For the longest time, mobile user acquisition and retargeting have been viewed as separate stages of the mobile funnel: the traditional mobile advertising approach has taught app advertisers to first start with user acquisition focusing on install volume, and only then think of re-engagement and retargeting as an afterthought at a later stage when user interest starts diminishing.
When looking at the needs of advertisers today, the urgency of shifting marketing spend towards the mobile channel cannot be ignored. In order to reach and convert their users today, advertisers have to reach out to them where they are: and statistics show that this is increasingly their mobile devices, which is why acquisition and retention matter.
Every user has their own journey, and it is important for advertisers to discover it in order to achieve true success. Often, “user journey” is widely understood from a UX/UI perspective of app development, we want to widen this to also understand it from a performance marketing viewpoint.
Mobile Journey Advertising views a user’s journey with an app through a different lens, starting even before they download it:
- It starts with Reach when a user views or gets in contact with an ad for the app
- The next stage is Inspire, when they install the app
- The next step is Convert, when a post-install action takes place and the user first becomes a customer
- The final stage is Engage, when customers reach a new phase of loyalty and continue to perform additional post-install actions
While an advertiser might ideally expect this journey to be quite straightforward, the reality is different. If we compare the retention rates for mobile apps worldwide in a 30-day period from the time of installation, we see day-1 retention only averages around 26% and continues to fall (only averaging at 6%) as we approach day-30.
This is why a natural step for advertisers, with the goal of maximizing ROI, is to not just reach those users and connect with them, but also to activate them and turn them into loyal customers. This is where ‘Mobile Journey Advertising’ comes into play.
‘Mobile Journey Advertising’ borrows from the concept of the traditional marketing funnel of AIDA and applies that to a user’s journey on mobile. After the initial steps of Awareness, Interest and Desire, the mobile journey also takes into account Action and Results, leading to true performance by connecting with and activating customers. Mobile Journey Advertising, as our core solution, eliminates the siloed approach of running mobile app user acquisition campaigns and retargeting separately, on performance-based CPA pricing.
With this concept of bringing together user acquisition and retargeting, Mobile Journey Advertising is focused on optimizing performance throughout the entire funnel, beginning with reaching the desired audience, acquiring new users, converting the new users into customers, and continuing to re-engage them.
“The mobile advertising industry is in dire need of an ROI-centric model that focuses on the entire funnel and drives customer activation,” said Applift’s CEO, Tim Koschella. “Applift is the first and the only mobile advertising company to offer this true performance CPA model for new and re-engaged users. We’re pleased and proud to offer our customers an integrated offering to pay only for true results, in an industry that still largely relies on legacy pricing models.”
Are you ready to discover your user’s journey? Find out more on our Solutions page on how Mobile Journey Advertising can give you true mobile performance.