This is the second part of the Grow Hack Athens presentation by GrowthRocks, entitled GrowHackAthens: Growth Hacking For Mobile Apps.

1. COO Pinnatta
www.pinnatta.com
Growth hacking Insights
Mobile apps
Theodore Moulos
Guest Speaker
Organised with by
GrowthRocks
Hosted with at

2. Growth Hacker Principles in mobile apps
✤ Principle No. 1: You need to know that you need to fight.
Mobile app arena is a difficult one. Be ready
✤ Principle No. 2: Be a Quality Product and focus on
promoting this single, user-pleasing product.
✤ Principle No. 3: Employ the Scientific Method and discover
the truth. Always analyze the collected data to draw a
meaningful conclusion.
✤ Principle No. 4: Focus on Customers. Make stuff people
want.
✤ Principle No. 5: Be Resilient.Almost by definition, growth
hacking requires small failures on the road to success.
Remember, you will be experimenting with everything

3. Couple of advices to start …
✤ Easy as 1, 2, 3 - Apps without an intuitive design and interface are destined to
fail.
✤ Avoid buggy technology - Only 16 percent of users said they would give an app
more than two attempts if it failed to work seamlessly the first time
✤ Gain Trust - Consumer concerns over privacy remain high, with 92 percent of
users worried about their privacy online.
✤ Checking out - 2 out of 3 of smartphone users have abandoned a transaction
due to obstacles during check out.
✤ Fishing for compliments It’s OK to ask users for ratings, but be cognisant of
burnout. Honest and consistent feedback needs to be earned. Consider ways to
incentivise feedback.
How to give your app the best possible chance to
not just survive but thrive.

4. You have an app?What to avoid….
Hard working and will spend time on my app
Three assumptions to avoid and that will save you a lot of
time.
Smart enough to understand my app
Interested and keen to use my app
My users are:

5. Growth Model
Churn Resurrection
(TOP DIFFICULT)
Acquisition
New
users
Monthly
Active Users
(MAU)
Dormant
Users
(DU)
Churn
Activation

7. Paid Acquisition
It’s all about money

9. PaidAcquisition
✤ How to decide where to spend your money
✤ How you measure them
✤ What should be the ROMI
✤ What is the average Cost of acquisition
Typical CPA:
1.2 - 1.5 $

10. Paid user acquisition (Two misconceptions)
✤ Misconception 1: Great products don’t require paid user
acquisition because they’re viral by nature. In such a case
buying users speeds up user base growth and delivers
revenue
✤ Misconception 2:The money spent on paid user acquisition
would always be put to better use funding additional
product development. It represents an admission that the
organisation believes it can extract more revenues from an
improved product at some point in the future than it
can from the current product today.

11. User Acquisition channels

12. Funnel
The more you put, the more you get

13. It’s a … funnel story…

14. Active Users: 300k (290k)
PAID: 40K ORGANIC: 60K
Downloads:
100k
Registrations:
90k
?%
Not
even
first
experience
50k250k
New users Returning users
?%
churn
Senders: 200k
50k150k
?%
Not
sending
What
do they
do?
?%?%
D1: 30%
D7: 16%
D30: 7%
?%
Drop
offs
Pinnatta Sent: 320k
300k 20k
?/active
?/sender
Convert: ?k
Replies: 80k
60k 20k
Action to be taken
Question to be answered
Important Figure
Pinnatta
Users: 300K
Non-Pinnatta
Users: 20K
Acquisition
Retention /Usage
?/active
Basic
Funnel
(Growth Model)

15. Direct Through transactions
email FB SMS email FB SMS
Consumable
Non-Consumable
Delivered
Landed (CTA)
Clicked
Played
Visited Store
Conversion
Funnel
aka Invitations’
efficiency
Notification
Channel
Reception
Channel
Landed
Action A
Action B
Downloaded

16. Analytics & Metrics
Obsession with metrics is the only way forward
234
Metrics
1Data
Analyst
1Data
Engineer
18
Dimensions
20% of
Capacity
5
Apps

17. Basic Metrics
✤ User engagement
✤ User retention & User churn
✤ User flow
✤ Conversion rates
✤ ARPU (average revenue per user)
✤ Customer lifetime value (CLTV)
✤ New users vs.Active users
✤ Number of downloads and uninstalls

