How this Company got 100k People to See their New App on Facebook for Only $100

Gaining visibility for your app is increasingly more difficult

So you’re ready with a new app. But have you thought about what you will do to make a huge number of people see your app in order to make its launch a success? Your app launch can either be all “fire” or “all smoke, no fire”; depending on the number of people it reaches after the launch.

The unfortunate reality is, most apps don’t ever really take off, and the reason is there’s no one there to drive the app marketing engine.

Think of your app as a car that requires a driver behind the steering wheel. It can only reach a destination when the driver actually knows what they are doing and where they are heading. Launching your app is the same. If you’re not driving that process, or if you don’t know what you’re doing, your chances of making a splash in the competitive app market are slim.

The booming competition on the major app stores is also making it increasingly difficult for app developers to get significant organic views and download numbers. As a result, many are turning to paid user acquisition and ‘app install ads’ as solutions to this problem. There can be different campaign goals but there is one thing that everyone wants: minimal advertising costs.

 

How to be a smarter app marketer

Most of the app developers choose Facebook as their favourite advertising platform. The huge user base which is over 700 million daily users on mobile, amazing targeting options, and most importantly, the ability to deliver low-cost app installs and engagement, make it an ideal solution for app developers to make their app successful. On Facebook, if right strategies are used for advertising you app, it is possible to get over 100k people to see your new app within a budget of 100$.

But like anything else, there are learning curves if you want to optimise your Facebook app install ad campaigns.

There are several ways to improve your Facebook ads for apps and your ad campaign can either make it or break it for you when it comes to your app success. In this guide, we will look at the case study of a popular app that gained maximum visibility on Facebook, which can be used to learn the ways to get huge number of people see your new app on Facebook in a limited budget.

Let’s look at the success story of an app that made most of their Facebook ad campaign to find out what can be learnt from them to start a successful ad campaign for an app.

Case study: ServisHero

ServisHero is a mobile app that connects people to service providers for cleaning, air conditioner servicing, moving and more. It was launched in June 2015 and the app operated in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It provides quotations, profiles and reviews so people can hire with confidence.

Their Goal

As a new start-up, the team at ServisHero wanted to learn more about its customer profile and increase conversions on Facebook. It also wanted to increase app installs.

Their Solution

To identify its target audience, ServisHero team used location and interest targeting, showing ads to people within the Klang Valley in Malaysia. With a partner agency, the team tested a variety of core audience sets, such as young parents and people interested in South-east Asian start-ups, for instance, and used Facebook’s audience retargeting and exclusion capabilities. It found that people aged 25–40 engaged with the ads most. However, most of the job requests came from females aged 30–39.

The campaign used ads and an animated video to promote ServisHero’s key services on Facebook. The ad series demonstrated its variety of services with cartoon visuals that positioned the brand as friendly and accessible. The ads also highlighted ServisHero’s mobile app to encourage downloads.

 

Generating great content for your ad campaign

Their comical 30-second video featured 2 friends in a living room. The clumsy one makes a mess, and the other friend pulls out her phone to call ServisHero. The catchy video, with its upbeat music, demonstrated how easy it is to use the app.

‘Custom Audiences’ (a Facebook tool for app ads) helped ServisHero reach people who had previously requested its services to encourage them to make another booking. The company also used Lookalike Audiences to find potential customers similar to those who had already shown interest.

“Facebook Ads helped us know our customers better, increase awareness and drive transactions. Collaborating with our social agency, we have improved our business performance while reducing transaction costs. Given our success, we will be allocating a higher proportion of our digital marketing budget to our Facebook campaigns.”- Siddhant Hiremath, Digital Marketing Associate, ServisHero

Products Used

  • Video Ads
  • Carousel
  • Audience Insights
  • Conversion Tracking
  • Custom Audiences
  • Lookalike Audiences
  • App Installs Ad

Goals

  • Increase views and Raise Brand Awareness
  • Drive Online Sales
  • Promote Your App

Their Success

Using Facebook to identify its key audience, ServisHero saw a large increase in job requests and app downloads. The campaign, which ran from early February to the end of June 2016, achieved:

  • 56% lower cost per job request
  • 32X more mobile app installs
  • 10% more job requests than from other ad platforms

“Facebook provides effective ways to reach, influence and convert audiences who need the professional services available on ServisHero. Using our prospect-to-conversion marketing recipe, we accelerated business growth, improved return on investment and moved the brand from zero to hero”-Oliver Cheah, Managing Director.

