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Push Notifications: Best Practices and Revenue Boosting Strategies

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App Masters12:22Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Push notifications lift engagement and revenue when you ask for opt-in during onboarding, send few short messages, and quickly follow up with offers to users who showed buying intent. Permission, restraint and fast follow-up each raise conversions.

Key takeaways

  • Onboarding is the best moment to ask for push permission. 0:42
    • Most people who buy do so during onboarding, so opt-ins gathered there can convert later.
    • Genie asks for the notification prompt in its onboarding flow, and the paywall belongs in the same flow.
  • Asking directly works better than a soft pre-prompt. 1:45
    • In William's A/B test, simply asking beat a "Don't miss a beat" pre-screen, with a 4.8 increase in opt-ins.
    • BeReal shows a sample notification and makes the user tap it, which trains the behavior the app wants.
  • Fewer and shorter notifications get more clicks. 4:19
    • About one or two per day is ideal, and the more you send, the less effective each one becomes.
    • Messages of 10 words or fewer get a 9% click-through rate, against 3.5% for 21 or more words.
    • Emojis lift click-through from 3% to 3.5%.
  • Several reminders to users who abandoned a cart multiply conversions. 7:06
    • Zinio's best sequence was three pushes: within the first hour, one day later and one week later.
    • Moving from two pushes to three gave a 13x increase in conversions.
  • A fast, trial-free offer wins back users who showed intent and left. 8:11
    • People who buy generally do so within the first 20 minutes to hour of opening the app.
    • Masood sent a 50% off push to users who canceled a trial, with no new trial, since trial-to-paid conversion peaks around 66%.

Really a great way to teach your user and train your user what you as the app owner really want them to do.

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 Ask during onboarding

The first-open flow is where the notification ask sits, in a fixed order with the other requests.

  • Genie stacks its asks in a set order before the notification prompt. 0:47
    • The order is the ATT prompt, then a review request, then notifications.
    • Its copy says notifications let you not miss a thing, shown before the system pop-up.
    • Onboarding flows are the first screens a user sees right after opening the app for the first time.
    • Steve likes that the screen gives a reason before the system pop-up appears.

1:45 Ask directly, then train the habit

A direct ask wins, and an app can push hard to turn a refusal or a first tap into habit.

  • A pre-screen the user can close loses to a plain ask. 1:48
    • William of Wager Lab ran the test because many in the industry favored the pre-screen.
    • The pre-screen has an X to close it. Genie's has none.
    • William had been following Steve's advice and tested it against the popular option.
    • The pre-screen promised alerts when you win or lose your wagers.
  • BeReal pushes back when a user refuses notifications. 3:10
    • Tapping Don't Allow brings up BeReal is way better with notifications, with a link to settings.
    • The app's core feature depends on them, since the only way to know when to post is the alert.
    • It also asks for contacts on the very first screen. Sensitive asks that early can raise engagement.
    • If the user skips the sample notification, it says That was close, Steve. Let's try it again.

4:15 Send less and write it better

Each extra message weakens the rest, so send fewer and make each one count.

  • Fewer messages work better. 4:21
    • Timely pushes are the best. Send one or two only when you have something to say.
    • The limit can be judged by category of message.
    • The goal is a good click-through rate, meaning people actually open the push.
  • Once frequency is set, the wording decides results. 5:35
    • Personalize the message and A/B test the click-throughs often.
    • Steve's rule for length is less is more.

6:11 Cart abandonment reminders

A short, fixed sequence of reminders recovers users who showed buying intent and left.

  • Three reminders beat two for abandoned carts. 6:46
    • Zinio, an online magazine app, reminded users who left a magazine in the cart.
    • Both versions sent the first push within the hour. The old one waited a couple of days for the second.
    • The source is Mirella Chahale, a former Zinio employee and past podcast guest, who wrote a blog post on it.
    • Downloading the app and adding an item are both signs of intent.
  • Leaving the cart does not mean the user lost interest. 7:28
    • A user may have left to pick up the kids.
    • Aggressive reminders fit this: Hey, just in case you forgot.
    • The sequence is hour one, day one, then about one week.

8:11 Offers for users who leave without paying

A discount sent soon after the user leaves brings back people who skipped or canceled a trial, and it should carry no trial.

  • A discount sent in the first hour works across channels. 8:23
    • A recipe app emailed "Unlock all pro recipes, 20% off today" right after its welcome email.
    • The link opened a Stripe landing page, which is easy for back-end developers to build.
    • Email is not push, but the same philosophy applies.
  • Canceled trials can be won back with a trial-free 50% offer. 9:24
    • Apple and Google both tell the developer when a trial is canceled.
    • Masood's push said to open the app and save 50% on the next subscription, for a limited time, and revenue started to come in.
    • Trial-to-paid conversion is never 100%, so removing the trial from a discount matters.
  • A skipped paywall is a cart abandonment. 10:31
    • William's "Secret offer unlocked" message offers $40 a year, 66% off.
    • Show it after the first paywall closes, or send it as a push in the first hour.
    • Anyone who sees the paywall and declines the trial counts as an abandoned cart.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters. Five push notification practices for subscription apps: ask for permission during onboarding, keep frequency low, write short messages, and use timed reminders and discounts to win back users who abandoned. The strongest result is a 13x conversion lift from moving a cart abandonment sequence from two pushes to three.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript335 lines
0:00

Coming up, we're going to talk all about push notifications and the five best practices that you need to implement to increase your app engagement and more importantly your revenue. Stay tuned. What is up App Nation? It is Steve P. Young, founder of appmasters.com, the place you go when you want action-packed content to help you grow your app downloads and like I said before, your revenues. So, today we're going to talk all about push notifications and the five best practices that I found to help you increase your app engagement and your monetization. So, let's get started.

