• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • Locations
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Our Platform
    A platform that connects all walled garden media
    Connected Media
    Create and manage campaigns across search, social, retail media and apps, in one platform
    Connected Data
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Clients
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    News
    Check out our recent media coverage
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Quarterly Trends Webinar
    Get the latest insights on digital marketing campaign performance for Q4 2022
    Retail Media for Grocery Webinar
    Join us to dig into trends and challenges shaping the industry in 2023
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Blog
    Read the latest insights and thought leadership from our industry experts
    Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    Research
    Explore our reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    Subscribe
    Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
    Quarterly Trends Report
    Learn digital advertising campaign performance trends from Q3 2022
Back to Blog

The 3 Phases of App Marketing that Big Brands Hardly Ever Get Right

Hawley Shpiro, Senior Director, Mobile Strategy @ Skai™

August  12, 2019

App marketing is a bit different than B2B or even B2C. With apps, not only do brands need to focus on acquisition via an install, but they have to drive post-install usage and then remarket to uninstallers. It can be tricky as each phase is extremely important. Big brands generally feel that their apps will simply get installed and used by their customer base—but again and again, that has not proven to be enough for app success. 

It’s not hard to understand why app marketing is far down the prioritization list for big brands and at the top of the list for challenger brands. Put yourself in the shoes of a CMO at a Fortune 1000 retailer and imagine all of the issues and challenges you have as a global enterprise that could seem far more important to tackle than marketing an app when you figure your big name brand can carry the load.

Yet, the reverse can be true, and too often is. By entering the app marketplace without an offense strategy, a proven brand can actually subject itself to new competitive threats. A big brand cannot afford to rely on brand equity alone to get its app on millions of devices. A thorough, dedicated marketing strategy is needed in the same way that a new product launch is supported, from audience definition to adoption targets and marketing channel analysis.

Investing in an app without a clear marketing plan could amount to a huge waste of time and money. 

 app marketing

Far too often, app marketing is an “if we build it, they will come” approach

The 3 Phases of App Marketing that Big Brands Hardly Ever Get Right

App marketing phase #1 – The Install

The first step in marketing an app is getting consumers to install it. To do this correctly, a full-funnel approach is required—marketing to build awareness at the top, educating the benefits at the middle, and pushing device owners over the last mile to the install is what is required.

Search marketing has proven itself over the last two decades to be an incredible driver of conversion activity, and this opportunity now exists within the app stores—chiefly the iOS store for Apple users and the Google Play store for Android users. Just as the debate is pretty much over whether or not brands should be using paid search on the web for their brand terms—of course, they should!—the same argument holds true for app stores. 

On the standard web, bidding for your branded search terms is a tried-and-true best practice even if you own the first organic result on the search engine results page (SERP). If you don’t, competitors will bid on your brand terms and their paid ads will appear above the organic results, trumping your organic placement and disrupting the demonstrated customer intent you’re trying to capture. 

This is why Apple Search Ads have quickly become a critical new channel for app marketers. iOS device owners who are actively searching for apps to install are, by default, one of the most highly engaged audiences for app owners to reach. Opportunities like Apple Search Ads can help across the funnel by driving awareness, getting device owners to read your app profile page to educate them, and making sure that when they’re ready to install, that they install your app and not a competitor’s. 

If you’re not yet using Apple Search Ads for your app, you are missing one of the best ways to drive the install. 

App marketing phase #2 – App Engagement

Getting a consumer to download your app is one thing, but getting them to actually use it is another. With most apps now relying on micro-transactions to be profitable, the install is simply the beginning of the customer journey, not the end.

app engagement

Low app usage = Low app value for brands

According to the experts:

“The average app loses 77% of its DAUs [daily average users] within the first 3 days after the install. Within 30 days, it’s lost 90% of DAUs. Within 90 days, it’s over 95%. Stunning. The other way to say this is that the average app mostly loses its entire user base within a few months, which is why of the >1.5 million apps in the Google Play store, only a few thousand sustain meaningful traffic.”

This is where many app developers fail. They chase the lowest cost-per-install without tracking which marketing efforts actually bring in the most valuable users. For example, one channel might have impressive cost-per-install but what if only a fraction of those people even use the app? On the other hand, a different channel drives a higher cost-per-install—in many cases that channel’s budget might get reallocated to the more efficient converter. However, if any of those installers become valuable app users, then the math tells a different story.

So, of course, if your app doesn’t get used, then it has zero value to your business. For a retail brand, apps are another channel that can bring in sales. For financial services brands, the apps are there to drive convenience and create more reliance on your brand and another reason to stay a customer. News and other publishers rely on page views to drive ad sales. All of these profit models require app usage, not just installation.

Apps shouldn’t be marketed like a product with a one-time sale. Apps should be marketed like a subscription service which knows that it must keep hammering home the value to its audience for repeat purchases or like a restaurant that wants its customers to keep coming back to eat. 

“Users try out a lot of apps but decide which ones they want to ‘stop using’ within the first 3-7 days,” writes Ankit Jain of Gradient Ventures. “For ‘decent’ apps, the majority of users retained for 7 days stick around much longer. The key to success is to get the users hooked during that critical first 3-7 day period.”

So how do you stay top of mind, and become a habit?

To keep users engaged and drive lifetime value with an app, an always-on marketing approach is needed. New features need to be marketed both inside the app as well as in the real world. Even if you have a free app without micro-purchases or retail functionality—such as a banking app—the app won’t drive the business value it was designed to support without user engagement. You can even create specific segments of your app users and retarget them around the web-based on which parts of the apps they’ve used and haven’t used. For example, if there’s a specific app functionality that a group of your users hasn’t yet touched, you can market to them to drive adoption to that feature. 