So, now the question that comes to mind is what can be done in order to be as successful as ServisHero with the help of Facebook? Read below to know:

Facebook Ads

Targeting is what makes Facebook Ads so powerful compared to other advertising platforms. Targeting is all about putting your ads in front of the right people.  The right people are the ones who will download, and use your apps.

Facebook offers a huge range of targeting options that was utilised by the ServisHero team. Let’s look at each type of targeting that’s available and what you can do with them.

  • Demographics – Target people by location, age, gender, relationship status, the level of education, work, financial income and net worth, generation, whether or not they are parents, political preference, or certain life events.
  • Interests – This is where it starts to get really interesting. You can target people based on what they are interested in. This data isn’t just guesswork, Facebook knows because people share this information openly. Use it to your advantage while targeting the audience for your ad campaign.
  • Behaviours – In case that’s not enough for you, Facebook also allows you to target audiences based on behaviours. Here are just a few examples of some user behaviour you can target:
  • People who often look up for services online
  • People who have made a purchase at a high-end luxury store
  • or young  parents who live in a household

Yep, all of those are actual targeting options taken straight from Facebook which turns out to be great for app developers and advertisers.

Tips To Help App Developers Improve Facebook App Install Ad Targeting:

  • Determine who your perfect user is– Whether it’s through analytics or market research, you need to really get specific about what your most valuable app users look like. That will make targeting much easier and more effective for you. Once you know who the ideal users are, use demographic targeting to find them. Narrow down the demographic targeting as much as you can.
  • Be specific with interest targeting- For example, let’s say you have got a running app. You could target people interested in ‘Fitness.’ But health & fitness is a broad topic, right? This means you probably wouldn’t want to show your ads to people who are interested in yoga. The good news is you don’t have to! You can get really granular and target people interested only in running, and that’s exactly what is recommended.
  • Target users who are interested in your competitors- Interest targeting also allows you to target people based on products or services that they like. That means that you can often target people based on them being interested in a particular app.

For example, many game app developers used this to target an audience interested in the app ‘Subway Surfers’.  They knew people who liked that game would also enjoy other similar game. And it worked really well for them. With that campaign, they achieved installs from tier 1 countries (The USA, UK, Australia & Canada) for less than $0.40 each.

  • Gain Attention with a Stunning Image or Video – Once you’ve got your targeting set up, it’s time to create the app install ad. The image or video that you use is going to be the first thing people see, so you have to make it count.

The role of the image or video is to get the attention of your ideal user and the video made by ServisHome worked for them. By ideal user, we do not just mean anyone. You could use a picture of a pink gorilla dancing in the street that will get the attention of a broad audience, but if 99% of those people aren’t interested in your app, it won’t be effective for your app install ad campaign.

How to create effective image and video ads for Facebook app marketing campaigns

  • Observe your competitors to get an idea of what’s working. Leverage the work already done by big marketing departments by studying the images and videos they use for their ad. See what techniques they are using and apply them to your own images or videos.
  • Don’t apply the same strategies to all apps. Once you start looking at competitors you will notice that particular techniques work better for particular app categories. Find what works for your category.
  • Use something that is bright, eye-catching, and interesting. There is a lot going on in the Facebook feed, so you will have to make something that stands out from the crowd.
  • Make it relevant. For example, if your app is a running app, it would be appropriate to show a fit person running than someone sitting on the couch watching TV.
  • Don’t use low-quality images or videos. This is going to set the first impression of your app. If you use a blurry, poor quality image or video, people will assume a similarly low level of quality from your app.
  • Capture The Click With Great Text

After looking at your app install ad’s image or video, the next thing people do is read the ad title and body text. After the image does its job of capturing attention, it comes up to the text to convince a person to click on the download option.

Writing sales copy for your app ads

You need to communicate the most appealing features of your app in as few words as possible. Here are the tips:

  • Think about what features appeal to your audience most and tell them about those features as briefly as possible.
  • Always include a call to action. When you create the call to action, use something they enjoy doing instead of just “download now!”

