# In-app messages at onboarding drop-off points: churn down 35%

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Onboarding (App)
- Test run by: [Ogun](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/ogun/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/one-signal-winback-case-studies
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-ogun-onboarding-in-app-messages/

Ogun 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.

## Result

**churn -35%; retention +27%; onboarding message CTR +80%**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Time to complete onboarding
- Guardrail: Message dismiss rate
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Ogun ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-ogun-onboarding-in-app-messages/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.