications may differ from one user segment to another. According to Upland, out of those who open push notifications, 54% convert from segmented pushes, as opposed to just 15% who convert from bulk pushes. 

When asking for permission to send push notifications to your users, you may want to get creative. Try to provide users with actionable and important alerts, personalize the messages, and always make sure to test and optimize your results.

7. Incorporate feedback loops

Having a feedback loop in place can help you decide how to solve some of your app’s largest issues by analyzing feedback from your users, and noticing key trends and pain points. 

The loop isn’t completed until you inform your users that you have tackled their issues. 

A customer feedback loop can help you keep your product relevant to the user, increase user satisfaction, and encourage promotion by word of mouth. Many app growth hacking experiments are also the result of the output of the above mentioned feedback loops.

8. Ramp up your referrals

Letting others know about your app through referrals is one of the most effective ways of getting their attention. Customers acquired through word-of-mouth have a much higher retention rate of 37%, so brands that want to experience speedy growth will be more inclined to research referrals. 

A good way to experience fast growth is by offering incentives not just to your referred users but the users who referred them in the first place. The incentives can include free perks such as a free version of a paid feature.

9. Optimize your app store listings (ASO)

To attract your ideal users organically, app store optimization (ASO) is your best friend. 

This is because the first thing a user does to address their exact need is by searching for an app. So you need to make sure that you appear in the detailed results that they will come across. 

ASO can help you enhance your app’s visibility and discoverability in the app store. It does this by optimizing different aspects of your app that defines it for the users. 

Basic ASO methods include using an appropriate title and keywords for your app, optimizing your app description, icons, and screenshots, and localizing your app listing for a more personalized experience.

Tip: ASO should not be confused with Apple Search Ads (ASA), which is a form of advertising within Apple’s App Store.

10. Cultivate a community

A community within your app can provide valuable content and interaction opportunities for users, and can play an essential role in your app growth strategy. 

For instance, even before you launch your app, you can make an announcement to your community, which can initiate excitement among your ideal audience. This helps attract new users or strengthen your relationship with your existing community, who can then refer your app to other users. 

11. Expand your email list

Compiling an email list of your users can cause significant growth for your app. To start growing your list, you can begin considering the ways through which you can ask customers for their email addresses. 

Such ways include but are not limited to gaining them through an app, via website forms, during events, transactions or on via social media.

12. Gamification

Today, people, especially millennials and generation Z, tend to have short attention spans that make them feel bored more easily than before. It is no wonder that TikTok has reached the popularity it has. This means that for your app to stand out to them, you need to keep them engaged with exciting and challenging aspects.

Gamification plays a big part of how engaged your users are with your app. It forms a part of user engagement and retention strategy, and can include all areas from social media management, in-product customer experiences, to personalized discounts and giveaways, etc. In short, gamification helps keep your app in competition with others.

A study shows that games rank higher than other apps in the Apple App Store categories in 2022. Specifically, 13.66% of apps belong to the gaming category, followed by business, which is 10.15%, thanks to games’ engagement tools such as badges, rewards, points, scoreboards, internal currency, levels, and so on. 

When you gamify your app, you help spark curiosity in your users who will want to claim more rewards. You also cause competition through elements like scoreboards and make users feel as if they are in control, such as deciding which milestone to complete next. 

13. Start a bi-weekly webinar

Having a webinar lets you engage with your audience on a direct level. 

It allows you to give your users valuable insight into your app, by giving away knowledge, training and expertise. 

This direct engagement helps foster a loyal user base. The best part is that you can organize webinars at a frequency of your choice, but a bi-weekly webinar (a webinar occuring once every two weeks), is a good rate to start at. 

Webinars are an amazing way of establishing connections with existing and potential users since you are giving your app a visual representation which can have a significant impact on the image of your app and brand in general.

Conclusion

Whether you’re about to launch your app or launched it a while ago, the question of growing your user base and downloads doesn’t stop. App growth hacking can be done at any point during your app development journey, and is an essential tool used by any app that has known significant success at some point. 

Coming up with the exact growth hacks to use can be tricky, and this is why experimenting with different tactics until you find the one that best suits you is your best bet. Then, you can use that strategy to help you continue attaining more and more users even after months or years of launching. 

