Promotion tips: How to define new users?

In our product operation practice, the definition of new users is not exactly the same. Some define purchase as a new user, some define registration as a new user, and some define opening as a new user. So, for a specific product, how should we define a new user?

This article will share with you the method of defining new users, help you accurately define new users, and use this indicator to measure the effectiveness of product promotion .

1. What are the two ways to define new users?

In the current definition of "new users", generally speaking, it can be divided into two ways. One way is the number of new users who open the application within a period of time, which is the broad definition of new users.

Another way is to measure the number of new users who have performed "key behaviors" within a period of time, such as shopping/speaking/recharging. For growth hackers , they are more concerned with the second type of "new users".

2. How to count the “new users” indicator?

In the traditional sense, we can use the download and installation volume of each electronic market and official website as the number of new users (of course, this is very inaccurate), or we can use the number of new users who open the APP within a period of time as the new users. A more rigorous way is to use newly registered users as the new users.

Usually, we call new users who open the APP but are not registered visitors. In the user life cycle, they are also called potential customers. The subsequent stages correspond to novice, growth, maturity, and loss. In the growth hacker's AARRR model , the user life cycle is divided into five key stages: acquiring users, increasing activity, improving retention , generating revenue, and self-propagation. A new user opening the APP means acquiring a new user.

3. What does the newly added “registered user” represent?

Since new users who open the APP can be counted as new users, why should we consider registered users as a statistical indicator of "new users"?

We call registered users activated users. Whether it is the user life cycle model or the AARRR model, from potential customers to newcomers, or from acquiring users to increasing activity, user registration is a key behavior.

User registration represents the user's initial recognition of the product experience and the primary expression of product demand. At the same time, the operator obtains part of the user's information, such as email, mobile phone and even more personal identity information, and has more ways to guide the user's subsequent behavior, such as churn awakening.

Taking "registered users" as a consideration indicator for new users represents a shift from "quantity statistics" to "quality statistics" in the definition of operational indicators.

4. Why should we pay attention to the “quality statistics” of operational data?

The number of "new registered users" actually represents the insight into user behavior . User registration requires multiple steps such as opening the APP - entering the registration page - filling in information - submitting registration information. Users who take action for the product are actually users who recognize and have demand for the product.

In refined operations, we pay more attention to "user quality" rather than quantity. When we count the number of new users, we will also count the new user acquisition effect of each channel , such as the number of new users in each e-marketplace, the number of new users in each advertising channel , and the number of new users in each activity. This corresponds to the control of operation and promotion costs.

Traditionally, we evaluate the quality of a promotion channel by looking at how many new customers it brings, how much exposure it has, how much investment it has made, and how to calculate the ROI of the promotion. Between the channel with a single customer acquisition cost of 10 yuan and the channel with a single customer acquisition cost of 20 yuan, we think the first channel is better.

But through the analysis of "quality statistics", we can draw the following conclusions:

Channel A has a customer acquisition cost of 10 yuan, 100 new users, a total cost of 1,000 yuan, 20% of which are registered users, and the cost of a single registered user is 50 yuan;

Channel B’s customer acquisition cost is 20 yuan, with 100 new users and a cumulative expenditure of 2,000 yuan. Registered users account for 40%, and the cost of a single registered user is 50 yuan.

From this conclusion, we can see that the cost per registered user of Channel A and Channel B is the same, but in one promotion, Channel B brought twice as many registered users as Channel A, saving operational manpower and improving promotion efficiency. Channel B is better than Channel A.

In refined operations, we pay more attention to "effective users". Registered users are only one manifestation of effective users. When measuring the number of "new users", we should pay more attention to users' key behaviors.

5. How to define new users through “key behaviors”

Different products have different definitions of "key behaviors". For example, the "key behavior" of e-commerce products is users placing orders to purchase, the "key behavior" of gaming products is users recharging, and the "key behavior" of social products is users leaving messages to interact.

Of course, this is the core key behavior. The participation rate of a certain event can also be used as the "key behavior" of event promotion and conversion users , such as receiving coupons, participating in theme interactions, etc., to evaluate the quality of new users.

The definition of "key behaviors" varies in different stages of the product. The cold start stage focuses more on the number of users who generate "core behaviors" and develop into seed users . The user growth stage focuses on the number of users with "participating behaviors", such as registration and logging in for three consecutive days. The user retention stage focuses on the number of users with "retained behaviors", such as logging in for three consecutive days after being added for 7 days.

The definition of "new users" in refined operations is actually a simple user stratification based on the subsequent behaviors of new users. After defining the indicators of "new users", the behavior of attracting new users is not just about downloads and opens, but optimization around core indicators. For example, taking registration as an indicator, it is necessary to optimize the registration process experience by observing the user's registration behavior path.

Summary: This article shares two ways to define new users. In our refined operation process, we need to focus on defining new users from the perspective of key user behaviors, and define users who meet the "key behaviors" of the current operation stage as effective new users, which are also the key users of subsequent operations.

Source: Zhuge io Data Coach