Maximizing ROI on User Acquisition Campaigns

By: Ana

Acquiring new users is the most important step for growth no matter what industry you’re in, especially if you’re just starting out. The problem? It’s not always as easy as you might think. It takes time, it can be extremely costly and you need to know what KPIs to measure and track if you want to make the right decisions.

In this article, we’ll explore the most important steps to improve your processes, whether you’re a veteran in need for some inspiration or you’re just starting out.

The cost of acquiring new users

Whenever we speak about maximizing the ROI for user acquisition, money has to be in the spotlight. This logic is simple, because you will always consider the costs of the UA campaign against the result it has delivered.

To get an accurate number for this metric, you will need to take into account:

advertising costs
sales team salaries
cost of producing and distributing promotional material
anything else that was directly tied to the campaign

Why should you know this, and why is it important to get your estimate to be as accurate as possible? It will determine how much you can actually afford to spend on acquiring new users. This will vary depending on your offering (you won’t spend $1,000 on acquiring a user if their lifetime value is $5).

So keep a clean record of your costs for all of your campaigns, it will make your life much easier when it comes to calculating the cost of acquisition.

Know who you’re targeting

You might be surprised how many businesses spend months of effort and thousands of dollars on targeting the wrong users before they realize they’re not getting the desired results. If you fail to correctly identify your target audience, all your other efforts will be in vain. So how can you avoid this?

Google is your friend. There’s tons of research about trends, user preferences, and behaviors that can be found online for free. If you have a very specific case and can’t find relevant data, you can do your own research with tools like Pollfish and BitBurst.

Once you have the data you need (and data you didn’t think you would need), you can correctly assess what approach you should take to target your ideal user. This will help you understand their needs, wants and behavior. By successfully addressing their preferences, you’ll also successfully get them on board.

Have a plan - from strategy to onboarding

You need to have a procedure set in place if you want to manage the acquisition in an efficient & effective way. The best approach to creating a procedure that works for your business is to identify your TA, the channels you will use, the messaging, and your goals. All of this will serve as guidance throughout the process, and it will save you tons of time when analyzing your data.

While acquisition is very important, having a streamlined onboarding strategy can be even more impactful for maximizing your ROI. Depending on your specific case, you might choose the progressive, functional, or benefit-oriented approach. You can find a great breakdown of all three strategies over at AppsFlyer.

Measuring and optimizing

Measuring the success of campaigns is essential for maximizing user acquisition campaign ROI. It involves setting explicit goals, tracking key indicators, and collecting feedback from users to understand their experiences and identify areas for development. User surveys, focus groups, and other forms of user research can be used to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and enhance efforts over time.

Another key importance of measuring is that it helps to optimize. Optimzing your approach and continuously experimenting and testing new strategies to see if they are a good fit for your target audience are key if you want to succeed in the long-term. This will help you stay ahead of the competition and identify new opportunities for reaching and acquiring new users.

Have a plan 2.0 - from acquisition to long-term retention

Finally, the ultimate ROI booster - long-term retention. But how do you get there? It involves giving your users an excellent experience, matching their wants and expectations, and constantly upgrading your offering. Plus, retaining an existing user costs much less than acquiring a new one.

Once again, you need to have a plan & strategy to guide you through the user journey. If you followed the steps from this article, you’ll already have the base set (TA research, goals, KPIs). From there, you’ll regularly update your data and assess what approach to use for your different user types depending on their behavior. By retaining users over the long term, you can maximize your ROI, boost LTV, and secure your long-term success.

Want to do this the easy way? Contact us and let’s set up the most cost-efficient & data-driven UA campaign for your app!