Happy Hacking! 

Need help with hacking your app’s growth? Get in touch with us.

When we venture into production management, we ensure we need every bit of analysis we have for a customer. It enables us to upgrade or create a well-established product. So this is where many processes butt in— customer interviews, surveys, and in-product analytics. 

As people working in the production, we have garnered a lot of questions about how the customers use our product. Questions like, “How much time do users spend on the app?” or maybe “Which product feature gets the least amount of interaction?” or could be like “What does the customer use the most?”

These clues allow us to think about how to improve their experience critically. As technology continues to generate more help, product analytics have also evolved. And with the use of product analytics tool, we gain insights quickly.

What is Mixpanel?

One prevalent product analytics tool that most developers use is Mixpanel. Mixpanel collects data and information from users and your server. This information is then analyzed in real-time to better identify trends and user behavior. It also enables you to integrate contextual analytics data to target users with different communications and experiments to increase user engagement.

Mixpanel Features

Mixpanel offers features such as A/B testing, customer engagement, retention features, mobile surveys, event tracking, comprehensive data tracking, and many more. 

If we were to ask, “Why Mixpanel?” 

Mixpanel Pricing

Mixpanel promises a plan for every product. The pricing includes three options, free, growth, and enterprise.

Why do we need to find Mixpanel alternatives?

Mixpanel believes it has the best features to help answer product questions. Though they offer some fantastic features, it has a lot of shortcomings than most people think.

However, it is mostly not the case. Some users complain that there is currently no support for free plan users. The customer support could have been helpful, but it kept customers hanging and unsatisfied.

Inconsistent and non-visualizing report

As a product analytics tool, one should create a report that most users would love and trust. But, some users complained that the Mixpanel reports were not visual enough. 

Visuals can create a different type of interest for many of its users. While it’s not a deal-breaker for some, it still can provide an impact.

Moreover, some users said in a review that they do not trust Mixpanel’s reporting. The report they had was inconsistent with their own personal data analytics. It left some questioning the reputation of the reports.

Not user-friendly interface

Many customers believe Mixpanel’s interface is excellent, but it can be overwhelming. Especially for first-time developers, beginners might take a long time to figure out everything.

A customer once said that while the dashboard is packed, many things are going on, making it hard to look for a specific feature you want.

Manual Event Tracking

Mixpanel does not save you the cost by requiring engineering resources to customize your event tracking. The implementation needs your best guess about which user event matters the most, e.g., selections, media plays, and purchases. After this, you need to have an engineer construct it all. 

If, later, you realize that your previous guess was not the “best guess,” you have to repeat the whole customization process and risk yourself generating wrong and inconsistent data. 

10 Mixpanel alternatives

The product analytics world does not stop at Mixpanels only. There is a whole world of tools out there that we could use! So we will give you these A-list alternatives that will satisfy your needs.

Heap

Heap works in a way where it combines quantitative and qualitative analytics to know the engagement between the customers and your product. 

Unlike Mixpanel, Heap offers automatic event tracking. This feature alone saves the time and effort of product users. Users could devote their time to other more relevant focuses rather than learning complicated implementation.

Moreover, Heap gives a better funnel analysis by tracking the first landing page of users and the last landing page. This feature can lead to a better understanding of user interactions and further optimize the user funnel.

However, it does not offer A/B Testing. But the thing is, it still has a lot of options you can venture on. In addition, Heap has better customer service, which caters to customer problems and queries.

Heap pricing

It has four options when it comes to pricing. The Free, Growth, Pro, and Premier. The free version can provide even up to 10,000 monthly sessions.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the most go-to analytics tools. In fact, 50% of the website prefers to use it. Is it an excellent Mixpanel alternative?

It is free but has enough tools to give you an analysis of your data. Google Analytics is much easier to use when compared to Mixpanel. This is also a better option for small businesses since it is free.

Though free and easy to use, Google Analytics is not as good for event tracking. We might need a little help from Mixpanel for this one, or— maybe not because Google Analytics has the 360 version. It provides more advanced tools such as Unsampled Reports, BigQuery Export, and Data-Driven Attribution. Google Analytics 360 also has a service level agreement covering data collection, freshness reporting, a higher processing limit, and access to support specialists.