18. Metrics and Metric Categories
✤ Acquisition:The category covers all the metrics used to acquire users. Here are
the most critical ones:
✤ Downloads
✤ New users
✤ Active Users
✤ Engagement:This category covers metrics that will tell you what percentage of
users stick with your app after downloading
✤ Retention (and churn rate)
✤ Drop off rates
✤ Session length
✤ Outcomes: Outcomes are the areas where users convert in your app.
✤ In-app purchases
✤ App purchases
✤ Goal conversions (sign ups, view a certain screen, etc.)
✤ App monetization

19. Metrics for metrics?
✤ Mobile apps are able to produce a treasure of data for app developers to
see how they are performing. However, there is a crucial condition: the
owner of the app needs to understand how to use this data to
convert it to actionable information.
✤ For most developers, it isn’t necessary to measure all these metrics, every
app is different and might have a different ideal set of performance
metrics. However, it is important to keep tracking your app’s performance
over time and compare new versions with old versions to see if your
technical improvement efforts are paying off.
✤ Demographics, interests and intents inferred by machine learning
algorithms can be used to acquire the right users: those that will increase
your ARPU and decrease your CPI. This is what we call actionable
information.

20. How to present numbers
✤ In a negative way! to demonstrate corrective actions!
✤ Multi-dimensional analysis
✤ Device: iphone, ipad, phone, table, phablet etc
✤ OS: iOS / Android
✤ Time Series: Daily,Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, yearly
✤ Customer monetization: Free / Paid
✤ Customer segmentation: ages / genders / Countries
✤ Customer type: New, Returning
✤ Customer acquisition: Paid / Organic
✤ Comparing with last month and same period last year
✤ Growth to be presented as percentages not absolute numbers
✤ In a consistent way
✤ Separating behaviour of new users and returning users

21. The 4-5-4 Rule
A very simple but super important metric to measure app
engagement is taking the 4-5-4 test.An app is most likely to be
a monetary success if it passes the 4-5-4 test which follows
that if a user can realistically be expected to use the app
A. at least 4 times a day,
B. for at least 5 minutes (per use), and
C. keeps it for at least 4 months.

22. Standard“correct” values
✤ Registrations
✤ 100 K + is a good start to raise $1M (but there is no
golden number!)
✤ Monthly Active users
✤ MAU/Reg = 20%+ is good, 50% is amazing
✤ Daily Active users
✤ DAU/MAU = 20%+ is good, 50% is amazing
✤ Days to acquire 10K, 100K or 1M users
✤ 7-day, 30-day, 6-month retention (hit engagement before
acquisition if you have to make a choice)
If you must do metrics at this early stage to raise funds
(and given your stage assuming you are not monetizing):

23. The ideal metrics?
✤ The only metrics relevant to an app developer are its own,
within the context of its broader marketing and content
development strategy.
✤ Broad industry benchmarks aren't helpful.
Rather than looking for metrics, check the user experience
within your team or usability lab or focus group.
Metrics will just reflect the same.

24. Uninstalls (How to measure them)
✤ There are apps with more than 160% uninstall rate - every
10 times the app is installed, users uninstall it 16 times.
✤ Uninstallation on iOS can be tracked from push notification
feedbacks, that is, if an application enables push and if it’s
uninstalled, then you can count it.
✤ Uninstallation on Google Play is been delivered by Google

25. This is by far the most important metric you need to
analyze. If possible, try to track the referrers for your
application. Under Android, campaign tracking is
straightforward, however Apple doesn’t allow third parties
to track referrals (but there are different methods for this
such as IP matching).
Downloads
Downloads to registrations:
> 50% is ok, >70% is amazing

26. User Retention
Retention simply tells how many users come back to open
your app just because they embraced it. Just like repeating
customers, retained users are one of the most critical metrics
in application engagement.With retention metric you get an
insight of percentage of users coming back to use your app
again.
Churn Rate
< 35% ok, <25 % is amazing

