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App Retargeting

R etaining and re-engaging users has become absolutely essential for app marketers. Acquiring an audience is expensive business, with CPIs rising and app abandon rates making for depressing reading.

Prices are even steeper for high-quality users opening an app three times or more, while Appsflyer estimates the average app loses 97% of its new users after just 30 days1. What a gloomy picture!

In this day and age, focusing on user acquisition alone is like trying to fill a glass that has a hole in the bottom. You’ll need to keep the faucet running full-blast to get anywhere. A waste of water and money, no? But supplementing paid installs with a solid re-engagement strategy let’s you plug the hole, turn off the faucet and save money.

After all, it’s much cheaper to re-engage an existing user than to pay for a new one. With app retargeting, you can even encourage specific actions among your audience – from first purchase right through to re-activation of dormant customers.

1 Retail, travel and utility apps; http://www.emarketer.com/Article/App-Marketers-Focus-on-Engagement-Re-tention/1013111

Introduction

01Set up and share post-install events

02Slice and dice your audience the right way

03Implement proper deep linking

04Optimize your creatives

05Sync your retargeting with other channels

Growth tips to help you maximize the return on your app retargeting campaign ad spend:

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F or effective app retargeting, choose a tracking and attribution partner, such as Appsflyer, Kochava, TUNE or adjust – this way you don’t need an additional SDK. Next, select the post-install events you wish to track, enable your retargeter in the

platform and then share these events with the retargeter.

It’s a good idea to have full ownership of your app tracking platform (as opposed to delegating control to a 3rd party), for a better control of your marketing activities down the line. Once set up, they’ll track in-app events to help you determine which ad partner is responsible for generating a given action.

You choose the events to track and, when one occurs, a postback URL is sent. Within the tracking partner’s dashboard, you easily enable a retargeting partner and select the postbacks to forward.

TYPICAL POSTBACKS INCLUDE:

Set up and sharepost-install events

Addedto Cart

CompletedRegistration

UnlockedAchievement

CompletedTutorial

ViewedContent

SharedContent

ReachedLevel

LoggedIn

CompletedPurchase

SpentCredits

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01

When choosing which events to track, we recommend you enable them all within your attribution partner’s SDK on first set up. It’s easy to disable them later on.

Remember to enable your retargeting partner and share these events with them from within the dashboard.

Take campaigns to the next level with CRMPost-install events are good. But for brands running on other platforms such as web alongside their app, first-party CRM data is better. This is the most qualified data, involves the least guesswork and exists beyond any one platform’s ecosystem.

CRM data significantly enriches retargeting by enabling more accurate insights and enabling a unified cross-device experience. First-party data can be overlaid onto retargeting campaigns through xml feeds, or via integrations with third-party DMPs such as BlueKai.

The power of first-party CRM data

If you’re worried about first-party data, rest assured this can be done without transferring personally identifiable information (PII). A hashed, anonymized parameter is passed so relevant data can be connected safely and securely.

UNIQUENESS

Third-party data

AC

CU

RA

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Publisher data

Second-party dataFirst-party data

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Y ou’ve probably already mapped the journey that users take through your app to reach a conversion or desired event, right? Creating a sales or event funnel is a great way to make sure you properly understand your audience.

What is a prospect? How regularly does a ‘regular shopper’ shop? When does an inactive user become classified as ‘dormant’? In retail, the classic sales funnel is split into stages based on purchase intent:

That’s fine, but what about other verticals? Or shopping apps that don’t operate along conventional lines? There’s so much variety out there, yet most marketing partners map audiences and segment them based on this retail funnel, even though it makes so little sense.

Customizing the funnelThere’s huge reward in selecting a retargeting provider that can build a custom funnel aligned to your app and audience. The stages accurately reflect your own segmentation logic and rules can be set to govern precisely how users move between stages.

Prospect

Visitors

Shoppers

Buyers

Customers

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Slice and diceyour audience the right way

02

The further down the funnel you go, the more likely a conversion

With a more accurate picture of the user journey, the programmatic algorithms can better select which impressions to bid on and optimize the campaign at each funnel stage.

A custom funnel also allows for better understanding of a retargeting campaign’s effectiveness. If you know the ROI for each funnel stage, you can choose to re-allocate budgets to maximize the overall return accordingly.

Consider a video streaming app operating on a subscription model. There isn’t really a proxy for installs on the web. And subscriptions don’t match conversions. How about this funnel instead?

Finding the valueOne thing to keep in mind is that ROI will vary at each stage of the funnel. The higher a user is in the funnel, the more difficult it will be to drive performance.

