Average Push Notification Opt-In Rate (& How to Get More Opt-Ins)

Push notifications can be an incredible tool to drive revenue for your brand, whether it’s by sending notifications for promotions, new product launches, abandoned cart reminders, or any other way you can dream up.

But before you can start generating sales on autopilot, you need to make sure your app users actually receive your push notifications.

That means maintaining a high opt-in rate for push notifications. Keep reading and we’ll explain what this is, the average push notification opt-in rate for iOS and Android apps, and how you can ensure your opt-in rate stays as high as possible.

Push notifications are one of the more under-utilized ways for brands to grow retention and long-term revenue. But to use push to the fullest extent, you need an app. MobiLoud makes this easy. Book a free demo now to learn how we can help you turn your website into an app, and unlock the benefits of push notifications.

What is Push Notification Opt-In Rate?

Push notification opt-in rate is the percentage of your app users who have opted in (i.e. given permission) to receive push notifications.

Just having someone download your app doesn’t necessarily let you send push notifications to their device. The user can enable or disable push notifications at any time through their device settings.

When you send a push notification, your push notification service will check whether the user’s device has given permission to the app to send push notifications, and if this permission is not granted, the notification will not be sent.

How Does Opt-In Permission Work?

Today, app users need to give explicit permission to apps in order to receive push notifications, on both iOS and Android.

On earlier versions of Android, installed apps had push notifications enabled by default. But since Android 13, apps must request permission for push notifications, as iPhone apps have had to for some time.

To do this, the app will show a popup asking the user if they want to allow push notifications. Many apps send this prompt soon after the user downloads the app.

By hitting “Allow”, the app will log that the user has given permission to receive push notifications. At any time, however, the user can go into their device settings and turn notifications on or off.

Learn more: How Much Do Push Notifications Cost?

What’s the Average Opt-In Rate for Push Notifications?

The average opt-in rate for push notifications, across all devices, is 67.5%.

This is vastly different for iOS and Android users, however. The average opt-in rate for Android is 91.1%, versus just 43.9% for iOS.

This makes sense, as most of the data is from Android versions 12 and below, which opt users in to push notifications by default, whereas iOS users have to explicitly allow push notifications when prompted.

As a greater share of Android devices move onto Android 13, we can expect the average opt-in rate for Android to decrease as well.

Average Opt-In Rate by Industry

The average opt-in rate is slightly higher for Finance and Travel apps, and lower for apps in the Media and Gaming industries.

Here’s how the average push notification opt-in rate differs by industry:

• Finance: 50.8% iOS / 93.8% Android / 72.3% overall
• Travel: 46.9% / 93.5% / 70.2% 
• eCommerce: 44% / 91.9% / 68%
• Entertainment: 41.5% / 93.5% / 67.5%
• Retail: 42.4% / 90% / 66.2%
• Classifieds: 41.9% / 88.2% / 65.1%
• Media: 42.3% / 84.9% / 63.6%
• Gaming: 37.2% / 89.7% / 63.5%

Push Opt-Ins By Age Group

Typically, younger age groups are more likely to allow push notifications.

Data shows that 33% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 “always” allow push notifications. 30% “often” allow push notifications, while 37% say they allow push notifications “sometimes” or less.

In comparison, only 5% of people 35 and above say they “always” allow push notifications, while 18% of 35-54 year olds and 16% of those aged 55+ say they “often” allow push notifications.

9 Ways to Increase Push Notification Opt-In Rate

The wider your reach, the more potential revenue you can drive using push notifications. Increasing reach can mean getting more app users, but it can also mean making sure a higher percentage of your app users are opted in to push notifications.

Boosting your opt-in rate can have a direct positive impact on revenue, allowing you to reach more people with free promotional messages, capture more abandoned carts, and nurture greater long-term revenue from a larger share of your customers.

If you want to start getting a better return from your push notifications, here are some things you can do to increase your push notification opt-in rate.

Send Opt-In Prompts at the Right Time

Sending an opt-in prompt right after a user installs the app may not always be the best approach.

At this time, users are often at a lower stage of trust and awareness of your brand, and less likely to say yes to push notifications as a result.

The worst part is that you get one shot at it – this opt-in prompt will be shown once. If the user hits “Don’t Allow”, the only hope you have left is getting them to manually change their push settings, which requires a lot more convincing.

You may have better results by waiting a little while, and sending your prompt once you’ve warmed up the user a little more.

Set Up a Custom Pre-Permission Prompt

The operating system’s default opt-in prompt is very basic, can’t be customized, and is not optimized to convince people to hit “Allow”.

