Growth Hacks: Practical Tips for your Mobile Apps

Growth Tips & Zero Dollar Stack

For your

0 to 1mn Journey

By: Deepak Abbot | twitter.com/deepakabbotMedium.com/@deepakabbot

Part 1: 25 Daily Use Tips & Tools for your App growth

Part 2: Growth Marketing Stack on zero budget

Part 3: App Metrics Benchmarks

Before you start#SetupDo the Basics

• Integrate Google Tag Manager• Capture the right events in your Analytics tool & Facebook

SDK• Test all the events• Link Google Analytics to Play Store• Link Adwords to Google Analytics• Test Install Tracking in Adwords & Facebook• Test iOS + Android Source Tracking in GA

Tip 1#AcquisitionMaster ASO

• Get the Right Keywords• Keyword Tool like Keywordtool.io

• Add Inbound links (no redirect)• ASO Tool trial versions• Add Product Videos • Free videos at powtoon.com

Tip 2#AcquisitionFree ASO Test

Rater.localytics.com (iOS)Apptweak (Android & iOS)

Tip 3#AcquisitionAlways be Tweaking

• Test your App Icon, Title, Description, Images

• Plural keywords• Misspelled Keywords (use app

reviews)• Hndi Songs Gaana

Tip 4#AcquisitionASO Cheat Sheet

Download Free ASO Cheat Sheet:

j.mp/freeASO

Tip 5#AcquisitionGet Covered

submit.coOver 500 contacts listed

Justreachout.io – Find Journalists who write about Startups

Tip 6#AcquisitionGet Reviewed

j.mp/GetReviewed

Over 80 sites listed

Tip 7#AcquisitionGet your App Indexed

Now Google supports both Android & iOS

Add 2 Intent Filters – support both example.com & example://

Tip 8#AcquisitionGo Wide

Tip 9#EngagementMaster Onboarding

• Custom Offer• Optimize Referrals• Personal Welcome• Congratulate Them on

In-App achievements• Welcome Email• Friendly Reminder Push• Avoid Login Gate• Avoid Permissions

upfront*

*iOS & soon with Android M

Source: Mixpanel 2014 App State Report

Tip 10#AcquisitionFB App Invites

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-invites/overview

Tip 11#RetentionOptimize your App

Reduce App Size

ProguardLintUse 9 patch ImagesUse PNGs, TinyPNGLDPI/MDPI support? – Analyze & remove support

1 2 30

2000400060008000

100001200014000

024681012

App Size v Downloads

Organic Downloads Paid DownloadsApp Size

Tip 12#EngagementRating Best Practice

Visual Representation:Not from the actual App

Visual Representation:Not from the actual App

Visual Representation:Not from the actual App

Visual Representation:Not from the actual App

New Ratings Introduced

Actual Rating Graph of the App using this rating model

Tip 13

Reviews Sentiments

Appbot.co

Tip 14#UXVisual Hack

Make your loading animation funUse one liners, Funny Gifs, Random Facts, In-App Help

Tip 15#AnalyticsOptimize GA for Mobile

• Create Custom Dashboards for Product/Marketing/Tech/Business• www.google.com/analytics/gallery

• Enable App Speed • App Demographics & Interests• App Store Views to Download• Enable Experiments for A/B Testing

Tip 16#AnalyticsUser Level Data in GA

• Add Custom Dimensions in GA to pass unique ID

Admin > Property > Customer Dimensions > + New Dimension > Add the Snippet

Admin > Property > Settings > Tracking Info > User-ID

Tip 16#AnalyticsFacebook Analytics

• Find your viral co-efficient

Tip 17#AnalyticsActionable Cohorts

• Are you segmenting your cohorts?• By Age/Gender/Location• By Campaign/Sources/Creatives• By Device/OS/Resolution/Browser• Affinities & Interests• By Revenue• By In-App Activities• By Behavior

Tip 18#AcquisitionFree Advertising

• Rs.10000 free Adwords Credits• $50 on Bing Ads • $100 on Facebook Ads

Use this to target Journalists, Influencers, Bloggers by finding their Facebook ID

