As marketers continue to evolve their approaches to be more omnichannel, the goal for each channel moves away from being an individual contributor and more to being a teammate on the same mission.
And when you think about how often consumers use smartphones in nearly every aspect of their lives, the role of apps in an omnichannel marketing strategy is a powerful touchpoint for brands to impact and influence users to purchase.
Consider these app stats from Google:
- When a question or need arises, our phones are far and away our most trusted resource, with 96% of people using a smartphone to get things done
- 70% of smartphone owners who bought something in a store first turned to their devices for information relevant to that purchase
- 92% of those who searched on their phone made a related purchase
Additionally, apps are “owned media,” meaning that your brand has complete control over the user experience. From this closed ecosystem, brands have an uncluttered opportunity to build a real relationship with consumers without competitive disruption.
What if you didn’t have to worry about short-term ROI from your app marketing programs and were allowed to think more holistically about the role of apps?
How to change your Q4 app marketing strategy to be more connected and integrated
Omnichannel app marketing ads: Using this time of year to get consumers to install and interact with your app goes way beyond Q4 revenue. If there are promotions, discounts, or other holiday incentives you can use to get more users to your app would be a wise idea. Maybe your app isn’t holiday-related, but your ads may resonate better with festive messaging.
Omnichannel app marketing bids & budgets: In Q4, bids will be up for apps with a genuine holiday connection. But, if your app isn’t holiday-related (i.e., a banking or fitness app), now might be a perfect time to increase your activity as many non-holiday-related businesses decrease their bids and budgets to stay out of the way of the holiday clutter.
5 Skai Q4 Tips for App Marketers
In Q4, you don’t have time for lengthy analyses and deep, granular dives into performance. You need quick solutions that leverage innovative automation to take on the bulk of a task — that way, you and your team can focus on the high-value work that only human creativity and intuition can solve.
The following are five ways our app marketing clients use Skai to win during the holiday season.
Tip #1 for App Marketers – Broaden your creative messaging
Before Apple instituted App Tracking Transparency (ATT) last year, app marketers had a pretty good sense of who was seeing their ads. Whether it was someone who had the app installed, had it installed but then uninstalled it, or had never used their app before, marketers could use consumer data tracking to push the most relevant ads out to each audience segment.
But now, in a post-ATT world, your app ads need to carry a bit more of the work. This holiday season, try broadening your app’s creative ad strategy to be more inclusive of all types of users, whether they are deep loyalists or have never heard of you. Try using a mix of branding and performance to elicit interest no matter who sees your ad.
Skai’s workflow efficiencies help you easily track the performance of your ads so that you can quickly figure out what’s working and what isn’t and take action to optimize your holiday campaigns.
Tip #2 for App Marketers – Get alerted if campaigns hit their daily budgets
You cannot let your marketing campaigns run out of funds unexpectedly during Q4. Some campaigns may be hotter during heavy shopping days, so you may unexpectedly hit your budget caps in the middle of the day.
Use Skai’s Automated Actions to set rules that will automatically add more budget to your campaign if it falls below a certain amount. This way, you will keep spending and ensure that your campaigns run smoothly.
The last thing you want to do in January is to have to explain to your boss or client why Q4 sales were limited simply because some of your campaigns ran out of budget.
Tips #3 for App Marketers – Connect your measurement
App marketing is a bit of a different beast than other digital channels because nearly 100% of the activity happens on mobile devices. Because of this, many app marketers rely on mobile marketing partners, better known as MMPs,
MMPs are companies that help apps measure campaign performance across advertising marketing channels, media sources, and ad networks. This MMP definition comes from AppsFlyer, one of Skai’s mobile measurement partner integrations which also includes:
Before we get too deep into the holiday season, if you’re using Skai and an MMP, ensure your integration is up and working to get all those great insights into our platform.
Tip #4 for App Marketers – Holiday-themed ads are key
This should go without saying, but make sure you have holiday-themed creative to take advantage of this time of year.
Apple Search Ad’s custom product pages enable app marketers to create full additional versions of their App Store product page to highlight specific features or content within their app. With this feature, marketers can tailor screenshots, promotional text, and app previews for different audience groups. This increased relevance can lead to higher response and install rates.
Try Skai’s advanced support for custom product pages which streamlines workflow and offers insights to drive campaign decision-making.
Tip #5 for App Marketers – Double down on Apple Search Ads
For all marketers, paid search has become a “must-use” channel. Consumers are constantly searching for things and paid search has proven time and again how effective it can be to drive awareness, consideration, and conversion activity.
And now, app store ads — such as Apple Search Ads — have become as critically important to app marketers as paid search has been for practitioners on the fixed web. In a study on how customers find the apps they eventually install, iPhone users listed various methods of finding their last app, including “My friends/family told me about it” and “I read about it on the web.” However, the top discovery method was, by far, using the App Store’s search function. On iOS, 47% of users said they found the app through App Store search results.
As those users scroll through results searching for new apps while they’re sitting around their holiday dinners, they will run into your competition. Adopting Apple Store Ads (and bidding on your competitors’ keywords) is a meaningful way that your app can stay top of mind in a crowded marketplace.
Skai helps app marketers win the omnichannel holiday season
As part of Skai’s omnichannel marketing platform, our App Marketing solution helps your app stand out among millions in the top stores this holiday season with Apple Search Ads, Google Universal App Campaigns, and more. Skai leverages an advanced algorithm based on AI and machine learning to ensure your ads reach your target users. Increase installs and user acquisition with streamlined automation, optimization, and reporting.
Client results include:
- 280% increase in installs for DraftKings
- 314% increase in registrations for C-Date
- 20% decrease in cost per acquisition for eToro
- 2x increase in conversions for Epix Now
Get more information about Skai’s App Marketing solution and how it can help you win, during the omnichannel holiday season and beyond into 2023. Book a demo today.
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