Game-Changing Strategy: The Hidden Power of Reinstalls and Subscription Reactivations

Most app revenue reports focus on new user monetization - but what about users who return? With acquisition costs rising, understanding these revenue streams is no longer optional - it’s essential for sustainable growth. Discover how much revenue you’re leaving untapped.

The mobile app landscape is more competitive than ever. With CAC rising by around 12% annually and over 1.5 million apps crowding the market, it’s never been harder to stay profitable.

This pushes app owners to find innovative ways to sustain revenue. Many experiment with shifting purchases to web-based transactions to bypass platform fees, while others refine their monetization strategies with hybrid models. However, amidst all these efforts, one fundamental truth remains: success hinges on maximizing user lifetime value (LTV).

In a climate where acquiring a new user is more expensive than ever, retaining existing users and re-engaging past ones present a more sustainable growth strategy. While retention efforts focus on preventing churn, a significant revenue opportunity lies in reactivating users who have lapsed - whether they uninstalled the app or simply canceled their subscriptions.

Why you can’t ignore Reinstalls and Reactivations:

• Day 30 retention rates often fall below 5% - emphasizing how quickly users churn and making reactivation campaigns a critical strategy to recover lost revenue.
• Reinstalls account for a significant portion of total installs - but few app owners track their revenue impact.
• Reactivating a lapsed user is up to 5x cheaper than acquiring a new one.

To measure the true impact of reinstalls and subscription reactivations, Apphud’s Average Revenues Report provides key insights into the revenues brought by reinstalls and reactivations, helping app owners optimize reactivation strategies for cost-effective growth.

User behavior in mobile apps is unpredictable - some cancel subscriptions but continue using free features, while others uninstall entirely. Understanding these patterns is key to unlocking lost revenue.

Each scenario presents a distinct monetization opportunity: retaining unsubscribed users is easier through in-app engagement, strategic push notifications, or special offers. These users are low-hanging fruit - they still browse content and can be nudged back into paying. Bringing back uninstalled users, however, demands external marketing efforts such as retargeting campaigns or reactivation incentives.

Yet, distinguishing between a disengaged user and an uninstalled one is not always straightforward. Analytics tools cannot directly detect uninstalls, as they lack device-level access once the app is removed. Some may infer uninstall events based on push notification failures, though this method is imprecise—users who disable notifications may appear identical to those who have deleted the app. Tools tracking users’ activity could suggest disengagement but also do not confirm an uninstall. This creates challenges in fine-tuning re-engagement strategies and makes it critical to experiment with multiple win-back channels beyond push notifications.

With these complexities in mind, let’s explore the key reasons users cancel subscriptions while keeping the app installed - or decide to uninstall it altogether.

Why Do Users Cancel Subscriptions but Keep the App Installed?

Not all churned subscribers leave permanently. Many users cancel for reasons unrelated to the app’s core value:

• Budget Constraints: Users may temporarily pause spending due to financial concerns but still use free content, waiting for a more suitable time to re-subscribe.
• Exploring Alternatives: Some users test multiple apps before deciding which to commit to. They may return if the competing solution fails to meet their needs.
• Temporary Loss of Interest: Subscription fatigue or shifting priorities may lead to cancellation, but later events—such as personal goals, social influence, or app improvements—can reignite engagement.
• Subscription Strategy Changes: Some users downgrade to free plans, using basic features while deciding whether premium access is necessary.

Since these users have kept the app, they require less effort to bring back into the subscription funnel. Timely offers, in-app reminders, and strategic push notifications can significantly impact their likelihood of returning to a paid plan.

Why Do Users Reinstall Apps?

Mobile users are constantly on the move, and while they may have favorite apps, they often uninstall them.

Reinstalling an app is a conscious decision. Unlike a first-time download driven by curiosity or advertisements, a reinstall signifies intent. Users may return for several reasons:

• Device Changes & Data Loss: A significant percentage of reinstalls occur due to device upgrades or factory resets. These users aren't necessarily re-engaging; they are simply resuming their previous experience.
• Feature or Content Triggers: New updates, exclusive content, or social influence may pull a user back. Apps that constantly evolve—adding new content, like workout routines, introducing hype AI features, or other fresh functionalities—tend to see higher reinstall rates.
• Seasonal or Periodic Engagement: Certain apps have cyclical use patterns. A meditation app might see a reinstall spike during high-stress seasons, fitness apps after New Year’s as people try to stick to resolutions, while a tax filing app surges before tax deadlines.
• Subscription Reactivation: Some users cancel their subscriptions and uninstall the app due to temporary financial constraints or perceived lack of value, but later recognize the app’s benefits and return.
• Reinstallation Right After Onboarding: Some users reinstall almost immediately to re-enable an exclusive offer shown on the onboarding paywall, which cannot be reached otherwise.
• Retention Failures Leading to Churn & Return: Poor user experience, technical glitches, or unmet expectations can lead to an uninstall. However, a well-executed product improvement or a persuasive marketing message can encourage re-engagement.

Effort and investments are required to win these users back. Whether through well-timed ads, email marketing, or industry-wide seasonal trends, the key is understanding what brings them back and ensuring they find greater value upon return.

Before Investing in Reactivation - Ask Yourself These Questions

At this point, as an app owner, you've considered why users might return, and now need to analyze your churn patterns to prevent repetition of sad scenarios. Only afterwards you can craft a winning reactivation strategy.

Before allocating resources, take a moment to evaluate whether your app is truly ready to invest in reactivation. Ask yourself:

• What are my top churn reasons? (Technical issues, pricing, engagement drop-off? Apphud Rules for gathering Feedback for cancellation can shed light on the matter)
• Do I have enough first-party data to segment users effectively? (Behavior parameters can be caught and passed to Apphud as Custom User Properties for a refined audience definition)
• What reactivation channels can I use? (Push notifications, in-app offers, email, paid retargeting?)
• How does my pricing strategy align with reactivation? (Should I offer discounts or free trials? Or can I rely sheerly on the latest app feature enhancements?)
• Can I track and measure reactivation ROI? (Without precise tracking, efforts might be wasted.)

If you’re serious about maximizing LTV, you need to quantify the success of these efforts.

Once you've started executing your reactivation strategy, the real question is: Does it work? Effort alone doesn’t guarantee success - tracking the right metrics is the only way to know if your investment is paying off. And if it does not, be able to make a timely adjustment. Without precise measurement, even the most well-planned strategies can lead to wasted resources.

That’s where the Average Revenues Report becomes essential. With a robust set of 22 metrics, it offers a data-driven way to evaluate your efforts, helping you pinpoint what's driving revenue recovery. While it tracks a broad spectrum of performance indicators for different user segments, this article zeroes in on the key metrics that directly measure the impact of reactivating disengaged users.

Now, let’s dive into the essential metrics that tell you if your reactivation strategy is truly working:

1. Redownloads

• Definition: The total number of reinstalls within a selected period.
• Use Case: Tracking redownload trends helps identify peak seasons or trigger events that drive returning users.
• Broader Analysis: Compare this metric with total Downloads (which includes both initial installs and reinstalls) to determine the portion of returning users, or Users that signifies newcomers for the chosen period.

2. Per Redownload (Average Revenue Per Redownload)

• Definition: The cohort metric measuring the average revenue generated from reinstalls within a selected period, including both subscriptions and one-time purchases. Only revenue generated while that download was current is included—if a user redownloads the app again later and makes a purchase, that revenue is not attributed to the original redownload cohort.
• Use Case: Helps to assess the ROI of re-engagement efforts. If acquisition costs and other spending for returning users exceed their generated revenue, the efforts didn’t pay off. If revenue per redownload is lower than expected, returning users may need better incentives, such as exclusive discounts or additional onboarding support.
• Broader Analysis: Compare returning users’ spending behavior to first-time installers by contrasting this metric with ARPU or Average Revenue Per Download to see how revenue from reinstalls compares to the revenue brought by fresh installs or total installs.

3. Subscription Reactivations

• Definition: The number of cases within a selected period when users re-subscribed after a full subscription expiration.
• Use Case: Evaluates the success of win-back efforts such as push notification outreach or retargeting ads. If reactivation rates are low, messaging or pricing strategies may need adjustments.

4. Per Subscription Reactivation (Average Revenue Per Subscription Reactivation)

• Definition: A cohort metric that measures the average revenue generated when users reactivate their subscriptions, excluding those in their initial subscription cycle. Only revenue generated while that reactivated subscription was active is included—if the user cancels and later resubscribes, the new subscription episode is not attributed to the original reactivation cohort.
• Use Case: If reactivated users contribute significant revenue, win-back campaigns (e.g., targeted promotions) may be worth scaling up.
• Broader Analysis: Compare re-engagement subscriptions revenue by contrasting this metric with the one from the first time subscribers or total subscriptions - Average Revenue Per Subscription or Average Revenue Per Subscription Activation respectively.

