Re-engaging Lapsed Users to Drive Repeat Activity

In a two-sided marketplace like Lyft, retaining active users (in this case, drivers) is just as critical as acquiring new ones. Lyft's data revealed an interesting retention challenge: many drivers who had a profitable weekend (earning at least $100 over a weekend) failed to come back and drive the following weekend. Despite a positive experience and decent earnings, something was causing these drivers to lapse, at least temporarily. This behavior represented lost revenue opportunities and potential gaps in rider coverage during weekends. Lyft needed a way to re-engage these lukewarm drivers and convert one-time successes into a habitual pattern. The core problem was essentially driver churn in the early retention stage – how to nudge drivers to return week after week.

Levered pinpointed personalized, well-timed nudges as the lever to pull in order to change driver behavior. The team designed a Weekend Lapse Prevention experiment, using targeted push notifications to remind or incentivize drivers based on their own past earnings. The experiment split affected drivers into three cohorts: one control group received no prompt, while two treatment groups received tailored push notifications. In the first treatment ("Gained" group), drivers got a message highlighting how much they earned in their last active weekend – a straightforward reminder of the money left on the table if they stayed offline. In the second treatment ("Near Miss" group), drivers were told how close they had been to earning an even higher tier of income (e.g. "You were only $20 away from a higher bonus last weekend!"), appealing to a sense of missed opportunity. By framing the communication in these two ways, Levered sought to understand which psychological trigger – positive reinforcement vs. FOMO (fear of missing out) – would better motivate drivers to return. The split-testing approach ensured that Lyft could isolate the impact of these messages on driver behavior, all while a robust control group established the baseline for comparison. This fulcrum of data-informed, behaviorally targeted engagement is a hallmark of Levered's retention strategy. The founder's background in analyzing user data to find "profitable behaviors" was directly applied here. By diving into historical driver data, Levered had uncovered the pattern (big weekend earners lapsing afterward) and hypothesized a solution around it. The push notification content and timing were crafted in collaboration with Lyft's data science insights – ensuring the messages aligned with moments drivers were most likely to reconsider driving. In essence, the lever was personalized re-engagement, turning insights from user behavior analytics into action.

The Force effect of this retention campaign was significant in scale. Even modest behavior changes per driver can translate into huge aggregate gains in a marketplace as large as Lyft's. In the trial, the personalized nudges successfully coaxed more drivers back onto the road, leading to an approximate 1% increase in overall driver hours on weekends among the targeted segment. That lift may sound small, but for a platform of Lyft's size it equated to an estimated $5.2 million in additional annual revenue from recaptured driver activity. Equally important, the experiment provided clarity on messaging: it turned out that appealing to drivers' "near miss" of higher earnings was slightly more effective at spurring action than simply reminding them of past gains (a psychological insight that Lyft's marketing team could use in future campaigns). By the end of the campaign, Lyft not only had more drivers on the road each weekend, but also a validated playbook for retention. This case demonstrates how Levered applies a sharp, specific intervention to solve a retention problem – identifying a churn trigger through data, using creative experimentation to address it, and ultimately moving the needle on a key metric. For growth-stage companies and consumer brands alike, it's a powerful example of turning user insights into loyalty and repeat engagement. At Levered, growth isn't about doing more—it's about doing what matters. By pinpointing the pivotal lever (Fulcrum) within your business challenges and applying focused, strategic action (Force), we deliver outsized results without the overhead. Inspired by our founder's proven track record—from scrappy startup campaigns to sophisticated growth initiatives at multi-billion-dollar tech companies—our approach cuts through noise to deliver clear, measurable impact. Whether you're a DTC brand, startup, or growth-stage company, Levered turns your toughest challenges into your greatest opportunities.