This presentation was delivered at Web Summit 2013 hosted in Dublin, Ireland in affiliation with General Assembly. Description: Add "Growth Hacking" to the list of buzz words you are hearing far too often when it relates to start ups. This presentation is a 101 that hopes to bring strategy, tactics and clarity to what growth hacking is all about. Shout out to Farzana Nasser, Paul Crowe and John Maden for reviewing and additions.

1. Mobile App User Acquisition
& Retention Done Right
Alkarim Nasser
Managing Partner
a@bnotions.com
10.30.13 / Presented by

2. The app marketplace is
increasingly crowded and more
competitive than ever before.
?

4. De-mystifying the
“if you build it they will come”
mindset.

5. Brush Up on the Fundamentals of Media
Owned
Earned
Paid

6. The role of a UA
expert
UA is a different kind
of product manager
Building with the App
Store
Partnerships
+
Integrations
How is your product going to
get noticed?
Tapping into Organic
Growth
The role of Paid
Media
Managing the
Economics of UA
The Evolving UA
Strategy

7. !
Becoming a UA Jedi

8. User acquisition is half as strong and
more than twice as expensive when
operating in a silo.

9. User acquisition is part marketing and part product
DEVELOPER
GROWTH
HACKER
MARKETER
DNA of a Growth Hacker
• Data-driven
• Results focused
• Product + Media
• Applied user data to enhance growth
• Test, learn, optimize

10. “Our company is massive - we already
have product-focused people and my
job is just user acquisition.”

11. “Our company is massive - we already
have product-focused people and my
job is just user acquisition.”

13. The most powerful tool in your arsenal is
your product itself.

14. “Growth hacking is a recognition that when you focus on
understanding your users and how they discover and
adopt your products you can build features that help you
acquire and retain more users, rather than just spending
marketing dollars” - Josh Elman, Greylock Partners

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16. Growth at Every Stage of the Funnel
Acquisition
Efficiently
acquire the most
productive users.
Engagement
Continually
engage the right
users.
Retention
Re-engage
lapsed &
infrequent users.
Monetization
Endorsement
Maximize
revenue by
understanding
and effectively
connecting with
users.
Build the right
triggers to
encourage
sharing and
organic growth

17. Understanding the Lifecycle
Returning
Returning
Paid
Search
Direct
Bounced
Landing Page
Not Interested
Viral
Facebook Sign-in
Card Creation
Shipping Information
Abandoned
To Me
To Friend
Payment
Payment
Delivery
Delivery
Unsatisfied
Open Rate
Reminder Email
Sharing
Call to Action
One Time Trial
Unsocial Buyer

18. Tighten Leaky Faucets
Returning
Returning
3,916
Reduced by 4% since launch
day. Last 48 hours is 62%.
Paid
13,906
Email
433
Search
131
Direct
4527
Viral
314
FB Post
206
Landing Page - 23,460 totals
14,733 (63%)
8,727 (Total)
2,204 (26%)
Facebook Sign-in - 6,523 (Unique)
Cards Created: Users - 6,347 (22,650 total)
176
3,133
5,139
1,208
1,749
Shipping Select - 3,390
Billing: 54
Me 1,856
Them 1,534
1,083
20% of selected friends
have full privacy settings
in place.
65% of people who click
purchase card (free or not)
abandon at shipping.
895
1,447 “Peeks”
1,412
1,978
Open Rate
Reminder Email
1,978
Call to Action
One Time Trial
Unsocial Buyer
1,978 OGA’s

19. Tighten Leaky Faucets
Returning

20. !
Operation Growth

21. The Mobile App Circle of Life
!
!
Earned
Paid
!
Owned

22. with Hotmail.
How Hotmail “Pwned”
with Owned Media
Hotmail wasn’t growing fast enough. Tim Draper, VC at DFJ,
suggested attaching a message at the end of every email asking
for the recipient to sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.

23. How Hotmail “Pwned”
with Owned Media
Get your free email with Hotmail.
Lead to Hotmail, eventually, growing by 150k users a day. And
later copied by Blackberry and Apple.

24. !
Leveraging the App Stores

25. You want these folks in your corner!

26. Just another tool in your toolbox
Getting featured is not the end all of user
acquisition strategies. It is icing on the cake
and is validation you built a good product

27. How are the App Stores organized?
Small centralized team
App Store editorial run by
independent teams within
each country

28. Getting Featured #protip
Study the UI/UX guidelines and platform
specific design patterns.

29. Getting Featured #protip
Making them apart of the process

30. Getting Featured #protip
Leverage core hardware and OS-related
features in your application.

31. Getting Featured #protip
If the app stores see your product as a case
study for how apps get made -they will
feature it.

32. !
Growth Hacking
Partnerships + Integrations

33. Winning by Partnership
Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

34. Winning by Partnership
Find complimentary products understand
their objectives and collaborate

35. Vu and Partnerships
A personalized content
recommendation service.

36. Vu and Partnerships
+

37. Vu worked with 500px to offer up
contextual background images
based on the user’s location, time of
day and weather.
!
They paid attribution to 500px and
drive user’s to their app. 500px used
their owned media channels to drive
awareness to their millions of users.
!
Win. Win.

