Better Mobile App Marketing, Before & After Your Launch

Last Updated on December 11, 2018 by Work In My Pajamas

Mobile app marketing used to focus primarily on driving installs; rooted in the idea that more people installing the app would lead to more people using it. But it’s clearly evident that there’s a huge difference between acquiring a user and retaining one who will engage in valuable post-install events.

The truth of the matter is that it’s a major challenge to retain users. According to Marketing Land, 78 percent of app users churn within three months. The lesson here? Focusing on acquisition at the expense of retention is a surefire way to burn through your marketing budget without effectively monetizing your app.

Better mobile app marketing aims to attract high-value users who are more likely to stay engaged with your app, as well as optimize the ads you show these users.

Targeting the Optimal Audience

There’s more data available than ever before to help marketers target segments of mobile users effectively. Since the goal is attracting users who go beyond installation to convert, it’s important to understand which demographic characteristics and mobile behaviors these target users exhibit.

One tactic more marketers are turning to is working with an app marketing agency to build “lookalike audiences” reflecting the features of your ideal users, then targeting these users with personalized ads across the app ecosystem.

Leveraging Burst Campaigns

Many people discover apps by searching within app stores, so achieving a higher ranking will help your app get noticed. Launching a burst campaign is one technique in which marketers purchase paid advertising, concentrated over a period of days, to drive installs. Rankings climb when this occurs, which can boost quality organic installs down the line. The duration of these “bursts” depends on your budget, but the goal is to drive installs within a short period of time to bolster rankings.

Optimizing Your App Store Listing

One simple thing you can do to bring attention to your app is optimize its app store listing. App store optimization aims to boost search rankings. Make sure your title contains the keyword related to your app with the heaviest search traffic. Incorporate frequently searched keywords into your description, as well.

Harnessing Programmatic Ads

Marketers are now harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically bid for ad placements and create these ads based on customizable templates. The theory behind programmatic ads is this: People respond better to ads that reflect their interests, characteristics and mobile usage habits. This is why serving programmatically assembled ads to the right viewers that are highly personalized can drive installs and raise post-install conversion rates.

Re-Engage Lapsed Users

Marketing doesn’t end just because a user taps your ad and installs your app. As mentioned above, retention is a huge challenge. People delete apps for a plethora of reasons, from boredom to needing to free up more storage space. Some users have a habit of installing apps only to let them go dormant after one or two uses. Better marketing includes a plan to reach out to these lapsed users and pull them back into the fold so they’ll re-engage in a meaningful way.

The good news is that personalized ads—known as dynamic ads—are just as effective for retargeting dormant users as they are for acquiring new ones. It’s even possible to serve mobile users calls to action that correspond to their last in-app action.

For example, showing someone who left a product in their shopping cart within an ecommerce app an ad for that exact product they’d been considering, hopefully triggering them to enter the app and act. Bringing mobile users to a specific screen or product listing as part of a retargeting campaign is possible through a strategy known as deep linking.

Better mobile app marketing before and after your launch will help you retain users who engage in post-install events, the foundation of monetizing your app.