How to Integrate Viral Loops Into Your App’s Growth Strategy 

Ensuring sustainable growth for your app starts with leveraging organic, cost-efficient growth strategies. One of the most powerful ways to achieve this is by incorporating viral loops – mechanisms that turn users into enthusiastic advocates and drive exponential growth. By encouraging users to share your app with their networks, you can tap into the power of virality, increasing downloads and engagement, without relying heavily on paid advertising channels.

A study by AppVirality has shown that with effective viral loops, apps can achieve 5x-10x user growth without significantly increasing acquisition costs. This creates a powerful opportunity for sustainable growth, as each new user has the potential to bring in additional users, compounding your reach and amplifying engagement.
 
In this post, we’ll dive into the different types of viral loops and outline practical strategies for designing and integrating them into your app to help you drive organic growth and create a scalable foundation for long-term success.

What are viral loops? 

A viral loop occurs when existing users invite new users, who in turn invite even more users, creating a continuous growth cycle. For example, a language learning app may introduce a weekly language challenge that users can join with friends. When users invite friends to join the challenge, they both earn bonus points, which can be used to unlock premium content.

Whilst this growth begins with installs, there are further benefits to user engagement and retention. Especially that apps referred by family or friends foster a community-driven experience and increase users’ trust in the app. In fact, a recent study has shown that 83% of users are more likely to trust a referral and that referred users have a 25% higher customer lifetime value compared to non-referred users.

With these compelling advantages in mind, let’s explore how viral loops can be leveraged to fuel your app’s growth, starting with a breakdown of the different types available.

Different types of viral loops – which approach fits your app? 

Implementing the right viral loop strategy for your app requires careful consideration of your app’s functionality and whether users need incentives to share it with others. There are different types of viral loops, each suited to different app categories and user motivations.

• Direct Invitation Loops – often referred to as referral programmes. They allow users to invite their contacts directly. This strategy works well for apps like Whatsapp, where the functionality naturally encourages new users to join without requiring extra incentives as users benefit immediately from connecting with their network.

• Incentivised Loops – they motivate users to share the app by offering rewards such as cashback or discounts. Many incentivisation programs offer two-way benefits, rewarding both the referrer and the invitee. A more advanced approach ties rewards to specific actions post-referral. Here’s a great example of this strategy from Monzo – ‘You’ll both get £5 when they sign up and make a card payment.’ This offer not only increases installs but also encourages active user engagement.

• Content sharing – These strategies are more geared towards social media, photo & video, and gaming apps, which thrive on user-generated content (UGC). Users are naturally motivated to share their photos, videos, and stories with their network, which in turn attracts new users, driving virality (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, and VSCO).

• Embedded viral loops – they focus on features that require collaboration, prompting users to invite others and encouraging community-driven growth. Collaboration/productivity (such as Google Docs), music/playlists (Spotify), and cloud storage apps are good examples as shared resources and features encourage user invitations and sustained engagement.

Key benefits of viral loops 

As the sharing of your app expands, the benefits that can be reaped from viral loops are substantial. They include:

Cost-effective app marketing and increased visibility:  

• Since viral loops rely on users to promote the app to their networks, they significantly reduce the need for traditional, paid advertising. Harvard Business Review found that referred users are more valuable in the short and the long run. The average value of a referred customer is at least 16% higher than that of a non-referred customer with similar demographics and time of acquisition. 

• By leveraging this ‘network effect’, where each new user can bring in multiple additional users, you can see exponential organic growth for your app. By increasing your new user base and encouraging existing users to stay engaged, your app can create a multiplier effect that boosts visibility and user acquisition.  

Enhanced social proof:  

• When users share their in-app creations or invite others to utilise features they have found valuable, it not only validates the app’s usefulness but also sparks curiosity amongst their networks. With years of experience working with clients, we’ve consistently seen social proof as a high-converting element. This added layer of authenticity and credibility, often missing in traditional ads, makes users more likely to download and engage with the app.

Focused and accelerated growth:  

• With direct invitations, the person inviting others is likely to select people who would find value in the app, driving high-intent users. This targeted approach can result in increased engagement and lower churn.  
  Receiving a referral can also create a sense of urgency and excitement, encouraging users to act quickly and frequently. This is particularly effective during short-term promotions or when limited-time offers are in place.  

• As viral loops operate on a compounding effect, each user who enters the loop and invites others creates a cycle where every new user brings in more users, accelerating growth.  

It’s clear why viral loops are a powerful strategy for accelerating your app’s growth and engagement. But how can you effectively integrate viral loops into your app? Let’s break it down step by step. 

Steps to integrate viral loops into your app 

Step 1: Identify your goals 

Firstly, you should establish clear goals for what you want viral loops to achieve within your app. These may include increasing the Registration/Sign-Up rate, boosting engagement or improving retention rates. 

Once your goals are set, align them with your app’s overall strategy. Viral loops should not function in isolation, they need to integrate into your app’s broader growth strategy. For example, if your goal is to improve retention, consider viral loops that encourage ongoing engagement, such as collaborative features or in-app challenges that involve inviting friends. 
 

