This document discusses how to turn a mobile app into a growth engine through user acquisition and activation. It recommends measuring the source of downloads, optimizing the onboarding experience, making sharing align with the product, and iterating. Specific tactics include using Branch links for personalized onboarding, generating deep links for contextual sharing in messages, and designing natural sharing flows within apps to increase the viral "k-factor". The goal is to activate users and influence more downloads after they install the app.
18. Thanks for joining Austin on
TwoDots! Get started with
some extra free Moves &
Bombs on us!
Branch link created that stores meta-data
from Yummly shopping cart
19. Share & Get Free Moves!
Call it Quits!
Your friend, Evan,
joined TwoDots. Thanks
for sharing the game -
here’s free Moves &
Bombs! Start playing
with him now!
Branch link completed, user brought to items from
Yummly recipe upon first opening Instacart
You imagine people are just lining up out the door to download and try it
And you launch
93 downloads. Where is everyone?
50k new apps hit the app store every month, so standing out is hard
The real work begins at launch
Your mobile app
Is your growth engine
Mention engagement – emphasis on growth. look elsewhere
How do you grow a mobile app
It’s not just downloads, but also making sure those downloads convers and come back
How do you grow a mobile app
It’s not just downloads, but also making sure those downloads convers and come back
How do you grow a mobile app
It’s not just downloads, but also making sure those downloads convers and come back
The first step of the process is to properly map out the various channels of awareness that drive downloads
When browsing the ingredients for your favorite recipe in Yummly, you can single click to add the ingredients to your Instacart app
After downloading Instacart, the cart is automatically populated from the recipe list and Instacart can see a new download from the Yummly channel
don’t force it – mobile affiliate only works well when it’s natural
personal example - print button in photo apps. great idea in theory
poor practice - saw less than 0.001% purchase conversion per month on a many millions MAU of photo app
people aren’t thinking print, when they are taking photos
Used a single Branch link for the download button of both apps
Now can measure the effectiveness of different messaging in email campaigns to drive downloads
The user has actually given you a fraction of their time and you’re going to make them choose which app to get?
Don’t do this.
So you’ve got the new download, how to do convert them into a real, activated user
user shares deep link
deep linked to content as first screen
You can’t just add sharing to check the box
Sharing should feel like a natural part of the app. Just adding sharing for sharing’s sake, there’s no reason to expect more than 1% growth from the feature.
An invite-only dating app, with the feeling of exclusivity. A waitlist was a natural feature to add
Or leverage the exclusivity to drive more viral invites
k factor can be a great metric for the effectiveness of the holistic system
The first easy measurement to make is conversion from install to activate
Conversion from activated users to share content
Conversion from share to influenced download
k factor can be a great metric for the effectiveness of the holistic system
k factor can be a great metric for the effectiveness of the holistic system