Adikteev’s Senior Regional Manager in APAC, Kiran Mathew, presented a talk at the first-ever HOOK: An International Meet-Up for Performance Marketing in Bangkok, Thailand. He shared his expertise on retargeting for better conversions.

Why retargeting?

The mobile app market has evolved into something larger than life and has forced every app marketer today to raise the bar every step of the way. User engagement is an inevitable problem, along with iOS IDFA deprecation and SKADnetwork constraints.

Watch the full talk here to learn more:

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Problem #1: Quality over quantity

Each user will have an average of 40-70 apps on their smartphones. 

“But statistics say about 40% of users… actively use only 4 or 6 apps on a regular basis. That’s why the remaining app companies need to re-engage their users.”

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Problem #2: ‘Active’ users aren’t always active

Of those few apps with active users, there’s no guarantee of daily usage. In fact, statistics data giant Statista says 25% of users open the app just once. 

“Quettra, an intelligence company, says that  80% of users will leave an app within 30 days  of installation. Marketers spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, trying to acquire users to the app — but 80% of those users will stop using the app within a month. That is wasted money.” 

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Problem #3: Realistic User Churning

There’s a lot that happens after an app install, such as onboarding, registration, identity verification, and so on. At each stage, a user might be tempted to churn. 

“If the user has installed and registered, but does nothing else, that’s a loss for the company. This is why you need to re-engage users at the very beginning of your funnel.”

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Effective App Retargeting

Shifts in the mobile app industry have led marketers to build highly relevant re-engagement campaigns in order to keep users or retrieve them back to the app. Be that as it may, most companies today still focus solely on their user acquisition.

“The ecosystem evolution is changing the way you pilot your marketing campaigns. The strategy is currently broken with iOS’s limitations. UA costs are rising. Fraud is a big issue. You need to have quality users downloading your app. But that’s not enough. You need to get them to transact.”

The solution is smart and effective app retargeting. Companies like us at Adikteev retarget users by first segmenting them based on their behavior and then sending customized and relevant ads.

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Relevant vs. Irrelevant Ads

Another important thing to consider is the impact of your ads on user retention. With the rapid and high risk of losing app users every day, it is paramount to keep your users engaged through promotions, new products, discounts, rewards, and more. These can all be executed through retargeting ads. 

However, the quality of these retargeting ads can make or break your retention strategy. Irrelevant, non-personalized ads are not only counterproductive, they could also induce user churn. Nothing is worse for a user than getting a persistent ad for a product they already have bought or used a service that is not applicable to their situation. Unfortunately, this is a common scenario. 

“Here’s the truth: data says 47% of consumers...are happy to sacrifice their privacy to get a better deal while shopping. For those who have Apple phones, you have the new ATT framework which asks you whether you want to have this app track you — and, most people might say no. But a lot of apps tell users ‘allow us to track you and we will give you 50 dollars off on your first purchase’, and a lot of users are fine with that deal. The whole point is that users like ads when it’s relevant to them.”

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3 Solutions to Retarget for Better Conversions

Solution #1: User Segmentation

Segmentation means identifying your users. And all users have different behaviors. A few examples are

• Returning users
• Regular buyers
• High spenders
• D0 users or recent users who have installed but are not registered yet
• D0 users or recent users who have browsed but not purchased yet

When segmented properly, users can be targeted successfully with an appropriate and compelling approach by fitting ads to cater to their needs. A hesitant buyer may be propelled to complete a purchase if given a special promotion or discount. A registration could be finalized with proposed free points or game rewards. 

While effective re-engagement campaigns are extremely important, sophisticated marketers should also understand user exclusion. If a user has already bought an item, there is no point in sending ads for the same product.

Likewise, frequency capping is key: if a user still hasn’t converted after receiving a few ads multiple times, it is best to stop targeting this user altogether. 

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Solution #2: Amazing Creatives

In the midst of our current competitive industry, static banner ads alone no longer get the job done. While banner ads serve a purpose, the ads that get sent to your clients must be attractive, enticing, and attention grabbing. This is possible and easy to do with a good creative team. 

At Adikteev, we also offer creatives for app companies that don’t have an in-house design team. Our dynamic product ads or DPAs allow us to launch ads based on the user’s behavior history — this leads to up to 75% post-click conversion uplift. Furthermore, Adikteev has created automated creative selection or ACS to test each creative in real-time and to allocate media budget. 

“The whole concept of ads is you want to see what is your CTR: how many people are actually clicking your ad. But most important is conversion. It’s not enough for users to click on the ad — you actually want them to make a transaction. In order to do that effectively, you need to continuously test your ads. Some ads may work perfectly for a week and, after that, they will stop working. You need to change them. It’s all about continuously testing your creatives to ensure that they are giving you the right kind of conversion.”

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Solution #3: Deep Linking

‍To create a good user experience that could reach an objective such as a purchase or subscription, attention to detail is a must. A user might churn when led to the homepage of a website where they are faced with the added task of locating the very product your ad contains. It’s in these cases that deep linking should be paid attention to. Quality advertising must allow customers to get what they see and to make the process flow easily. 

“If you want them to convert, they need to be taken to that specific page where they could have the app installed. This is why deep linking is very critical. As marketers, you have the engineering team to set it up for you or you can work with a company like Adikteev. Never ever have the user click on an ad just for them to reach the homepage — that is a bad experience.”

Watch the full video to learn more!