mobile user acquisition done right

Mobile App User Acquisition & Retention Done Right

Alkarim Nasser Managing Partner a@bnotions.com

10.30.13 / Presented by

The app marketplace is increasingly crowded and more competitive than ever before.

?

De-mystifying the “if you build it they will come”

mindset.

Owned

Earned

Paid

Brush Up on the Fundamentals of Media

How is your product going to get noticed?

The role of a UA expert

UA is a different kind of product manager

Building with the App Store

Partnerships +

Integrations

Tapping into Organic Growth

The role of Paid Media

Managing the Economics of UA

The Evolving UA Strategy

!

Becoming a UA Jedi

User acquisition is half as strong and more than twice as expensive when

operating in a silo.

DNA of a Growth Hacker • Data-driven • Results focused • Product + Media • Applied user data to enhance growth • Test, learn, optimize

DEVELOPER GROWTH HACKER

MARKETER

User acquisition is part marketing and part product

“Our company is massive - we already have product-focused people and my

job is just user acquisition.”

“Our company is massive - we already have product-focused people and my

job is just user acquisition.”

The most powerful tool in your arsenal is your product itself.

“Growth hacking is a recognition that when you focus on understanding your users and how they discover and

adopt your products you can build features that help you acquire and retain more users, rather than just spending

marketing dollars” - Josh Elman, Greylock Partners

Data -> In

formatio

n -> Knowledge ->

Wisd

om -> Decis

ions

Understanding

Cont

ext

Growth at Every Stage of the Funnel

Efficiently acquire the most productive users.

Continually engage the right

users.

Re-engage lapsed &

infrequent users.

Maximize revenue by

understanding and effectively

connecting with users.

Acquisition Engagement Retention Monetization Endorsement

Build the right triggers to encourage sharing and

organic growth

ReturningUnderstanding the Lifecycle

Card Creation

Shipping Information

Returning

Landing Page

To Me

Payment

Delivery

Reminder Email

One Time Trial Unsocial Buyer

Open Rate

Call to Action

Unsatisfied

Abandoned

Bounced

Not Interested

Sharing

ViralSearchPaid Direct

Facebook Sign-in

To Friend

Payment

Delivery

ReturningTighten Leaky Faucets

Cards Created: Users - 6,347 (22,650 total)

Shipping Select - 3,390

Returning 3,916

Landing Page - 23,460 totals

Me 1,856

1,083

Reminder Email

One Time Trial Unsocial Buyer

Open Rate

Call to Action

1,412

3,133

14,733 (63%)

2,204 (26%)

1,978

Viral 314

Search 131

Paid 13,906

Facebook Sign-in - 6,523 (Unique)

Them 1,534

895

1,978

176

1,2085,139

1,749

Reduced by 4% since launch day. Last 48 hours is 62%.

20% of selected friends have full privacy settings

in place.

65% of people who click purchase card (free or not)

abandon at shipping.

Email 433

FB Post 206

Direct 4527

1,978 OGA’s

1,447 “Peeks”

Billing: 54

8,727 (Total)

ReturningTighten Leaky Faucets

!

Operation Growth

The Mobile App Circle of Life

!

Owned

!

Earned !

Paid

How Hotmail “Pwned” with Owned Media

with Hotmail.

Hotmail wasn’t growing fast enough. Tim Draper, VC at DFJ, suggested attaching a message at the end of every email asking for the recipient to sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.

Get your free email with Hotmail. Lead to Hotmail, eventually, growing by 150k users a day. And later copied by Blackberry and Apple.

How Hotmail “Pwned” with Owned Media

!

Leveraging the App Stores

You want these folks in your corner!

Just another tool in your toolbox

Getting featured is not the end all of user acquisition strategies. It is icing on the cake and is validation you built a good product

How are the App Stores organized?

Small centralized team App Store editorial run by independent teams within

each country

Getting Featured #protip

Study the UI/UX guidelines and platform specific design patterns.

Getting Featured #protip

Making them apart of the process

Getting Featured #protip

Leverage core hardware and OS-related features in your application.

Getting Featured #protip

If the app stores see your product as a case study for how apps get made -they will feature it.

!

Growth Hacking Partnerships + Integrations

Winning by Partnership

Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

Winning by Partnership

Find complimentary products understand their objectives and collaborate

Vu and Partnerships

A personalized content recommendation service.

Vu and Partnerships

+

Vu worked with 500px to offer up contextual background images based on the user’s location, time of day and weather. !They paid attribution to 500px and drive user’s to their app. 500px used their owned media channels to drive awareness to their millions of users. !Win. Win.

Paypal Piggybacking eBay PayPal started off with a $20 signup bonus to all who signed up and $20 to anyone who referred someone else (eventually went to $10 and then $50) !Paypal Piggyback on eBay’s rapid growth in the late 90’s by having sellers advertise PayPal as their preferred method of payment. Major benefit to sellers was the referral bonus which greatly added to their margins. Buyers and sellers preference to PayPal greatly increased it’s growth (PayPal Wars) !As eBay opened their own payment platform, PayPal countered with immediate emails once the auction closed allowing the buyer to complete the transaction through the email.

Best Growth Hacks of All Time

http://www.slideshare.net/morganb180/growth-hacking-101

Great Partnerships Yield…

- shared press opportunities - mutual awareness of app to both user bases - greater validation of the product in the market place - types of symbiotic relationships you traditionally would only find in the valley - acquisition opportunities !!and much much more….

!

Giving users fishing rods

You don’t have to be alone -

1. We share to craft our identities 2. We share to build relationships 3. We share to make our lives easier/better 4. We share to help others !!

Build Something Your Users Will be Proud to Share. !

Facebook Integration

Facebook log-in provides a simple and easy way to sign into apps without creating new usernames and passwords.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/facebook-permission-post/fb-infographic/

What Makes Excellent Social Integration

Social integration is about allowing your user base to share and incite conversation

Community/Social Integration

Sharing Inviting Friends

Integrating friends into the in-app

experience drives engagement

Creating open graph and wall post actions

around favoriting items creates conversation

Encourage your user base to share the app

with their friends

A Brilliant Users Gets Users Strategy

!

C.R.E.A.M.

Core Paid Media Pricing Models

CPM - Cost per Mile User sees a banner add for your campaign

!

CPC - Cost per Click User clicks on a banner ad within a campaign !

CPI - Cost per Install User successfully installs an application through a campaign !

CPA - Cost Per Action User successfully performs an action through a campaign (liking a FB page) !

!

The Tough Truth About Paid Media

Not all media is made equally

Be Prepared to Spend

You can spend anywhere between a few cents to several dollars to get your message in front of users !Drivers

Type Industry Targeting

Quality Demographic Network

The Tough Truth About Paid Media

1. Grow Awareness

The Tough Truth About Paid Media

1. Grow Awareness

2. Grow Users

Paid Media Drives App Store Rankings

Downloads per day required to reach top rankings in US app store:

!

Top 10: 70,000 downloads per day Top 50: 23,000 downloads per day

A Division of

Media Effectiveness

40% of the Top 100 grossing apps used Facebook Mobile Ads

A Division of

Win with Intelligent Targeting

Performance driven: • Assess the impact of advertising by tying spend to conversion (cost-per-install) & ROI

!

Reach your audience at the right time with the right message.

Growing the Right Types of Users

Precise targeting (90% accuracy vs 50% cookies on the web): • Based on a user’s real identity • Device specific: iPhone, iPad & Android • Broad & precise targeting: Gaming (social/online), competitive users, early adopters etc.

Target specific users and look-alikes of those users: • Use email lists & app ids to target via custom & look-alike audiences

• Target friends of current users

A Division of

Win with Fresh Content

• Refresh Creative 2-3 times per week

• Average Facebook ad has a peak CTR in the first 72 hours

• 37% of advertisers refresh creative once every 5-14 days

A Division of

Win with Compelling Creative

!• Impactful imagery: Lifestyle and/or app screen shots

• Visual: Images with less than 20% text

• Action-oriented: Powerful call-to-action at the end of the ad

!

The economics of media

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How much you spent to acquire a user !

Life Time Value (LTV) What is the average revenue accumulated over a user’s lifetime

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

!

K-Factor For each user you have how many news ones they create

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

spend paid + (paid*k) CAC =

Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability

sustainability: CAC <= LTV

Pre Launch Build Channels Customer Generation Prototype Validation FB Group Launch Rock Kickstarter

Build Momentum Social Media Owned Channels Word of Mouth PR App Store

1+1 = 2 Paid Media (acquisition) Partnerships/Integrations Focus on Sustainable Spend Optimize Viral Loop

World Domination Paid Media Optimize Viral Loop Cross Platform Optimization

Growth Hacking Success and Paul Graham’s Start Up Curve

A Division of

Thank YouAlkarim Nasser

Managing Partner, BNOTIONS a@bnotions.com @alkarim