Understanding the intricacies of user behavior, churn causes, and lifetime value is not just theoretical but a functional reality. This is the era of data-driven user engagement strategies and refined ad monetization.

Appodeal Stack empowers you with robust tools for understanding your user metrics, monetizing your mobile apps, and boosting users’ LTV (LifeTime Value). In this article, we're going to explore actionable insights that can have a transformative impact on your app's success and profitability.

Our intention? To spark curiosity and arm you with knowledge.

We have crafted this comprehensive guide with real-life scenarios, insights, and tools to assist you in maximizing your game's user retention and ad revenues. Ready to dive in?

Table of Contents

1. Retention & Engagement still matters
2. Calculate the Retention Rate of your mobile game
3. Find out what makes your users churn
4. Control your Ad Quality to prevent user churn
5. Activating & Onboarding users: the key for a long-term Retention
6. Retargeting campaigns to avoid User Churn
7. Re Engage your users with Rewards and Incentives
8. Use your Historical Data & Monitor your metrics
9. Now is the time to boost your Retention Metrics

1. Retention & Engagement still matters

In the dynamic app development world, user retention and engagement remain essential. Retention rates, representing the percentage of users who continue using an app over a set time, are vital to user satisfaction, engagement, and the app's revenue potential.

High retention rates mean users find the app valuable, leading to long-term usage and a stronger user base. This focus on retention helps developers build durable products and secure a competitive edge.

Key benefits of retention rates

• Monetization: High retention increases the likelihood of in-app purchases and ad engagement, leading to steady revenue streams.
• User Acquisition: High retention reduces the need for expensive user acquisition efforts.
• Product Development: Analyzing retention rates helps app developers and game studios improve their products based on user feedback and behavior.

LifeTime Value (LTV): A crucial metric

LTV is vital for game studios and app developers as it shows the value a user adds over their lifetime engagement with the app. It helps developers identify their most valuable users and tailor their strategies accordingly to maximize revenue and profitability.

For game developers, LTV calculates the revenue a user generates throughout their engagement with the game. Non-game app developers, especially those with subscription-based apps, use LTV to optimize their subscription models and pricing strategies.

Focusing on retention rates and understanding LTV provide valuable insights for app developers to succeed in the competitive mobile app market.

2. Calculate the Retention Rate of your mobile game

Understanding the retention rate of your mobile game is crucial to assessing user engagement and satisfaction. Here’s a simplified way to calculate it:

Steps to Calculate Retention Rates

1. Choose a time interval (daily, weekly, monthly, etc).
2. Select a cohort of users, e.g., those who installed the game within a certain timeframe.
3. Determine the duration for measuring retention within the chosen cohort.
4. Divide the number of active users within the specified retention period by the total number of users in the initial cohort.
5. Repeat the calculation for each period within the desired timeframe for continuous tracking.

Simple Formula & Cohort analysis

Retention rate = users retained at end of period / Total users at the start of the period

While the simple formula gives a general view, comparing the evolution of retention for the same cohorts gives a more nuanced understanding. Different users downloading your game at different times may have varying experiences due to changes in the product, onboarding process, pricing, etc.

And here's two other calculations that may be of interest to you:

• Aggregate Retention Rate = MAU (Monthly Active Users) / Installs
• Cohort Analysis Retention Rate = Users retained at the end of time period / Installs at start of the time period

Formulas vs. Cohorts

The retention rate reveals growth trends and potential revenue, showing the 'stickiness' of your game. It's more insightful than merely counting downloads or acquisitions. 

However, only tracking the aggregate retention rate may obscure the current trend. Cohort analysis, which compares retention rates by specific time periods, allows for a more accurate understanding of user behavior and retention trends.

3. Find out what makes your users churn

Understanding the motivations and behaviors of your user base is crucial for your app's growth. This includes not just pinpointing what drives user engagement but also uncovering the reasons why users might stop using your app or churn. 

Delving into User Drop-off Causes

Increasing the number of users who complete all the steps in your activation funnel is a key objective. To achieve this, it's essential to understand why users drop off in the first place and eliminate those friction points.

