During an economic downturn, when businesses are tightening their belts and marketing teams are expected to deliver results despite a shrinking budget, our primary focus naturally shifts from costly user acquisition to more practical remarketing activities.

This shift not only allows you to make better use of your budget, but it also presents a significant opportunity for incremental returns from existing users.

And the question is, how do you plan a profitable, creative, and personalized app remarketing strategy on a shoestring budget?

The short answer is that there are many ways to do cost-effective remarketing without sacrificing results. Even when dealing with limited access to user-level data as a result of recent privacy changes.

You'll dive into the following topics:

• Why remarketing is an excellent strategy in times of economic uncertainty.
• How to ensure your remarketing strategy is a smashing success.

 

2 reasons why app remarketing is so important during recessions

According to studies, users only use 24% of their installed apps, with most apps being used no more than 10 times before being uninstalled. Furthermore, nearly 26% of the most active sessions occur within the first 24-48 hours of installation, dropping to 13% after the first week.

Taking on these grim statistics necessitates a well-thought-out app remarketing strategy.

Here offer 2 reasons:

1.  App remarketing is more cost-effective than UA

According to research, remarketing campaign conversion rates are approximately ten times higher than user acquisition efforts, with the latter being 5-25x more expensive than retaining existing users.

Consider all of the time, money, and resources that go into UA: market research, app store optimization (ASO), ad creation, metrics analysis, and so on. Consider that, despite all of your efforts, only 55% of your users will use your app more than once.

After all, what's the point of ignoring the very users you've spent thousands of dollars acquiring?

When comparing apps that run remarketing campaigns to apps that don't, the first group has a whopping 85% higher retention rate in week 12. Although these rates are primarily applicable to Android users, iOS users are rapidly catching up.

2.  App remarketing aids in reducing churn and cultivating happy, loyal users

One of the most visible consequences of the accelerated digitalization trend in recent years has been a mind-boggling influx of apps.

It made app stores increasingly crowded, tested consumers' already shaky loyalty, and elevated retention to the highest strategic priority.

Although one-third of all app users download one app per month on average, this does not necessarily imply that they use any of them.

Almost one out of every two apps is uninstalled within 30 days, app abandonment after a single use is on the rise, and app retention is steadily declining in the face of increasing market competition.

As a result, retention is the foundation of monetization in many ways. Active users are more likely to generate revenue through in-app purchases (IAP), engage in in-app advertising (IAA), upgrade, and tell their friends about it.

Remember that even regaining a small portion of your lapsed users could be a significant win for your bottom line. This is where a well-thought-out remarketing strategy comes into play.


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5 best practices for nailing your app remarketing strategy without breaking the bank

1.  Personalized remarketing is effective remarketing

Did you know that 88% of users are willing to share their data with a brand if it means a better and more personalized user experience?

To gain your users' trust and create effective remarketing campaigns, abandon the "send everything" approach and invest in well-segmented, personalized, and contextual messaging and creatives.

Begin by perfecting audience segmentation. Personalize your emails and push notifications to speak to your users' unique needs and wants — and then meet them at the right time and right place.

It could be a special offer on items your users have previously expressed interest in, a witty reminder to complete their purchase, or exclusive holiday deals available only in their region.

Make use of your users' in-app purchase history to engage them with ads for products they're actually interested in, and consider interactive ad formats, such as playables, to increase the chances of them returning through the proverbial app door. This is especially effective when engaging previously loyal users, who are more likely to spend once they return to your app.

The more timely and specific your messaging is, the more likely you are to be noticed in the mobile device jungle and entice your users to engage.

2.  Use deep linking to simplify your user journey and increase engagement

Deep linking is the process of integrating cross-channel user experiences into a seamless and frictionless journey that drives higher engagement.

Deep linking can be used to encourage web visitors to reinstall or rediscover your app, whether it's web-to-app, email-to-app, or social-to-app.

A good example is the all-too-common scenario of shopping cart abandonment.

In the following example, a fashion retailer set up an automated process that sends personalized emails to app users who abandoned their carts. Users are encouraged to return to their cart, which is already conveniently populated with their previously selected items, by using deep linking.

This retailer's emails received a 45% open rate, a 21% click-through rate, and a 1% recovery of lost revenue, making the ROI of a good remarketing plan simply undeniable.

Combining original content with your social presence and paid campaigns is another effective way to use deep linking.

Sometimes showing up constantly on LinkedIn, Instagram, Meta, Twitter, and TikTok is the best way to re-spark users' engagement. When running paid ads for your best value content pieces, make sure to deep link them to the relevant locations in your app — to make it as easy for your users to (re)convert as possible.

In short, deep linking is a highly effective, low-cost tactic that helps you connect your customer-facing channels into one seamless journey, elevates your CX game, and is a tried-and-true method to ensure your users get from point A to point B. (redeem a coupon, sign up, install, etc.).

3.  Make it enjoyable! The unstoppable force of gamification strategies

Despite its name, gamification is not limited to gaming apps.

The possibilities for gamification-based remarketing tactics are nearly limitless, so consider how to incorporate gamification elements into your ads in a way that resonates with your app's unique value or target audience.

It could be onboarding campaigns that allow new users to unlock levels, earn badges, or win points on a leaderboard after completing a certain number of stages, for example.

The fact that gamification piques curiosity and generates a rush of healthy competition is what makes it such a powerful tactic.

And when you make your ads interactively fun, you make them difficult to resist, you differentiate yourself from the competition, you provide memorable UX — all while staying within a reasonable budget.

4.  Use loyalty and referral programs to increase user LTV and revenue

Exclusive reward programs make your customers feel valued and increase their brand loyalty. This also means lower churn and higher LTV per user for you, making it a well-worth investment to consider.

According to a recent study, 73% of millennials and 48% of Gen Z'ers claim that loyalty programs directly influence their purchasing habits, and 60% of consumers could be persuaded to make more purchases with brands that offer loyalty programs.

Apps that primarily monetize through in-app purchases, such as Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), can provide time-sensitive offers, whereas freemium apps can entice users to join loyalty programs by providing usage-based rewards.

However, loyalty programs are not the only way to generate new revenue streams that are both effective and cost-effective. Incentive referral programs are designed to encourage your satisfied customers to spread their happiness and be rewarded for it.

Brands that have shown consistent growth tend to build an engaged community around their app, primarily through a continuous drip of content that aims to educate and entertain, whether through loyalty or referral programs.

Scaling your app via organic, word-of-mouth marketing is by far the best thing that could happen to it. So, take a cue from these brands and strive to build a vocal group of devoted evangelists who will promote your app through thick and thin.


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5.  Remember to A/B test your ideas!

Tested creatives go a long way, and continuous campaign optimization is an essential component of a successful strategy and well-balanced ad spend.

A/B testing, in particular for scrutinized budgets, helps you minimize the risk of draining dollars on unsuccessful campaigns, you can access and analyze results quickly and easily, and then put them into action to improve the performance of your campaigns.

Gaming apps, for example, can:

• Players who unlocked specific levels within a certain time frame but then stopped playing are segmented.
• Create a remarketing campaign to reactivate these users.
• A/B test different campaign creatives to determine the best combination of messages, CTAs, and video content for the highest engagement rate.

To sum up

• Even with limited access to user-level data, there are TONS of ways to do personalized remarketing on a budget without sacrificing results.
• Personalization, deep linking, gamification, loyalty programs, and A/B testing your creatives are the five tactics to nail your app remarketing strategy without breaking the bank.
• The ability to effectively fight churn, nurture retention, and fuel LTV are the primary reasons why app remarketing is important, especially during times of recession.