Google Analytics pricing:

Though it is free, Google Analytics 360 at $150,000 per year. This increases if your site gets more than a billion monthly hits.

CleverTap

CleverTap offers an automated, scalable, and secure ecosystem. It also helps companies understand, segment, and engage users in real-time using context and powerful AI/ML models.

CleverTap focuses mainly on increasing user retention and customer loyalty to mobile apps. It relies on AI suggestions on how a company must improve its revenues and product conversions. Furthermore, it gives more digital channels that allow companies to communicate more with their audience.

Nevertheless, it has the same manual event setup as Mixpane and has become costly for small business owners, but it still does its job well.

CleverTap pricing:
CleverTap does not offer a free version, but you can take a peek at the product through its 14-day trial. The priced version needs contact for naming. But according to Capterra, pricing starts at about $1,000 per month.

Amplitude Analytics

Per Amplitude Analytics, they have ranked number one among the most used product analytics tools. Among their most notable clients are Shopify, Ford, instacart, etc.

One advantage of using Amplitude Analytics is that their platform extends to tablet versions of websites. On top of that, you can also see the way customers explore your product and which feature has been used often by them.

Aside from providing better customer support, it offers a more concise and convenient roadmap and feature updates.

Amplitude Analytics pricing:
The pricing includes a free version called Starter that can cater  to10 million user action per month. 

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics has many customization options that let you analyze data. It might be a remarkable approach for experienced companies, but this might be too much for smaller enterprises.

On the other note, Adobe Analytics provides more complex features than Mixpanel, which might be the best alternative, especially if you are dealing with Adobe products.

Contrary to its wide range of offers, Adobe Analytics is quite challenging from a small enterprise point of view. The ” challenge ” is not solely based on overwhelming features but also on its high price.

Adobe Analytics pricing: Product pricing requires you to contact their service and depends on your product size.

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics delivers advanced product and marketing analysis. You can trace your traffic sources and see how they influence conversions and revenues. You can also track every user action and examine them thoroughly.

Furthermore, in Kissmetrics, it allows you to alias users every time they pay a visit to your website. This is contrary to Mixpanel, where you can match alias to users only once.

Kismmetrics will perform best on web-based products, but if you are an iOS or an Android-based, Mixpanel will outperform Kissmetrics.

Kissmetrics pricing: For SaaS, it offers $299 per month and as low as $299 for the e-commerce starter plan.

Countly

Countly is the suitable Mixpanel alternative when you are more concerned about security. It securely processes billions of data points every day for company growth.

Countly maintains very detailed profiles about users and their behavior. You are entirely in control of your data, unlike Mixpanel, where they can access the data and even control its flow.

Although it freely gives you the control, Countly still needs a better configuration view page and a more defined customization feature to help starters.

Countly pricing:
Countly has a free version called the community edition. In contrast, the custom-priced version is called the enterprise edition.

FullStory

FullStory features are much more related to its name. Its Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) platform gives the “full story” so you can create digital growth and transformation.

A beginner-friendly product that mainly targets consumer apps, FullStory lays out its best features for mobile apps and online stores. Moreover, it exudes collaboration tools that allow a broad stretch of integrations.

Many companies use FullStory with Mixpanel’s JavaScript library to maximize both tools. You can’t do A/B testing on this but despite that, its beginner-friendly features allow you to see the entire customer session. It gives you a peek at how users use your product, which bugs they experienced, etc.

FullStory pricing: FullStory has two pricing options, the Enterprise and the Business. The Business option has a 14-day trial period before it charges you at a custom price.

Pendo

Pendo is an easy-to-use analytics tool that helps deliver better product experiences for happier and more productive customers. Pendo gives more user information through clicking paths, page views, and others. Through this, product teams can foresee which features they have to improve or retain based on user popularity.

Pendo might have fewer integrations than Mixpanel, but it also has features beyond Mixpanel’s limitations. These features are employee and user onboarding that qualifies to become an acceptable entry when it comes to analytic features.

Pendo pricing: Pendo has four pricing options, free, team, pro, and enterprise

Quantum Metric

Quantum Metric focuses on putting people at the heart of your product by helping you increase retention, conversions, and customer loyalty. 

You can trust that Quantum Metric can provide the experience you want in a product analytics tool. It is jammed with features like A/B testing, conversion tracking, link and keyword tracking, and many more. Aside from that, it also allows you to view customer session like FullStory.

It also comes with multi-site features, which are absent in Mixpanel. You can also track site search and time-on-site adding more data to your user analysis.

One disadvantage Quantum Metric has is that the automatic capture of events produces complex data that would require an expert to understand it. But overall, Quantum Metric is your guy if you want to focus on behavioral analytics rather than statistical and event analysis.

Quantum Metric pricing:
Quantum Metric requires you to contact their support to agree with pricing to use their features.

Conclusion

There are still more trusted Mixpanel alternatives that might not be on the list in the meantime. The key to picking the right tool for you depends on what features you want to focus on, your budget, the size of your company, etc.

The thing is, you have to know your product first before wanting to know your customers. In this way, you might pick the best product for you.

Do you need a guide in choosing the best Mixpanel alternative for your company? AppGrowthHackers is here to help. We are a group of experts in product analytics tools. Contact us now.

The app retention rate is a crucial indicator of user lifetime value and an essential measure for mobile marketers. If you want users to stick around in your app, you need to use an effective app retention strategy to keep them returning for more.

Research by Bain & Company, an American consulting firm, shows  that a 5 percent increase in user retention increases profits by 25% to 95%.

The level of user retention varies by app category, but if done correctly, it can increase revenue and foster consumer loyalty to your company. This article will outline practical app retention strategies you can start using today.

What Is App Retention?

A retention rate refers to the number of users who continue to use your app after the first day (D1), the seventh day (D7), and the thirty-day mark (D30). 

The more time users spend on an app, the more likely they generate revenue. Also, a high retention rate indicates that users are having a pleasant experience with the app.

You can measure an app’s retention rate by dividing the number of monthly active users by the number of installations.

App retention = number of monthly active users/number of monthly installs

7 App Retention Strategies To Increase User Engagement

What can you do to keep your customers coming back? Here are a few strategies that the most popular apps follow:

1. Test Your App in Beta

If a mobile app is beta tested with an invitation-only audience, it will probably have a high retention rate after it launches. This method will help you avoid having troubles with your app that could hurt your user retention.

You should encourage people to submit feedback when beta testing your app so that you can improve the user experience. This procedure will ensure that your app is ready to go on launch day in the best possible condition.

Beta testing allows you to give early access to eager consumers and establish brand loyalty even before the release of your app in the app store.

2. Customize the onboarding process

To improve your user retention, one of the first things you should do is adapt and personalize the onboarding process for each new user. The user will invest more time in your app from the start if they understand what it offers better.

Using deep linking, you can direct users to a specific section of your app based on where they came from. It ensures that your message is consistent and does not overwhelm the first-time user.

Consider the following while optimizing user onboarding: simplicity is key

To ensure a smooth onboarding process, focus on the most crucial aspects. However, you should not overwhelm your user with too much information. To make your app more user-friendly, it is better to provide the user with a glimpse of the experience.

Use images or animation
If you’re trying to catch a user’s attention or explain how to use your app, a visual or animation may be the best method. Consider using visually appealing elements to make onboarding as simple as possible for your consumers.

CTA at the end of onboarding
A call-to-action at the end of onboarding can help boost customer retention. Asking them to subscribe to a mailing list or enable push notifications, for example, could be an option.

Don’t be afraid to ask for information that will help you craft a unique experience for each user. Slack is a shining example of a seamless onboarding process. It takes users through the app’s features one by one before prompting them to log in or register.

As a part of the overall app retention strategy, activating new users is critical to the process. Some of the most effective ways to streamline the onboarding process include:

Be welcoming

Welcome your first-time users with a personalized in-app message and a welcome email within 24 hours.

Get to the “Aha!” moment as quickly as possible

What essential features, information, or products should new users know to get the most out of your app?

Send polite reminders

To begin with, what drew a new user to your app? Utility? Investments? Entertainment? Ensure that they return to the app regularly to prove its usefulness.

