App Install to First Value

App analytics showing that a large share of first opens never turn into a registration or the core action is the signal to set this journey up. Track first open, registration completed and the core value action against the same user, make sure the email address collected at registration comes with consent, and define exactly one first-value action before launch. If users hit an error in the core action or the registration form stalls, fix that first; an onboarding message cannot complete a broken step.

Incremental first-value rate vs control

What counts is how much higher the share reaching first value is among guided users than in the control group; a first open or an account on its own is not first value.

How it is counted: Denominator: every new user assigned at entry to either group. Numerator: those who complete the core value action within the same follow-up window after assignment. That difference in shares is the journey's effect; seeing the in-app message or clicking the email does not change the denominator.

Also track

• Registration completion rateFinishing registration by session end, counted among assigned users; the intermediate step before first value, and a read on how often the Registration Completion handoff fires.
• Time to first valueTrack the time from first open to the core action separately in each group; report users who never get there on their own line instead of folding them into an average.
• Contribution per touchCount first-value events found at the 24-hour check and after the 3-day email follow-up separately; if the email adds nothing, revisit its content or timing.
• Unsubscribes and message dismissalsWatch unsubscribes after the onboarding email and dismissals of the in-app messages; if they climb, the first-value gains may be costing you more than they return.

• Trigger and entryEntry happens on the first app open, when the first in-app message shows one next step toward registration. Split new users at random right there: part of them into the journey group, the rest into a control group that gets no onboarding messages at all.
• Who must not enterScope is one new install; a user who has already completed the core value action does not enter, and no second flow opens for the same install. Anyone who has not finished registration by session end moves to Registration Completion and leaves this journey.
• Timing and channelsRegistration is prompted in-app for the whole session and checked when the session ends. Once it is complete, a second in-app message leads to the core action; first value is checked after 24 hours, and if it is missing an email deep-links to the same action, followed by a 3-day wait.
• Exit and handoffFirst value reached ends the journey as soon as the 24-hour or the 3-day check finds the core action completed. An unfinished registration at session end is handed to Registration Completion and the old message plan is closed; if first value is still missing after the 3-day wait, onboarding communication stops.
• Frequency and consentAt most two in-app messages and one email per install, each showing a single next step; several onboarding tasks are never shown at once. Send the email only when the address collected at registration carries consent.

1. 1When guided users do not reach first value more often than the control group, the prompts may only have sped up people who would have gotten there anyway, and more registrations or email clicks do not change that. Judge the journey on the first-value gap alone.
2. 2This reading applies to this order, the session-end and 24-hour checks and the one-step-at-a-time rule. Do not credit this journey with first value reached by a user after the handoff to Registration Completion; measure its contribution up to the handoff point.
3. 3If the gap is small or first value is rare, compare each group's users and first-value counts in the A/B test significance calculator; do not scale the journey on a difference that is not significant, collect more new installs and read it again.