With millions of apps in the App Store and Google Play, it can be hard to stand out. And, user acquisition is only half the battle: 80-90% of downloaded apps are used once and then deleted. Today, best-in-class apps are meticulously focused on building lasting relationships with their users through optimization. In this webinar, we’ll cover the essential optimization principles necessary for user acquisition, activation, and retention. You'll learn: -Best practices for identifying optimization goals -Key mobile metrics you’ll need to guide the process -A decision-making framework for choosing what to A/B test -Experiment success stories from app development teams

1. Mobile App Optimization for
Acquisition, Activation and Retention
Sean Oliver

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

3. Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics (AARRR)
Startup Metrics for Pirates

4. Startup Metrics for Pirates
Push Notifications
Remarketing
App Store Listing
In-App Advertising
Social
Advertising
ASO
New User
Onboarding
Waitlist
In-App
Purchases
Ads
Desktop
Purchases
My App
Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics (AARRR)

5. “Your assumptions are often wrong and
how you expect people to use your app is
actually not how they use it at all. When
you’re optimizing your app you can see
that, iterate on it, and make a more
usable product.”
—Ben Cole, Conversion Coordinator, MEC

6. What you need to know
Getting Started

7. • Business case - what’s the goal and potential impact?
• Buy-in from the team and key stakeholders
• Developer know-how or support to install an SDK
• Bandwidth allocated in sprints for testing, or dedicated point person
• Bottlenecks - what is the #1 metric you need to improve right now?
• Customer insights - analytics, qualitative feedback, etc.
Getting Started
To successfully start a process of optimization, you’ll need:

8. Quantifying LTV:CAC
Customer
Acquisition Costs
Monetization
Retention
Virality
Acquisition Costs
Lifetime Value
:

9. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

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

11. How Users Discover Apps

12. First Impressions Matter

13. Optimizing Acquisition
App Store Ads Referrals
Icon Design Ad Copy
App Title
Screenshots App Store Listing
Promotions
Referral Copy
Incentive
First-Time User Experience

14. App Store Optimization
Opportunities to influence a download decision
InstaSize
Photo & Video

15. App Store Optimization
Icon
Title
Screenshots
•User testing
•Use as an ad
•Keyword in title
•Be aware of character count
•Keep consistent
•Treat as banner ads
•Add context & value prop
InstaSize
Photo & Video

16. App Store Optimization
Test your value prop with assets you have

17. App Store Optimization
Use a landing page to test
elements of ASO.
Low-cost traffic:
• Social ads
• AdWords
• Retargeting

18. App Store Optimization
Bring moments to Life with Flipagram
#1 Free App in over 80 countries with almost 100
million users!
DOWNLOAD
Or create a landing page
that looks just like your app
store listing.

19. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

20. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

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

22. Activation Hurdles
81% of users say
an app needs to
make a good first
impression for
them to continue
using it
56% of users
haven’t signed up
for an app because
the registration
process was too
long or confusing
First Impressions Matter; Clarity + Speed
81%
19%
56%
44%

23. Optimizing User Onboarding
Keys to a Great User Onboarding Experience
Stay Focused
Show, Don’t Tell
Remove Friction
Indicate Advancement
Be Human
Keep Educating
More detail in this blog post

24. French Girls Optimizes Activation
Increased activation from 25%
to 66.5%
• Optimizing quality of the first-time user
experience (FTUE)
• Create understanding of how the app works
• Activation = the difference between 1-2 days of
use and 7+ days of use

25. “For us, activation is directly
correlated to retention. Without
activation, retention is poor.”
– Jeff Farkas, Developer, French Girls

26. French Girls Optimizes Activation
Baseline Activation Rate: 25%

27. French Girls Optimizes Activation
Baseline Activation Rate: 25%

28. French Girls Optimizes Activation
Winning Variation
Activation
50%

29. Optimizing Activation
When optimizing for activation, consider:
• Does your app require registration?
• What is the order of operations for first time users?
• Does your app help users complete actions on first-time use?
• Does your app live up to its value prop during onboarding?

30. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

31. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

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

33. Optimizing Retention
Mobile app retention varies widely by app category
Source

34. Optimizing Retention
Install First-Time Use Repeated Use
Registration
Customization
Instant Gratification
Push Notifications
Email
App Flow & Dynamics
Notification Permissions

35. Retention Hurdles
iOS notifications are
opt-in. Generally,
less than 50% of
users will receive
push notifications.
50% 50%
95%
5%
Android notifications
are opt-out,
meaning nearly all
users (95%)
receive push
notifications.
Source
Push Notification Differences: iOS and Android

36. Optimizing Retention
Optimize when and how you ask for push notification permissions:
Opt-in prompts help to add context before making “the ask”

37. Optimizing Retention
Customize future calls to action during onboarding:
User-specific information to personalize future messaging
Source

38. Optimizing Retention
Source
Onboarding
Push Notifications
Direct users to actions that will make them valuable long-term users:

39. Optimizing Retention
• Think about push notification permissions in the context of your
FTUE
• Create a plan for enabling notifications beyond the first session
• Obsess over the quality of each email or push notification you
send
• Encourage linking mobile and web accounts to bring customer
data together and personalize the experience
Ideas for Tests:

40. Optimizing Retention
• Are there network effects in my app that can pull my users back in?
• Is there a pattern or schedule of how users start their sessions? How
can it be encouraged?
• What information about my users do I have that can personalize their
future experiences?
• Can you apply any gamification techniques to your app?
When optimizing for retention, consider:

41. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

42. Acquisition
Activation
Retention
BONUS: Reviews!

43. Optimizing App Store Reviews
• Quality of reviews is important, but so is quantity
• Be thoughtful about how you ask for feedback
• Don’t interrupt your user’s experience
• Optimize when, where, and with what tone you ask
Reviews are important because they affect ASO

44. Optimizing App Store Reviews
Best-in-Class: Circa
Highly Recommend their Blog Post

45. Optimizing App Store Reviews
3 Things They Optimized:
Threshold (Timing)
of Request Location of Request Flow
of Request
10 Sessions
3x in 1
Week
Learn More in their Blog Post

46. Optimizing App Store Reviews
The Result:
More, High-Quality Reviews = Higher App Store Ranking
= More Efficient Acquisition
Learn More in their Blog Post

47. Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Reviews

48. Optimizely Mobile Guide Optimizely for Mobile
optimize.ly/appoptimization optimizely.com/mobile
Learn More