27. User Retention:Yes,ButWhich One?
✤ Full retention - which proportion of users come back
every single day to the app until Day +N.
✤ Classic retention - which proportion of users come back
to the app on Day+N.
✤ Rolling retention - which proportion of users come back
to the app on Day+N or any day after that. (Used by Flurry)
✤ Return retention - which proportion of users come back
to the app at least once within N days.
✤ Bracket-dependent return retention - In this case, we
define brackets between typical retention marks such as
Day 1/3/7/28/60 etc

28. Store Comments and Ratings
There are several online services providing this information by
scraping application store web. Honest opinions from end
user should be taken seriously by the product manager and
considered as an improvement area.
Find the correct moment to ask for a review. Use an SDK to
analyse the sentiments per action

29. Opens
Statistics show that one fourth (1 of 4 aka 25%) of all apps are
opened only once.A small frustration, an issue with login, a
typo in help screen will force user press home key, never
returning back to that app again. Fun stops.Thanks to various
tools, you can see how many times your app is launched, and
take necessary precautions in case average number of opens
is alarming.

30. Time Spent (Session Length)
This metric can easily be misleading, since time spent in a
simple utility (e.g weather app), a casual game or a video
streaming app can vary greatly.Therefore do not simply
compare your “time spent” data with other apps, but rather
benefit from custom events (e.g number of channels watched
in a session) to correlate both data.

32. Conversions via invitations
✤ What should be my conversion rate?
✤ Depends on the type of your app, competitive landscape
and the value provided by your app to the end user.
Anything above 15-20% would be
considered a good conversion rate.

33. Tools / Applications

34. Tools / Applications

35. Technical Tips
Deep Linking and more to be used for growth…

38. Deep Linking (Pinnatta examples)
Bridging the web and mobile world

39. Mobile app advertisers
use App Events
to track the conversion
of their ad campaigns
to installs.

40. What are app events?
A simple way to log metrics you care about,
with a single line of code.
• App Installs
• App Launches
• Purchases
• Level completed
• More: 14 pre-defined events + developer defined events
Log any action take inside your app

41. What’s included inApp Insights?
REFERRALS
LOGIN
STORIES
APP EVENTS

42. Virality & Viral Loops
Lack of vitality is the symptom not the root cause

43. Virality
Product is viral
=
The cost per acquisition of a user
is less than
that user’s expected LTV

44. Virality
Virality is so important
that you should start from it.
“We have product X how do we virally spread it?
We have viral loop X what’s the right product to put into it.
Sounds like product / market fit right? Well yes…”

45. Virality
In successful viral products,
virality is designed into the product
from the very beginning
as part of the fundamental architecture of the experience.
Tip! Use your obscurity period to fix this at last.

46. What is a viral loop?
You can think of it as
the steps a user goes through
between entering the app
to inviting the next set of new users
Definition

47. What is a viral loop?Example
Sending to non-Pinnatta user

48. k-factor
✤ K-factor is the average number of additional users each
user introduces to the app.
✤ Virality is really the measure of the spread of information
and not the adoption rate or new subscribers that you get
for your product.Again, like views, that's a byproduct of
being viral.
✤ k-factor one (1) is amazing above that is extraordinary

49. Life Time Value
How much the customer is worthing

50. Customer LifeTimeValue (CLTV)
✤ CLTV is a measure of a user’s value over time.You can
choose to define user LTV in a number of ways, but it must
be a quantifiable metric that correlates to specific actions
within your app. In an app that generates user-driven
revenue, user LTV will likely be defined in dollars as the
amount of money a user has spent in your app over time.
✤ If your app isn’t monetized through user-driven revenue,
there are alternative ways to track user LTV eg.
engagement, retention

51. Why checking CLTV is vital?
✤ Investors will check it also
✤ Need to compare it with cost of acquisition
✤ Need to build a viable business model

52. Virality and CLTV
Virality – specifically, k-factor – changes the dynamic of the
relationship between LTV and CPI (average is 0,70-1,20)
because virality represents cost-free growth, it reduces the
effective price paid for each user in a marketing campaign.

53. (Average purchase value) × (Number of repeat purchases)
× (Average retention time)
How to calculate CLTV
There are three basic pieces of information you need to know
to calculate CLV:
1. What is the average value of a purchase?
2. How many repeat purchases do you expect to make?
3. How long do you expect your customer to remain your
customer?