Tip 19#AcquisitionFB Advertising

Tip 20#AnalyticsTrack your Competitor

• Track Installed/Running Apps• Track their traffic patterns• Track their keywords • Listen to their Notifications – Use batch.com/insights

Know your Competitors

Tip 21#EngagementAuto Register/Passive Login

• Use AccountManager.getAccounts to get device primary ID• Auto register the user• Auto login the next time

• Use Email to Onboard• Use this data for retargeting

Tip 22#RetentionRetarget for Free (Android)

• Fetch emails from AccountManager.getAccounts• Export to Google Docs along with each event, Mail Merge

with Gmail

Tip 23#AcquisitionCross Promote

Lend 10% inventory to network ad get return traffic

Tip 24#EngagementOptimize Deep Links

Don’t forget to enable Deferred Deep Links

Facebook now allows deep links in App Install Ads

Test your Deferred deep link setup:https://developers.facebook.com/tools/app-ads-helper/

Tip 25#AnalyticsCalculate Real CPI

bit.ly/CPIcalcDownload the Excel Sheet

Tip 26#UXEaster Egg

• Put a little game• Animation• Video• Random Gift

Tip 27#EngagementInteractive Push

Opens App

Tip 28#EngagementPush Best Practice

j.mp/pushguideDownload Guide: By Urban Airship

Tip 24#EngagementIn-App Messaging

Tip 29#EngagementBadging (iOS)

The Final Tip#AnalyticsMeasure the right Metrics

Focus on DAU/WAUFocus on D30/D60 Retention post acqusitionCalculate Cost per Retained Users

Don't like the App; 23%

I don't use it much; 12%

Doesn't work/Bugs; 7%

Competitor's App is better; 4%Push Notifications; 4%Forgot to use; 9%

Space on phone; 12%

App is slow; 10%

Consumes lot of data; 10%

Consumes lot of battery; 9%

Why Users Uninstall

37540 respondents across 4 apps in News, Sports, Media & Commerce category

ZERO DOLLAR STACKUpto 1mn Users

App’s Customer Lifecycle

Attribution TrackingApp DistributionASOReferrals

In-App EngagementSocial PluginsNotifications Advertising

IAPCommerce

AnalyticsUser Behavior

Multi Channel Customer Service

Remarketing

Zero $Stack

BEAT THE BENCHMARKSDisclaimer: Data from Multiple sources, Internal Analysis & Public tools

Benchmark 1

Uninstall Rates

Games Business Ecommerce Music Social Messaging

75%

60% 60%

40%35%

22%

Source: Internal Analysis, Tapstream & Apptentive

Benchmark 2

Retention Rates – Popular Apps

Face

book

Whats

App

WeC

hat

Instagra

m

FB M

essen

ger

Twitter

Tumblr

100%91%

57% 56%51%

39%

21%

100%

88%

52% 54%44%

35%

17%

D30 D60

Source: Tapstream

Benchmark 3

Retention Rates – Categories

News

Music

/Enterta

inment

Business

Utility

Games

Ecommerce

Lifesty

le

45%

30%25% 25%

15% 15%10%

Benchmark 4

Install to MAU ratio

>25%

Benchmark 5

MAU/DAU ratio

>15%

Benchmark 6

App Ratings

~4.3

Benchmark 7

Install to Rating Ratio

>4%

Benchmark 8

5 Star Review %

>55%

Benchmark 9

1 Star Review %

<8%

Benchmark 4

In-App Conversion %

>2.5%

Benchmark 5

Average CPIs in India

Android Rs.50-75

iOSRs.85-120

Cost of Retained User3.5X of CPI

Benchmark 6

Cost of Re-engagement

Android CPC Rs.6-9

iOS CPCRs.15-20

Cost of Re-install Rs.150-220

Benchmark 7

>90% downloads are organic

App Downloads in 2015

7.5bn

App Downloads in 2016

10.5bn

India will downloads billions of Apps this year

Find your Million here

THANK YOU

Reach me twitter/@deepakabbot or email: dabbot@gmail.com