Learn more about Mobile Growth: http://mozza.io How to grow your mobile app user base? From acquisition, to activation to retention and virality: I went through several interesting growth tactics I discovered recently. Get inspiration and adapt these ideas to your business. Don't forget that growth is a mindset, hacks don't last ;) Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/adrienm These are the slides of a talk I gave at TheFamily, one of the best French startup accelerators (Paris).

1. MOBILE GROWTH
MARKETING
Adrien Montcoudiol • @adrienm
Strategy • Hacks • Tools

2. ACTIVATION
RETENTION
VIRALITY
ACQUISITION
We’ll focus on 4 things:

3. ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
ACTIVATION
RETENTION
VIRALITY

4. 1.2 MILLION APPS
(it’s crowded)

5. 1. Description (25%)
2. Reviews (24%)
3. Images (23%)
4. Stars (13%)
5. Icon (13%)
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
WHAT MATTERS MOST
ON YOUR APP PAGE?

6. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
AB TEST YOUR APP STORE PAGE
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

7. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
1. Build fake HTML app store pages
2. Buy ads to bring traffic
3. AB test your content
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
AB TEST YOUR APP STORE PAGE

8. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
Tempo spent $500 in ads in
Canada to acquire 3K users
Lessons learned after AB testing:
“Users preferred icons that looked like
calendars”
“App screenshots with descriptions
outperformed screenshots without
descriptions”
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
NB: Apple and Google are innovating on app store insights
(metrics & testing are coming o/)

9. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
% of consumers willing to consider downloading an app
Source: Apptentive
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

10. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
Source: Apptentive
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
HALF OF PEOPLE WON’T EVEN
CONSIDER DOWNLOADING YOUR
APP IF LESS THAN 4 STARS

11. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
ASK USERS TO RATE YOU
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
1. ASK THE RIGHT USERS
2. AT THE RIGHT TIME
3. AT THE RIGHT PLACE
4. WITH THE RIGHT FLOW
but

12. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
THE RIGHT USERS
=
ENGAGED USERS
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
Example: 10 sessions over the last 3 weeks

13. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
When something nice happens to the user on your app.
THE RIGHT TIME = HAPPY MOMENT

14. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
THE RIGHT PLACE
=
Menu, flow, pop up…
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

15. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
Examples:

16. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
THE RIGHT FLOW
=
Get 5 stars or get feedback!
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

17. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
Flow of request
Tools: Helpshift, Apptentive
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

18. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
3 stars or less Feedback
email
4 or 5 stars
Play Store

19. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
App in the Air tactics:
- Look for the nickname on Google
- Use naming conventions: “jdoe” => search “doe” in DB
- Use country in search
- Use social apps commented by this user
FIGHT NEGATIVE REVIEWS
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
See: http://bit.ly/appintheairreviews

20. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING
BEING FEATURED IS A GAME
CHANGER

21. CONTENT REVIEWS FEATURING
Where you
want to be
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

22. REVIEWS FEATURINGCONTENT
Duolingo
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

23. REVIEWS FEATURING
2013: 700 000 downloads
CONTENT
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

24. REVIEWS FEATURINGCONTENT
In 1 week:
2.8 million downloads (80% of
2013)
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

25. REVIEWS FEATURING
- Build a great app (excellent UI & UX)
- Use latest iOS innovations: Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Touch ID…
- Be universal: iPhone and iPad, EN/FR/ES/DE/IT
- Be iOS only
- Get in touch with Apple: 3 weeks before, at least.
CONTENT
HOW TO INCREASE CHANCES:
ACQUISITION: APP STORE HACKING

26. ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION : THE GOLDEN MINUTE
RETENTION
VIRALITY

27. ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
20% OF YOUR
“USERS” WILL OPEN
YOUR APP
ONLY ONCE

28. SPEND 50% OF
YOUR TIME ON THE
FIRST MINUTE
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE

29. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY
1. Motivate your users to get started.
2. Help them learn the product in a meaningful way.
3. Let them know how to get help.
PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
ONBOARDING GOALS:

30. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
TEACH BY SHOWING
More examples on UXArchive.net
Google Translate’s onboarding flow

31. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
TEACH BY DOING
Tinder

32. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY
Inspiration:
UserOnboard.com
UXArchive.net
LittleBigDetails.com
AB testing tools:
Leanplum
Apptimize
PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE

33. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
OFFER A CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE
FROM DISCOVERY TO DOWNLOAD.

34. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
USE DEEPLINKING FOR ADS

35. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
USE DEEPLINKING WITH OTHER APPS

36. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE

37. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
The ask

38. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE
This is what needs to be done if someone says no:

39. ONBOARDING CONSISTENCY PERMISSIONS
ADD CONTEXT BEFORE ASKING
ACTIVATION: THE GOLDEN MINUTE

40. ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
VIRALITY

41. 65% OF PEOPLE STOP
USING APPS 3 MONTHS
AFTER INSTALL
(Appboy)
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

42. DON’T FILL A LEAKING BUCKET
!

43. RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
See Jamie Quint’s post: http://andrewchen.co/retention-is-king/

44. A mesure of how many of your users come back
over time at specific intervals
(1-week retention, 4w, 8w, 12w…)
RETENTION:
Instagram: 12-week retention at 25%
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

45. 1. Isolate the most active users
2. Analyse their data, talk to them, find patterns.
3. Analyse the lest active users, find patterns.
4. Encourage active behavior.
GET USERS TO AHA MOMENT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
Twitter: following 30 people.
Facebook: adding 10 friends in 7 days.

46. 1. Push notifications
2. Gamification
3. Habit
YOUR WEAPONS
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

47. PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

48. RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
TIMELY & PERSONAL = "
Users who receive segmented push messages
convert 3x more often than users who receive
generic notifications.

49. RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
TIMELY & PERSONAL = "
Use:
- user information
- demographics
- location
- behaviour
- predictive data

50. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

51. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

52. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

53. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
TIMELY & PERSONAL ="
Users will love them and share them.
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

54. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
Badging showed a 7% lift in DAUs and a significant lift in other
key engagement metrics such as Pin close-ups, repins and
Pin click-throughs.
Also: Badging
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

55. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
And also: emailing!

56. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
USING YOUR PRODUCT SHOULD
BE LIKE PLAYING A GAME.

57. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
Foursquare
Rivalry is one of the greatest
motivating factors.
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

58. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
LOOK FOR DAILY ACTIVE
USERS

59. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE
(Source: Flurry)

60. PUSH GAMIFICATION HABIT
Shopkick
Problem: most people don’t go
shopping every day.
Solution: redesign the app for a daily
use to create an habit: feed of
discounts.
RETENTION: THE REAL CHALLENGE

61. ACQUISITION
ACTIVATION
RETENTION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

62. VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
START FROM YOUR USERBASE

63. VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Airbnb’s referral program

64. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
+25% bookings
Tools:
Branch.io,
Yozio
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

65. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Free tool: Branch Metrics
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

66. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
TRACK & OPTIMIZE EVERY METRIC
sharing rate = senders / signups
spread rate = recipients / sender
click rate = clicks / recipient
referral conversion rate = registrations / click
viral coefficient over a period of time by channel
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

67. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
MOBILE IS A NEW GAME
ADAPT TO YOUR TARGET USERS &
THEIR ECOSYSTEM
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

68. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Rooms (Facebook)
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

69. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

70. WHY ??

71. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
“You can't share a URL on Instagram or Snapchat Chat, but
you can share a photo.
We knew the novelty of screenshoting would be our biggest hurdle but
also saw once people learned it became our A+ feature.”
Josh Miller (Product at FB)
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

72. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
OK, Rooms didn’t grow that much.
But guess who started using QR codes invites a few
weeks later…

73. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Snapchat
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

74. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
“Snapchatters can add you by pointing their
camera at your ghost and tapping their screen!”
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

75. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
And people share
their QR codes!

76. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
BRING THE EXPERIENCE
TO NON-USERS
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

77. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Meerkat
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

78. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
700K ACTIVE USERS IN
2 MONTHS
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
How did they do it?

79. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
Meerkat’s experience was fully
integrated in Twitter’s social graph.
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE

80. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
VIRALITY
SCARCITY

81. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
Providing an API really soon
enabled the community to build cool
apps on top of Meerkat.
from ProductHunt.com

82. REFERRAL CONTEXT EXTERNALIZATION
VIRALITY: THE MAGIC SAUCE
And also…
Gamification among influential
ambassadors always helps :)
Embedded players are great for
externalization

83. Get the best articles and tools on mobile
growth marketing:
http://mobilegrowth.launchrock.com

84. THANK YOU
Let’s talk about your growth strategy:
Adrien Montcoudiol
amontcoudiol@gmail.com
@adrienm