Once you understand these metrics logic, you can start exploring the report settings to uncover meaningful insights.

Unlocking Deeper Insights with Report Customization

The Average Revenues Report doesn’t just provide raw metrics - it offers near-limitless analysis possibilities:

• Flexible layout: You can toggle only those metrics that are been analyzed at the moment to get a sharper focus.
• Customizable Data Timeline Granularity: You can segment data by different time intervals - quarter, month, week, or specific date—allowing precise analysis of trends and revenue patterns at different levels of granularity.
• Advanced Segmentation & Filtering: Data can be sliced and diced by a long list of parameters such as Store Country, Product, as well as Custom User Properties, offering a tailored view of performance.
• Pivoting Across Two Segments: You can compare and contrast multiple variables simultaneously for deeper insights.
• Sales vs. Proceeds: Choose between Gross Revenue (Sales) or Net Revenue (Proceeds) to match your reporting needs.
• Cohort Age Analysis: By defining revenue at different lifecycle stages (e.g., day 1, day 7, day 30, and beyond), app owners can track monetization trends over time, refine acquisition strategies, and optimize reactivation efforts.

By leveraging these tools, app owners can gain a clearer understanding of how redownloads and reactivations impact revenue, ultimately leading to smarter retention and monetization strategies.

Scenario: A productivity app notices a high churn rate among first-time users but also sees a significant portion returning after uninstalling. The marketing team launches a retargeting campaign via paid ads, encouraging past users to return with a limited-time premium trial offer. The goal is to convert them into long-term subscribers after the discount ends.

Application of the Metric: By tracking Average Revenue Per Reinstall in Apphud’s Average Revenue Report, the team can determine whether reinstated users generate enough revenue to justify the retargeting costs and get lots of insights to fine-tune their strategy further:

• Using filtration and segmentation by MMP Attribution, identify which retargeting channels bring back the highest-value reinstalls;
• Applying Platform, Store Country, Product, and other parameters pinpoint: The most profitable user segmentsThe most effective offers for long-term retention

If reinstalls convert into long-term subscribers, the campaign can be scaled with confidence in its profitability. If the revenue from reinstalls is lower than re-acquisition costs, the team can refine targeting parameters, adjust the incentive (e.g., extending the free trial), or focus on re-engaging high-value segments only.

Scenario: A fitness app faces declining subscriber retention, with many users canceling after a couple of months. Analyzing feedback gathered through Apphud’s Cancellation Insights Rule, the team identifies lack of motivation and inflexible workouts as key churn factors.

To win back lapsed users, they introduce gamification elements and personalized workouts. The team launched a reactivation campaign using Apphud Rules, highlighting these updates via push messages and in-app screens offering the same price to showcase how the product now better meets user needs.

Application of the Metric: By tracking Average Revenue Per Subscription Reactivation in Apphud’s Average Revenues Report, the team measures the impact of their engagement-driven reactivation strategy and assesses its effectiveness compared to discount-based approaches.

In addition, the Average Revenue report allows you to segment the results of different types of rules that have been triggered, or compare the results of users who have been reactivated with and without rules.

If reactivated users stay longer and generate more revenue, the team can confidently scale feature-driven retention efforts. If results are underwhelming, they may refine the approach further - adjusting audience segmentation, screens/paywalls design, and messaging via other Apphud tools such as Custom User Properties and Experiments.

By making user experience the core selling point, the app shifts from price-led reactivation to sustainable, product-led growth, increasing long-term subscriber retention.

As privacy restrictions tighten and competition grows, relying solely on new user monetization is no longer sustainable. The next wave of app success will be driven by first-party data and retention-focused strategies, where the true winners are those who not only acquire users but know how to bring them back - again and again through reinstalls and subscription reactivations.

Apphud’s Average Revenue Report provides the tools needed to track, measure, and refine reactivation efforts with precision. With its insights, you can take control of your revenue strategy and maximize the full potential of your user base. 

Ready to transform your retention strategy? Sign up to Apphud and let's grow your app revenue together!

Ren

Co-founder at Apphud

Ex iOS app and game developer. 11 years in the industry since iOS 3. More than 50 apps are in the background with 4 exits. Entrepreneur and traveler.