38. Paypal Piggybacking eBay
PayPal started off with a $20 signup bonus
to all who signed up and $20 to anyone
who referred someone else (eventually
went to $10 and then $50)
!
Paypal Piggyback on eBay’s rapid growth
in the late 90’s by having sellers advertise
PayPal as their preferred method of
payment. Major benefit to sellers was the
referral bonus which greatly added to
their margins. Buyers and sellers
preference to PayPal greatly increased it’s
growth (PayPal Wars)
!
As eBay opened their own payment
platform, PayPal countered with
immediate emails once the auction
closed allowing the buyer to complete
the transaction through the email.

39. Best Growth Hacks of All Time
http://www.slideshare.net/morganb180/growth-hacking-101

40. Great Partnerships Yield…
- shared press opportunities
- mutual awareness of app to both user bases
- greater validation of the product in the market place
- types of symbiotic relationships you traditionally would
only find in the valley
- acquisition opportunities
!
!
and much much more….

41. !
Giving users fishing rods

42. You don’t have to be alone Build Something Your Users Will be Proud to Share.
!
1. We share to craft our identities
2. We share to build relationships
3. We share to make our lives easier/better
4. We share to help others
!
!

43. Facebook Integration
Facebook log-in provides a simple and easy way to sign into apps without creating
new usernames and passwords.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/facebook-permission-post/fb-infographic/

44. What Makes Excellent Social Integration
Social integration is about allowing your user base to share and incite
conversation
Sharing
Inviting Friends
Creating open graph
and wall post actions
around favoriting
items creates
conversation
Encourage your user
base to share the app
with their friends
Community/Social
Integration
Integrating friends
into the in-app
experience drives
engagement

45. A Brilliant Users Gets Users Strategy

46. !
C.R.E.A.M.

47. Core Paid Media Pricing Models
CPM - Cost per Mile
User sees a banner add for your campaign
!
CPC - Cost per Click
User clicks on a banner ad within a campaign
!
CPI
- Cost per Install
User successfully installs an application through a campaign
!
CPA - Cost Per Action
User successfully performs an action through a campaign (liking a FB page)
!

48. The Tough Truth About Paid Media
Not all media is made equally

49. Be Prepared to Spend
You can spend anywhere between a few
cents to several dollars to get your
message in front of users
!
Drivers
Type
Industry
Targeting
Quality
Demographic
Network

50. The Tough Truth About Paid Media
1. Grow Awareness

51. The Tough Truth About Paid Media
1. Grow Awareness
2. Grow Users

52. Paid Media Drives App Store Rankings
Downloads per day required to reach top rankings in US
app store:
!
Top 10: 70,000 downloads per day
Top 50: 23,000 downloads per day

53. Media Effectiveness
40% of the Top 100 grossing apps used Facebook Mobile Ads
A Division of

54. Win with Intelligent Targeting
A Division of

55. Growing the Right Types of Users
Reach your audience at the right time with the right message.
Precise targeting (90% accuracy vs 50% cookies on the web):
• Based on a user’s real identity
• Device specific: iPhone, iPad & Android
• Broad & precise targeting: Gaming (social/online), competitive users, early adopters etc.
Target specific users and look-alikes of those users:
• Use email lists & app ids to target via custom & look-alike audiences
• Target friends of current users
Performance driven:
• Assess the impact of advertising by tying spend to conversion (cost-per-install) & ROI
!

56. Win with Fresh Content
• Refresh Creative 2-3 times per week
• Average Facebook ad has a peak CTR in the first 72 hours
• 37% of advertisers refresh creative once every 5-14 days
A Division of

57. Win with Compelling Creative
!
• Impactful imagery: Lifestyle and/or app screen shots
• Visual: Images with less than 20% text
• Action-oriented: Powerful call-to-action at the end of the ad
A Division of

58. !
The economics of media

59. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
How much you spent to acquire a user
!
Life Time Value (LTV)
What is the average revenue accumulated over a user’s lifetime

60. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
!
K-Factor
For each user you have how many news ones they create

61. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth

62. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth

63. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
CAC =
spend
paid + (paid*k)

64. Optimizing for Growth by Focusing on Sustainability
sustainability:
CAC <= LTV

65. Growth Hacking Success and Paul Graham’s Start Up Curve
Pre Launch
Build Channels
Customer Generation
Prototype Validation
FB Group
Launch Rock
Kickstarter
Build Momentum
Social Media
Owned Channels
Word of Mouth
PR
App Store
1+1 = 2
Paid Media (acquisition)
Partnerships/Integrations
Focus on Sustainable Spend
Optimize Viral Loop
World Domination
Paid Media
Optimize Viral Loop
Cross Platform Optimization

66. Thank You
Alkarim Nasser
Managing Partner, BNOTIONS
a@bnotions.com @alkarim
A Division of