In-app messages at onboarding drop-off points: churn down 35%
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsOgun cut churn by over 35% and lifted retention by 27% after adding targeted in-app messages at the points where new users tended to drop off during onboarding.
Ogun, a Spanish construction management app for contractors, also saw an 80% rise in click-through rate on its onboarding messages.
The result is a before-and-after comparison published on the RevenueCat blog in a roundup of OneSignal case studies.
- Churn: down over 35%, measured before versus after, not against a control group.
- Retention: +27%. The source does not say which retention window this covers.
- Onboarding message click-through rate: +80%. This compares message performance, not user outcomes.
The change
The variant shows a targeted in-app message at a step where users tend to drop off.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
New users went through onboarding with no targeted messages at the steps where many of them dropped off.
Variant
Ogun showed proactive in-app messages at known churn points during onboarding. The source does not say what the messages said or which steps they appeared on.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Messages placed at known drop-off steps reach users at the moment they are most likely to quit.
- Contractors setting up a project tool may stall on setup tasks, and a timely prompt can show the next step.
- Without a control group, part of the change may come from other product or marketing changes made in the same period.
Caveats: Before-and-after result with little detail: no message content, sample size, time window or retention definition was shared. Published on the RevenueCat blog about OneSignal, an integration partner.
Who ran it
Ogun ran this test. Source: RevenueCat blog (OneSignal case roundup). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we show targeted in-app messages at the onboarding steps where most users drop off, then fewer new users will churn because they get help at the moment they stall.
- Primary metric
- Onboarding completion rate, then day-30 retention
- Guardrails
- Time to complete onboarding
- Message dismiss rate
- Trial-to-paid or activation rate
- Who should test it
- Apps with a multi-step setup, such as B2B tools and productivity apps, where you can see in analytics which steps lose users. It probably won't help if onboarding is already short or if users leave because the product doesn't fit their needs.
Questions
How do we find the right churn points?
Look at a funnel of your onboarding steps and find where the biggest share of users stop.
Start with one or two of those steps rather than messaging every screen.
What should the in-app message say?
Ogun didn't share its copy. A good start is to explain the next step or the benefit of finishing it, in one short line with one button.
Is message click-through a good success metric?
Not on its own. Clicks show the message got attention, but judge the test on onboarding completion and retention.