Growth&Retention at Soundcloud.

1. Growth & Retention at SoundCloud
Andy Carvell
Retention Team Lead
@andy_carvell

2. SoundCloud’s Growth Team
Acquisition Activation Retention International
“Growth Umbrella” - Product Org, Berlin

3. Growth

4. Mobile Growth Stack
1
Andy Carvell
www.mobilegrowthstack.com

5. Cross-sell
Cross-sell users from web or mobile web to our native apps
Acq

6. App Store Optimization
Last year: our “own” App Store Now: Google Play
Acq

7. App (Store) Optimization
Increase reviews + improve ratings + get feedback + measure NPS
Acq
Todo: ask promoters to actually invite friends & send ‘personal’ push notifications when we
launched the feature detractors were asking for

8. Facebook App invites
Test out new integrations: trying to tap into more referrals with FB App Invites
Acq

9. RetentionRet
● Experiment-Driven Approach:
○ Multivariate Tests (optimize for key metrics)
○ CONTROL GROUPS to prove impact vs all other activity
○ Scale what works (based on data)
○ Iterate regularly.
○ Retention has slow cycle times: look for early indicators of impact
New User
Cohorts
‘Growth Machines’
● Onboarding Flows
● Activity Notifications
● Drip Campaigns
● Loyalty Scheme*
Acquire Users Retain Users (prevent churn) Re-Activate Users
● Re-activation Campaigns
● Re-targeting

10. Ret
Shrink returning segment by targeting ‘at risk of churn’ users and
giving them reasons to come back for another session before we
lose them
Grow the repeat segment and increase visit frequency within
this group. Achieve this by providing frequent, timely and
relevant messaging about content or activity on the platform.
Move more users from new to repeat visitors by providing a
better experience for new users and a high-touch approach
during first days and weeks.
Re-Activate lapsed users (long-term churned) users with
campaigns to remind them about SoundCloud / offer an incentive
to return. (NB: re-activation is expensive vs churn prevention)
Strategy: increasing Retention

11. Drip Campaigns
Adaptive In-App Messaging to drive desired (engaging) behavior
Act

12. Activity Notifications
Drive retention & engagement with push notifications
Ret
Todo: use optimized timing, channel delivery, rich push,
personalized push based on earlier click behaviour

13. Ret
Attribution: Influenced Opens

14. Deeplinking
Create a seamless UX and drive installs with deeplinking
Ret
Installed Not installedMobile Web
Todo: automatically bounce people into the app & intelligent deferred deeplinking
+ Leverage App Indexing

15. Localization: ASO
Driving installs with localization of App Store metadata
Int
MoM growth after localization
Russia +376%
South Korea +264%
Turkey +157%
Italy +136%
Brazil +98%
Belgium +47%
Mexico +36%
Spain +33%
France +28%
Germany +23%
Netherlands +21%
Canada +12%
Japan -6%
China -15%

16. Any Questions?
(Psst. We’re hiring)
www.soundcloud.com/jobs
Check out the growth stack at: www.mobilegrowthstack.com