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How To Increase App Engagement & User Retention?

Aug 24, 2022

By AppsHive Team

App Engagement & User Retention

The biggest problems app marketers are currently dealing with are low user engagement and how to market an app.

About 40% of users uninstall a mobile app because they don't plan to use it, and half of all apps are deleted within the first month. Moreover, app users who interact weekly are 90% more likely to continue doing so.

Users have nearly infinite options, with 2.89 million apps on Google Play and 1.96 million on the App Store. If you cannot meet your users' ever-rising expectations, you can expect to see them disappearing (low user retention rates) or, even worse, uninstalling in droves (high uninstall rates).

Creating and maintaining a positive customer experience requires paying attention to what users are saying, doing, and especially not doing, and then adapting your services accordingly.

In writing this article, we aim to help you guide how to increase app engagement and user retention by outlining top app retention strategies. So, let us begin with the basics!

What Does Mobile App Engagement Imply?

The level of user interest in your mobile app and its various features is quantified by the term "engagement." You can make more informed advertising choices by tracking user behavior within your app. Time spent in the app, the number of actions taken, and daily uninstalls are just a few examples of engagement metrics.

What Do You Understand By Mobile App Retention?

According to the rules of an engagement app, to retain users of a mobile app is to keep them as paying customers. The retention rate of your mobile app is the percentage of users who initially downloaded and kept using it.

Although new users are always welcome, it's clear that you're doing things right when your existing users keep coming back. That, after all, is the surefire way to advance.

How Mobile App Engagement Boosts Retention?

Giving customers what they want is essential to maintaining their interest and loyalty. How can you tell them what they need if you don't have any information to base that on? Metrics for measuring users' interaction with mobile apps are invaluable for helping businesses make customer-pleasing business decisions.

Marketers can get to know their audience better and forge a closer connection with them. And move forward with an app engagement strategy that yields a high return on investment (ROI). Thanks to the information provided by the engagement application (while dropping those that fall flat).

By incorporating this feedback into future updates of your app, you'll be able to provide a more satisfying experience for your users and increase the percentage of returning users, which in turn will increase your chance of gaining brand-loyal users.

What Metrics Determine Your App Success?

Building a successful app is like nurturing a plant: it takes time, effort, and much water. Achieving rapid success is extremely unlikely, and Spend-to-return tracking for ASO KPIs and Metrics is more difficult than for User Acquisition campaigns.

Suppose you are the owner of an e-commerce app; the most important action is for a user to place an order. However, the number of times a user returns to your app and the amount of time a user spends using your app are both considered to be of equal importance.

Moreover, you can track different mobile app retention metrics, such as -

  • The number of likes,
  • comments,
  • subscriptions,
  • views,
  • clicks,
  • visits,
  • active app users,
  • session length,
  • customer retention, and conversions.

With a high level of engagement, the churn rate and the customer's lifetime value increase. Retaining current users is the most important metric, as doing business with them is 50% simpler than with a new prospect.

After you've begun monitoring critical engagement metrics for your app, you might notice some troubling patterns. You can address and correct those patterns by implementing the following five mobile app retention strategies for enhanced user engagement.

1. It's All About Making A Good First Impression

The average user spends only 50 milliseconds on the homepage of a website or app before forming an opinion. What we advise is as follows:

To attract users, your app's home screen must highlight its benefits. For instance, the opening screen of PicsArt describes the features and functionality that make it worth downloading. So, impress your readers with just one sentence on your sign-up page.

If your app has multiple features, it's best not to show them all at once. Prioritize your most essential characteristics, which will get you where you need to be right now. Then, save the additional options for their respective app regions.

Allow the app's users to get to know you as they navigate it. For example, the Peet app describes its basic operation and features during the onboarding process. Among the app's many functions, the most noteworthy is highlighted, along with the next step the user should take.

2. Customized Notifications

Do you know that 72 percent of consumers interact with targeted advertisements? Personalize your push notifications by taking into account user data, preferences, and actions.

So how to increase app retention? Put the information you've gathered to good use by tailoring your marketing efforts to the specific needs of your target audience. By tailoring your campaigns to the needs of specific demographics, you can earn consumers' trust and increase sales.

For example, if a user has forgotten to check up on their cart, you can send them a notification reminding them of their potential purchase and encouraging them to complete their transaction. Make sure you draw attention to the deal they'll miss out on if they don't act now.

3. The Influence Of In-App Interactions Cannot Be Overstated

In-app messages increase app user retention by 61% to 74% within 28 days. Unlike push notifications, which require instant attention, in-app messages can wait until later to be dealt with.

You may be wondering why in-app messages are still used in this day and age of push notifications. The home screen is where you'll see alerts, not the app itself. The statistics show a 3.5x higher retention rate and 27% more launches with in-app engagement.

The message sent in response to predetermined events is expected to increase productivity by a factor of four. You want your in-app communications to feel like natural features of the retention rate app, not intrusive ads. Use them in the onboarding process so that, for instance, a user gets a pop-up when they explore a new feature.

4. Promote Feedback Communication

Having a sense of belonging to a brand is important to consumers, as is the knowledge that their opinions and preferences are being taken into account. This is why it's crucial to establish two-way channels of communication.

If you don't ask your users for input, you can't possibly know what they need. These notifications are a great way for user retention apps to get user input, address issues, and enhance their overall quality of service.

By establishing such communication channels, you can learn about issues before they are reported in app store reviews. Before the issue affects future downloads, you can get to the bottom of it and establish a rapport.

Increase your engagement and retention rates, gain more positive feedback, and strengthen your brand's long-term loyalty by demonstrating your willingness to respond to questions and concerns.

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5. Provide Loyalty Rewards

It's crucial to take advantage of the user reward or loyalty program if your business model permits it. Because loyalty programs do more than incentivizing product use; they also make customers feel like they matter to the company.

Maintaining happy repeat customers is crucial to any business. Because they typically spend more than new customers. You must try out loyalty incentive programs like membership initiatives, reward systems, and value-driven clubs.

FAQs

How do you increase the engagement of users?

Businesses can increase user engagement by carefully plotting out the customer journey and giving each touchpoint a unique twist. Rather than waiting for customers to contact you, it's best to seek ways to interact with them actively.

How do you measure app engagement?

Keeping tabs on the number of daily, weekly, or monthly active users is the gold standard for measuring app engagement. To determine this metric, you should divide the total time users spent in your app during a given period by the total number of users who logged sessions during that period.

How to increase user engagement on social media?

Asking your followers thought-provoking questions in a blog post, online group or community, or on a question-and-answer site like Quora. This can generate some of the most interesting content possible on social media.

How to increase app stickiness?

App stickiness is determined by how well your app meets the following criteria: ease of use, relevance, curiosity, entertainment value, emotional connection, and social connection.

Conclusion:

By implementing these techniques, you can provide customers with the individualized and intuitive app experience they desire, boosting your chances of retaining their attention and earning customer loyalty.

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