Keep Users Coming Back For More: 3 Ways to Optimize Mobile App UX
As competition heats up in the mobile app market (there are nearly 2.5 million mobile apps available on Google Play), brands are constantly challenged to keep their app top-of-mind. And the challenge doesn’t end at customer acquisition. Customer retention — the percentage of users who still use an app for a certain period of time — is the most effective way to understand how well your app is performing, how valuable it is to your users, and how it stacks up against the competition.
According to Adjust, a “higher retention rate is better overall because users who stay active for longer provide more engagement, as well as greater monetization opportunities.”
Unfortunately, however, the global app retention statistics are bleak. Research by mobile intelligence startup Quettra shows that the average app loses 77% of its DAUs within the first 3 days after install. 90% of DAUs are gone within 30 days of app install, and within three months, the average churn rate inches closer to 95%.
So how can brands shift the statistics and achieve a higher user retention rate?
The solution lies in user experience. Recent Forrester research shows that “companies who invest in UX see a lower cost of customer acquisition, increased customer retention, and increased market share.”
User experience focuses on how your app makes customers feel. Can they get the information they need or do what they want to do, easily and quickly? Is the experience enjoyable? Users are like Marie Kondo; if your app doesn’t “spark joy,” they’ll probably toss it out.
To achieve a superior mobile app user experience (and encourage users to stick around and become long-term customers), your app should reduce friction, save users time, and help them take the actions they want to take in an intuitive, streamlined way.
Here are a few key tips from our team of mobile app advertising experts on how to optimize your mobile user experience to increase retention:
Improve Mobile Installs and Onboarding
Mobile UX starts the second a customer downloads your app. In fact, investor Andrew Chen argues that “the best way to bend the retention curve is to target the first few days of usage, and in particular the first visit.” If you want to avoid abandonment, then your app’s install and on-boarding processes have to be top-notch, with as little friction as possible.
Removing friction from the app install process increases conversion rates and provides a superior user experience. Once customers have downloaded your app, the onboarding experience should make it as easy as possible for them to start using the app. Create an intuitive user flow by breaking larger tasks into smaller ones and using as few steps as possible during the sign-up process.
Use Push Notifications
Push notifications are a critical way to improve user retention, but they need to be part of a cohesive user experience in order to work. Again, consider how push notifications make the user feel. Do they provide helpful information or make it easier to take action? Are they personalized and timely? According to Urban Airship, app users who receive one or more notifications in their first 90-days have an average retention rate that’s nearly 3x higher than users who receive no push notifications.
Learn from the Data
Brands with the highest user retention rates are those that take a data-driven approach. Once you have enough data to reveal patterns in user behavior, you can make tweaks to your app’s onboarding process, features, and functionality to see what keeps customers engaged. The right insights will enable you to improve your mobile app UX and increase user retention.
While industry-wide retention rates may look alarming, there are plenty of proven ways to decrease app abandonment through superior mobile UX. Brands who streamline the app install and onboarding process, utilize timely and personalized push notifications, and leverage data to improve their UX will continue to build customer loyalty and increase user retention.