Employ the multi-channel approach

Digital contact points allow customers to interact with your brand in various ways. Using a variety of channels, such as In-app chat, emails, or push notifications, you may create an impression and give a consistent user experience.

3. Always Monitor Your App’s Retention Statistics

The first step in maximizing app retention for mobile devices is setting up accurate statistics tracking. You won’t know what to fix if you don’t understand the numbers. Using statistics as an analytical tool, you may better understand your user base.

The usefulness of statistics can take some time to develop. However, with time they help in measuring daily active user (DAU) metrics.

You can study retention and how to increase it using a few simple yet powerful data points. As there is no way to force the user to continue using your app, understanding engagement is best.

To gain a thorough knowledge of the engagement track, consider checking:

Active mobile app users

Understanding your app’s active users can disclose retention rates and give you a glimpse of its flaws. Observing a typical user’s path from sign-up to churn can reveal interesting patterns.

Duration of the user’s session

There is a direct correlation between length and level of involvement. You aim to maximize session length while minimizing user irritation.

Not sure what metrics to measure? These are the 6 retention metrics every app should measure.

4. Improve App Retention by Adding Gamification

Of all smartphone apps, games have the lowest churn rate. Unsurprisingly, these apps have a greater retention rate because they’re designed solely for fun. Game apps can teach you a few things.

To be effective, gamification doesn’t require a lot of glitz. The end-users themselves don’t even realize good gamification. 

Nearly every gadget on a fitness or health app offers a wonderful example. Most apps track steps, stairs, workout hours, and award top scores. That is gamification.

Even the most basic apps can benefit from gamification. Adding levels is one of the easiest examples to execute this for any program. The more time someone spends using an app, the more points they earn.

5. User customization

To increase customer retention, mobile marketers can harness the power of customization. In fact, 91 percent of buyers are more willing to shop with firms that offer customized deals and recommendations. 

Also, 90 percent of U.S. consumers find customization appealing when browsing. As a result of user data, you can personalize your app’s offerings in various ways. 

For example, addressing individuals by name, providing relevant suggestions, and so on. Over time, users will appreciate these customized additions and be more likely to return to your app in the future.

Making the correct choices while using customized methods is critical to success. You must first determine if it enhances the user’s experience. To avoid making your consumers feel uneasy, consider how and when you add customization features.

6. Use push notifications (in the right way)

You can send push notifications to a user phone directly to engage them. Users must, however, opt in to get push alerts from an app of their choosing.

When used correctly, push notifications can be a powerful tool for retaining and attracting users to your app. There will be a wide range of opt-in rates for different apps. 

Over 57 percent of users want social media platforms to send push notifications. Ecommerce, news, mobile games, blogs, and travel apps are favorites among users.

7. In-app messaging 

In-app messaging, like push notifications, can help keep users engaged. After 28 days, mobile apps that employ in-app messaging to engage with customers show a 61%-74% rise in retention rates.

It’s important to avoid overwhelming users with the same content if you’re using multiple retention tactics. 

For example, suppose a customer receives an in-app chat message and push alert for the same bargain each time you release a new update. In that case, they may become annoyed and opt-out of receiving push notifications altogether. 

To make in-app messages as helpful as possible, you should additionally categorize users depending on their preferences. Your user retention rate will increase because of this.

What Is a Decent App Retention Rate?

Research found day one retention on Android and iOS to be 26 percent in comparing retention rates across all verticals. On the seventh day, this dropped to 11 percent on Android and 13 percent on iOS. The average retention rate for both Android and iOS was 6 percent by day 30.

What can you learn from this?

You’ve got fantastic retention rates if your app keeps more than a third of its users after the first day. However, the average retention rate will vary depending on the app type, and you should evaluate it by testing.

Bottom Line: App Retention Strategy

After learning about the importance of client retention, you may ask, how can I put it into practice? Whether it’s to enhance revenue, build customer loyalty, or get more referrals. 

There is no singular optimal strategy to increase client retention because it depends entirely on your business model and target market. Although, based on the many well-executed retention campaigns discussed above, quality products and customer service are two underlying factors of strong client retention.

Do you need help with crafting your app retention strategy? Get in touch with us.