The document discusses aligning user acquisition and retention efforts to improve mobile app growth. It argues that acquisition and retention teams often work in silos when they should collaborate to provide a consistent user experience. A case study is presented of a TV and movie streaming app where an audit of retention rates found they varied significantly depending on the advertising creative used. Testing different onboarding messages tailored to each acquisition source helped validate hypotheses and improve day one retention rates. In summary, breaking down silos between teams and aligning product and marketing efforts across the entire user journey can increase product-market fit and compound user retention.

1. Get Your Story Straight
Andy Carvell - Partner at Phiture
Ed Burrows - Retention Lead at Phiture
Aligning UA and Retention Efforts

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@andy_carvell
@phituregrowth
mobilegrowthstack.com
phiture.com

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App Store Optimization | Retention | Mobile Growth Strategy

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Are you working in Silos?

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Retention = Compound Growth
Many apps have poor retention
● they lose almost as many users as
they acquire in a given period
Acquisition can hide the problem, but
can’t fix it
Neither is Retention purely a ‘product
problem’
Winning teams work together to
improve performance through the
funnel

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Dave McClure’s AARRR funnel. Img src: http://startitup.co/guides/374/aarrr-startup-metrics

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- Quote from Gabor Papp
- http://bit.ly/rarra (MobileGrowthStack.com)

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Onboarding Starts Outside the App
User expectations are set before they
download the app:
● PR + Media Coverage
● Brand Positioning
● Ad Creatives + Targeting
● App Store Listing

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Quick Case Study
Vody: TV + Movie streaming companion app

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Retention curve deep dive
● TV companion app with content
discovery, social and show tracking
features
● Phiture conducted an extensive retention
audit to target retention inputs
● Directional insights from qual data as
well as quant
* All data for case study has been changed for
confidentiality

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Retention by ad creative
Ad Group Users Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8
Best performing
GENERAL - ACTION 4,852 21.53% 19.69% 15.25% 13.40% 10.94% 10.70% 8.48% 8.60%
IMAGE GENERAL_1200X628 11,249 20.79% 15.38% 12.25% 9.75% 9.43% 9.06% 7.68% 7.04%
IMAGE GAME OF THRONES 4,128 20.55% 14.61% 12.15% 11.86% 9.55% 9.40% 6.80% 6.65%
Image GENERAL LOOKALIKE 52,242 17.77% 14.91% 13.36% 13.25% 9.61% 8.60% 7.31% 6.37%
Worst performing
Image 1200x627 66,633 14.48% 8.58% 7.77% 7.98% 5.82% 5.70% 4.52% 3.59%
Image - G7 - General 62,548 13.52% 9.40% 8.31% 8.35% 6.34% 5.74% 4.84% 4.55%
Image - VODY 1200x627 15,717 12.58% 6.57% 7.10% 10.45% 5.47% 6.38% 4.37% 3.34%
Video - GEO Test - SW 3,720 11.00% 5.54% 6.18% 8.91% 4.25% 4.73% 3.13% 2.65%
Not so good
Good
FAKE DATA

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Retention by ad creative
Mentions only tracking
Mentions only TV show and movie
discovery (also “Free” is used)

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Hypothesis validation
1. Discover 2. Track
Reaffirming the relevant value
proposition as a welcome modal before
the signup wall, we will increase D1
retention by X%.

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Hypothesis validation
Reaffirming the relevant value
proposition as a welcome modal before
the signup wall, we will increase D1
retention by X%.
VALIDATED HYPOTHESIS
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
%
retained
DaysBefore
After

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Another example: Pinterest contextual onboarding

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OMG Piggies!
Initial promise (piggies) is propagated into my first app session...

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Quick Summary
Retention isn’t ‘just’ a product issue; break down the silos!
Increasing Product-Market-Fit is about alignment of product + marketing
efforts:
● Promises made in Marketing + App Store should be continued and
fulfilled in Product
● Specific tactics that can help:
○ Regularly segment retention curves by Acquisition Source /
Campaign
○ Ensure messaging is consistent across user touchpoints
○ Adaptive in-app onboarding, tailored to acquisition context

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Thanks!
andy.carvell@phiture.com
Twitter: @andy_carvell
mobilegrowthstack.com |
phiture.com