By AppsHive Team
While it's easy to focus on user acquisition as the significant indicator of success for your app, measures like user engagement and retention are more indicative of success than user acquisition. It's okay to get a lot of App downloads, but if people are uninstalling your app within a few days, it's not worth the effort.
Research by Statista shows that only 32% of consumers returned to an app 11 times or more after downloading it. Another startling fact is that about a quarter of consumers delete an app after using it once. App churn is a term used to describe the gradual loss of users.
For your app's growth strategy to succeed, you must identify and understand how to reduce churn.
What Is App Churn Rate?
The churn rate of an app is the percentage of users who cease using it after a certain period. App churn and abandonment rates are frequently used interchangeably. This metric usually takes 30 days, seven days, or one day after the app is installed.
In contrast to app retention, the app churn rate is the reverse. App developers must know how loyal their user base is over time, but it's even more vital to know when their users begin to turn off.
App Retention vs. App Churn
Retention can be defined in several ways. The answer to this question depends on your business type. Some mobile marketers see preventing churn and retention as being on the same coin; uninstalling determines your churn rate, and those who remain are your retained users. Using this strategy for an app that isn't used regularly, such as a fashion marketplace for sunglasses, would make sense.
Some, on the other hand, see them as two different things. If your app is utilized daily, you should pay more attention to return visits than uninstalls. As a result, you'll be able to hold on to it. Social networking apps, Spotify, Medium, etc., are all examples of this.
Because of this, we'll use the terms "retention" and "return visits" when referring to users who have not churned out of your app. When we wish to know how to reduce churn, we start brainstorming immediately.
It's a waste of time to try to address an issue without comprehending the issue at hand. An alternative to overspending on various problems is to take a step back and examine the root cause of the issue.
How To Reduce Churn In Five Simple Steps
1. Make The Onboarding Process Fun And Exciting
Your app's onboarding process is the first point of contact for new users. Make it a memorable occasion by following these simple guidelines:
Take advantage of every opportunity to make your app a part of people's lives. From the start, it is also important to clarify what your app can do for them. You are preventing churn by highlighting the focus on practical features.
Optimize the sign-up process of your app so it is quick, easy, and user-friendly. You should also ensure that your users are not bombarded with unnecessary permission requests for storage, calls, etc. Keep your concerns concise and direct - request permission only for those required to run the app. Gaining the user's trust should be an initial priority.
New users shouldn't be overwhelmed. Onboarding is a delicate balancing act between what users need to know immediately and what they can put off until later. You should not pressure consumers - it will only lead them to delete the app sooner. In case your app falls into an established category, ensure you provide a comprehensive tour of your app.
If your app doesn't represent a new experience, consider progressive onboarding, allowing users to explore the app independently and providing practical instructions contextually as needed.
2. Personalize The Experience
Recently, user customization has become the new norm. A tailored experience doesn't require personal or demographic information, and a wealth of data can be mined from how people engage with your app.
Once you view or buy a few items, your app and notification alerts are flooded with similar items. Apps like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube are hugely popular. Every time we open one of these apps, our experience is unique.
You should tailor your app's experience to your customers depending on the features they use the most, their favorite rewards, and more.
3. Keep In Touch
Push alerts, social media, and email can all be used to communicate with your customers. Do not bombard your customers with unnecessary messages; ensure you send only those based on usage.
In-app offers and alerts can inform users about unique in-game events, notify them when their friends are online, remind them of an upcoming sale, or congratulate them for being their fabulous selves. Apps and games can benefit from deep linking, which can direct visitors to specific pages within the app or game.
This is a good illustration of how the system may be used to encourage users who have been forced to quit a game in the middle of a tournament to come back before the competition concludes. If they had a deep link, they would not even have to open the app to get back to where they left off in the game.
4. Provide Reward In A Strategic And Generous Manner
Rewards only available for a limited time are a terrific method to keep users engaged! In the gaming world, daily challenges and trophies are practical tools, and Apps for retail use strict discounts and freebies to entice customers.
You must ensure that the reward is of value to your users and, if you're lucky, that it's linked to the most critical elements of your app. "Streaks," or consecutive daily logins, can also be rewarded by offering incentives. An app user can attest to the same.
App-only rewards from numerous retailers and restaurants also keep customers engaged and away from competitors and keep them from uninstalling the app completely.
5. Seal The Gaps
Finding out why people are uninstalling your app is the most effective method to know how to reduce churn. Look at your analytics to find exactly when customers are abandoning you.
Ask the following questions; please let us know if our pages or features aren't operating correctly. When onboarding, are you putting them through a lot of information? You could be bombarding your users with too many messages or requests to upgrade to a paid version of your app. Analyzing your analytics can reveal any of these problems.
Churn Rate Calculator: Determining The App Churn Rate
The number of people who quit your app in a certain period determines your app churn rate.
As an illustration, churn rates for mobile apps are often measured over periods ranging from one day to one month.
Churn rate = 1 - (monthly ongoing users / monthly installation count)
According to the churn rate calculator, your churn rate is calculated by dividing your total user count at interval inception by your total user count after the interval. This gives you your churn rate as a percentage of your total user count.
As long as you have the data, you may compute churn for specific subsets of your user base, such as teen users (ages 13-19) or Latin American users (ages 18 and up).
How Can I Know Whether My Churn Rate Is Excessive?
Your app's churn rate should be measured against the churn rates in your industry and the regions where your users reside. Depending on whether your app is a utility, a game, a dating app, etc., and where your users are situated, the behavior of your app's users will vary greatly.
Some businesses, such as gambling and eCommerce, have greater average turnover rates than others when looking at averages.
However, preventing churn rate in the finance industry, for example, tends to be substantially lower.
What Does A High Churn Rate Imply?
It might be difficult to determine the root cause of a high churn rate, as there are many possible explanations for a user's disengagement with your service. Here are a few common situations:
- Your user experience needs improvement.
- Your acquisition plan is taking up far too much of your time.
- Your value proposition isn't being effectively conveyed.
- You're alienating customers by employing obsessive promotional strategies.
FAQ’s
What Factors Affect Churn?
The average subscription term influences client turnover rate, customer acquisition costs, and customer lifetime value (CLV).
What Does It Mean To Have A High Churn?
In the absence of large new consumers, an increasing churn rate shows that a company is losing more customers than it is gaining.
What Is A Good Churn Rate For An App?
A Saas company's yearly churn rate is 32-50 percent, with a monthly churn rate of 3-8 percent. Making your app the best it can be is critical if you don't want to miss out on profits. Ask for feedback from your clients regularly.
Conclusion:
In a nutshell, churn rate is a straightforward concept where a particular number of users exit your app in a given period of time. With the correct data and positioning of your product, you can succeed in the smartphone industry. Moreover, you can improve your business and mobile app by analyzing data to learn why consumers are departing from it.