Instagram Growth Hack: Using the Web to Drive Mobile Downloads
gettingmoreawesome.comA common mistake made in consumer apps is that user acquistion is seen as the key to success. It is true that you need to acquire users, but what you really need is a good hook and then to keep those users. Instagram's hook was that they made filters and sharing easy amd free. People wanted filters and the sharing part was a bonus. However, once they were there, they naturally had to take part in the social aspects which made it far more engaging and therefore they stuck around. After that, it is only a matter of time before others joined in.
User acquisition is a necessary but not sufficient part of success. So no, user acquisition isn't the key to success. And yes, you do need to engage your users and make your site/app sticky. But you can have the stickiest app known to man and it's completely useless if you don't have users. You need to do both and the only thing they have in common is being difficult.
You've made a great point. Its very easy to get blinded by metrics that don't really matter. I am sure we have all been there.
"My app was downloaded over a gazillion times last month"
"So what, how many of those that downloaded it are engaged and actually using it?"
They used to, for at least the first 12 months, have quite a large 'download the app now' button.
This I believe was in the 'pre-comments on the website' era.
Couldn't find an image of this so might entirely be in my head.
Maybe nobody likes to be sold, but people won't download it if they don't happen to notice the download button either.
I imagine the likelihood for a person to notice the ad gets better as the button gets bigger and uglier, but on the other hand the percentage of people who don't download out of spite because the button is too big and ugly also gets larger.
There's probably a sweet spot there somewhere.
The thing I've never liked about this page is that the photo owner's username looks like a link.