A step ahead: How WeWard boosted engagement with Amplitude

I’ve always believed walking is the simplest, most accessible form of exercise. No equipment, no gym memberships—just you and the open road. But at WeWard, we’ve gone further: What if we could make every step purposeful?

Walking has incredible benefits—it improves physical fitness, reduces stress, and strengthens social connections. Yet, so many people struggle to stay motivated. Our fitness app inspires people to walk more by rewarding their steps with “Wards,” a digital currency they can redeem for cash, donate to charities, or exchange for gifts. This way, walking goes from being just another activity to something that truly matters.

My name is Marie-Sophie Koeberle, and I’m the chief of staff at WeWard. Over the past four years, I’ve seen us grow from a small team with big ambitions into a platform with 20 million users that inspires healthier, more active lifestyles worldwide.

In our quest to better understand and serve our users, we found an essential ally in Amplitude. As a self-service analytics tool that helps analyze user behavior and uncover actionable insights, Amplitude gives us the clarity to refine strategies, optimize features, and continue inspiring our users.

From standing still to stepping up

When WeWard started out, something extraordinary happened: We went viral. The idea of “getting paid to walk” caught fire across Europe, sparking communities to share progress, compete in challenges, and invite others to join.

This success paved the way for an even bigger goal: bringing our mission to the U.S. The American market has its own cultural nuances, and rewards for activity are fairly common. To stand out in such a competitive arena, we developed gamified features like leaderboards, collectible cards, and streaks, taking user motivation to the next level.

But these adjustments alone couldn’t guarantee sustainable growth. With millions of members and user actions processed every year, scaling WeWard’s success meant tackling a whole new array of customer expectations. That’s where Amplitude Analytics came in.

The first step is always the hardest

One of the biggest challenges was making sure users came back after their first day. We noticed a pattern: While lots of people downloaded the app, many didn’t stick around.

By investigating user journeys with Amplitude, we realized WeWard’s most important requirement—validating steps daily to use them for rewards—wasn’t immediately clear to new users. If people don’t validate their steps before midnight, they lose them. And as it turned out, our original onboarding process didn’t emphasize this enough. People would take steps all day, open the app, and not realize they needed to hit “convert.” Frustrated, they’d drop off.

This insight from Amplitude changed everything. We redesigned the onboarding experience to focus on step validation. Now, when users open the app for the first time, they’re guided to validate their steps right away. A friendly mascot—cute panda bear Wardy—and clear animations show how to convert steps into Wards, and users immediately see coins added to their balance—a small but satisfying reward.

This one change not only increased the number of activated users by 10.5%, laying a stronger foundation for long-term engagement, but also directly supported monetization—higher activation means more users engaging with advertising, exploring affiliate opportunities, and making purchases. It also elevated WeWard’s value to potential partners. Since we are a freemium-based company, a larger active user base attracts brands and collaborators seeking visibility on the platform.

Keeping the streak alive with a 14% increase

Once users get through their first day, the next challenge is keeping them motivated to make walking a daily habit—that’s why we introduced streaks.

Streaks track how many consecutive days users validate their steps, and they’re incredibly encouraging. But through Amplitude, we noticed that missing a day could be frustrating for users. Life happens—people get busy or forget to validate—and losing a streak could feel like losing all their progress.

To address this, we analyzed user behavior in Amplitude and identified streak drop-off patterns. Based on these insights, we introduced a “joker” feature that allows users to restore a missed streak by spending coins. We also added milestone rewards for longer streaks, like 30 days, to give users a clear goal to strive for. As a result, users achieving a seven-day streak increased by 14%, demonstrating the powerful effect of these small changes.

Empowering millions to walk 24% more with smarter insights

Unlike many wellness apps that focus on people already into sports, we’re here for everyone. WeWard is designed to empower users to move more, regardless of their fitness level. With our community-centric approach and gamified features, we make walking fun, rewarding, and something people want to do every day.

When users stay active on WeWard, everyone wins. This past year showed us just how true that is: We doubled our revenue per user! In the months ahead, we’re expanding these gamified features and trying out Amplitude Experiment to test strategies and accelerate user engagement even further.

Along our journey, Amplitude’s support has been fundamental to our growth, particularly through people like Customer Success Manager, Romain Liegeois, who anticipated and solved challenges before they could impact our momentum. Senior Solutions Architect Salvatore Nastasi then helped refine our systems, ensuring we could scale up while maintaining the personal touch that makes WeWard unique.

It’s amazing what happens when people see their steps adding up. Something clicks. Walking becomes more than just a way to get from point A to point B—it becomes an activity with meaning. At WeWard, we’ve seen this transformation play out over and over.

On average, WeWard users walk 24% more after downloading the app, a shift we've been able to understand and enhance through Amplitude’s insights. Think about what that means. It’s millions of extra steps every day. It’s better health for millions of people. It’s more time spent outdoors, connecting with friends and family. It’s fewer cars on the road and smaller carbon footprints. It’s proof of what we've always believed: Walking is powerful.