If you’re advertising a multiplayer racing game, think -what your ideal user like doing? It can be racing with their friends. So as a call to action, you can put “Click here to race your friends now!” as that would be much more appealing to your audience than just a boring “Download Now”.

 

Make Sure Your Non-Keyword ASO Is Amazing

This is something that is often overlooked, but it is crucial for your app success. ASO (App Store Optimization) means managing everything that a person sees on the app store page for your app.

This can include the icon, title, app description, and average rating.

When a user clicks on an App Install ad on Facebook, they are taken to the App Store page for your app. They will then see all of these things before deciding whether or not to take the final step and download it.

It’s great to have an effective Facebook ad, but all the efforts will be in vain if people get to your app store page and don’t download because you haven’t optimised your non-keyword ASO. Don’t let a bad icon or app description ruin an otherwise great ad campaign.

 

Final recommendations

Another thing here is the importance of your app’s average rating. The average rating is displayed in both the App Store page and Facebook ad.

Having a 4 or 5-star average rating will have a positive effect on your ad campaigns because people love social proof. If someone sees an ad for your app with a 5-star rating shown below, they are much more likely to click.

Spend some time creating different ad combinations and always run at least three per campaign. On top of testing different ads, you should also test different targeting strategies for your Facebook Ad Campaigns. Like the ads themselves, it’s unlikely that you will create the perfect targeting strategy on the first attempt.

Therefore, take the time to tweak and test your targeting based on the data that you get from the reports. The more you can optimise your targeting, the cheaper those installs or engagements will become.

 

Conclusion

And there you have it. Use these key components of a Facebook Ad campaign for your app to get better results.

There’s a lot to take in and try out, but remember not to get intimidated. You can always start small until you get confident or use an agency to help.

Campaigns can be run for just a few dollars per day, so why not start experimenting.

There are higher chances that with proper planning and effective implementation of Facebook ad strategies, your app will get enough views to be added to the list of most popular apps in the world.

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How to Come Up With a Killer Name For Your New App

Coming Up With a Killer App Name

Naming anything can be difficult, but if you’re working on building up your brand, you need to make sure that everything you name is going to work together to create an even better brand. That includes not only the products that you sell or the services that you offer, but also the website that you run and most definitely the apps that you’re going to create.

 

Setting Up Your App

There are plenty of things that you want to consider when it comes to naming your app, and it’s all going to start with your company and your brand. After all, you’re expecting your app to be an extension of both of those things. There are plenty of different strategies you can use when creating your app name.One great technique is to pick a name that is related to your current company name or brand name, but not entirely new, of course. Aligning all your brands, products, and other assets is a great strategy, but it’s certainly not required.

 

You can create a name that’s entirely different from what you already have, as many different companies have done; but you can also work with what you’ve got to get something fun and similar enough that people are definitely going to know the two are related. That’s going to help you build your brand.

 

Learn From The Best

One way to be similar without being exactly the same is to use part of your company name in the new name. We all know about Apple and their many different products. It started off with the iPod and iPhone. Creating products and services that sounded similar and instantly made people think of the brand. Now it’s branched into Apple Pay and Apple Music. It’s another way of using part of the brand in the product name so that they can draw even more people in and make it easier for them to know who is behind the product.

 

Of course, you could go only slightly similar to your current names and product descriptions by going with a similar sound or a specific aspect to the name that’s unique to you. It doesn’t have to be the same name, but starting with the same letter can give you just enough to make things sound alike and get people to consider getting more of your products (and make sure that they know that all of those things are actually your products in the first place). That’s going to be important for your bottom line, after all.

 

The crucial aspects of naming an app

Of course, to go along with your app name, you’re going to need some other things. You’ll want a domain that goes with your app. This doesn’t have to be the same as your website because you’ll want people to have the experience of what your app can provide without actually having to be on a mobile device. With a separate domain that can give them that experience, you’re definitely going to have some additional benefits and you’re going to draw a lot of people in as well. But you have to make sure that the domain name is available to you.

