We finally dug into our analytics properly and found something weird about our most active users.
Turns out they’re not the ones we thought they were. The patterns were completely different from what we assumed based on surface metrics.
Has anyone else had their assumptions about power users completely flipped?
Same thing happened to me but flipped. I was marketing an app and everyone thought our heavy daily users were goldmines.
Wrong. Those people just used it as free entertainment and never bought anything. Our actual paying customers? They’d hop on for 15-20 minutes a week, grab what they needed, and bounce.
Completely changed how I target ads now. I hunt for people with real problems to solve, not folks looking to waste time.
Same thing happened with a dating app I worked on. We thought our power users were the heavy swipers - people doing hundreds of swipes daily.
Wrong. The real money makers? Users who opened the app 3-4 times weekly, spent maybe 10 minutes each time, but actually messaged their matches and went on dates. They upgraded to premium 3x more often.
The heavy swipers barely started conversations. Just mindless scrolling.
Completely flipped our retention strategy. Now we optimize for real interactions, not time spent in-app.
Session frequency means nothing for value. We tracked our fitness app users and found the opposite of what we expected. Daily loggers? Gone after month one. Our real money came from people who opened the app twice a week but actually finished their workouts. They stuck around for months. Heavy users burned out and churned fast. Light users saw it as a tool, not entertainment. Now we focus on completion rates, not daily opens.
Quiet users who barely post always spend more money.
Same thing happened with our gaming app. We thought daily players were gold, but they just wanted everything free. The weekly players? They’re the ones who actually opened their wallets.