How 6 apps used OneSignal to win back users and cut churn

As the app marketplace grows and user attention spans decline, retaining users is becoming even more challenging than acquiring them. Users can quickly lose interest after download, leading to churn that can significantly impact your app’s growth potential and recurring revenue. 

This is where re-engagement, or “win-back,” messaging campaigns come into play. By targeting users who have become inactive or are on the brink of leaving, you can bring users back and re-establish their connection with your app. In this post, we’ll explore several real-world examples of successful re-engagement and churn-prevention campaigns across different industries, showcasing the bottom-line impact of engaging users at pivotal moments in your user journey.

Beach Bum Games: Reigniting interest in mobile gaming

Company Background
Beach Bum Games is a mobile game studio known for bringing classic games like Dominos, Backgammon, Gin Rummy, and Spades to mobile devices. Founded in 2015, the company has made a name for itself in the mobile gaming industry and was recently acquired by Voodoo.

Challenge
In their Gin Rummy game, Beach Bum Games noticed a troubling trend: users often churned shortly after downloading the game. This was primarily due to a lack of follow-up campaigns to remind users to return after download.

Solution
To address this, Beach Bum Games created an automated re-engagement campaign using OneSignal. This campaign targeted users within two minutes of their first app exit, aiming to capture their attention while their phone was still in hand. The result? A 12% click-through rate (CTR) — a significant achievement in the gaming industry, where the top 25% of games have an average monthly retention rate of just 4%.

Impact
“It definitely increases engagement in the app in the first few days after download, which is the most crucial period for new users,” said Ishai Kerem, CRM and Monetization Manager at Beach Bum Games.

Further Success
Beach Bum Games didn’t stop there. They also used OneSignal Journeys to remind players to return to the app to collect bonuses after completing daily missions. This campaign saw a 6.5% conversion rate, bringing users back into the app. For their Backgammon and Domino games, they used OneSignal’s “Session Duration” filter to segment users with shorter-than-average session times. The resulting automated messages achieved an astounding 20% CTR.

Long-Term Results
By moving their user reactivation and retargeting messages into a OneSignal Journey, Beach Bum Games saw a 140% increase in paid user activation just 10 days after implementation. As Gili Mussman, CRM and Monetization Manager, noted, “Those aren’t numbers we typically see with push notifications. It definitely increases engagement in the app in the first few days after download, which is the most crucial period for new users.”

Betmate: Converting sports fans with precision

Company Background
Betmate is a UK-based football gaming app that offers fans various sports betting games, including Fantasy Football, Full-Time Result, and Both Teams to Score. The platform’s low entry fees and multiple payout options make it a popular choice for football enthusiasts.

Challenge
Betmate’s team identified two critical conversion points where users were likely to churn: ID verification and depositing funds for the first time.

Solution
To nurture more conversions, Betmate used custom Data Tags in OneSignal to segment users based on their ID verification and deposit status. They then built custom cross-channel Journeys to send emails and push notifications that encourage users to complete these actions, reducing friction and guiding them through crucial stages of the user journey.

Impact
As a result, Betmate increased the number of users who verified their ID by 11% and saw a 30% increase in new user deposits. Implementing these simple Journeys led to a 600% increase in monthly active users (MAU), a 30% increase in new user deposits, and a 625% increase in user spending per month.

Bottom Line
Betmate’s focus on optimizing these pivotal conversion points has paid off significantly. The company also reported a 22% increase in sessions per user and a 120% increase in app downloads.

YourParkingSpace: Transforming one-time users into repeat customers

Company Background
YourParkingSpace is a UK-based parking reservation service that helps millions of users find and book affordable parking spaces. The platform allows private and commercial providers to rent out their driveways or spaces, making it a go-to app for parking needs.

Challenge
The team at YourParkingSpace recognized the importance of engaging new users within their first 30 days post-download. However, achieving meaningful success at scale required automating their engagement and re-engagement efforts.

Solution
By leveraging OneSignal Journeys, YourParkingSpace automated targeted push, email, and in-app messaging campaigns to win back users who would have otherwise churned early on. They used personalized offers, auxiliary add-on services, and follow-up reminders to re-engage users during the onboarding process.