 

Making sure the app name is available is also going to be important. You want to make sure that you can have the name that you want and it’s not already taken. Even if it is taken most app stores will still let you have it, you’re just going to have to compete with a whole bunch of other people who have the same name, and that’s not going to be fun for you or the people who come to that app store looking for you. Try to be a little more unique and go with something different from what’s already there.

 

Bring It All Together

Finally, make sure that you check all of the guidelines and rules related to the app stores that you’re going to use. You don’t want to find yourself in conflict with something that you’re supposed to be doing (or not supposed to be doing). Instead, you want to make sure that your app, once posted, is going to stay that way and that you’re not going to have any problems keeping your app going for all the people who want to use it. Make sure you don’t violate any of the rules, which could cause problems for this.

 

No matter what you do, getting your app a great name is going to be important and it’s definitely going to be one way of getting yourself and your brand out there to not only your current clients and customers, but to new ones as well.

 

About the Author

Grant Polachek is the Director of Marketing at Squadhelp–transforming the way names, logos, and taglines are developed by combining an affordable agency-level brainstorming process with the unmatched creativity of “the crowd.”

 

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Top 7 reasons why your business needs a mobile friendly website

Top 7 Reasons Your Business Needs a Mobile-Friendly Website Right Now

As more and more business enters the market, the need to adapt to the new technologies is increasingly becoming more imperative nowadays. As our society is rapidly becoming purely digital, companies must be quick in using new tools and platforms to protect their position in the market and not be buried by the stiff competition.

In the online age, what are tools that your business is currently using to stand out from the crowd?

One of the musts, in order to rock in the digital plane, is having a website for your business. However, a website that only runs on desktop PCs and laptops won’t be enough to resonate in the online world, but why? Because of mobile devices.

With 80% of internet users owning a smartphone today, there can be no doubt that most of the organic reach today are coming from mobile users. In fact, over a billion people across the globe are using their mobile devices to access the internet nowadays! That’s a huge number that any business can’t afford to ignore, especially that are aiming to further increase their market reach.

Wondering how mobile-friendly website can improve your business? Here are the key takeaways from the infographic from Harris Myers that reveals the top reasons why mobile-friend.

 

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1. Most Customers Are Now on Mobile

As of 2013, mobile devices have surpassed desktop PCs and laptops in terms of time spent on online shopping. According to comScore, 55% of all time spent with online retail in June 2013 occurred on a mobile device, while 45% occurred on desktops. Specifically, smartphones accounted for 44% of retail internet minutes while tablets accounted for 11%

This trend is rapidly rising. Last year, smartphones now account for 78% of digital media time spent.

That said, most of the companies today are implementing the “mobile-first” approach to website design to ensure that their site works seamlessly on mobile devices, while its appearance and functionality automatically adjust to other platforms that the user may have access with, such as desktop and laptops.

For small and medium-sized businesses, this is approach is more cost-effective than creating a second site that is parallel to your desktop-oriented site. Though it’s more work-intensive to build a mobile-responsive website, its benefits are extremely significant in the long run.

2. It is Good For SEO

Since Google’s algorithm update in April 2015, Responsive Design is now favored in Google’s Rankings over having a separate mobile website, or not having a mobile-friendly website at all. This major update also imposes significant penalties in terms of search results on websites that fail to meet its standards for mobile usability.

Matt Cutts of Google said that using a separate website for mobile and desktop might work just fine, but if not handled properly, “might, in theory, divide the page rank between those two pages”. Having a responsive design, on the other hand, “means that everything is handled in one URL and so the page rank doesn’t get divided”

Search ranking is critical for many businesses nowadays, so if you do not want to lose it to your competition, you better create a mobile-friendly website today.

 

3. It Provides Better User Experience

Another reason why your business will benefit from having a mobile-friendly website is that it provides your audience with better mobile experience.

Mobile user experience is such a great deal nowadays that in fact, 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company!

Imagine this: A visitor to your website is very much interested in your product, to the point he already told ten of his friends to check out your website. Now, they used their mobile devices to access your site, but unfortunately, it took thirty seconds to load, and worst, the page content were not displayed properly.

Will they still buy from your website? Most probably not.

A bad user experience can immensely affect the reputation of your brand. If the user has to spend time scrupulously zooming and scrolling around a desktop website on their mobile, they are more likely to leave your site within the first few seconds.

