A growth experiment: How I got 500 MAU with the shittiest APP you’ve ever seen
UPDATE 16th July: The app has already reached 1100 MAU thanks to ASO 🚀
As a growth passionate person, I saw lots of techniques other startups were doing and I really wanted to experiment on that.
That’s why I wondered…
How many users can the shittiest app ever have through growth hacking techniques?
Here are the results and learnings that could be useful if you would like to successfully launch your own product.
After 8 months and 160 euro spent, these are the metrics:
- DAU: 30 users
- WAU: 141 users
- MAU: 464 users
- Peak MAU: 504 users
- Total: 2948
- Google Play reviews: 4.7/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ –56 reviews.
- Google removing my app from Google play (why Google! Whyyy!): 1.
Phase I: Define the value proposition of your APP
The most important part is to define which is the problem you are trying to tackle.
I am usually surprised about the amount of apps and startups out there that don’t solve a specific pain point.
In my case, in exciting romantic it was:
An APP to have fun with your couple when you don’t know what to do.
Phase II: Create a hook for potential highly engaged users
The next phase, and before jumping into developing the app, was to collect some highly engaged users.
This is important, because:
- Feedback on how to improve the app
- Get your first reviews and users
- Users will be more likely to share the app
Option a. Create an Instagram with your value proposition
What to do with it?
1. Create a description that fit your value proposition
2. Put the free gift (next step) as your link
3. Choose pictures that fit your value proposition
4. Follow other people that follow similar accounts as your own business — ideally until you reach 1000 followers, to have a good online reputation.
Option b. Whatsapp — Send me a whatsapp for help / free gift
You could tell the users to:
1. Ask you whatever question they have about a topic related to your value proposition
2. Offer the free gift through whatsapp instead of email — which people don’t use that much as it is saturated.
Phase III: Reach to your customers and tell them about the hook
Now that you have created the hooks, it is time for you to reach your potential customers to engage with it.
How?
1. Online Forums
2. Guest blogging in other pages — paid or free.
3. Following people from similar pages in instagram
4. Instagram / Facebook ads
5. Create your own Youtube videos — difficult if you don’t own a channel with a user base — the one I took, given I had 2 Youtube channels with 100k and 60k subs.
6. Guest Vlogging in other youtube channels — paid or free.
What to say there?
“Send me a message to instagram or an email to X if you would like to be the first to be notified about this app, that gives you ideas on what to do with your partner.
For the first people to join, we will give out 160 euro.”
As I said, getting the first customers in the app is the most painful process, once you get them, everything will be easier as your app will have good reviews and will be good at ASO.
That’s why I feel giving out some money at the beginning is a good choice.
Phase IV: Hey! We have just launched the APP 🚀
Go one by one, through the users you collected and tell them something like.
“Hey! How are you doing? We have just launched the app :) You told us you would like to try it, so here it is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.polemicstudios.excitingromantic&hl=en ”
If they answer:
You: “What did you think about it? Would you improve anything?”
User: “I would improve this and that.”
You: “Good! Would you mind leaving a review? It would help us a lot now that we are at the beginning of our journey.”
If they don’t answer:
You: “Hey, sorry. Did you manage to see it?”
Phase V: Create a contest within the APP
The ideal thing would be to have a contest within the APP, in which the user that shares the most the app is able to earn some price.
However, that was too much development work, so I went for the lazy option.
The results of this were not very good, in terms of having new users as I did it externally.
However, it helped me get the first customers as they were not only interested in the product, but also in the prize.
Phase VI: Block a part of the app you can only access if you shared
Looking at customer behavior, I saw users were really interested in the SEX category.
That’s why whenever you clicked on the sex screen, this screen appeared…
In your case, you can try to block some part of the app that drives curiosity to increase the referral rate.
Phase VII: Optimize your title and description for Google Play search
My objective with having the first set of users and reviews, was to set the product for long term constant organic ASO acquisition.
And for that there was something else I needed… optimize for long tail keywords.
What else could I have done to have more free easy growth?
The problem I faced with ASO was that the APP didn’t have good activation and retention. If I had fixed that, the app would get much more free traffic from it.
Better activation
1. Improve first time user experience
I didn’t optimize the first user experience, which meant that the uninstall rate was quite bad.
How could I have applied it? Explaining what the questions section was about.
2. Ask the user to commit to a goal
In case the user has a goal he can accomplish, he will activate and retain much better.
How could I have applied it? Asking the user what he wanted to accomplish with the couple.
Better retention
3. Build a product that is different each time you come
The biggest reason of drop of the app was that users saw all the content the first time and then uninstalled the app.
By building a product that could be different each time, e.g: a game, users could have come back more to the app because of curiosity.
4. Build a product were you invest on
Why would it be painful to leave Facebook? You have invested so much in the product. You have your friends there, your pictures, your memories…
Even if you don’t use it anymore, that’s one of the reasons why people wouldn’t delete their accounts.
How could I have applied it? Have a bucket list for you and your couple to know what to do.
5. Drive retention through a habit
If you are able to create a habit from your product, it will be much easier to drive retention.
How could I have applied it? Write a journal together with your couple.
— — — — —
Finally, I wouldn’t like to miss the opportunity for extra free growth by recommending you to
- Follow me in Medium, if you are interested in growth hacking experiments and investigations.
- Download the APP and most importantly, leave a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 review 😜
And in case you have any query about growth / product for your startup, feel free to contact me at mxmolins@gmail.com.
Who am I?
你好! I am Marc Molins and I am a Product Manager at Skyscanner and former PM at Rocket Internet.
I am passionate about understanding people’s needs and thinking about creative ways to 100x products.
In my free time I like to learn languages, play beach volleyball and work on new projects with friends.
