Data-driven user acquisition — how to get started?

Software customers are more than just anonymous faces clicking buttons. With every interaction, they leave a trail of valuable insights. For example, studying existing customer behavior helps identify patterns, facilitating the discovery of new customers with similar traits. 

In this blog post, we discuss how the smart use of data helps pinpoint and fine-tune user acquisition channels, tweak targeting strategies, and improve the success rates of our growth efforts. 

Steps to leverage data to boost customer acquisition efforts

1. Establish and foster a data-driven culture 

For a successful data-driven customer acquisition strategy, a data-driven culture needs to exist in the first place. This involves ensuring that your team not only acknowledges the importance of data but also understands how to interpret it and integrate it into shared goals. 

To reach this stage you need to facilitate open, seamless communication and provide opportunities for regular collaboration across the org, involving teams such as Data, Growth, Product, and others. 

2. Use the right tools

To promote and sustain a data-driven culture — and minimize bottlenecks — you’ll also need the right set of tools that offer convenient access to relevant data for all teams, without having to rely on the Data team. 

Beyond the basics, like Google Analytics, social media listening, and traditional business intelligence tools, the introduction of Product Analytics also plays a key role, thanks to its ability to provide valuable insights into existing customer behavior, highlighting preferences, pain points, and common use cases.  

For more details about Product Analytics capabilities, check out our previous article comparing traditional Business Intelligence and Product Analytics tools. 

3. Determine what’s relevant (and what’s not)

Moving forward involves pinpointing the crucial data elements, including details about target personas, demographics, competitor insights, and market trends, and finding the relevant data sources. For a comprehensive user acquisition strategy, you’ll probably need to look at all of these: 

• Website analytics: Analytical tools for website traffic offer insights into user navigation, page visits, and the duration of stay —  all instrumental data in shaping customer acquisition strategies.
• Social media: By leveraging social media data, you can gain an understanding of brand interactions, trending topics, and the most impactful platforms for engaging your target audience.
• Market research reports: Informative market research reports offer critical insights into customer behavior, preferences, and the competitive landscape.
• Customer transactional data: Transactional data from customer interactions offers in-depth insights into behavior and preferences and helps identify the most effective channels for customer outreach.
• Product Analytics data: Understanding existing customer behavior is key to attracting future customers. A Product Analytics platform allows you to fully grasp user behavior, identify popular features, and understand any obstacles they may encounter.

Step 3. Continuously monitor data  

After identifying relevant data, you can leverage visualization tools and data mesh solutions to reveal patterns. Remember that user behavior trends can always change; the data you see today might be completely different next month. 

Building a successful customer acquisition strategy is an ongoing effort. Once you have the data you need, you cannot just sit back and relax — you need to regularly analyze it and incorporate it into your (next) strategy. 

Step 4. Experiment and iterate

Now that you understand that data-driven customer acquisition is a  constantly evolving process, you can start exploring different strategies and tactics. 

Depending on your specific goals, taking the time to check and iterate based on results every month or every quarter is a great way to consistently refine and improve your customer acquisition strategies, leading to better outcomes in the long run.

Step 5. Share learnings across teams

We've come full circle — let's talk about culture again! Successful data-driven customer acquisition is all about a continuous, seamless collaboration among different teams — it requires a coordinated effort between data analysts, marketers, and product teams. 

A culture of shared learning and collaboration transforms the process of syncing goals and strategies into an organic flow, leading to better results. The outcome is a customer acquisition strategy that goes beyond a one-time event, proving sustainable for the long term.

We hope you liked this article. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Persio, get in touch via — we’re happy to chat!