User Acquisition: How It Works

User acquisition (UA) is every action you take to get people to learn about your product, visit your website or app, and take the first step: install, register, or purchase. It includes not just advertising, but also designing webpages, crafting messages, and measuring results to attract those who will become your customers.

How does user acquisition work on a website

User acquisition is based on three simple principles.

First, it is important to attract those customers who actually need and can benefit from the product — the so-called target audience.

Second, the cost of customer acquisition must be justified: the lifetime value of a user (LTV) must be higher than the cost of acquiring them (CAC).

Third, everything must be based on data: hypotheses are tested through experiments, and decisions are made based on analytics.

User acquisition channels are typically divided into two types: organic and paid. Organic channels do not require direct advertising costs. These include SEO, content marketing, and referral programs.

Paid channels are advertising and promotion tools for which marketing budgets are paid. Such channels include:

Search engines. Ads in search results based on keywords are shown to those already searching for a similar product.
Social media. Targeted ads on social media (TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.) are displayed with maximum precision, taking into account the age, interests, and behavior of users.
Mobile ecosystem advertising. Specialized tools, such as Apple Search Ads (App Store search advertising) and Google App Campaigns.
Display and native advertising. Banners, videos, and article recommendations are placed on news sites or platforms like Taboola and Outbrain.
Affiliate marketing and CPA networks. Here, affiliates bring in users, and the advertiser pays only for the actual result, such as installations, registrations, or purchases. Affiliates choose their own traffic sources: advertising, email newsletters, promotional websites, and other methods.

What are CPA networks and how do they work? Learn here.

Popular user acquisition mechanics

Landing pages and lead magnets. These are landing pages with an offer that "lures" the visitor: a free book, a promo code, or trial access. In exchange, the visitor must provide their contact information.

Influencer marketing. Collaborating with bloggers, streamers, and influencers often produces excellent results. Their audience trusts their recommendations, and the product is perceived naturally.

Learn more about influencer marketing here.

Activation bonuses. Incentives are used to encourage newcomers to not just register but also take the first step. For example, a service offers a discount for completing a profile, and a game awards coins for daily login during the first week.

Loyalty and referral programs. These reward those who remain active for a long time or bring their friends.

Viral activities. Challenges, contests, and flash mobs initiate a "people share with people" chain.

User Acquisition Models

Advertising purchase models. These are performance-based payment schemes: CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPC (cost per click), CPL (cost per lead), CPI (cost per app installation), CPA (cost per action). The choice depends on who bears the greater risk: the advertiser or the platform. Performance-based models are typically more expensive, but they offer greater confidence in effectiveness.

User journey models. These are simple diagrams (such as AIDA and AARRR) showing how a person goes from learning about a product to becoming a client or recommending it to friends. Schematically, it looks like this: attention → first experience/registration → retention → purchase → recommendations. These models help understand what exactly needs to be improved at each step.

Attribution. It is important to understand which channel actually brought the customer. The classic approach is last-click attribution, which gives all the credit to the final source. The other approaches are hybrid models: first-click, linear, time-decay or positional.

Methods to acquire new customers

Combine channels: organic + paid

It is risky to rely solely on a single traffic source since algorithms change, prices rise, and channels may become less effective. A strong customer acquisition strategy is a mix of organic and paid advertising.

Organic. SEO provides a stable flow: optimize your website, speed up loading, and adapt it for mobile devices. Focus on ASO (App Store Optimization) if you have an app: choose relevant keywords for the title and description, localize pages for different regions, upgrade icons and screenshots. Improving your app's ranking in the App Store/Google Play search will directly increase organic installs. Content like articles, videos, podcasts, and especially user reviews also builds trust.

Paid channels. Provide rapid scaling of results. Google Ads is suitable for B2C, TikTok for young people, and LinkedIn for B2B. Many brands are also testing Reddit and Spotify.

Retargeting. Most visitors do not convert right away, so it is essential to bring "warm" visitors back: show ads to those who have already visited the site but did not complete a purchase. The key is to avoid overwhelming frequency.

Improve the funnel and user journey

Getting traffic is only half the battle. The key is to drive people to the target action. For this, conversion optimization and user journey are crucial.

Page testing and improvements. A/B tests, multiple variations of key pages, working with headlines, buttons, and block order. Even small changes may significantly improve results.
Technical quality. Loading speed, a convenient mobile version, and a clear interface directly impact conversion rates.
Onboarding and retention. UA does not end with installation or registration. Hints, welcome emails, and walkthrougs help provide a good first experience and increase retention and LTV.
Choke point analysis. If there is a number of installations but only a few registrations, this means the traffic is irrelevant or the process is too complex. Solutions: fewer fields, a demo without registration, triggered emails, or push notifications with reminders.
Personalization. Different features, case studies, or discounts can be shown to different segments. Here we explain how to send clients exactly what they are interested in.

Consider the specifics of your product

Mobile apps. In mobile apps, customer acquisition is built around Apple and Google guidelines. Organic traffic is driven by ASO: clear titles and descriptions, relevant keywords, and reviews. Among the paid channels, Apple Search Ads on iOS and Google App Campaigns in the Google ecosystem are the most common. The use of "web → app" is increasingly widespread: part of the user journey (for example, paying for a subscription) is completed on the mobile website, and then the user is directed to the app via a link that opens the desired screen.

Competition in the app stores is fierce, so those who quickly test designs and app pages and remove friction along the user journey win. Example: for a meditation app, short videos on TikTok, collaborations with experts, articles on sleep and stress are used; for retention, useful push notifications with reminders to ensure users do not churn after the first day are sent.

Mobile games are one of the most aggressive segments. Top games attract tens of thousands of players daily. Monetization occurs through advertising and in-game purchases, with only a small portion of users generating the bulk of revenue. Therefore, the key task of UA is to find these players, predicting LTV based on the first days of activity. A creative approach is crucial here: studios test dozens of videos en masse. Rating management is also important: reviews, charts, and featured listings. Retention is becoming a critical factor: without high retention, marketing simply does not pay off. Hyper-casual games focus on volume and virality, while hardcore games focus on niche segments and long-term LTV.

SaaS and B2B services operate on a completely different logic: they have a long transaction cycle and multi-stage customer warm-up. The funnel goes from content and a free trial to communication with the sales department. Therefore, organic marketing (SEO, blog, webinars, research) plays a key role: decision-making is based on trust. UA metrics focus not on registrations, but on the quality of leads and their conversion into paying customers. Targeting of specific companies is widely used. Free trials and the freemium model help lower the barrier to entry, but success depends on effective onboarding and trial-to-paid conversion.

E-commerce is classic performance marketing, where everything is measured in sales and ROI. The main sources are contextual advertising, social media targeting, newsletters, and SMS. Promotion through marketplaces is a crucial part of the strategy. Seasonality plays a significant role: businesses prepare for sales in advance, building audiences for remarketing.

Conclusion

User acquisition is a systematic approach to attracting new users and guiding them to the target action. It is important how quickly you convert customer traffic into installs, registrations, and purchases. The best results come from combining organic and paid channels, clear onboarding, personalization, and regular rapid testing. Those who continually improve the user journey and product value win: this helps to grow both the customer base and profits.