You should remember this when considering your messaging and the KPIs you intend use to track the campaign’s performance.

Building your segmentsOnce you’ve mapped your funnel stages to your re-engagement campaign, you’re ready to think about which segments of your audience to target and the messages that will be most effective.

These can be as granular as you like. What might your segments look like?

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App installer

Registered user

Subscriber

Binge watcher

Social sharer

Prospect Dormant

D eep links serve as a way to make online resources more usable and accessible, whether they’re on a website or in an app. On web, they’re simply hyperlinks that direct you to a specific piece of content instead of the homepage.

With apps, the aim’s the same, but the methodology is slightly different. We’re dealing with different types of uniform resource identifiers (URIs), namely App Links on Android and Universal Links on iOS.

These provide the information required to link to a specific location inside an app rather than launching the app store and requiring the user to open the app from there instead.

Simply put, if you show someone a specific product in an ad, deep linking provides the means to take them straight to that product, bypassing the steps it would usually take to get there from the homescreen.

APP 2APP 1

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3.1

03Implement properdeep linking

When running retargeting campaigns on apps without deep linking enabled, we see that engagement rates are typically 10x lower. That’s a massive price to pay for failing to do something as simple as setting up proper deep links.

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10x

Withoutdeep links

With deep linksenabled

3.2

Deferred deep linkingIt’s possible to go one step further with deferred deep linking. Deferred deep links achieve the same goal, but in cases where the user hasn’t yet installed your app. They redirect to the app store then to the location in question once the app is opened.

APP 1 APP 2APP STORE

GET

3.3

10x engagement boost with deep links enabled

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A user who clicks on an ad can get to the relevant part of your app as simply as above, but with the added step of installing the app. This can be particularly effective at bringing people back to your app after they have uninstalled it.

On iOS, your developers must work with a tracking and attribution platform for deep links to properly pass through the App Store and redirect new users to the correct location within your app, as this behavior is not supported natively as it is on Android.

App IndexingAfter deep links, the next thing to implement is App Indexing. With this, Google can index your app like a website and surface your content in its search results and link directly to it. Again, this reduces the number of steps required between A and B.

SEARCH APP

3.4

As well as driving engagement and retention, deferred deep linking and app indexing are great growth hacks for driving organic installs to supplement your paid acquisition activities.

This functionality is available for both Android and iOS apps but requires an additional SDK. On Android devices, App Indexing is also how you include your app’s content in Now on Tap results.

App Indexing can generate significant engagement uplift among your user base and is a positive ranking signal with Google’s algorithms, so will boost search result impressions.

Cookpad, a recipe app with 50 million users, saw a 10% increase in weekly sessions for active users and a 15% jump in re-engagement rates among dormant users after indexing two million recipe pages2.

2 https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/partners/case-study-cookpad.pdf

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O ptimization is one of the most important aspects of any successful advertising campaign. The key is to adopt the mindset that your campaign is always a work in progress, no matter how well it may currently be performing.

Particularly in the data-rich world of apps, we have the tools to constantly strive for greater levels of understanding into what does and doesn’t work. Nowhere is this more noticeable than with the creatives of your campaign.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WITH CREATIVES:

Banner sizes Content

Style and feelDynamic or static

Personalization

User interaction (gestures)

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Optimize your creatives

04

Ad formatsThe ad formats that are available for in-app banners are dependant on what is accepted by the ad server in question. This will usually be based on IAB Standard Mobile Sizes, although some support additional custom sizes and expandable creatives.

The three main formats of in-app ads are banners, interstitials and native ads.

Banners operate the same as on the web, while interstitials fill the screen and native ads mimic the style/tone of the app in which they appear.

BANNER INTERSTITIAL NATIVE

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4.1

Native adsNative advertising is one of the hottest topics in ad-tech because it drives such high engagement. Banner ads generate a 34% lift in purchase intent, compared to 52% for native ads3, and Facebook’s native News Feed generates 10x the engagement of banner ads.

This is partially due to the way that they mimic the design of the content of the apps in which they appear. But such a high degree of variance can be challenging from a creative point of view.

So try to provide images from product feeds in a way that allows for flexible layout and placement. Automated image optimization tools can help with this. When it comes to titles, the best practice is to approach them like you would an editorial headline, ensuring that you pique readers’ interest.

3 http://www.sharethrough.com/resources/native-ads-vs-display-ads/

Your assets should be provided in a way that allows them to be easily manipulated in real-time to fit custom native ad formats.