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4. It Enhances Your Social Media Marketing

The rise of mobile devices also has a direct impact on the explosion of social media networks these days. In fact, 91% of mobile internet access is used for social activities.

If your business is utilizing social media marketing, then probably most of your followings are using their mobile devices to access your website. If you want to maximize your social media marketing efforts, you need to design a website that is responsive and can make your products and services more shareable.

 

5. It is Cost-Effective

The “mobile-first” approach ensures that the appearance and functionalities of a desktop website, such as comprehensive menu navigation, are rescaled based on the device or equipment being used by the user.

In doing so, you no longer need to create and manage separate websites for mobile devices and desktop PCs, allowing you to save a lot of money on design, development, and maintenance cost!

 

6. Better Conversions and Sales

On top of all the benefits of having a mobile-friendly website, it will also help you improve your online conversions and sales.

If your target market can access your website conveniently on their mobile devices, then they are more likely to complete contact forms, make purchases, and become a loyal customer of your brand!

 

7. It Prepares for the Future

As the global commerce and technology continue to intersect and develop, it can be a real challenge for businesses to see what is coming up next.

One of the main benefits to having a mobile-friendly, responsive website is that even for technology platforms that are dynamic – such as wearable devices and smartphones- your website will still run very well and be optimized.  This means that mobile-friendly website will serve your business for years to come.

These are just of the compelling reasons why your business needs a mobile-friendly website today. If you want to survive in the competitive market, you either join the bandwagon and make your online presence much stronger or be left out by your competitors. It’ s your call.

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The best 7 tips for retaining app users with a great onboarding experience

How to retain users with the right onboarding strategy?

It is critical to have a great mobile application with even better onboarding experience. If the user onboarding experience is great, then the churn rates get lowered along with the boost in long-term success factors like user retention and user life-time value. In order to increase retention, your apps must offer consistent and smooth user experience which includes design, customer delight and a great deal of value. This article is going to explore the best ways that will turn the guest users or initial downloads into highly engaged users.

 

1. Create a path of minimal resistance:

The harder for people to sign up or sign in in the app, the more will be the abandonment rates. The single log-in screen is the best and preferred by the social media and entertainment apps. After all, user onboarding with mobile (or any other) apps is basically about making it easy for the users to log in and to start using the app. Hence, you must choose the path which is least resistant and difficult for people. But this route is not always the right choice made. The utility of the app and the concept of the app; both are the deciding factors for the different method of onboarding.

  • Usefulness-oriented:- transmits information about the value of the app.
  • Performance -oriented:- demonstrates the vital functions of the app.
  • Progressive:- enlightening the customers through ushered instructions.
  • Hybrid:- combination of two or all of the abovementioned points.

Apart from the fact that which method of user onboarding is the best, the primary motive is to make it as easy as possible for the users to start using the app.

 

2. Keep the amount of sign up or log-in fields to a minimum:

We often face trouble while filling long forms on phone or mobile where the screen size is small. So, it is ideal to allow only a single screen log in process like the social media apps do but some apps might require more information than that. Like an app based on service has user base of existing customers. In such circumstances, where you need a lot of information, you might break the one screen rule. Given below is a demonstration of an application of a large home services company, the sign-up process of which is divided into various steps.

In such circumstances, where you need a lot of information, you might break the one screen rule. Given below is a demonstration of an application of a large home services company, the sign-up process of which is divided into various steps.

 

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3. Stick to ‘one screen’ and ‘one concept’ principle:

People often pay more attention if something is defined into key points rather than beating about the bush. Onboarding screens must collocate information in single screen and should avoid surcharging the user with useless information. This should be followed especially in the usefulness and performance oriented app onboarding where the basic motive is to educate the users about functions and commune values.

 

4. Give feedback quickly:

Feedback is very important in an app onboarding process as it reflects the faults and successes in a validation process. Feedbacks can also be used through animations which stimulate the interactions positively.

 

5. Utilization of ushered interactions to achieve development:

There are also some apps which are complex and not easy to understand and use. Such apps provide a tutorial or guide to make the user familiar with the use of the application. Those apps which provide the most successful app user onboarding experience also give provide the excitement and fun of using and learning something new. This method is mostly preferred in video games where the user just play the game for a while to become familiar with the control and tricks of the game.

