How to grow and retain organic users (Character AI)
How to grow and retain organic users (Character AI)
A product teardown into the organic & branded growth of Character AI
Hi there! I'm Will, a product enthusiast helping PMs make better decisions. In my Product Teardown series, I analyze popular products and document their tricks.
Today, we'll unpack character.ai, an addicting AI-powered chat app.
"Personalized AI for every moment of your day" - Character AI, on mobile and web.
Character AI reported they serve 20,000 queries per second, equivalent to 20% of global Google search volume. 20%! 🤯
They boast 3.5M DAUs who spend an average of two hours a DAY on the platform.
Given this massive engagement, it’s time for a product teardown to see how Character AI got here.
How does Character AI grow? 📈
Character AI leverages its strong brand to attract 90% of its traffic from direct or organic channels
89% of their organic traffic is branded
How do you take advantage of good brand value?
Focus on high DA, good backlinks
Their top linking domains have high DA
Thanks to their press success, they’ve acquired 7.2k linking domains and 5.9k ranking keywords
Their spam score is a tiny 1%, which is excellent for SEO
Keep your website structure SEO-friendly
Optimized landing page
Character AI doesn’t have a separate landing page, instead they invite users to chat and then force them to sign up later
This improves CTR
And they use passionate meta tags:
title = “character.ai | Personalized AI for every moment of your day”
description = “Meet AIs that feel alive. Chat with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Experience the power of super-intelligent chat bots that hear you, understand you, and remember you.”
About Us page - these internal links improve EEAT
“In the News” page, which compiles a list of credible backlinks
Blog directory - long archive of blog posts
Character AI always shows a Subscribe button in the bottom right
Most posts include a video
There’s a slightly different Meta description to attract mission-oriented researchers:
“At Character.AI, we're building toward AGI. In that future state, large language models (LLMs) will enhance daily life, providing business productivity and entertainment and helping people with everything from education to coaching, support, brainstorming, creative writing and more.”
What’s special about Character AI’s design? 👨🎨
Character AI’s design is simple and effective, to maximize their organic reach:
^ Search is prioritized at the top.
Character AI knows that their published characters, aka user-generated content, helps them grow organically
Strong emphasis on creating new characters (more UGC!)
Also strong emphasis on voice chat… a big bet on what drives future retention?
Current retention tactics
I noticed a few retention tactics that keep users engaged:
The notifications popup is deferred until after a few chats
Characters send "away messages" by default, while you’re away
This creates excitement when getting texted out of the blue
You can share chats with friends, allowing them to start at the same point in the conversation or join group chats for shared fun
Other Learnings? 🤔
Character AI attracts high volume for searches like "virtual girlfriend" and "anime chatbot," hinting at why many users are hooked… 👀
Their YouTube videos are filled with comments requesting the removal of "NSFW" filters… does this suggest further what goes on in these chats?
To summarize this teardown on Character AI:
The app design is straightforward, focusing on user searches and discovery of new characters
Clever retention tactics include sending messages while you’re away
Growth is overwhelmingly free, driven by brand, SEO, and direct traffic
Ranking for keywords like “my character” and “virtual girlfriend” hints at the app's addictive nature
Hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading.