How to effectively retarget your mobile app users? Share via

Brand marketers use various retargeting approaches to engage users who have already installed the mobile app so that they do not abandon the application shortly after installing it or stop using it after a while. The other objective of retargeting mobile app users is to make them spend more time and money on in-app purchases, improving the overall popularity and business of the application. A market research study has found that by 2023 the global mobile apps will generate more than $935 billion in revenues through paid downloads and in-app advertising. The numbers suggest how critical is this channel for a brand from a revenue perspective, and hence it needs to be looked at seriously. This blog will look at some of the best practices associated with mobile app retargeting and how it can help organizations scale their mobile app game.

Retain and engage existing users

It is more fruitful for brands to retain the existing users of their mobile apps than acquire new users, which usually costs a lot more time, effort, and resources. According to multiple studies, an average mobile app user has more than a hundred applications on their phone. While more than 20 percent of users abandon the app after using it once, over 80 percent of app users stop using it within the first three months. Hence, marketers and app developers should focus on engaging and retaining the users who have downloaded the app and are looking to use your services. To avoid losing your users in the initial phase, brands should keep interacting with the app users, and this is where mobile app retargeting plays a crucial role. Studies suggest that retargeting just after the app is installed increases the likelihood of retaining the users by up to 30 percent. But that does not mean that you bombard the users with multiple ads and notifications. Instead, carefully chart out a frequency cap that controls the cadence of your display ads, and use various creatives to keep your audience engaged.

Align your retargeting strategy with the company’s goal

It is often seen that most companies focus entirely on the number of apps installed to measure the success of their campaigns. Unfortunately, they all strive for higher numbers while neglecting other vital metrics showing a much clearer picture to determine the campaign’s success or failure. Although it is good to focus on the app install numbers, brands should also look to align their retargeting campaigns with the overall KPIs of the company. For example, marketers should see how much revenue the app is driving for the company rather than measuring your success through app installation. That will prove a much better and more meaningful yardstick of measuring success. Marketers” goal should always be aligned with the organization’s end goal, which is to generate as much revenue as possible.

Personalized retargeting

Personalization has been the keyword in digital marketing, and it serves brands well if they focus on personalizing their offerings for their customers. While retargeting mobile app users, personalization plays an essential role in keeping the conversion rate high. In fact, studies suggest that the more you personalize, the better results you will get. Therefore, marketers should send exact recommendations to the users based on their in-app activities to increase the chances of them availing of the services and keeping the engagement rate high. Also, brands can significantly reduce redundancy and ad fatigue by personalizing retargeting strategies for their customers or a similar consumer set. Moreover, as you do not want to lose the users you have acquired with much effort, serving irrelevant ads will do more harm than good to your objectives.

Set your priorities right

One of the vital areas where brands focus too much is to direct their retargeting activities to bring the lapsed users back to the app. While it seems to be a valid strategy, what makes more financial sense is to target to get back your most loyal users who are more likely to spend. Research suggests that, on average, around 80 percent of a brand’s business comes from their 20 percent of loyal customers. Hence, brands need to prioritize whether they want to invest their time and resources chasing every lapsed user or concentrate on getting the most active and loyal customers back to their application. Focusing on a customer who has abandoned their cart is more likely to yield a positive response than retargeting a user who has never made any inquiry on your mobile application.

Time-sensitive retargeting approach

Creating a sense of urgency or tying your offers with a specific time delivers much better conversion results to the marketers than just offering a discount without any time frame attached to it. The main objective is to attract existing users to your mobile application. Offers like ‘Get additional 20% off till Sunday,’ or ‘Buy one get one if you order in the next 24 hours’ entice the users to immediately take action as they would not want to miss the benefits of grabbing the deal within a specified time.

Retargeting has been the mainstay of digital marketing for brand marketers but retargeting for mobile apps is still a recent phenomenon, and organizations are working to strategize this technique effectively. In addition, significantly higher ROI and better results than standard marketing campaigns have also made mobile app retargeting a fundamental approach for brands. Keeping an eye on the evolving trends in this space and implementing the best practices is the best way for marketers to make an impactful retargeting campaign to help the organization reach its end objectives.