The problem with this term is that it no longer represents everything we’ve just stated above, and that’s for a couple of reasons: 1) The term ‘growth’ does not mean the same things today, as it did five years ago 2) The things we consider ‘hacking’ nowadays (when it comes to app growth) are not arcane, not creative and definitely do not mean setting your own rules of the game What changed for mobile growth hacking? The first thing that changed is how we describe growth. Growth used to be the number of downloads an app has gotten through a set period of time. Hacking was all about downloads, too. The 2016 growth hacking tools will have the answers, and those tools we like to call qualitative analytics tools. They can show the little nuances of the app that can make it or break it. These interactions are presented visually, as a heatmap, showing which parts of the app are most interacted with, and which are the least. Another important way touch heatmaps can help you growth hack your app is through A/B testing. Growth is no longer confined to the prison made of numbers and percentages, and hacking is no longer limited to quantitative analytics tools. Solving the growth hacking puzzle in 2017 means adding another element (qualitative analytics), and by combining it with quantitative analytics, you’ll open the doors to new streams of valuable information that can help you get creative with ideas and bend the rules to make your app truly grow.
Mobile growth hacking is a term we use to describe practices of the smart and the witty people in the industry which we all end up using in two years’ time. The term itself is worthy of attention.
First, we have the word ‘growth’, whose purpose is to describe apps becoming even better, regardless of their current success.
The second word, ‘hacking’ – has two connotations: first, it means you are bending (if not breaking?) the rules of the game; and second – it means you’re really smart and probably doing things very few people are capable of understanding or describing, let alone doing.
Drawing the two words together, it means you’re in possession of knowledge not everyone has. You’re putting it to good use, twisting and breaking the rules, ultimately creating an awesome app experience.
The problem with this term is that it no longer represents everything we’ve just stated above, and that’s for a couple of reasons:
1) The term ‘growth’ does not mean the same things today, as it did five years ago
2) The things we consider ‘hacking’ nowadays (when it comes to app growth) are not arcane, not creative and definitely do not mean setting your own rules of the game
What changed for mobile growth hacking?
The first thing that changed is how we describe growth. Growth used to be the number of downloads an app has gotten through a set period of time. Emphasis on a ‘number’. Everything used to revolve around app downloads, without paying attention to what people actually did with the app, how long they stuck around and if they were actually happy with it or not. Everything was about ‘how many’, and not about ‘how’, or most importantly – ‘why’. All it took was to boost downloads, one way or another, and that was considered as ‘growth’.
Hacking was all about downloads, too. Analytics platforms were used to measure download numbers, peak times, most popular countries, least popular countries – everything was in the numbers. These numbers were used to tweak marketing and onboarding strategies, ultimately leading to what was considered growth. However, in a (not so shocking) turn of events, it turns out that downloads are no longer the metric you should care much about, as a vast majority of users will probably abandon it after less than three days.
As you might have realized by now – the ‘why’, and especially the ‘why not’ were missing from these ‘hacking’ tools, too. If you really want to do things differently, to use knowledge not everyone is using, to make your own rules and bend existing ones, it’s time to start asking the right questions. The 2016 growth hacking tools will have the answers, and those tools we like to call qualitative analytics tools.
Qualitative analytics
Unlike quantitative analytics, which are entirely focused on numbers (as the name suggests), qualitative analytics tools focus on the quality of the experience users have with the app. They can show the little nuances of the app that can make it or break it.
For example, you noticed that a portion of your users have installed the app, had about 30 second sessions, then uninstalled. Maybe your app was too laggy on their device. Maybe there was a…
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