Today, more than 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. On average, we spend more than 2.5 hours using our phones every day. For this reason, the popularity of mobile apps is growing, especially messaging, social media, games and tools. Major companies are competing to promote their apps. From banks, which promote the convenience of electronic banking, to on-demand services such as Uber, Booking.com and Airbnb, to e-commerce platforms like Allegro, Zalando and sales at stationary stores such as Lidl, Żabka and McDonalds.
In addition to the growing popularity of mobile devices, there are three important reasons why having a popular mobile app can be a huge asset for a company. The first is the ability to capture data. Another is the ability to conduct direct communication in an era of declining email effectiveness. The third reason is the advanced options for personalizing communications and building positive customer experiences. All of these areas, along with issues related to traffic generation and transactions in the mobile channel, were discussed at the Data for Breakfast meeting organized by Centraals. Below is a brief summary of our discussions
Know as much about the consumer as the big platforms do
In terms of data acquisition, a key aspect is creating a consistent user profile based on persistent mobile identifiers. Platforms such as AliExpress and Instagram are able to recognize a user and combine different identifiers, allowing them to always identify a person. Thanks to this solution, known as Privarte Identity Graph, advertisers have the ability to build accurate cross-device solutions, which is important especially in Poland, where there is not enough data, especially legally acquired data, to try to link devices on a statistical basis. In addition, it allows targeting a specific person across channels based on any identifier.
Take advantage of mobile tools
Second, it is beneficial to already integrate mobile tools into your communication strategies. Pushe and in-app pushes are excellent modes of communication, with 50% higher open rates than emails and about twice the CTR. Moreover, they are a direct communication channel that should be coordinated with other forms of communication, such as emails and SMS. Third, personalization in mobile apps. Mobile apps are one of the most effective channels for applying personalization. With detailed data on a user’s profile and activity in the app, we can dynamically tailor content (such as smart product recommendations) to each user both inside the app and through push notifications. According to research, personalizing push notifications can even triple their conversion efficiency.
How to promote the app
In the end, we focused on strategies to promote the mobile app to increase installs and conversions. Some advertisers use their store chains where they encourage customers to download the mobile app (e.g. Lidl, Żabka, Rossmann). However, as time passes, people who were supposed to download the app have already done so, resulting in a drastic drop in new installations. At this point, the need for mobile app advertising campaigns arises. There are platforms, such as AdHydra Command Center, that bring together the largest global and local publishers and ad networks to enable performance-based campaigns (e.g., for app downloads, registrations or sales generated in the app).
These platforms use AI / Machine Learning technology to optimize performance and manage a large ecosystem in real time. Fraud is a major threat to campaign effectiveness. According to AppsFlyer data, more than 20% of mobile app installations come from inorganic activities. Therefore, it is important to both manually counteract fraud (auditing new publishers, validating installations, etc.) and to use AI/machine learning-based solutions such as Centraals Commerce Command Center – Fraud Detection , which automatically detect anomalies that occur.