Make sure products are centred in case there is any cropping and that calls to action are as short and punchy as possible.

PROPERLY ALIGNED MISALIGNED

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4.2

Dynamic image best practices

A/B test your creativesWith so much choice, it can be daunting if not impossible to know what works best. Luckily, marketers have an excellent tool at their disposal in A/B testing, which enables them to identify the most effective creative variants.

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$60SHOP NOW

$60SHOP NOW

$60

SHOP NOW

$60$60 $60

SHOP NOW

$60BUY NOW

$60BUY NOW

4.3

Split your users into two buckets, A and B.

Show users in bucket A a different creative variant to those in bucket B and measure the effectiveness of each to decide which version to progress with.

Then rinse and repeat. It’s all iterative.

Tips for successful programmatic creatives

A Images

• Consider different sizes and aspect ratios when taking product photos• Frame products in the centre with enough padding so photos can be easily manipulated• For large quantities of images, consider automated optimization tools• Use transparent backgrounds for easier real-time editing

B Messaging

• Think like a news editor when writing headlines• Include a call to action that is clear and concise• The fewer words you use to get your message across, the better

C Campaign planning and optimization

• Ensure you have at least one creative variant for each segment• Plan creative variants around key events in the calendar• Remember there’s no right answer. What works well once may not always be the answer• Use A/B testing to find out which images and messaging work best

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05

W e’ve focused exclusively on app retargeting, but most advertisers will re-engage across several channels. There are plenty available, including in-app messaging, push notifications, email and SMS.

The strength of app retargeting is that, unlike push or in-app messaging, it operates outside the app, extending your ability to reach users. It’s also less intrusive than notifications.

Syncing across channelsAs powerful as retargeting is, it works even better as part of a unified strategy operating across numerous channels. This, after all, is what today’s consumer expects: a joined up experience across all touchpoints.

By working with a Mobile Engagement Platform such as Urban Airship, Teradata or Appboy, you can learn the most effective segmentation strategy for each channel, transposing segments from one channel to another and ensuring messaging is aligned.

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Sync up your retargetingwith other channels

Living outside the app

Unlike push notifications, app retargeting lets you reach users outside of your app. Because people use all sorts of apps, you can find them in the most unexpected of places.

We ran a successful app retargeting campaign for a leading bike racing iOS app and found that the most traction for impressions came in the following verticals:

GAMES MUSIC PHOTO & VIDEO

LIFESTYLE UTILITIES

Frequency of messagingAnother consideration is the frequency of your messaging. With push notifications, the downside of ‘spamming’ users is clear – and as many as 71% of users cite annoying notifications as a contributing factor in their decision to delete an app4.

Operating app retargeting without frequency caps may result in a higher number of clicks, but you must look at the number of conversions attributed to the campaign to see if the higher media costs and risk of brand overexposure are worthwhile.

4 http://appiterate.com/7-reasons-why-your-mobile-app-gets-uninstalled/

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PUSH EMAIL RETARGETING

Mobile Engagement Platform + Retargeting Specialist

5.1

W ith the sheer amount of apps fighting for people’s attention, acquisition of new users is no longer enough to set your app apart from the crowd. They need to be continuously engaged.

App retargeting provides advertisers with touch-points outside of their app and the mechanism required to remind their users why they loved them in the first place.

Summary

To get the most from your retargeting efforts:

Set up and share your post-install events

Slice and dice your audience the rightway

Implement Deep Links

Optimize your creatives

Sync up your retargeting with everything else

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READY TO RETARGET?

www.mythings.com

Performance programmatic.Made for you.Setting up app retargeting with myThings

couldn’t be easier and no SDK is required.

Through our Mobile Attribution Partners

Program, we’re fully integrated with:

Simply enable us in your tracking partner’s

platform choose to forward your event

postbacks to us. We’ll do the rest.

myThings is a global leader in programmatic performance advertising, specializing in app and web retargeting that’s fully managed and completely customized.

Bringing a decade of expertise from desktop

to the mobile ecosystem, we enable the

biggest brands to retain and re-engage their

audiences no matter the device, driving

performance at scale.

Among our clients are Puma, Nordstrom rack, Microsoft, Very, French Connection, Boots and Orange. Our dynamic, personalised ads are fully brand-aligned and we use absolutely no templates. They’re powered by custom sales funnels, machine learning algorithms unique to the advertiser and audience segmentation built on first-party data.

Converting big data into incremental demand, we personalize over 5 billion impressions a month across all leading ad exchanges on web and mobile.

Find out more atwww.mythings.com or @mythingsmedia.

About myThings

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