RoboKiller · B2C · spam call blocker app
Track whether each user is getting the core value, and step in when you fail them
A wrongly handled call was highly correlated with churn, triggering fixes
Workedretentionanalytics-attribution
What they did
Pick one or two key metrics per product (more creates noise) that show the product delivering its value. For RoboKiller it was passive: is the user getting spam calls and are we blocking them, plus 'did we get one wrong?' For TapeACall it was an action: did they record a call. A misclassified call became the trigger for proactive retention outreach.
What happened
Getting something wrong for a user was highly correlated with churn and became the main flag for proactive retention work.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Why Most Apps Hit a Revenue Ceiling (and How to Plan for It) — Patrick Falzon, The App Shop“Yes, we tried to have one or two max for every product. I think if you have like seven, then you just you're creating noise and the actual signal's getting lost in that noise.”
“If we saw we got something wrong for a user, that was highly correlated with churn. So then, we needed to remediate that in some way, shape, or form.”
Related topics
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All 6 RoboKiller tacticsMore from this episode
- Mosaic Group: Only buy or build apps that could reach tens of millions without outspending giantsBuilt one of the leading app portfolios; sold to Bending Spoons
- Mosaic Group: Build several $30M apps instead of pushing one app past its ceilingGuest's answer to the $10-30M ceiling; three $30M apps can beat one $90M app
- Mosaic Group: Launch a new app for a new use case instead of piling features into oneGuest says slim apps segment users better and can earn more; no numbers
- RoboKiller: After the base subscription, offer data broker removal as a paid add-onReally successful; a good way to raise revenue per user (no numbers)
- Mosaic Group: Estimate lifetime value as a range of weighted guesses, then narrow it monthlyLets new products act on LTV before years of data exist; no numbers
- Mosaic Group: Count only 2-4 years of revenue per user and require fast payback early onConservative at worst; high LTV:CAC shows how much more spend cash could unlock
- Mosaic Group: Before rolling out a price test winner, check it still wins if retention drops 10-50%Annual-heavy price calls sometimes proved wrong a year later; this guards against it
- Mosaic Group: Raise prices about 10%; retention usually drops only a couple of percentNet LTV wins most of the time across the portfolio, if conversion holds
- Mosaic Group: Use early subscription cancellations to predict who will churnDidn't work: few cancel early; most cancel near the renewal reminder
- RoboKiller: Tell users how many millions of spam calls you blocked for everyone this month
- RoboKiller: Publish your own spam call data so reporters and regulators cite youRepeated WSJ, FT and cable news mentions; a brand halo that drove many organic installs
- Mosaic Group: Move ad designers to a different app every couple of monthsMore varied creatives, so winning styles became clear; no numbers
- Launch one ad channel at a time and change one bid per monthGuest's post-ATT method; new channels almost always underperform early forecasts
- Apalon: Switch apps from one-time paid downloads to in-app subscriptionsPhenomenal growth after the switch (no numbers)