That’s why many apps set up a custom in-app message that serves as a sort of “pre-permission” prompt, before they take their one shot at sending the system opt-in prompt.

This message can be designed to your liking, and should do a better job of convincing people why they should allow push notifications.

You can send custom prompts prior to the system prompt, but you can also re-use this custom in-app message to convince users who previously disabled push notifications to re-enable them (just be careful not to make these too annoying and overbearing, or it could cause the user to delete the app altogether).

Explain the Benefits of Opting In to Push Notifications

In your pre-permission prompt, you can make the case to the user why they should allow push notifications – such as that they’ll get access to exclusive product launches, discounts, or any reasons that the user might get value out of push notifications.

The example above explains why the app needs to send push notifications, making the user confident that it’s for their benefit, not that they’re just going to be spammed with low-value messages.

This is not restricted to pre-permission prompts, however. You can explain these benefits in other areas of your app, especially if they have push notifications disabled, helping to recapture those who previously said no to push.

Incentivize Users to Opt In

The best way to convince someone to opt in is almost always to give them a clear incentive to do so.

This is not a future benefit, or something vague like “you’ll stay in the know”, but a real incentive.

For example, you could offer a one-time discount in exchange for someone opting in to push notifications.

This strategy can be a little risky, as there’s generally nothing against the user turning on notifications, getting their discount and turning them off again. But it may be worth a try if you really want to get opt-ins up.

A/B Test Your Opt-In Prompts

As with anything in business and marketing, the best way to know what works is to test and make decisions based on data.

If you have a big enough user base, it might benefit you to A/B test different approaches to getting push notification permission.

You could test different types of pre-permission prompts, or test sending your prompts at different times (such as immediate prompts vs delayed prompts).

Deliver Value In Your Push Notifications

Maximizing opt-in rate does not just mean getting people to say “yes” initially, but ensuring they continue to allow push notifications, and minimizing the number who go to their settings and turn notifications off.

This means making sure your push notifications consistently offer value to the user. If you don’t do this, users will eventually get frustrated with receiving your notifications and disable them.

Optimize Sending Frequency

Another way to ensure fewer people disable notifications is to send the right amount of push notifications.

You want to avoid sending so many push notifications that users get annoyed and turn off your notifications.

However, sending notifications too rarely may also hurt you. If users aren’t used to seeing notifications from your app, they may be surprised when one pops up and automatically go to their settings to revoke permissions.

You’ll want to figure out the ideal formula and frequency for your brand and your audience. In most cases, try and find a sweet spot where you’re messaging users regularly, but not going over the top.

Re-Engage Users Who Opt Out

Once someone has disabled push notifications, you may still be able to turn it around.

There are many ways to go about re-engaging these users and convincing them to enable push notifications again.

You can place reminders around the app of why it will benefit them to enable push notifications, as well as sending prompts every so often asking them to opt in again.

You could also contact these users on other channels, such as email, explaining the benefits of enabling notifications, and even consider offering an incentive for doing so as we discussed earlier.

Let Users Customize their Push Preferences

Users who disable push notifications may still get value from some of the notifications they receive. But if they get too many irrelevant notifications, it might seem like the only option is to turn off notifications altogether.

If you give users the option to customize their notification settings, and only receive notifications that are relevant to their interests, you’ll likely be able to retain push notification permissions from a greater percentage of your app users.

Harness the Power of Mobile Push Notifications with MobiLoud

If you’ve got a website that drives revenue, such as a custom web app, an eCommerce store, an eLearning platform, or any other kind of online business, you’ll be able to drive a ton of long-term revenue with push notifications.

While you can send push notifications from a website, the potential for what you can do is limited. The only way to really access the power of push notifications is with an app.

MobiLoud is the perfect way for web-based businesses to go from website to app.

We convert your website, with all of its features, all the design quirks, optimizations, custom tools and integrations, into full-featured mobile apps for iOS and Android.

We do this with no effort or technical expertise needed from you, with a minimal investment, and a time frame of around a month or less.

This lets you launch your own mobile apps without a ton of capital or massively pivoting your business model by investing in an app development team.

We help you manage your apps, and they’ll always be fully synced with your website, meaning there’s very little dedicated maintenance or overhead that comes with your apps.

The best part is, your apps will have push notifications built in out of the box, so you can start engaging your users and growing revenue from day one.

To see what’s possible, check out these great apps we’ve built for other high-revenue companies like yourself, and for a personalized walk through the process and the benefits we offer you, book a free demo now with one of our team of app experts.