A lot of us are familiar with the challenge of scaling advertising and marketing activities/channels while keeping the LTV:CAC ratio stable. In my talk, I’ve shared the approaches that we’re using in product and marketing that let us scale wisely and, in most cases, profitably.

1. How we’ve increased cLTVs and
are fighting off rising CACs
Ekaterina Shpadareva
Mimo

2. About myself
● Mobile, Growth, and Performance Marketing for Finance, SaaS, Health and
Fitness, Education startups
● Teaching Digital Marketing at Yandex.Practicum
🌍 Vienna, AT
🧡 🐈🏔📚

3. About Mimo
● Mission: Make coding
accessible
● >17 million downloads
● Google Editor's Choice, Best
Self-Improvement App 2018
● Apple Editors' Choice

4. The Scaling "dilemma"

5. The Scaling "dilemma"
● Trying to scale via paid marketing → ↑ CPAs. IF same cLTV → ↓ CAC ratio
● Not trying to scale → ↓ market share, slower growth or stagnation

6. The Scaling "dilemma"
Main reasons:
● Audience saturation
From high intent customers to a lower intent audience
● Channel saturation
● Market saturation
More competition → more friction to convert potential customers

7. How we've increased cLTVs by 65%

8. 1. Address users' needs and doubts

9. Focus on users' needs and doubts
User interviews:

10. Types of user interviews for marketing and growth teams:
● Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) interviews for marketing communications
● JTBD to improve the marketing channels mix
● Voluntarily churned customers: reasons for cancelling trial or subscription
● Engaged non-paying users: reasons for not upgrading
Focus on users' needs and doubts

11. User feedback analysis:
1) store reviews
2) cancellation reasons on Google Play Store
3) responses to surveys sent via email
4) customer support tickets
Focus on users' needs and doubts
→ hypothesis for experiments

12. Focus on users' needs and doubts
+53%
Purchase
rate
Fewer
Support
tickets
Ratings
and
reviews
Fear to forget to cancel the trial → >50% cancellations within 24h after the install or no trial opt-in at all

13. 2. Experiment with packaging,
timing, pricing

14. Packaging, timing, pricing
Plans and packaging:
Free features vs locked features → revenue drop vs retention / virality / branding
2.5x “share”
rate
2 free
playgrounds
0 free
playgrounds
No drop in
purchase rate

15. Timing:
Source: https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-optimization-framework-how-to-better-monetize-your-app-in-2021/
Packaging, timing, pricing

16. Timing:
● If users see the app value at the beginning → make use of it (e.g. onboarding)
● If a user is on a monthly subscription and active → upsell to a longer-term
● Experiment with trial duration (per use case), or trial vs introductory pricing
Source: https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-optimization-framework-how-to-better-monetize-your-app-in-2021/
Packaging, timing, pricing

17. Pricing:
Willingness-to-pay (van Westendorp price sensitivity) per segment / buyer persona
Example:
Packaging, timing, pricing

18. For example, in onboarding:
Packaging, timing, pricing

19. Source: https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/headspace-calm-pricing
Packaging, timing, pricing

20. Pricing:
WTP ranges per segment / buyer persona → discounts strategy.
● Lower perceived product value
● ARPPU cannibalization
● Higher customer churn
Packaging, timing, pricing

21. Limited-time offers per segment:
- A user outside the regular purchase-window AND has been exposed to paywalls / paid
features,
- OR a subscriber who churned because of the price
→
50%-85% lifetime discounted subscription
(or one-off purchase) for a limited time
Packaging, timing, pricing

22. 3. Value nurturing

23. Value nurturing
Customer value nurturing = help customers recognize the value from solution and
the fact that they are being successful
● Remind customers of the value that they are getting
● Add value through activities beyond the solution
● Align your business model and story with customer values

24. Communication via in-app messages, emails, push notifications
→ split for Basic and Pro users
Value nurturing

25. App updates:
Value nurturing

26. Fighting off rising CACs

27. Fighting off rising CACs
Paid advertising:
● Breakthrough creatives
● New channels
● New ad formats
● Campaign goals and objectives
● Audience targeting expansion
● Different auctions (mobile + web)

28. Fighting off rising CACs
? Think of the additional growth mechanisms / loops that:
1) can have bigger impact
2) are relevant for use case and core value
3) are a leverage for retention and/or brand

29. Fighting off rising CACs
● Incentivized viral loops aka “invite-reward” scheme
○ Incentives
■ Meaningful
■ Aligned with the core motivation or
improving user experience
○ Positioning
■ Timing
○ UI/UX

30. Fighting off rising CACs
● Content sharing
○ Achievements
○ Progress
○ UGC
+51% D7
retention

31. BJ Fogg behavioral model
Action = Trigger * Motivation * Ability
Fighting off rising CACs
Internal Achievement Free
External Trust/Authority Discount
Competence Try
Completion Continue
Belonging Get
Scarcity Easy
Urgency Fast

32. Before an experiment, try to model the
potential outcome:
○ conversion rates along the funnel
○ new and recurring revenue
(ARPPU, LTV)
○ # renewal periods
Internal processes

33. ● Use score frameworks, e.g. ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) and grade
experiments based on feature exposure and output.
● Before launching the experiment: use a template feat.
○ hypothesis,
○ primary and secondary KPIs,
○ tradeoffs
● During/After the experiment: use a template with the visuals, results and
learnings (example)
Internal processes

34. Internal processes
● Functional and cross-functional teams' collaboration
(Customer Happiness, Product Design, Marketing, Growth)
● Sprint and feature alignments
● Ideas exchange in public communication channels

35. Let’s connect!
Me on LinkedIn: Ekaterina Shpadareva