How This Worldwide Language App Tipped the Scales of Social Learning | K&J Growth Hackers
Case Study

How This Worldwide Language App Tipped the Scales of Social Learning

Heypal topped in the top 20 and top 10 of both IOS and Android/Google Play App stores, and is available in over 48 countries, and had over 90k within weeks on initial launch.

By Jonathan Maxim,
Managing Director at K&J Growth Hackers

About Heypal

HeyPal is a language learning social platform with a unique “instant translation” feature, letting users view posts and content from other countries in the reader’s native language.

It effectively takes the communication barrier away via instant feed translation and lets users meet/learn via private chatting and social feeds similar to Facebook or Instagram. This makes Heypal the first social media app that breaks that learning barrier with casual interaction & conversation with native speakers of the user’s language of choice.

About K&J Growth Hackers

Two seasoned growth marketers united in 2017 to found one of the top growth agencies today, known as K&J Growth Hackers. K&J brings a diverse background of writing for top publications like Forbes & Inc., combined with gritty marketing experience at Fortune 500 companies, as well as expertise in social media virality, press coverage & deep personal networks.

Today, K&J has served over 200 customers ranging from big and small tech companies, government agencies, medical agencies, cutting edge startups, and universities – united all by the pursuit of amazing results.
K & J is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and Dunedin, NZ. Both teams are composed of 25 worldwide specialists – ranging from sales copywriters, to media buyers, to graphic designers, to data analysts and many more.

Introduction
Heypal wanted to acquire as many users at an efficient cost as possible, hit critical mass (meaning getting many messages and posts per day), and more volume on all KPIs.

An issue that we faced was that the app was not available in the USA yet, so the launch of the IOS app in the US was a crucial test to see if the user base would be as prominent in the states. So, in summary, KPI’s like clicks, sign ups, and user engagement were important metrics that would help us determine the success of the app launch.

Goals
HeyPal approached K&J for help to reach new consumers worldwide in preparation for the official United States App launch (June, 2021). What was the challenge?

Trying to acquire tens of thousands of new installs in the crowded & competitive market space that is Mobile Language Learning. Because HeyPal was still in its early stages, the primary goal was to simply drive users to the app. This way, further developments based on user feedback could optimize the use of the HeyPal app beyond simple translations (eventually lead to developments like paid learning via cryptocurrency, premium memberships, conversation curriculums, and matchmaking for learners + teachers.) HeyPal needed to reach 100k users for its first quarter of IOS launch, before moving forward to further developments including the Android launch.

Actions Taken
K&J developed ads for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube using Influencer based marketing, location-based creative (ads translated into the target location’s native language), and in-app software development. K&J used tried and true monitoring methods by analyzing KPI patterns & observing app activity on a consistent basis to see user behavior depending on each country.

From this, we developed creative content based on region, language, audience age range and other relevant factors. The result of these language ads drove costs down to $1.61 worldwide. This laid the groundwork for a scalable marketing methodology that could be deployed in two weeks to all geo-markets: South America, France, and the United States just ot start. As well as ad creative, we also produced social media content and shared news stories on their accounts to drive up engagement and interact with audiences.

Heypal officially launched worldwide in mid-June of 2021, and Android/Google Play Stores launched in November of 2021 after raving results. It topped in the top 20 and top 10 of both IOS and Android/Google Play App stores, and is available in over 48 countries, and had over 90k within weeks on initial launch.

Additionally, by using press releases based on user growth, partnerships, investor news, and app store rankings, the hope was to also drive interest in potential investor groups and financial institutions. In turn, content developed by the creative and social media team (as well as the HeyPal social media accounts and representatives interacting with investors & users) was used on the App’s Instagram to initiate conversation and “build hype” for upcoming app updates.

Results Delivered

Upon IOS launch, HeyPal began with an 18.8% CVR conversion rate, with nearly 35% of new app downloads coming from organic virality/free downloads (saving us an estimated $18,000 in ad spend.) Since the app was beta-launched less than eight months ago and the app had only been available in the IOS store, we observed in October (2021) is now HeyPal is now approaching.
  • 5 million direct messages sent
  • 1 million conversations
  • 1 million translations
  • 300k downloads, 200k likes
  • 25k posts
  • 82,427 downloads

Since the official Android/Google Play release, user KPI grew to 150,564 downloads in three weeks since the Android launch in early November and is tracking toward 250,000 over the next 30-day period (3x the app’s historical growth average of 80,000 downloads per month.) This large uptick can be attributed to several factors since launch, one being that HeyPal™ became available to 78% more smartphone users worldwide via Android and Google Play. Another factor of this increase is the launch of several new marketing videos targeting French, Spanish and Arabic languages, similar to ones launched for IOS. All new ads produced similar results to the ads first released in June during the IOS launch, and flooded even more eager users into the app.

Statistics

HeyPal garnered over 11,000 downloads after the Android release in a single day, with an average of 7.5k downloads per day – totaling in 15,230 Installs. With an audit of the client account for a 2-week period in November, HeyPal totals at 450,000 downloads and 116,000 monthly active users – with a supportive and deeply engaged community of learners that shows great promise.

By November, we had decreased HeyPal’s CPC (cost per click) to $0.20, this is important because the more users directed to the app, the more opportunities to convert user interest into sales. Coupled with cost lowering, this lower price can raise ROI.
Within this new user group downloading HeyPal in the last 20-30 days, 14% are daily active users – compared to the index of 11.9% – which is beating most industry benchmarks of more mature apps in the app store.

Testimonial
““We were set for launch in early to mid 2021 and anticipated that there would be a need for an attentive marketing team to spread HeyPal and show the world what we wanted to share, which is community language learning. Once the video ads launched, we saw record breaking numbers in our sign ups and engagement on all different ad platforms, and just building anticipation for a new and unique app. The K&J team worked tirelessly to boost all aspects of the app campaign, and continued to optimize even after we reached amazing success during the U.S. launch in June. We continued to see those amazing results through the Android launch campaign, whether it was from new ads or old creative. If numbers and quality users is what you want, I highly recommend considering Jonathan, Kale and the K&J Team to get the job done.”
Frank Magliochetti,
CEO Clickstream Corp

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