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Feb 27 2023
Many mobile users install an app in response to a specific offer, need, or use case. However, 1 in 5 users abandon the app after the initial launch. To avoid churn and ensure that users return to apps and convert, mobile marketers and product managers must develop effective retargeting strategies for app users.
Let's begin with a definition.
Mobile app retargeting refers to ad campaigns that target people who have previously visited your mobile app. You can serve personalized ads based on specific mobile user behavior to encourage users to re-engage, re-install, or complete a down-funnel conversion.
Retargeting mobile app users is essential for app success. Retargeting helps to remind users of your app and its features, encourages them to return to your app, and boosts user engagement and loyalty. By targeting users with the right message at the right time, you can increase downloads, engagement, and conversions.
App re-engagement is most commonly used in the following 3 scenarios:
The goal of an activate campaign is to increase user engagement with your app. Increasing app usage is a common issue for marketers across all industries. The highest-grossing apps in app stores all have high engagement rates. You might be missing out if you don't devote some of your marketing budget to increasing app usage and engagement. Re-engaging users who once enjoyed your app but haven't opened it in a few days is part of increasing app usage. The goal is to entice them to return to the app, whether it's to finish a puzzle or make a purchase. Depending on the vertical, your metrics for re-engagement will differ.
Deep Links & Segmentation
Users you re-engage to increase their app usage should be treated with the same care as our lapsed users who haven't been active in the app for a while. A new user who has just downloaded your app may stop opening it for a variety of reasons.
Audience segmentation ensures that your messaging reaches the right people. Using data as a guide, you can understand the points of churn and create a re-engagement campaign that addresses their pain points and returns them to where they left off.
Armed with audience insights, begin by enabling tracking for all relevant events - any action taken within your app that you want to track - from sign-ups to logins to placing an order or making an in-app purchase.
It is also possible to set up custom tracking for events so that you can follow users through different stages of the user life cycle and learn how valuable users from a specific campaign were. Data on user activity provides invaluable insights into what users do after installation and when they may churn.
Marketers who run retargeting campaigns to drive more revenue are perhaps the most common scenario we encounter, and by far the most effective use case. The goal here is to convert or upsell users who have already engaged with your app.
The percentage of app users who make in-app purchases is extremely low. Many app marketers, however, believe that encouraging this small number of users to buy more is a better use of their budget than running a retention campaign for users who may never convert.
Segmentation
The best way to segment your app audience for an upsell campaign is to divide them by their likelihood to convert. Cart abandoners, previous purchasers, or users who regularly play your mobile game, to name a few.
Focusing on users who are already engaged and spending money in your app may seem counterintuitive, but it has been shown to increase user LTV and revenue.
Retargeting campaign users generate 37% more revenue events in the first 30 days than new user acquisition. However, in order to convert the noise into conversions and bring your most valuable customers back to the app after they've bounced, you must make use of the data you already have.
The success of mobile retargeting varies greatly depending on the vertical. Shopping is at the top of the scale. According to the latest global app trends data, retargeting accounts for nearly three-quarters (73%) of attributions for e-commerce apps.
This is most likely due to the fact that a user's experience is directly related to the purchase of an item. They leave once they've purchased it and return when they find something else they want to buy. Marketers can send users highly targeted ads at just the right time based on abandoned items in a user's online shopping cart or what they've purchased in the past.
Gaming and content streaming apps, on the other hand, thrive on new users, and the challenge is to keep those users engaged and never let them become inactive in the first place.
A re-engagement campaign with a retention focus tries to entice lapsed users to return to the app. The goal is to raise awareness and maximize retention. With so many apps competing for users' attention, it's easy to see why a user might use your app once or twice after installation before completely forgetting about it.
Previously, marketers would simply increase their spend on user acquisition campaigns to ensure a steady flow of new users. The idea was to compensate for the lack of engagement from existing users by attracting new ones. However, as the cost per install (CPI) continues to rise, this approach will no longer suffice.
With this in mind, there are a few things to think about when running a retention campaign. Specifically, how you segment your audience and the creatives you employ.
Segmentation
When it comes to retaining lapsed users, segmentation is key. Lapsed users are a particularly sensitive group that requires special care when it comes to re-engagement.
To avoid irritating lapsed users to the point of churn, use your app's data to create custom segments based on in-app events users have already completed. This will ensure that your messaging is timely, relevant, and effective.
Implementing successful retargeting campaigns can be a difficult process, but the best attribution providers will assist in simplifying this and reducing the time required to perform. Choose a provider that provides an audience segmentation tool that can help you define audiences using your data - and then act on them right away.
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The significance of vertical
Consider the industry vertical in which you operate. For example, an app that sells designer socks and shoes can build an audience of users who have purchased items from a specific brand. Paying to target this list with advertisements encouraging users to check out that brand's other offerings from your catalog is a strategy to entice churned users to return.
In practice, Wallapop, a free virtual flea market, used segmentation to separate users and target them with different creatives. They saw a significant decrease in CPX costs in just 8 weeks by creating segments for unregistered users, 'low' active users, dormant users (and many more).
Once you've established an MMP, the possibilities for expansion are virtually limitless. Most importantly, you must ensure that you are tracking the correct events. This data can be used by brands to map the user journey and identify what motivates frequent use and long-term loyalty.
To begin, there are a few definitions you should be aware of.
Reattribution & Session
A session is created each time a user launches the application. Session data can be used to calculate the average amount of time users spend on an app, as well as the time of day users are most likely to engage with a specific app.
According to App Trends 2020 report, e-commerce apps see peak sessions at lunchtime, between noon and 2 p.m., and again in the evening, between 7 and 10 p.m., accounting for a quarter of their daily total. Similarly, between 5 and 8 p.m., Food & Drink apps see a surge in usage, accounting for 31% of total daily sessions.
While this makes logical sense - people like to shop in their spare time and use Food & Drink apps after dinner - there is now data to back it up.
Brands can identify opportunities or problems within their apps that can be optimized for improved performance by combining analysis of session metadata (e.g., session length) with usage data (e.g., tracking certain in-app events) and then analyzing behavior across a user base. They can also use it to re-engage customers.
Reattribution allows app marketers to see which campaign or creative drove a user back to the app. This can be used to improve re-engagement campaigns and bring more users back to the advertiser's app after an inactivity period.
Reattribution is also important for marketers because it allows them to assess the effectiveness of their retargeting campaigns. Marketers run retargeting campaigns when users are not as active as they should be (based on industry benchmarks and the ideal user journey for that app).
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