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IDO GREEN: One of the driving principles
of the mobile marketplace is that users want new-- new apps,
new updates, new content.
In fact, over 60% of the users who
go on to digital marketplaces do so because they
want to try something new.
While this is fantastic for user acquisition,
this presents a problem for user retention.
Because if you are not keeping the user's attention,
they will quickly be looking for something that will.
In this episode, we will learn how to create a good retention
strategy.
Ready?
Let's get started.
The key to effective user retention
can be broken down into three things-- one,
understand user's behavior in your app; two,
identify roadblocks to retention; three,
use tactics and tools to re-engage users.
Now of course, all of this starts
with understanding your users.
If you don't understand what they want, how they act,
or their opinions, you can't really craft a strategy
on how to keep them happy.
The good news is that Google Analytics
has a set of tools to give you insight here.
First, check out your Cohort Analysis report.
Why?
Because Cohort Analysis is a powerful report that
allows you to measure and compare users
based on their specific customer journey-- for example what
pages they visit, what they do, how they behave
at each stage, et cetera.
So you can measure the impact of your marketing campaigns
on specific days, see how effective they
are in generating loyal users, and compare
which campaign performed best.
Another good report is Active Users.
Find out how your users interact with your app over time
so you can better understand why they may
be staying in or leaving it.
It displays your one-day active users up
to 30-days active users next to each other.
This helps you answer some important questions regarding
your user retention.
For example, if your 30-day active number
is much higher than the one-day active number,
most users are not coming to your app
more than once during a 30-day period.
This can indicate that you need to add fresh content on a more
regular basis.
And maybe you need to re-engage users
through marketing campaigns and notifications.
The third report is about recency.
This report shows how much time passed between app sessions.
You might discover users who only open your app once a week.
Once you identify users that engage with your app
infrequently, you need to figure out
how to re-engage that audience.
You could send push notifications to those users
after three days to remind them about the app.
You could even tailor the message to include incentives.
A gaming app, for example, might want
to send a push notification with an offer of a free in-app tool
to users who haven't opened the app in a while.
Now that you have an understanding of your users,
you can start thinking about what their experience is like
and get visibility into what roadblocks
they are encountering in your app.
Here are three basic ways that will
help you get this information.
Screen tracking will help you learn
where users spend their time.
For example, if each level of a game uses a different screen,
you could track what percentage of people
pass through each level.
If there's a level that has a massive user drop-off,
that may indicate that there is a technical issue associated
with that level.
Or it is just too hard.
Monitor your behavioral flow report.
It takes your screen tracking, event tracking,
and combines it in a visual user flow.
Lastly, use the Crash and Exceptions report to identify
possible roadblocks.
You could break data out by app version, operating system,
and device brand so you could evaluate
your app's technical performance in different environments.
Want to take it one step further?
Find out how much crashes are costing you.
You could do this by creating two segments, one for sessions
with crashes and other without.
Then compare the conversion rates and the average order
value to see if these metrics are lower
in the sessions with crashes.
Now that you've got all the basics down,
the final step is building an effective re-engagement button
for your users.
This varies between apps.
But the tools we covered today will help you
think in the right direction.
Do me a favor.
Stop spending money on apps installs
if you don't have a retention strategy.
It's like the dude that sells tomatoes at a loss
and tells his friend that he's going
to compensate on it by volume.
[LAUGHTER]
Game monetization today is more challenging and sophisticated
than it used to be.
A good monetization strategy depends
on your retention strategy.
You need to understand your user's behavior,
identify roadblocks, and use tactics and tools
to re-engage with your users.
On the next episode, we will learn
how to use in-app purchase house ads as part of our strategy
to increase revenue.
Until next time, eat your vegetables
and listen to your partners.
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