 

6. Make a use of animation:

Subtle animation should be used to draw the attention of the user to something which is undiscovered or to indicate progress or development etc. It should only grab the attention of the user but should not irritate him.

 

7. Keep testing consistently:

The feedback and reviews given by the users will help you in improving your application. Mobile app development service should never stop listening to the views of the users as it will help them in removing friction and making the app more user-friendly. Try new things if you have sufficient data to discern patterns and test to see if the users love the new idea or hate it.

 

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Top 5 tips for developing secure and bug free apps

how to develop bug free app

Not sure how to develop bug free mobile apps?

Stability is always important when it comes to apps, whether it is a web application or a mobile one. It is especially important in the latter case given the number of security issues that arise in mobile apps and the number of initiatives being taken in this regard. Any developer involved in mobile app development is invested in the idea of a bug free mobile app and strives towards making his/her app bug free. However, it isn’t quite as easy as it sounds and being in the industry for some time now, we came up with a few ideas and strategies that can help developers come up with bug free apps.

With a mobile app, user privacy and security are the foremost concerns as apps access contact details and other personal information about the user. In such scenarios, detailed planning is required to ensure security of user information. Here are some of the things that you should consider doing to ensure the same.

#1: Have a detailed and thorough plan to ensure security

Having a plan in place before working on your mobile app development and looking out for possible issues and breaches is a very good way to approach handling security in your app. Also, keeping abreast of all the latest threats and vulnerabilities in apps and how developers around the work are handling them is recommended. There are security guidelines too that are coming up and sticking to the highest benchmarks would help ensure that there is no privacy or security violation.

 

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#2: Test in cycles and iterations to get the best results

A clear cut testing plan is essential if you seek to combat bugs and having multiple rounds of testing at various stages of development is essential. With our experience in Android application development, we also recommend that you take up beta testing. This is perhaps one of the most used testing norms whereby user inputs are taken into account and used to improve the app’s functionality and user experience. We vouch by it and recommend that you give it a try to ensure that your app is bug free!

#3: Revise your code multiple times

Code checks and revisions should be built into the development process and with many iterations, it becomes possible to identify defects early on and improve performance, etc. Get others on your team to review your code and keep doing this multiple times to ensure a bug free app.

#4: Use the debugging tool well

Debuggers are extremely useful and will help you improve the quality of your app. Debuggers needn’t necessarily be a pain; they can be used to improve your app quality and help you fix bugs in a jiffy. Invest in a good debugger and reap rich rewards!

#5: Use automated tools for testing

Automated test scripts help you identify a lot of errors and also save you much time. Agreed that you would have to work on writing the automated test scripts but it is effort well invested. Rather than relying on your team or users to identify issues, your test scripts will help you rule out a lot of nasty bugs and we recommend that you employ them in your mobile app development.

Achieving a state wherein there are no bugs at all is virtually impossible and a lot of the maintenance work that goes into apps is all about fixing some glitches and releasing updates. However, putting in your best effort during Android application development can help you rule out a lot of potentially problematic bugs and the more you focus on this, the higher likelihood there is of avoiding a lot many errors.

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important app marketing statistics

The 4 surprising mobile marketing stats you need to know

4 shocking mobile app marketing stats you should know

How well do you know your industry? Knowing what others are doing can be beneficial in understanding the competitive landscape, gaining insights into wider trends, but also for tweaking your strategy.

Here we present 4 app marketing statistic that many people are not aware of. With each point we also include actionable tips to prevent you from making the same mistakes like others.

So let’s get to it!

 

1. Users convert 3 times more often in-app than on the mobile web

JackThreads, the online retailer of male clothing tested how well will deep linking help convert their audience to customers. Essentially, deep linking involves sending subscribers from their email or web to a smartphone or tablet within a mobile app they already downloaded, rather than to a mobile web page.

Currently, an overwhelming majority of retailers continue to link to their mobile website, despite their inability to provide the same high quality experience for users as apps can.

So how did JackThread’s deep linking test end? Their visitors converted three times more when sent to their app and not their mobile website.

