10 Years of Mondly | 10 Stories – Story 4: Sometimes Google is Wrong

Creating a successful app rests on a great user experience. And that means testing.  

Features, wording, offers, paywalls, content — testing and analyzing every aspect of the product and experience has always been a core part of the Mondly mindset.  

Starting out 

From the beginning, the team used a range of different tools to track key metrics and inform decision making.  

“We needed to know how many users were entering the app. When we launched, we were just writing to a database,” explains Adrian Raduca, System Admin Coordinator and the very first Mondly team member.  

“That evolved — we started dividing the users up into categories, providing the sales and marketing team with more data, and seeing things at a content level”, he continues.  

“As the need to understand our customers rose, so did the need for the right tools”.  

Building a data ecosystem 

Wanting better insights about users and what they were doing inside the app, in 2017 the team built their own custom analytics tool. 

It wasn’t about using that one tool exclusively, it was about comparing and combining multiple data sources to get a more accurate picture.   

“There’s no one single source of truth for data. We always try to compare information from multiple systems to figure out a middle ground”, explains Co-Founder Alex Iliescu.  

“Our own analytics system, Google Play, AppStore data, Google Analytics — by comparing them we’re able to see that maybe we’re lacking something. Or maybe Google is wrong. Because sometimes Google is wrong — they don’t have the perfect answer all the time”.  

Strong data, strong business 

Data not only helped create a better user experience, but a stronger business.  

“By using this analytics system, A/B tests, and multiple other data sources we were able to monetize the app more effectively and increase revenue”, says Alex Negrila – Principal Developer & Technical Lead. 

“They know their stuff,” agrees Brenden Mielke VP Product, English Language Learning, at Pearson. 

 “If I go to the Mondly team about what’s impacting conversion rates or what are we doing on campaigns and such, they have the data, they’ve got the analysis, they know how things are being driven.”  

“I’m able to say to our Finance Team, hey, we can’t take that offer away — that’ll impact conversion by 47%”.  

By mastering the numbers, the Mondly team were able to focus on sustainable, revenue-led growth. 

“Whenever the app would grow or the revenue would grow and there’d be more money in the bank, then we’d look at what’s next or hiring more people,” says Alex. “We never raised money and we avoided a big crisis”. 

A data-first mindset 

Whether it’s changing button copy or optimizing a campaign, every team in Mondly turns to data first.  

“We make data-driven decisions on a daily basis,” explains Alina Balosu, Senior User Acquisition Manager who joined Mondly in 2019. 

“We collect data from multiple sources,” expands Marketing Director Cristian Balau, “then tailor our marketing and content strategies to those specific segments, making real-time adjustments to maximize internal investment and efficiency”.  

Staying focused on the data helps the team focus their efforts on the areas with the highest rewards. 

“We’ve managed to increase our marketing spend and our results every year since we started; each year was better than the last, and that’s an amazing achievement”, concludes Cristian. 

You could be wrong 

Mondly’s data motto: 

“Always use data, look at data, and test everything you do, because otherwise, it’s just your opinion — and you could be wrong”. 

— Read the next story in our 10-part series: Pixel Perfect

THE MILESTONES 

• 25 million downloads (Nov 2017)

• Development of a custom analytics tool (2017) 

• 21 employees (Jan 2018)