Most attempts at getting people to download and keep your mobile app will fail. Why? Because your potential users are getting tired of seeing the same old tricks and techniques to get them to download your app in the first place.
It’s not that these strategies weren’t successful at one point or another. It’s the fact that the mobile app ecosystem has shifted while most of the hacking strategies haven’t.
Reality check: users no longer download apps out of pure novelty and fascination.
They download them because of a specific pain point or need. And when that need is unsatisfied, even in the slightest way, they’ll uninstall your app even quicker than they downloaded it.
To top it off, in terms of expectations and standards, today’s users are more picky than ever before.
Today, downloads no longer equate to the success of your mobile app. Active users who actually return to your app and satisfy their need(s) are the ones who determine your progress.
So how do you convert more new users to active users and ultimately growth hack your number of active users? By having an exceptional user experience.
[clickToTweet tweet=”How can you get more people to download your mobile app? Try this simple solution: ” quote=”Focus more of your attention on a great user experience and less of your attention on trying to get more downloads. When you do that, your satisfied users will do all of your marketing for you.” theme=”style2″]
Now that I’ve clarified that, time for the big question of the day: How do you achieve a fantastic user experience?
Answer: Qualitative analytics.
Are you only slightly familiar with this type of analytics? No worries. I will explain its clear-cut value in less than two minutes.
Qualitative analytics is a relatively new type of analytics that analyzes an aspect of your app that cannot be represented by numbers.
See the dashboard below? It quickly and easily communicates key insights in a single dashboard that provides a lot of information without bogging you down with massive spreadsheets of data.
Due to the fact that your app’s user experience is subjective and unique per each user, it cannot and should not be represented by numerical data alone (quantitative analytics). That is why only qualitative analytics can accurately and effectively assess your user experience.
Qualitative analytics provides you with actionable visual data on your app’s UX. This powerful visual data typically stems from two unique sources: user session recordings and touch heatmaps.
User recordings are real-time recordings of actual user sessions within your app. This tool allows you to zoom into a single-user session and see exactly how a real user experiences your app.
User recordings enable mobile marketers to clearly understand:
- How particular users behave from specific acquisition campaigns
- Whether you have any fake users within your app and where that problematic traffic originated from
- Why specific users did not complete certain conversion funnels
- How specific users react to your onboarding process
These powerful visual answers illuminate exactly where you need to optimize and growth hack different aspects of your user experience in order to secure more active users.
Not only that, once you implement a certain mobile marketing initiative, such as a localized loyal user referral program, you can actually see for yourself how it influences each one of your users without having to dig through heaps of numerical data.
Here’s an example of a dashboard that leverages those kinds of insights.
In addition to priceless single-user insights, you can also assess your unique users on a collective level with touch heatmaps.
Here’s an example of one of our heatmaps, which delivers insights that quantitative data alone can’t touch.
What’s cool about touch heatmaps is that they track every tap, swipe, pinch, scroll, etc., and organize those gestures into a nifty visual “map.” These maps can reveal which areas of your UI are receiving the most and least amount of attention from your users, as well as where unresponsive gestures are occurring on each screen.
Touch heatmaps can also answer questions such as:
- Which screens have usability issues and why?
- Which CTAs are being ignored by users and why?
- Which in-app ads are faulty or confusing to users and why?
- Which screens perform the best with your users and why?
Not only can qualitative analytics dramatically improve the deepness of your analysis, it is also a major productivity booster.
As a mobile marketer, you are data-driven. You care about the data but you also don’t want to waste your time trying to obtain insights from obscure data, especially considering the pace of the mobile ecosystem.
I get that.
User recordings and touch heatmaps don’t waste a single ounce of your time. In fact their precision and simplicity can actually save you time without sacrificing any value.
With qualitative analytics as your key growth hacking tool, you can obtain the deepest insights on your app, understand the whys behind particular user behaviors, and make the most informed decisions possible for hacking your active users.
Want to get started right away with growth hacking your number of active users? You can easily schedule a free demo with the leading mobile qualitative analytics platform, Appsee. Just click here.
About the Author: John Sela is the Chief Marketing Officer at Appsee, a platform that enables mobile app publishers and developers to track, understand and improve the user experience in their apps, and act on insights delivered in a SaaS platform.