[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: Aarrr, matey!
LAURENCE MORONEY: Ahoy there, landlubbers.
This be Laurence from the Firebase team.
PARUL SOI: And this be Parul Soi from the Google Developer
Relations team.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And today we're
going to talk with you about pirate metrics.
PARUL SOI: So what are pirate metrics?
It's a term coined by Dave McClure of 500 Startups that
simplify and break down a product user's life cycle,
explaining the right parameters to track.
LAURENCE MORONEY: The first element in any user lifecycle
is the acquisition of that user, meaning the users install
your app or visit your site.
Now, users are acquired in many different ways,
either organically, such as through social media
communications, app store optimization, search, news,
content marketing, or it can also be inorganically,
which is usually advertising.
PARUL SOI: Congratulations!
You have acquired a user.
However, your job is less than half done.
What you really need to do is show them
the true value of your product.
You want to get them hooked.
Or in other words, you want to activate them.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So if you have a game where pirates compete
with each other, you want to ensure that a user maybe
at least completes a few levels to see the awesome graphics,
the twists and turns in the storyline,
the gameplay, and all those other things that
make the game so special.
PARUL SOI: The apps and game industry is a rough scene,
and even if you activate users, you're
going to face challenges to keep them coming back.
A typical person only uses about 26% of their installed apps
daily.
A ton of users either uninstall or simply forget
about the application in the first few days.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So the goal for any healthy product
is to find a strategy to get them to retain their users.
If you're churning a lot of your users, the money
that you're spending on acquiring them,
it's kind of getting wasted.
PARUL SOI: You also want your users
to be the biggest advocates.
No acquisition strategy is as powerful as
organic word-of-mouth campaign.
LAURENCE MORONEY: If users love your product,
they genuinely want your friends to try it out as well.
They want to make it easy for your users
to refer your product and-- this sea biscuit's delicious.
Do you want to try some?
PARUL SOI: Aye, of course!
LAURENCE MORONEY: You see, your product
should be just as easy to share as this sea biscuit was.
PARUL SOI: And ultimately, you want to collect some treasure.
In other words, you want to monetize your users.
You want to identify which users bring in more revenue
and understand what makes them want to pay.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And with this knowledge,
you could aim to monetize more of your users,
and also maybe get those who are already using your application
to stick around a bit longer so that they can enjoy it more.
PARUL SOI: So let's summarize the user lifecycle.
We have the following five stages.
Acquisition, activation, retention, referral,
and revenue.
These five stages are together called pirate metrics.
Still wondering why?
LAURENCE MORONEY: Well, take the first letter of each
of the elements and you get--
BOTH: Aarrr!
LAURENCE MORONEY: In the coming videos,
we're going to look at each metric individually
and also show you how you can use Firebase
to track and improve them.
To watch the next videos, click here.
PARUL SOI: And don't forget to subscribe.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It likes chilies, not sea biscuits.
LAURENCE MORONEY: It's an ex-parrot.
Bereft of life, it rests in peace.