Are you a gambler? I would wager that you are not. You’re likely looking for users if you have a completed app or game. You want to make sure your marketing investment is repaid consistently. It’s not user acquisition to go into user acquisition without understanding your goals and who you are. 

1. KPIs and Goals

Your goals will be closely linked to your KPIs. You can use key performance indicators (KPIs), to measure how well your job is going. Customer metrics are highly relevant since we’re talking about user acquisition.

Here are some KPIs that you can use

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – This value tells you how much you are getting from a long-term customer relationship.

• The number of customers – This might be an important metric for some businesses. This is useless without considering other KPIs. However, it is easy to see how many customers you have gained or lost.

• How many times your app or game was downloaded – This is a simple metric. A higher number of downloads will result in more sales.

• The number of mobile installations – How many people downloaded the game and ended up installing it? It could be a sign of a problem if you have a lot of downloads but no one is installing the game.

• Several uninstalls – How many people have uninstalled your app? It doesn’t matter if someone installed your game. This is why it is so important to keep track of metrics as you release updates. It could indicate a problem within your app.

You can track many other important metrics, but we’ll get to that in another post. It is important to adjust your KPIs for your app or game.

2. Tracking of KPIs and goals

It is not enough to know your KPIs. You need a system for tracking these goals. Before you launch your game, it is important to have app analytics as well as attribution in place.

There are many paid and free options available. You can easily see how your users are using the app, what they are doing, and how often they open it.

Mobile analytics work in the same way as web analytics. They track user activities and display that data. Setting up the right tracking is key to measuring your goals, as the KPIs are directly connected to events in the app.

3. User acquisition channels

Which channels will you use to acquire users? It can seem overwhelming when you first start user acquisition.

Market research should be the first step in your user acquisition strategy. It will be easier to select the channels for user acquisition if you have done extensive market research.

Social media networks have a wide range of demographics. Snapchat users are 71% under 34, and Pinterest users average 40. It wouldn’t make sense for your app to be advertised on Pinterest if it isn’t aimed at a younger audience.

4. Time to set everything up

Your ad account won’t automatically display ads and bring in new users. It takes time to create, optimize and launch ads. You need to plan your time for setting up your system.

Facebook ads must pass the learning phase. This can take anywhere from 4 to 7 business days. It is important to plan for the time needed to make your ads successful.

Once you have everything in order, you need to remember that you still have other things to do. It is easy to get distracted. You can get carried away with user acquisition. So, set a time and place when you will be able to do it.

5. Testing is the key

Your user acquisition strategy should do more than just bring you, new users. This will allow you to learn more about your users and the product.

Many of your questions can be answered by integrating analytics and user attribution into the app.

Questions you might be having in the beginning:

Are things working as they should? (It’s possible that the app has a bug, but you aren’t aware of it.

How often do users open your app? And how long do they stay there?

Which channel did you find your users on? Which channel did they find you on?

How many people have downloaded your app?

What is the number of active users?

Be careful! It is easy to get lost in the metrics and analytics. You may feel overwhelmed and want everything.

It is important to constantly test and measure these things, but it can be overwhelming to keep track of too many changes.

What if you make ten changes to your campaign and notice a positive difference in the next few days? How can you determine which change caused the increase in numbers? Hardly. Too many changes equal too much confusion.

You can avoid problems with testing by running an isolated test that has determined KPIs.

Remember why you are testing. Don’t just test for the sake.

6. Ask for (professional) help

Now you have done your research and set the KPIs. You have also studied the platform. And now you are ready to launch your campaign. When you did it, it seemed simple enough.

Although it is easy to boost a post on Facebook, scaling up the user acquisition campaign and maintaining a reasonable CPI can be difficult for beginners.

Now is the right time to start thinking about hiring an agency. Marketing agencies in Miami are a great solution for games and apps. The right agency will have the experience, knowledge, and infrastructure.

An agency that provides full-service support will assist you in every stage of your user acquisition journey. It will conduct market research, assist with creative production, and handle media buying.

You’ll have a partner who is more knowledgeable about the various ad platforms, targeting options, and special features.

You might think that hiring an agency would be an unnecessary expense. But imagine how much money you will save by using resources to do what you are best at. It might be a good idea to seek professional assistance if you are new to UA.

User acquisition might seem like an easy task, but it is also a never-ending task. There will always be users who downloaded your app and never started using it.

Some users will either stop using the app or remove it entirely. Retargeting and other re-engagement campaigns are key to keeping existing users happy. A strong user acquisition strategy will ensure that you always have new, high-quality users.

You have set a budget for user acquisition and you want to see results. Even if your budget is limited, it’s important to ensure that your marketing investment returns consistently… and stays. You might consider hiring an agency if you are a beginner in UA.