You’ve heard us say it before and we are going to say it again: You should be retargeting. Why? Because long term retention is a huge challenge for mobile marketers.
In 2019, 25% of apps downloaded by mobile app users worldwide were only opened once after download. Only 6.8% of users acquired organically still use apps 30 days after they first downloaded them. For users acquired through paid channels, that percentage drops down to 5.5%.
We’ve all learned a lot in 2020 but perhaps the most important mobile takeaway is that savvy marketers not only invest in the acquisition of new users, but also the re-engagement of their existing and lapsed ones through owned and paid channels.
So, are you ready to be a savvy app marketer in 2021? Here are 5 tips for mobile retargeting success to hit your 2021 growth goals.
Get more Granular in your Segmentation
As we’ve mentioned, segmenting your audience effectively is one of the most important components of a successful mobile retargeting strategy.
You can either segment based on user engagement. Or, you can segment based on monetization. Gaming apps tend to segment by monetization: dividing users into payers or non-payers. In other words, people who spend money in your app and people who don’t spend money in your app.
But you should also explore additional metrics to better segment your users. Determine churn prediction to measure the probability of a user returning naturally to your app (vs. churning for good). You should also explore user importance metrics. These determine how important it is to bring that user back to your app based on their time spent in-app and their likelihood of hitting certain goals like making purchases.
You can get even more granular and use incremental lift analysis to drill down on the quality of your retargeted ads. For example, looking at time of day or a certain level reached in a game and the incremental gains made when a retargeted ad was served.
All these metrics help you better evaluate the effectiveness of your retargeting campaign.
Use Special Offers
Who doesn’t love a deal? Literally, no one. You can use special offers like discounts and free upgrades to re-engage users.
For example, if you have a food delivery app, offer your returning users discounted or free delivery during a date or time when orders are typically slow to boost sales.
Design special creatives to boost your special offers and A/B test language and designs that work with your audience.
Deep Link Your Users
Deep links drive users to a specific in-app location. It sounds like a small optimization but if you think about it, how many times have you dropped off from a buying decision when you clicked on an ad and were taken to a generic home page? A user that was already on the fence about making a purchase will likely click out of the app from there rather than spend the time searching for the item they were originally re-engaged by.
Deep linking is similar to personalization in that it tries to deliver a superior customer service to a user by customizing their mobile experience.
Deferred deep links are used for users who don’t have your app installed. They provide a seamless journey for new users by taking them to the app store first to download your app. After download, then the deferred deep link redirects the user to a specific in-app location where they can make an in-app purchase shown in the original ad they clicked on.
By sending users directly to a specific in-app location, deep links help users skip the need to locate a specific page themselves. This significantly enhances their user experience. Deep links have been shown to double in-app sign ups, retention rates and long term engagement.
Update your Campaign in Real-Time
Your targeting and segmentation should be updated constantly and in real-time. By monitoring your ad metrics consistently, you can easily spot what is and isn’t converting. This helps you efficiently adjust your ad budget.
In any retargeting campaign, the performance of your user segments changes over time. This entails regularly optimizing the treatment you’re giving users and measuring the incremental impact of those changes. Effective mobile retargeting campaigns require diligence, creativity, monitoring and tweaking.
Cap Your Ad Frequency
Remember: the goal of a retargeting campaign is to get users to install or re-engage with your app, not to annoy them. Rather than running a retargeting campaign that aggressively follows the user all around the mobile ecosystem, make sure to serve ads that are timely and keep the user wanting more.
That said, cap the number of ads you show users. Also, don’t forget to exclude users who have already converted, as serving them retargeting ads can make your brand look unprofessional.
Takeaways
Savvy marketers not only invest in the acquisition of new users, but also the re-engagement of their existing and lapsed ones through owned and paid channels. So, are you ready to be a savvy app marketer in 2021?
- Get more granular in your segmentation. Don’t just segment your audience based on monetization and engagement. Consider churn prediction and user importance metrics too.
- Use special offers. Everyone loves a deal. Use special offers like discounts and free upgrades to re-engage users.
- Deep link your users. Driving users to a specific in-app location has been shown to double in-app sign ups, retention rates and long term engagement.
- Update your campaign in real time. Effective retargeting campaigns require diligence, creativity, monitoring and tweaking.
- Cap your ad frequency. No one likes to be annoyed by constant brand babbling. Cap the number of ads you show users and don’t forget to exclude users who have already converted
