Dive Brief:
- Appboy conducted research on more than 300 global apps on its platform and found that less than 25% of users return to apps the day after first using the app.
- On top of that, retention dropped to 11% by the end of the first week, although Android apps slightly outperform iOS apps initially while retention converges for both mobile devices over time.
- Mark Ghermezian, CEO of Appboy, told Marketing Dive, “There is not retention story that fits every vertical or business model. Each sees unique user retention trends.” Meaning that marketers in any business can test and optimize their own apps to possibly improve retention rates.
Dive Insight:
In fact, Ghermezian offered advice on how app marketers can improve retention, stating, “Diving deeper into this methodology confirms our findings that consistent engagement is key to increased retention. The longer the inactivity, the more your app is out of mind. It’s critical that marketers build a value exchange from the very first moment a customer engaged with their brand.”
Ghermezian’s insight matches what Nancy Hua, Apptimize CEO has previously told Marketing Dive that one key mistake she sees is marketers overly invested in trying to get app downloads when they should instead be spending time creating the app and then continuing to improve the user experience after its launch.
She said, "You're not going to get everything right the first time, so you have to have a plan for how you'll improve the app as you start to get user feedback and analytics"
Appboy’s research was focused on "day n" retention, also known as n-day or classic retention, which is a methodology that measures the percent of users who return to an app on a given day after the app’s first use. This methodology can uncover critical drop-offs in app activity letting marketers know what their window is for engaging and retaining users of their own apps.
