How we grew to 200,000 users profitably using Facebook as a platform
Since we launched Mammoth Hunters in the Appstore and Playstore in September 2014, we have grown to over 200,000 registered users with 27,000 MAUs in April 2016. We’ve used several channels to fuel our growth, but Facebook, and now Instagram, has been the most effective by far. In this post, I’m sharing a few ways we used it to both grow our user base, fine tune our value proposition and even improve our product.
Phase I : Spain, Latin America and A/B testing
We started off with Spain and Latin America since the CPI’s were much lower (being based in Barcelona helped as well). We tested different messages, images and targeting and continuously optimized our ads. At one point, we were getting 12 cent Installs in Latam.

This allowed us to test and improve the App based on usage data from a continued inflow of real users. We did (and still do) a string of A/B tests and made extremely data driven decisions. Every decision from where to place a button to when and what push notifications to send were based on these data.
Some of the the improvements include a fresh new design, tribes — a feature that allows users to workout in groups and most importantly, the user experience of the App where we improved the install to signup ratio from 60% to 75% and the Signup to payment conversion from 1% to 5%. We hit #1 grossing health and fitness app in 6 countries, and have received excellent reviews from our users. (5*s in Mexico for example).

Phase 2 Growing to the US
Once we knew that we had an app that users loved, we moved into the US which is currently our primary market. Having already tested the key messages and images that work well for our ads, this was fairly easy. We send events such as Signup, Purchase, Workout and user goals to Facebook to garner insights.
This allows us to calculate the ROI for each campaign, ad set and ad helping us to make very accurate decisions to iterate our messaging to each demographic. We also used Lookalike audience as an excellent way to scale. Usually when we enter a new country, we start with a campaign targeting specific interests and once we have critical mass, we start lookalike campaigns based on active users of the App.
We continue to run the App and our blog in Spanish and English. We recently started using the Facebook Global pages to segment our fans based on language and give them personalized content. Facebook is at the core of our growth strategy and we have leveraged it in the following ways:
Ways in which we leveraged Facebook
Facebook Login
Allows us to
Facebook App-Install ads
By far the cheapest and easiest way to get users. We were getting users in LatAm for as less as 10 cents per install and less than Dollar in the US. The CPIs goes up as you scale and start spending more.
Engaging users through Re-marketing
You can’t state the importance of this. When ads popup on Facebook after they as mentioned here (link to rematketing). 1) Abandoned the App and 2) Visitors to blog ans website. (You invest a lot in your blog, so why not bring them back. No — all of them are not giving you their email addressses no matter how many tools you use. remarketing is also a great way to make users feel like you’re a big company. Especially when they see your ads popup on Facebook and other good sites.

Facebook and Instagram page to broadcast our content/images and stay in touch with users
We not only publish our own posts, but also to things that are releveant to our audience. It also helps improve your edge rank.
Facebook page also acts as a customer support portal and an easy way for users to find us
Yes, its a great way for people to find you and talk to you. We took it very seriously and had a 100% response rate within a day to messages from our users. It’s always good to have a conversations with them.

Even that wasn’t good enough for Facebook to turn on the Page responsiveness badge. Someday we’ll get to that 15 minute mark :)

Users recruit other members for their tribe through Facebook messenger, Facebook share and our Facebook groups
We are implementing a social feature called challenges where users challenge each other to workout and expect the Facebook platform to play a key part in this. Inviting others through App-invites and finding friends to workout with are other Facebook features that we expect to leverage in the near future.