0:40

Push notifications. Number one, ask for your push notification prompt during the onboarding process. I'm going to give you some examples of this. Genie, a chat GPT app, super popular. You can see their onboarding sequence, your AI assistant. They're asking for ATT prompt, then they say your AI assistant. They even ask you for a review and then they say, "Hey, enable notifications." I really like the messaging here. Allows us to send notifications so you wouldn't miss a thing. And then they show you with the pop-up. So, they have it during the onboarding process. Now, we know that most people who buy buy during the onboarding process. During the onboarding process is when we have the best opportunity to get our users to opt into these push and get them to eventually convert. And you can see towards the end of the onboarding flows.

1:27

If you're not familiar with onboarding flows, it's just the initial screens that users see right after they open your app for the very first time. And you can see the best practices is also to show your pricing page or your paywall during that onboarding process. So, you want to ask for your push notification and also show your paywall. Number two, let's ask for it. All right. I know I've seen I was wrong about this.

1:50

So, here's an AB test from a previous YouTube guest, William from Wager Lab. And he AB tested this because he said, "Steve, I've been following your advice, and I've been doing it B." And so, I tested it versus A cuz a lot of people in the industry were saying B is the best way to go. And if you're just listening to this, go watch the YouTube video, but you'll see the visual. But B says, "Don't miss a beat. We'll tell you when you win or lose your wagers and when you receive you want to enable notifications." You tap that. Now, obviously, you can X out of B, which if you look at the Genie, you can't X out versus A where you just ask for it. And William saw 4.8 increase in push notification prompts. People who enabled it by just asking for it. And so, here's the proof. So, I think you could just ask for it. I really like how Genie does it and says, "Hey, you know, please enable it." And then when you hit

2:36

continue, it'll ask. Now, here's another app, Be Real. Very popular app, right? Here's their onboarding flow. They ask you for contacts, which on the very first screen, not too bad. We've actually seen pretty good engagement when you ask for these type of information what you might think sensitive in the very beginning cuz it does help increase that user engagement. And then, when to post on Be Real, the only way to know when to post a Be Real is to enable the notifications. Like, pretty obvious. And like, "Hey, here's what you're about to see. So, hit enable, please, right?" And then when I hit next, hit allow right here, they then hit me with the push notification.

3:10

Now, watch this, okay? So, if I hit don't allow, which I personally do most of the time, is it hits me with this screen. Be Real is way better with notifications. The only way to know when to post a Be Real is to enable the notifications. And I can go into the open settings, okay? And then you can obviously go to the next step, but they try to force you to do that as well. That's what the app is all about. And so, they really want you to enable these notifications. Now, if I hit allow, watch this. You get a screen that shows you a sample push notification.

3:43

Absolutely love this, by the way. This is how Be Real will notify you when you can capture and post. So, click on the notification to take your very first Be Real. Now, what if I don't click on it? All right. They said, "That was close, Steve. Let's try it again." I hit recent notification, and then forces me to hit that push notification, and then take me to the normal screen and to capture my first BeReal. Really cool. Really a great way to teach your user and train your user what you as the app owner really want them to do. Let's move on to next topic. Next one is number three, and it's the frequency of the push notification. Super important. Now, net-net, the more you send, the more ineffective it becomes.

4:27

So, another way to phrase it is the less you send, the more effective it becomes, as well. Shout-out to Notix, who sponsored this video. And if you're looking for a push and web notification platform that's going to seamlessly integrate with your existing platform, go check them out. It is notix.co. That's n o t i x .c o. And guess what? You can keep your normal push notification provider and still test out Notix. Here we go. With the push notification frequency, they said, "You want to ideally you can look at it by different categories, but ideally about one or two is pretty good." And that's about per day, right? About one or two per day is good. Timely push notifications are the best, but if you have to send something out, one or two is pretty good for making sure you get your optimal click-through rates. So, people who get a push to actually eventually open that push notification.

5:24

And I'm going to link to a blog post that they wrote where it has way more data on the average click-through rates by industry and some of the other best practices. I'm just covering a few of my own. All right. Number four, it's all about messaging. That's what it is. All right. Now that you figured out the frequency, now that you got them to engage, it's all about what you're saying to them that makes a huge difference. Now, again, according to Notix, you want to use emojis. Make sense. You want to try to personalize your push notification messaging and using emojis certainly helps. You can see 3% click-through rate without emojis, 3.5 with emojis. You want to be AB testing a lot of your click-throughs.

