How to use growth hacking funnels for mobile applications?

Growth hacking is a term which is uttered a lot in start-up world. For the context of this post, we can simply define “growth hacking” as a cost-effective & leveraged way of marketing. Funnels are widely used by growth hackers in order to map out the user life cycle for the product.

Although details might change, the most common funnel more or less goes like this:

1. A person becomes aware of your product
2. Then he/she takes action for your product such as visiting your website
3. Then he/she comes back later
4. Then he/she talks about your product
5. Last but not least, he/she pays

Let’s make it more eye-appealing.

Much better. Now we can start applying each step to mobile applications.

1. Acquisition

Acquisition term is derived from the verb, “acquire”. When it comes to mobile applications, there are multiple options as where to acquire users from. We can acquire users using paid or organic ways. Paid ways include ads whereas organic ways can include social media, ASO etc. Key metric in this step can be any metric that is in correlation with exposure.

2. Activitation

In activation step, as the name might suggest, we are looking for some kind of action that is taken by user. For an app, this can be installing, opening and using the application once. Key metrics include: application installs, one-day retention.

3. Retention

After installation, we want the user to continue using our application. User should regularly open the application and use it. Key metrics can be: x-Day retention, weekly/monthly active users, session frequency.

4. Referral

This is where the actual “growth hacking” kicks in. We want one user to bring more users. One of the most important metrics here is “Viral Coefficient”. It is just a cooler way of saying number of users another user refers to you. If your viral coefficient rate is two, this would mean that one user brings two more. If one user brings one or more users, it is usually a good sign. As “growth hackers”, we want to increase this ration as much as we can. Even a slight increase from 1.0 to 1.1 can yield huge results.

5. Revenue

It is harvesting season! For revenue, there are many ways. You can monetize through ads, subscriptions or you can simple generate leads for a business. There are countless ways. Key metrics can include: average revene per user over a time period, customer lifetime value, in app transactions and ad revenue.

Now that we’ve completed AARR, it is time to discuss ways of improving each step.

Tips for acquisition: Pay attention to ASO. Pay attention to ratings and reviews. Use social media. Pay attention to LTV and user acquisition costs during paid marketing. Building awareness is the key.

Tips for activation: Pay attention to application icon. Make sure you’re acquiring the right users. Onboarding should be satisfying and simple at the same time. Simplicity is the key.

Tips for retention: Reward loyalty. Send push notifications in a reasonable manner. Re-engage the user using different channels; such as social media, ads and e-mails etc. Reminding yourself in a reasonable manner is the key.

Tips for referral: Read and apply steps from my article about “Increasing Application Reviews”. Take care of your users and customers. Being geniune and supportive is the key.

Tips for revenue: Don’t spoil user experience for revenue. Pay attention to right metrics for the sake of your business. For example: Don’t focus on LTV when you don’t have enough runway. Right metrics are the key.

Let’s review our growth funnel with tips:

Keep these in mind, good luck!