In today's digital age, mobile apps have become a vital part of our daily lives. From ordering food to booking travel, mobile apps have revolutionized the way we interact with businesses. To be successful, you must also focus on increasing your mobile app's conversion rates.

What is mobile app conversion rate?

Conversion rates reflect the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a membership. The higher your conversion rates, the more successful your mobile app will be.

The significance of conversion rates lies in their ability to indicate the overall efficiency of your app, as well as the effectiveness of the product and marketing strategies employed.

How to calculate mobile app conversion rate?

To calculate the mobile app conversion rate, you have to divide the number of users who completed the desired action by the total number of users who could have done that particular conversion action on the app and multiply by 100.

For instance, if your app was downloaded by 100 users (potential users who have downloaded the app with the intent to make a purchase), and out of them, 30 made a purchase, then your conversion rate would be (30/100) x 100 = 30%. This means that 30% of people who downloaded your app made a purchase.

10 Ways to Increase Mobile App Conversion Rate

Optimize your app's user interface

The user interface of your mobile app is one of the most critical factors in determining conversion rates. If users find it difficult to navigate your app or if it's too slow to load, they're likely to abandon it altogether. That's why optimizing your app's UI is essential to increasing conversions.

Here are a few tips to help you optimize your app's user interface:

Another way to optimize your app's UI is to ensure that it's consistent across all platforms. If you have an Android and iOS version of your app, make sure the UI is similar on both platforms. This helps users feel more comfortable with the app and reduces the learning curve for new users.

By optimizing your app's user interface, you can increase user engagement and retention, which ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.

Implement effective onboarding techniques

Effective onboarding is crucial for increasing mobile app conversions. When users download your app, they need to be guided through the features and functionalities so that they can feel hit the aha moment faster and can perform the conversion event quickly.

For a brief explanation with real-time examples, take inspiration from some of the best mobile app onboarding examples in 2023.

Use in-app messages

In-app messages are an effective way to drive users toward any conversion event such as a free trial or freemium upgrades, decreasing time to value, crossing session milestones, etc. It is also possible to contextually upsell or cross-sell related products and services.

Spotify upsells a free user to convert into a premium user by displaying a modal with a dismiss option customized with tempting text.

In the HealthifyMe app, for users who’ve hit the purchase page multiple times before but have not yet converted, a native banner for this user cohort shows up which takes them to a stories carousel. Each story is embedded with a CTA that takes the user to a purchase page.

Leverage Social Proof

Social proof is a powerful tool for increasing mobile app conversion rates. By showing that others have had a positive experience with your app, you can build trust and credibility with potential users. There are several ways to leverage social proof:

• User reviews: Encourage users to leave reviews and ratings in the app store. Highlight positive reviews on your website and social media channels. The popular food delivery app, Swiggy displays the user ratings for individual restaurants and the food items as shown below.

• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) strategy: It is a marketing technique that remarks that people would get fear missing out on your products or services if they do not take action toward your promotions and offers. So, they convert as soon as possible in order not to miss out on your offers.

Whatever form of social proof you choose to use, make sure it is authentic and relevant to your target audience. Avoid creating fake reviews or endorsements, as this can harm your credibility and lead to negative consequences.

Offer discounts and deals

Offering incentives and discounts is a proven way to increase conversion rates for your mobile app. There are various types of incentives and discounts you can offer, and each can help entice users to take action and continue using your app.

For example, Swiggy's Great Indian Restaurant Festival (GIRF) was a popular annual event that offers significant discounts and deals to customers who order food from participating restaurants through the Swiggy platform. This indeed played as an effective strategy for the conversion.

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Use Push Notifications Wisely

Push notifications can be a powerful tool for increasing app engagement and conversions. However, using them too frequently or in a way that is irrelevant to the user can have the opposite effect. To make the most of push notifications, follow these tips:

• Personalize messages: Address the user by name and use their past behavior to tailor messages that feel personalized and relevant to them.
• Target specific user groups: Segment your users into groups based on behavior, demographics, or other relevant factors. Then, target push notifications specifically to those groups.
• Avoid overuse: Don't inundate users with too many push notifications or they may become annoyed and turn them off completely.

By following these best practices, you can use push notifications to effectively increase conversions and keep users engaged with your app.

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Simplify checkout processes

One effective method to enhance the conversion rate of your app is to streamline the subscription and payment processes, ensuring they are user-friendly and straightforward.

Complicating the registration or payment procedures increases the likelihood of users abandoning the app due to difficulties or complex steps.

It is also crucial to offer a variety of popular payment methods, eliminating any excuses for users not to make a purchase.

Including online payment options, such as UPI, PayPal, Cash on Delivery, and EMI, is essential for catering to digitally savvy customers who prefer convenient online payment methods as provided by Amazon in the above image.

Make the CTA buttons prominent

The design of your app plays a crucial role in guiding users toward their desired actions and achieving the intended objectives, such as boosting sales or providing important information. One fundamental element for accomplishing this is the Call-to-Action (CTA) button. A CTA button is critical in diverting traffic to the conversion screen and helping apps increase conversion rates.

To optimize your CTA button, it's beneficial to make it more prominent and visually appealing, catching users' attention. Increasing its size can help draw focus and encourage interaction. Additionally, considering a slightly unconventional color and appearance for the CTA button can make it stand out, but it's important to strike a balance and avoid an excessively distracting or irritating design.

For instance, Spotify has created a visually appealing CTA for the conversion of free users to opt for the premium package.

Obtain user feedbacks

Users have valuable insights and opinions about the apps they use regularly. Hence, gaining user feedback is crucial for increasing conversions and user engagement with your app, regardless of whether it is targeted toward businesses or end-users. For this, use in-app surveys to enable your users to experience contextual feedback naturally.

For instance, LazyPay reduced drop-offs in the loan journey with Plotline’s in-app survey by triggering them when a user clicks on the “back button" in the loan journey.

Drive traffic through social media

Social media stands as a formidable force in driving traffic, resulting in millions of daily sales. Leveraging the power of social media by creating compelling content can enable you to effectively reach your target audience and forge a strong connection with your brand.

Regularly providing updates and driving top-of-mind recall enhances engagement and boosts conversion rates. Also, this works effectively for D2C brands.

Plotline helps B2C growth and marketing teams improve in-app conversion metrics

At Plotline, we help you build and publish in-app messaging flows sans coding, saving your developers time that can be better spent on other aspects of the product.

Using Plotline, growth and marketing teams can improve their in-app conversion metrics by creating and deploying customizable in-app messages that match your design theme to a targeted user cohort.

Join us in our journey towards providing users with native in-app experiences and improving mobile app conversion rates.