The following is a guest contributed post from YouAppi Chief Revenue Officer, Leo Giel.
Reaching the right audience is a constant challenge for app developers, publishers and advertisers. Simply amassing a large audience isn’t easy – but more importantly, it isn’t strategic and doesn’t drive business growth or revenue. Without the right customers – those who will actively engage – a brand’s mobile app is doomed to get lost in the marketplace clutter.
The Price of Acquiring the Wrong Audience.
Acquiring an audience of any kind can be challenging, but acquiring the right users who will download a mobile app, engage frequently and make in-app purchases is even more difficult – not to mention expensive. Across iOS and Android platforms the average business cost per app download is $162.22. Encouraging the download itself, user registration, in-app purchases and retention each come with costs of their own.
Just when mobile app developers, publishers and advertisers think they’ve figured out how to reach their ideal audience, the market shifts and expectations rise. If they neglect or simply lack the skill to cater to the new needs of their target audience, they’re left with hundreds of app downloads that float in the ether and are meaningless to their Return on Ad Spending (ROAS).
One in five users will open an application only once and then abandon it all together. While this is an improvement from 2017, it still poses a noteworthy threat to app developers and advertisers. Why do some users lose interest after just one interaction with certain content? Is your brand securing the right audience for your app(s)? The challenge is to narrow focus and efforts on the right individuals who will be motivated not just to download the app once, but also to re-engage.
Delivering Content that Drives Engagement And Re-engages.
User acquisition is on the minds of mobile app developers and publishers around the globe, and with the high cost of acquiring users – including the wrong users – it’s critical that mobile app marketers know exactly how to deliver engagement-driving content. On average, users in the U.S. spend about 2.3 hours on their mobile device every day. This represents a significant window of time to insert your mobile brand into their minds.
A recent survey found that 85 percent of marketers plan to increase their investment in video in 2018, up a whole 10 percent from 2017. The digital landscape has shifted and video continues to grow in popularity year-on-year. Video is the future of mobile marketing and is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019. Investing in video can help your brand stay relevant in this mobile-first world.
Digital video marketing became a $135 billion industry in the U.S. in 2017. It’s a competitive, but also very effective space. With an audience’s ever-shortening attention span, video is top-of-mind for successful mobile marketers. Video caters to the needs of our mobile-first world and makes your brand memorable.
Attracting the Most Valuable Customers.
Data offers valuable insight to the minds of users and AI and machine learning open up possibilities to learn how and when a user is most likely to engage. Still, these elements are ever-changing. Brands need to focus advertising efforts on those they believe will truly benefit from or enjoy their application – things like App Store Optimization (ASO) efforts and social media utilization can be effective. Using a variety of resources can give you a leg up on other app marketers who focus solely on optimizing their app for the Apple App Store and Google Play. One in four app users discover apps through simple online searches unrelated to apps – well-timed ads and download offers can be highly effective as they relate to someone’s initial online search.
User acquisition is imperative to mobile application success, but it’s not the only element to drive growth. Engagement and re-engagement are the most important factors in forming a competitive growth marketing strategy. Once a user has already downloaded the app and shown interest, capitalize on this first act of engagement and motivate them to do more in the future. Upon app installation, the last thing a new user wants is to be bombarded with a myriad of questions, requests and verifications. Timing is everything, as the saying goes. Keep in mind the user experience and let it be a top priority – conversion rates will be greater as user experience becomes of utmost importance
Investing in user acquisition is necessary for any marketing strategy, but engaging and re-engaging with users is the key for premium mobile apps to see better ROI. And, given that users spend 30 hours per month in mobile applications, accessing the right people at the right time has never been more attainable.
