This document discusses various growth hacking techniques used by companies like Groupon, LinkedIn, and Dropbox to improve user acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and monetization. Specific tactics mentioned include optimizing landing pages, adding referral programs, gamification, viral content, and reverse engineering app store algorithms. It also covers some examples of "fail hacking" like privacy issues experienced by apps like Path and challenges faced by Rap Genius with unnatural links. The document is authored by Pol Valls Soler, an entrepreneur and advisor based in Barcelona.

1. Growth
hacking
case
studies
to
improve
your
funnel
Based
on
the
AARRR
pirate
metrics
framework.
See
“Pirate
Metrics
AARRR,
profit
and
key
metrics
to
track”
at
slideshare.net/polvallssoler!

2. Pol Valls Soler !
@polvallssoler!
" "linkedin.com/in/polvallssoler!
" "slideshare.net/polvallssoler!
"!
Creator of:!
iOS app for discovering people nearby: joinerapp.com!
Reddit for spanglish geeks: zumogeek.com!
Advising entrepreneurs at La Salle Technova Barcelona!

3. Growth Hacking
Less Budget, More Creativity, More Automation -> Maximize Output

4. Groupon ACQUISITION!
Different landing pages according to traffic source!
(Search Engines for SEO –> Footer vs Direct !
Traffic -> No footer)!

5. !
Groupon ACTIVATION & RETENTION!

6. !
Groupon RETENTION!

7. Groupon REFERRAL!
Sharing is in Groupon’s DNA
!

8. Linkedin ACTIVATION!
!
Gamification example:

9. !
Linkedin RETENTION & REFERRAL!

10. !
Linkedin REVENUE!

11. Linkedin ACQUISITION & REFERRAL!
!
(NOT THE BEST THING TO DO… people can hate you)
From Linkedin’s People You May Know page…
This person passed away about a year ago. For the
majority of her life, she ran a small hardware shop and
she barely understood email, let alone LinkedIn.

12. Dropbox ACQUISTION!
!
Signup driven homepage:
before
a?er

13. Dropbox REFERRAL!
!
Sharing simplicity and availability on Multiple Devices & Platforms:

14. !
Dropbox REFERRAL & REVENUE!
Get more space

15. !
Dropbox ACQUISTION & REFERRAL!
Dropbox Great Space Race!

16. Dropbox REFERRAL & REVENUE!
!
Dropbox growth hack in numbers…
1. September 2008: 100,000 registered users!
2. January 2010 (15 months later): 4,000,000!
3. Mostly from word-of-mouth and viral:!
• 35% of daily signups from referral program!
• 20% from shared folders, other viral features!
• Sustained 15-20%+ month-over-month growth since launch!

17. It doesn’t need to be online (initially)!

18. It doesn’t need to be online (initially)!

19. It doesn’t need to be online (initially)!

20. ACQUISITION:
SEO hacks!

21. ACQUISITION!

22. ACQUISITION & REFERRAL!
From
adverBsing
here…

23. ACQUISITION & REFERRAL!
To
simply
wriBng
this
footer
on
each
email…
PS: I Love You. Get Your
Free Email at Hotmail

24. ACQUISITION & REFERRAL!
And
here
are
the
results:

25. ACQUISITION & REFERRAL (Through viral content)!

26. ACQUISTION,
ACTIVATION,
RETENTION
&
REFERRAL!
ACQUISTION,
ACTIVATION
&
RETENTION!

27. ACQUISITION, REFERRAL & REVENUE!
Extra tip: Reverse Engineered App Store’s ranking algorithm
(approximation)!
AppStore
Ranking
=
H +
D +
R + E +
S
!
!H = # of installs weighted for the past few hours!
!D = # of installs weighted for the past few days!
!R = Reviews (star rating + number of reviews)!
!E = Engagement (# of times app opened etc.) !
!S = Sales ($)!
!
!
Luck?
AppStore
Bot?
Dark
paNern?

29. ACQUISITION & PROFIT!

32. REFERRAL!

33. REFERRAL!

34. REFERRAL!

35. REVENUE & PROFIT!

36. REVENUE & PROFIT!

37. REVENUE & PROFIT!

38. REVENUE & PROFIT!
Unlock
all
books
is
the
clear
top
revenue
generator.

39. REVENUE & PROFIT!
The
$144,146,165
Bu@on
When
cabs
were
cash
only,
the
average
Bp
was
roughly
10%.
A?er
the
introducBon
of
this
system,
the
Bp
percentage
jumped
to
22%.
Those
three
buNons
resulted
in
$144,146,165
of
addiAonal
Aps
per
year.

40. When
Growth
Hacking
Goes
Fail
Hacking

42. Path
Facebook
blocked
Path’s
“Find
Friends”
access
following
spam
controversy

43. Path
Path
texts
your
enBre
phonebook

44. Glide
Same…

45. Tinder
Same…

46. Rap Genius: No SEO Genius

47. Rap Genius: No SEO Genius
Rap Genius fell from around 700,000 uniques a day to around 100,000.!

48. Rap Genius: No SEO Genius
Google recommends a 4-step approach to fixing the problem:!
1. Download a list of links to your site from Webmaster Tools.!
2. Check this list for any links that violate our guidelines on linking.!
3. For any links that violate our guidelines, contact the webmaster !
of that site and ask that they either remove the links or prevent them!
from passing PageRank, such as by adding a rel="nofollow" attribute.!
4. Use the Disavow links tool in Webmaster Tools to disavow any links !
you were unable to get removed.!
But they had a MASSIVE problem… so they had to write a scraper to!
analyze 178k
URLs
using concurrency on a Heroku cloud. #NOTBAD!

49. Facebook Fraud

50. Facebook Fraud

51. Pol Valls Soler !
@polvallssoler!
" "linkedin.com/in/polvallssoler!
" "slideshare.net/polvallssoler!
"!
Creator of:!
iOS app for discovering people nearby: joinerapp.com!
Reddit for spanglish geeks: zumogeek.com!
Advising entrepreneurs at La Salle Technova Barcelona!