People are relying more and more on their mobile devices, and companies should focus efforts on this segment of the market for the betterment of their brand. One of the best ways to tap into the mobile market is through the use of apps.
Releasing an app is a great component of your mobile advertising campaign. When it comes to advertising your mobile app, you would most likely want it to be a long-term campaign. What this means is that you’re focused on acquiring quality, long-term users who continuously engage with your app which contributes to its financial component. Long-term campaigns help you build brand recognition and even re-engage existing app users.
Running a Long-Term Campaign
Although the world has become so much advanced in terms of technology, the measurement of user exposure to an ad remains to be tough challenge. In a long-term campaign, you have to successfully hit three major areas: the acquisition of users, the re-engagement of users and brand awareness.
- Acquisition of users
Acquiring users is without a doubt the biggest objective of a long-term campaign. However, this doesn’t mean just getting a user to install your app on their mobile device. The primary drive of your campaign is to get “quality” users who actively use your app and engage with it. By doing this, they are contributing to the financial components of your app. This makes them have a very high lifetime value (LTV).
- Re-engagement of users
Acquiring users isn’t all there is when it comes to mobile advertising. Marketers know that there must be deeper engagement rates in order to generate more revenue. However, due to the flurry of apps in the market, people usually download them but forget about them or worse, delete them.
Brands who release apps to their audience want them to use it, and re-engagement is one way to do it. Mobile app advertising have moved beyond cost per install to cost per action (CPA). This simply means that installs are no longer the basis for success, but rather re-engagement. Key technologies behind re-engagement include deeplinking and push notifications.
Deeplinking directs users to specific portions of an app – just like how a link works on a website.
Push notifications are text-based messages that pop on a phone asking users do to something. It could be as simple as asking why a user has not used the app for quite some time and inviting them to use it once again. Or, in the case of retail brands, they can be messages offering discounts of certain items.
- Brand awareness
A mobile campaign that is executed well drives brand awareness. This increases the chance of having your app as the go-to place when users want to make a purchase.
Mobile Advertising Events that Should Be Measured
As mentioned earlier, marketers shouldn’t just think about the number of times their app has been installed. Although it’s true that this indicated success in the past, that is no the case anymore.
Every app has a different purpose which means events are measured differently. However, there are some common ones which include:
- App opens
Again, installs don’t cut it. You need to know whether users who have installed your app are actually using it. Knowing how many times your app is opened gives you an idea of how loyal your user base is which also means higher engagement and retention rates.
- App registrations
Having a user register first is a good gauge in determining which ones have a real interest in using your app. The chances of generating in-app revenue is also higher if this is the case.
Registrations are also a good measure for how well everything flows within your app. If your app has high open rates but low registrations, this might not be a good indication of your apps’ user experience.
- App purchases
An analysis of purchasing behaviour on your app helps you push out things that will continue to pique the interest of users.
- Others
Here are other common events that you can use in measuring performance for long-term campains:
- Tutorial completion
- Adding an item to cart
- Adding an item to a wishlist
- Searching within the app
- Unlocking an achievement level
- Viewing content
- Sharing content
Important Mobile Analytics
- Marketing Analytics
Otherwise known as attribution analytics where you determine to understand which specific ad and publisher can be credited for an install. Lots of marketers use publishers to help them out, and knowing which ones are the most effective helps you focus your efforts more and increase returns on ad spend.
- In-app Analytics
This allows you to better understand user behaviour within your app. Behaviours measured include ad clicks, button clicks and content read – just to name a few.
Final Thoughts
Knowing your users and how they engage with your app is an essential part of your mobile advertising campaign. Simply being aware of these things help you win the long game.