54. How to really calculate CLTV
CLTV paints an incomplete picture, because it doesn’t take
into account:
✤ The profitability of each sale (an often ignored factor)
✤ The likelihood of your customer continuing to be your
customer (also known as the retention rate)
✤ The discount rate or the expected rate of return on an
investment (a product of the “time value of money” and
other risk factors, i.e. $10 earned today is worth more than
$10 earned three years in the future)
✤ The relationship between Customer LifetimeValue and
Customer ReferralValue

55. Tips
Small tips to keep in mind

56. Tips forAccelerated Growth
✤ Be API-friendly: APIs allow different websites and platforms to "talk" to each other
for example,Yelp uses MapQuest to give you directions to your local restaurant.
✤ Hitch Your Wagon to a Star: Many contemporary startups attains massive growth
by being a part of a larger marketplace such as Facebook, Salesforce or Google Apps.
✤ Build in Conversion and Engagement Tools: Your app or company won't grow if
it's not habit forming. So build in referral bonuses (like Dropbox) or similar
✤ Leverage Users: "Double-sided referrals" in which a current customer gives a
reward to a new customer and receives one herself are a prime way of leveraging
users to create growth.
✤ Create Spreadable Experiences:The car service Uber quickly gained traction in its
major markets because it was a much easier way to get around than hailing or even
calling a taxi.
✤ Obsessive Optimisation: Nothing that remains untested and unobserved can create
massive growth, or so say the Growth Hackers. So if you'd like to become one, you'll
need to know and love metrics. Pick one metric at a time and come up with ways of
optimising it.

57. More features?
“Very few features touch non-users so
working on features in the product won’t
help the funnel.”
Gustaf Alströmer from airbnb

58. Focus!
“Some things are just really hard to do, like
reactivating dormant users or making your
product awesome by changing a button
color. By contrast, some things are much
easier, so focus on those”
Jean-Denis Greze from Dropbox

59. Monetization
Making money? where from?

60. Monetization strategies
✤ Affiliated ads
✤ Affiliated gifts
✤ Freemium
✤ Virtual Money
✤ Giftcards
✤ Video ads Yearly vs. Monthly plans:
30% vs. 70%

62. – Source: Responsys
43% of customers are more likely to make a purchase
when mobile offers are part of
an orchestrated campaign that unfolds over time
across multiple channels.

63. – Source: Responsys
Nearly two-thirds of consumers subscribed to mobile marketing
indicate that they have made a purchase
as a result of receiving a highly relevant mobile message.
How many apps sent highly relevant mobile messages?
3%
Why?
Because it’s f…. difficult…

64. –Source: Responsys
ONLY 68% of consumers
who have downloaded a brand’s app
have enabled push notifications.

66. Re-engagement
It’s all about retention

67. There's a very, very good chance
that a new user
won't get to experience all the value you have to offer
in their very first sitting.

68. –Source: Venture Beat
The open rate of SMS is 98% compared with 22% for emails.

69. Re-engagement

70. Extra Resources
Unlimited out there…

71. Sitography,Bibliography
✤ http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?
searchfrom=header&q=500Distro
✤ http://www.applinks.org
✤ http://mobiledevmemo.com/two-misconceptions-about-paid-
user-acquisition/
✤ http://www.applift.com/wp-content/downloads/casestudies/
Immortalis-case-study-A4-web.pdf
✤ http://www.applift.com/blog/user-retention.html
✤ http://www.swrve.com/resources
✤ http://www.shift8creative.com/posts/view/k-factor-is-not-an-
accurate-viral-measure

72. Over 2,500 apps are submitted every day.
Hoping to be the next "big hit"
these developers have worked months and in some cases
years to prepare their app.
But the sad truth is, most apps fail.
Almost 70% of apps will generate less than 5,000 downloads
60% will never be updated after release.

73. 22 apps
- 10 apps build-in
- Major 7 apps
eg. fb, Twitter, spotify,
linkedin etc
5 spots left
“Do you deserve one of these spots?”

75. “Do you deserve more users?”
–Theodore Moulos
COO
www.pinnatta.com
Organised with by
GrowthRocks
Hosted with at