App marketing phase #3 – The Reinstall

Here’s where apps differ from most product purchases. Imagine spending so much time, money, and energy into getting a consumer to install your app and then a month later they uninstall it. 

In fact, data across various app usage studies over the last few years shows that somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% to 35% of apps get deleted within the first 30 days of installation. 

Apps get uninstalled as often as they get installed

Why do apps get deleted?

Not enough space. This is generally the top reason consumers report deleting apps and especially true for some of the budget Android smartphones that have limited capacity. As a device fills up with music, photos, videos, and other apps, users have to pick and choose which apps they can keep making room for other stuff.

They don’t work. Technology doesn’t always work as expected and many times it might not even be the app itself but rather network or operating system issues. However, apps are at risk with two-thirds of respondents to a 2017 survey said they’ve uninstalled an application if it didn’t perform well after its first use. This is a hard pill to swallow for app developers banking their entire business on app usage.

Tried it but didn’t like it. It’s so easy to install an app, which is a bit of a double-edged sword for app developers because it’s just as easy to uninstall them. Often—especially with free apps—there’s no penalty to try them. Just click the install and then check it out. But, if the app doesn’t deliver on its promise or simply the user decides to try something else, it’s easy enough to delete them and reinstall them later if there’s a reason to in the future. 

There are probably as many reasons why app users delete apps as there are app users. That’s why it’s important to remain persistent with your marketing. Worldwide, app reinstallation rates can be 42% of total installs. That means that more than 2 out of 5 installs are actually the same users reinstalling apps which they had previously deleted. 

App marketers need to recognize that the reinstall is just part of the app economy and continue hammering home their value to existing users knowing that one day those people might be ex-users who just might be willing to try them again. 

Conclusion: A failure to plan is a plan to fail

The app opportunity is huge for brands. Whether it’s legacy brands extending another engagement point or sales channel for customers or a challenger brand looking to build a business via an app, consumer time spent with mobile devices and apps is growing year-over-year. 

What brands can’t do is simply expect their brand name and existing customer base to build an app audience. It’s clear that a real, marketing plan is needed at all three phases (the install, user engagement, the reinstall) to help drive business value. 

Are you maximizing your Apple Search Ads program?

Skai Apps is the all-in-one, complete solution for app marketers to drive installs & increase engagement. Reach out today to schedule a free and quick demo to see how Skai Apps can help with your Apple Search Ads and other app marketing.

Learn More About Skai Apps

Related Posts

  • The Skai 5: Five App Marketing Predictions for 2021
    Read More
  • App Marketers Searching for an iOS14 Measurement Solution Should Consider Incrementality Testing
    Read More
  • 10 Tips and Tricks from Skai’s Apple Search Ads Masterclass
    Read More
  • The Annual Skai Hackathon Fosters Team-Building and Innovation
    Read More
  • What’s Your Marketing Measurement Plan Against These 4 Data Deprecation Trends?
    Read More
  • How Skai Takes the Growing Pains Out of the Client Onboarding Process
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Apple, Apps, Create, Google, Measure, Optimize, Plan, Target, xTLx

Subscribe to Updates

Media that matters.
Marketing that works.
© 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
  • Connected Data
    • Market Intelligence
    • Our Approach
    • By Need
    • By Solution
  • Connected Strategy
    • Dynamic Marketing Mix
    • Budget Forecasting
    • Strategic Consulting
  • Connected Media
    • Overview
    • Retail Media
    • Paid Search
    • Paid Social
    • App Marketing
    • Auditing
    • Expert Services
  • Measurement
    • Incrementality
    • Experiments
    • Cross-Channel Attribution
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Case Studies
    • Training & Enablement
    • Developer Hub
Privacy Preference

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

Privacy Preference

Save All

Save

Accept Only Essential Cookies

Manage Cookie Preferences

Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

Privacy Preference

Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

Back

Privacy Preference

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Name
Provider Owner of this website, Imprint
Purpose Saves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
Host(s) .skai.io, skai.io
Cookie Name borlabs-cookie
Cookie Expiry 1 Year
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Purpose This cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
Cookie Name acsbState, acsbReset
Cookie Expiry n/a
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name wordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
Cookie Name fs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
Cookie Expiry Session / 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .comeet.co, www.comeet.co
Cookie Name visid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name moduleFormPardotDownload
Cookie Expiry 30 days

Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name _ga,_ga_*,_gat,_gat_*,_gid
Cookie Expiry 2 Months
Accept
Name
Provider Hotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
Purpose Hotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
Host(s) *.hotjar.com
Cookie Name _hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Linkedin
Cookie Name lidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Skai
Accept
Name
Provider 6sense
Cookie Name _gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Pardot
Purpose Cookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
Host(s) .pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
Cookie Name pardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
Cookie Expiry Session / 10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name IDE, 1P_JAR, NID, SOCS, CONSENT, AEC, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Cookie Name _fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Wistia
Host(s) .wistia.com
Cookie Name cb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Instagram content.
Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
Host(s) .instagram.com
Cookie Name pigeon_state
Cookie Expiry Session
Accept
Name
Provider Openstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
Purpose Used to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Host(s) .openstreetmap.org
Cookie Name _osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
Cookie Expiry 1-10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Twitter content.
Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
Host(s) .twimg.com, .twitter.com
Cookie Name __widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
Cookie Expiry Unlimited
Accept
Name
Provider Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
Purpose Used to unblock Vimeo content.
Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
Host(s) player.vimeo.com
Cookie Name vuid
Cookie Expiry 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock YouTube content.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
Host(s) google.com
Cookie Name CONSENT
Cookie Expiry 6 Month

Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

Privacy Policy Imprint