6:03

And then less is more, people. Less is more. All right. The average number of words, okay? If it's 10 or fewer, you're getting a 9% click-through rate versus 11 to 20 gets a 5% click-through rate and 21 or more words gets a 3 and 1/2% click-through rate. All right. So, less is more, okay? Say less, do more, get it timely. Now, my favorite topic, monetization. Best practices for monetization, okay? This is a previous podcast guest. She wrote a blog post about this, Mirella Chahale, and she talked about how when she was working for Zinio, it's an online magazine platform, but this was there before, okay? So, when people within the app abandon carts, so you can check out for different magazines that you want to buy digitally, okay? When people abandon that cart and added that magazine, said, "Ah, no, I don't want any more." and they just close out the app or they just left for whatever reason, they would

6:58

send them a push notification reminder 1 hour within that first hour. Then they wait a couple of days and then they sent another reminder. But, they found out through some AB testing that the optimal way of doing it was three push notifications. So, first reminder set within that first hour, okay? After you leave that cart abandonment. Second reminder, 1 day after. And then the third reminder was about 1 week later. Now, I love this because it shows you you got to be super aggressive. If they've showed intent, if users have showed intent, one, they downloaded your app, that's intent. And two, they added something to the cart and they said, "I want this." but they left for some reason, right? Maybe they had to pick up the kids. It doesn't mean that they left because they didn't want it anymore. It could have been just something else, okay? Reminding them very aggressively helps out, okay? So, they saw a 13x

7:52

increase in conversions when moving from two push notifications to three. All right? That second one, both had that one within that first hour, but the first version waited a couple of days, whereas the second version reminded them the day after and then a week after. Like, "Hey, just in case you forgot, okay?" Wait, there's more. Now, I firmly believe that within that first hour of somebody downloading your app, if they did not activate that trial, you should give them an offer or something to bring them back in. Here's an app that I just checked out. You can see, this is their email. I know it's a little bit different from push, but I think the same philosophy applies here.

8:30

So, again, welcome email and I just blocked out everything. This is brand new, June 16th. And then it says, "Unlock all pro recipes, 20% off today." Hey, so that was literally the second email and it almost happened at almost the same time. So, they welcomed me and said, "Hey, you want to buy something?" Now, I didn't buy within the app, but it shows you that you can use multiple channels to try to get users to engage and I love the aggressiveness of it because what we found in our data is that people who buy generally buy within that first 20-minute to hour of downloading your app and opening your app. So, I love the aggressiveness here and then when I click into this email, unlock all pro recipes, and I check out, guess where it sends me? A Stripe landing page. Super easy to implement, especially for you guys on the back end.

9:16

Really easy. That shows you that you should do that. Now, with push notifications, here's Shout out to you, Masood, somebody who within my community, he tested this. So, if somebody canceled a trial, okay? You activated a trial and then you cancel it, you as a developer or your developer knows when that trial has been canceled. Apple and Google will both tell you. So, Masu decided to send a push notification. Said, "Hey, come back and save open the app and save 50% off your next subscription. This offer is only available for a limited time. So, act fast." Here is after you click on that push notification, here's the page that he sent you. Okay? So, it gives you 50% off. Now, on this offer, remember these are people who activated trial and canceled the trial. You do not need to offer any more trials. This 50% off should not have a trial anymore. Because when somebody activates a trial and to

10:14

paying you, that percentage, the highest I've seen is like 66%. It's never going to be 100%. I promise you. So, when you're giving any type of discounts, make sure you remove all trials from this discount. Now, he's starting to see revenues come in through this push notification. Lastly, I want to highlight this. So, shout out to William who I shared another strategy about cart abandonment with, but I just love the messaging that he has for this. So, William says, "Secret offer unlocked.

10:42

Only 40 bucks a year. You save 66% off this deal." I would leverage this whether people close that first paywall or send them a push notification to bring them back into the app. And I would be super aggressive. I would almost say a cart abandonment for a subscription app is someone who downloads your app, sees your paywall, and decides not to enable that trial. Within that first hour, give them an offer to come back into the app and activate that subscription. All right, guys. I do want to thank my sponsor for this video, notix.co, notix.co. They're going to do desktop, mobile, and in-app push notifications for you to help you increase your app engagement and web views. So, if you've got a website, you've got a component already, you can do it all in one platform. And the best thing is you don't have to switch your provider. You can use your current provider, wherever that may be, and then

11:40

try out Natics at the same time because they're so confident in their platform, they're going to say, "Yo, you're going to love us so much that you're going to want to switch after you started testing us out." And you can do that for absolutely free. Just let them know you heard it on this very podcast and say, "Yo, Natics, I heard you from Steve from AppMasters. Hook me up." And they will do just that. So, once again, go to Natics, n o t i x, nat i x, natics.co, natics.co for all your web and app push notification needs. All right, guys.

12:18

Till next time. See you on the next video.