Pro tip: If your goal is user acquisition but you’re facing budget constraints, consider leveraging direct referrals or incentivised loops. These strategies can drive growth organically and cost-effectively. Keep in mind, that measuring effectiveness requires looking at the wider impact this has on your ROI. Analyse not just the initial boost in user numbers, but also how these new users contribute to long-term value and engagement. 

Step 2: Understand your users 

Conduct a user analysis to dive into user behaviour, demographics, and in-app activity to understand what motivates your users to engage with others. This will guide you in deciding which viral loop strategy would resonate the best with your existing user base.  
 
Then, determine which user segments are more likely to participate. For example, a fitness app might target power users who have logged over ten workouts, offering them a referral reward. Meanwhile, for new users, you could offer a different incentive, like inviting a friend to unlock premium features for a week. This segmentation enables you to tailor viral loops to specific groups, increasing the likelihood of participation. 

Step 3: Choose the right viral loop mechanism 

Once you defined your goals and identified what motivates your users, it’s time to choose the right viral loop type for your app. To do this, select a viral loop that complements your app’s core functionality. 

For example, content-sharing loops are better suited for social or media apps. These types of apps typically sit within the Photo & Video category. 

Embedded viral loops are perfect for productivity apps that rely on collaboration. For example, Trello allows users to invite team members to join specific boards, where everyone can contribute and collaborate on tasks. 

Incentivised loops work well for ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft, where users receive discounts or free rides for referring new riders.   

Remember, viral loops should enhance, not disrupt, the user experience. Make it easy and intuitive for users to engage with the viral feature, like adding a “share” button at the end of a task or providing seamless referrals. 

Step 4: Design the viral loop 

Integrate viral elements thoughtfully into the user journey by using prompts to share achievements or content at key milestones—such as after taking a photo, completing a level, or finishing registration. 

Once the placement has been identified, the UX and UI need to be considered. If you want to make the viral loop easily accessible, visually appealing, and easy to use, here are some tips to follow: 

1. Simplify sharing: Limit the number of actions needed to share or invite others. Provide direct buttons for popular platforms, such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, using familiar icons for each. 

2. Clear CTAs: Use clear call-to-actions, such as ‘Invite Friends’, ‘Share with your Network’, or ‘Share with Friends and Family’ to guide users effortlessly.  

3. Create sharable content: If relevant, create shareable content, badges, or videos that would look good on social platforms to further encourage users to post.  

Step 5: Implement and test your viral loops 

When it comes to implementation, prioritise design that it is scalable and easy to integrate. Make use of reliable SDKs, such as Branch or AppVirality for referrals, as they simplify the development process and offer further analytics tracking.  

A/B testing is an important part of product growth and should be factored into your viral loop implementation strategy to ensure the conversion rates are optimised. Experimenting with different share screens can reveal which CTAs and buttons lead to the most referrals. Additionally, testing various incentive amounts, invite placements, and badge imagery can help refine your viral loop for optimal results.  

Step 6: Promote and encourage users 

Once your viral loop feature is live, remember to integrate it into your CRM communications. Encourage users to engage with it by promoting it through in-app messages, push notifications, and email campaigns.  

Examples of this would include:  

• Welcome e-mails: inform your new users of the referral programs or share features available  

• Push notifications: send reminders to users or offer time-limited bonuses for referrals, like discounts or exclusive content. 

• In-app messages: display pop-ups at key moments prompting users to share 

Step 7: Measure and optimise your viral loop performance 

Throughout this process, measuring the success of your integration is vital to ensure that it meets your goals. Here are some key metrics we recommend tracking: 

• Virality coefficient: it measures the number of new users each existing user brings in. It is often calculated over a set period. 

A virality coefficient greater than 1 indicates exponential growth. 

• Invitation Rates – refer to the frequency with which existing users invite or share your app with new potential users. If you have 500 users and they collectively sent out 1,000 invitations, the invitation rate would be calculated as follows: 

• Invitation Acceptance Rate – measures the effectiveness of invitations sent by users and indicates how many of those invited actually accept and engage with the app.  

• Retention Rate – the percentage of users who continue to engage with your app over a specific period after their initial download or registration. 

Once you measure the performance of your viral loop strategy, you should use the data to continuously optimise your offering. Consider experimenting with different types or amounts of incentives to determine which options drive the highest number of referrals. Additionally, you can analyse user behaviour trends to test the timing of your share prompts for maximum effectiveness.  

Finally, gather user feedback on the overall ease of use of the referral experience and make adjustments to the viral loop as needed to enhance its functionality and appeal. 

Viral Loop strategy – final thoughts

Integrating viral loops into your app can significantly enhance growth and engagement. By strategically encouraging users to invite others, you create a cycle of continuous user acquisition and retention. With a well-executed viral loop, your app can thrive in a competitive landscape, harnessing the power of community-driven growth.