This testing resulted in JackThread’s 21% revenue increase per email customer who downloaded their app.

 

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The next obvious question of course is, what drove the increase of in-app conversions?

One of the key variables is the user experience offered by apps. The overall shopping experience is optimized for customers, from the speed of transactions, the smoothness of page transitions, to using the full power of a mobile device, rather than the web browser.

These findings have real-life impact on other apps? Firstly, you should think about how is your app  coded, as around 80% of apps are not compatible with deep linking.

Secondly, we can expect that we will continue to see higher in-app conversions in contrast to mobile sites, at least until the mobile retail experience catches up with the quality of apps.

2. Your app is likely to lose 77% of its daily average users within the first 3 days

Consumer metrics, including app retention rates, are horrible. Only 26% of installed apps are ever used after the first use. If that wasn’t bad enough, you are likely to lose 77% of daily average users within the first 3 days, and 95% within 90 days.

This is of course not the case for all apps. A small number of apps, the top 10 to be precise, has much higher retention rate within the first days after install. After this period, the retention rate is similar to other worse performing apps. However given the relatively high amount of users after first few days, overall, the top apps have still more than 60% active users after 90 days.

mobile app stats

 

There are some useful guides out there that will guide you to understand what apps will get download and shared a lot. However, in this case, it’s important to address how to make your users stay after first few days and app interactions.

The problem is that the user base of the vast majority of apps gets bored. One of the reasons for this is the constant bombarding of users with marketing messages. Both online and offline.

Therefore re-engaging your users must occur through core features of your app, rather than by showering them with more marketing messages.

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You should forget the (rather annoying) messages such as: ‘we miss you’, ‘long time no see’ or ‘did we do anything wrong’. Instead, try the following:

  • ensure that the user acquisition process is simple, and so is the continuous use of the app. This can be for instance achieved through simpler log-in via social media
  • provide a unique experience through personalization
  • make them more invested through app’s features so they don’t simply abandon it the next time
  • offer incentives to use your app

 

The numbers speak for themselves. Retaining app users is progressively hard, so it’s essential to create apps not only with the main features in mind, but also with a clear strategy for user retention.

3. Only 40% of companies measure how many leads they generate from mobile apps

mobile apps dataJust over a half of companies engaged in mobile-related business activities (including mobile apps and others) measure their return on investment (ROI) and user engagement, and only 40% measure the amount of leads.

To me, this was quite shocking.

User engagement and ROI are absolutely crucial aspects of understanding the effectiveness and success of the project as a whole.

Every good marketer should be close to obsessed with metrics in order to optimize and drive higher ROI. If you happen to fall to the ROI-conscious half of marketers, then you seem to be way ahead of more than 50% of your competitors and other businesses.

Having raw data however, is not enough. Understanding data patterns and gaining insight into numbers is the real driving force behind every successful project.

Fortunately, the same report from econsultancy and Adobe also found that 51% of companies use personalization and use A/B testing.

 

4. 45% of mobile app users dislike their app experience

in app experience marketing

The last study is also from Adobe, and similarly to point 1 above, Adobe looked at the satisfaction and user experience of retail users, comparing apps against mobile websites.

Here’s the caveat. Only 45% of mobile app users like the app experience, but 47% user like the mobile website. These findings go against the first study, as we’d expect many more people to like apps, or at least like them more than mobile websites.

This is not what the numbers show however, despite the fact that users tend to complete more purchases in-app.
What we can say from this data however, is that the majority of people are still not happy with their experience of retail apps and mobile websites too.

How can we then explain JackThread’s tripling of conversions? My guess (supported by their marketing team’s data interpretation) is that they offered much superior experience in the app.

Regardless of what is currently converting more in your business, it’s necessary to start optimizing both the app and mobile website. The data clearly shows that users are not happy, and unhappy users don’t spend money.

 

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Conclusion

Keeping up with the latest trends and studies in the industry is extremely valuable. Not only will you keep a tap on the situation so you can react better, but you can also actively change how you approach business.

We shared with you 4 stats that should prompt anyone with interest in apps to think about how to cope with challenges accelerated by the competition and increasingly bigger and more demanding audience.

 

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