Impact
These efforts led to a 700% increase in conversion rates and a 25% increase in the average number of bookings per customer. Moreover, YourParkingSpace saw a 1090% increase in net revenue from existing campaigns and an average monthly ROI of 769% since launching with OneSignal.

Bitcoin.com: Encouraging repeat purchases in the crypto space

Company Background
Bitcoin.com is a financial services company that specializes in making cryptocurrencies more accessible. Their main product, the Bitcoin.com Wallet, helps users buy, sell, trade, and securely store cryptocurrency.

Challenge
To encourage users who had made a purchase to buy again, Bitcoin.com needed a re-engagement strategy that would prompt these users to return to the app.

Solution
They implemented a “Buy Again Journey” that provided personalized offers and reminders to users who had previously made a purchase but had not returned. This targeted approach resulted in a 24% conversion rate.

Combatting churn before it occurs

Placing retention-focused campaigns at key moments in the user journey is a smart way to prevent churn before it happens. By targeting users right when they’re most likely to lose interest — like during onboarding or after completing important tasks — you can keep them engaged and connected to your app. These well-timed nudges remind users of what makes your app valuable and help create a smooth, ongoing experience that keeps them coming back. Instead of scrambling to win back users after they’ve left, this approach focuses on keeping them engaged from the get-go, making it less likely they’ll drop off in the first place.

Kyivstar: Prioritizing retention over acquisition

Company Background
Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest telecommunications network, serving over 26 million mobile users and more than a million internet customers. Their mobile app, My Kyivstar, allows users to manage their accounts and subscriptions easily.

Challenge
As Kyivstar grew, its focus shifted from new user acquisition to retention. They needed a way to reduce churn and increase engagement in their My Kyivstar app.

Solution
By using push notifications to highlight partner offers and exclusive discounts, Kyivstar enhanced its targeting abilities and created more sustainable revenue streams. These efforts significantly reduced new user churn and increased monthly active users by 10%.

Impact
In 2022, contextual notifications about account top-ups generated up to 10 million UAH (about $272,000 USD) in incremental growth per month. The increased engagement also led to more opportunities for users to see and opt into new offers, plans, and services, further boosting Kyivstar’s revenue.

Long-Term Results
Kyivstar’s shift in strategy has turned My Kyivstar into one of the company’s largest revenue sources. In addition to increasing MAU and reducing churn, Kyivstar has gained a deeper understanding of user behavior, allowing them to adapt their communication strategy for even greater impact.

Ogun: Proactively preventing churn in construction management

Company Background
Ogun is a Spanish construction management app designed to help contractors and renovation professionals organize their projects and communication. The app provides tools to keep projects on track and on time.

Challenge
Ogun needed a way to prevent users from churning during the onboarding process, a critical stage where many users tend to drop off.

Solution
Using OneSignal’s in-app messaging, Ogun addressed potential churn points during onboarding by delivering proactive, targeted messages. This approach led to an 80% increase in CTR for their onboarding messages and reduced churn by over 35%.

Impact
Ogun’s use of in-app messaging has not only increased app retention by 27% but also improved overall user engagement, making their platform more effective and user-friendly.

These examples show just how effective re-engagement and churn prevention campaigns can be. By really getting to know your users, segmenting them smartly, and sending personalized messages at the right moments, apps in all sorts of industries have been able to bring users back and ramp up engagement and revenue. Regardless of your app vertical, having the right re-engagement strategy can be a game-changer for your success.

Win back users with RevenueCat + OneSignal

The OneSignal and RevenueCat integration empowers you to create personalized, timely win-back and churn-prevention campaigns using subscription events from RevenueCat. Automatically send key events into OneSignal and tag users with their latest subscription status to make segmentation and targeting a breeze. With real-time data, you can supercharge and automate your messaging campaigns across every channel, including push, email, SMS, Live Activities, and in-app messaging. Not yet a OneSignal user? Create a OneSignal account to take advantage of this powerful integration.