Automated onboarding and win-back journeys: +25% bookings per customer
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsYourParkingSpace automated push, email and in-app messages for new users in their first 30 days, and average bookings per customer rose 25%.
YourParkingSpace ran the campaigns, and the case was published on the RevenueCat blog in a roundup of OneSignal customer stories.
Several channels and message types launched together, and it is a before-and-after result, not a split test.
- Bookings per customer: +25% on average. This is a before-after comparison with no control group.
- Conversion rate: the source reports +700%, but gives no baseline or definition, so treat it with care.
- Net revenue from existing campaigns: +1090%, and an average monthly ROI of 769%, as reported by the source. Neither figure has a stated method.
Control
The UK parking booking app had no automated follow-up for new users who were likely to churn early.
Variant
Automated journeys across push, email and in-app messages during onboarding, with personalised offers, add-on services and follow-up reminders.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Parking is booked only when needed, so reminders in the first weeks help turn a one-time booking into a habit.
- Personalised offers lower the cost of a second booking, the step where many new users drop off.
- Reaching users on three channels raises the chance that at least one message is seen.
Caveats: Before-after result with several channels and offers launched together, so no single message gets the credit; no sample size or duration shared. It comes from a OneSignal customer roundup on the RevenueCat blog, and both companies sell tools for these campaigns, so the reporting may lean positive.
Who ran it
YourParkingSpace 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 send new users automated reminders and personalised offers across push, email and in-app messages in their first 30 days, then repeat bookings will rise because users are prompted to come back before they forget the app.
- Primary metric
- Bookings per customer in the first 60 days, against a random holdout group
- Guardrails
- Push opt-out and email unsubscribe rates
- Discount cost per incremental booking
- Uninstalls
- Who should test it
- Transactional apps with occasional, repeatable purchases such as parking, travel or delivery. It probably won't add much if users already book often, or if offers only discount bookings that would have happened anyway.
Questions
Should I start with push, email or in-app messages?
Start with the channel most new users have opted into, then add the others.
Test each journey against a holdout so you know which messages drive bookings.
Do win-back offers just give away margin?
They can, if they reach users who would have returned anyway.
A holdout group shows how many bookings the offer actually added, so you can compare that with the discount cost.