Appodeal provides a "funnels" feature that reveals the routes leading users to drop off. These pathways are labeled with the percentage of users following them, enabling the identification of common drop-off points.

For example, you may notice a significant user drop-off when multiple ads are shown in your app. This insight is valuable as it indicates a possible area for improvement to retain more users.

Activating New Users & Identifying Conversion Drivers

Another perspective on drop-off can be obtained by looking at conversion drivers. 

For instance, Appodeal might reveal that the "View Ads" step in the onboarding flow is a point of contention for userse. This could suggest that user experience during this step needs to be optimized.

In conclusion, identifying what your users love and what causes them to churn is a process that requires continuous monitoring and optimization. Using tools like Appodeal, you can understand user behavior more effectively and create an app experience that keeps users engaged and reduces churn.

4. Control your Ad Quality to prevent user churn

As we delve further into our topic, let's discuss an aspect crucial to user retention: managing ad quality. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted significantly over time, with In-App Advertising (IAA) transitioning from a hot-button issue to a crucial part of monetization strategies.

Effective ad technology plays a vital role in this endeavor by offering the necessary data to customize high-quality ads that align with user interests, thereby minimizing any potential disruption to the user experience.

The Ideal Scenario: What does “Great” Ad Strategy Look Like?

A successful ad strategy is characterized by transparent access to vital monetization data and user-friendly, high-performing ad templates. Publishers need ad data that reveals who's buying their ad inventory, the costs involved, and access to various demand sources. Additionally, understanding user interactions with these ads can provide valuable insights to identify why certain ads might lead users to discontinue playing the game.

Publishers can make informed decisions by enhancing transparency in the ecosystem and sharing all available data. They can pinpoint which demand sources and advertisers are linked to decreases in retention and modify their strategies accordingly.

Tools and Techniques for Better Ad Monetization

To effectively enhance ad monetization, publishers need access to transparent data that allows them to identify and isolate poor ad experiences. Additionally, they need tools to act upon this data to maximize game revenues.

Full control over your ad monetization stack allows you to identify problematic ad experiences, trace their origin, and analyze their impact on key game metrics such as churn, retention, engagement, and revenue.

By identifying these issues on a user-level basis, as a publisher, you can tie the negative ad experience to the behavioral and revenue impact on that particular group of users. This prevents the recurrence of these experiences for the affected user by removing the problematic channel or specific advertisement, thus preventing them from abandoning the game altogether.

5. Activating & Onboarding users: the key to a long-term Retention 

Fostering lasting user engagement hinges heavily on two critical components: activating users effectively and delivering an outstanding onboarding experience. If you're building for enduring user retention, these two aspects of your product funnel can't be overlooked.

Activation: A Cornerstone of Retention

A powerful activation strategy acts as the gateway to your product's potential. Without successfully introducing new users to the unique value of your product in a timely manner, overall retention is at risk. A product might be unparalleled in functionality, but long-term retention may suffer if activation doesn't happen effectively and quickly. By enhancing activation rates, you're fueling your product's growth engine.

Deciphering the phases of new user activation is key to designing a potent activation journey. With tools like Appodeal, you can track activation events and provide an understanding of the journey users take during activation.

Appodeal gives us valuable insight into our conversion rate at each funnel stage. It allows us to determine what percentage of users move forward from each previous step, the overall conversion rate of the activation funnel, and the average time users spend at each stage.

Designing an Exceptional Onboarding Journey

Designing a top-tier onboarding experience demands a thoughtful approach to several key elements. These factors are instrumental in boosting user retention, engagement, and satisfaction:

1. Simplicity is key: Make your content clear, concise, and user-friendly to help users understand your app’s features.
2. Get the users involved: Provide interactive and engaging activities to retain users' interest during onboarding. Highlight the most important features and actions users must perform during their initial interaction.
3. Offer content that matters to your users: Clearly communicate the app’s purpose and benefits to encourage users to delve deeper. Prioritize introducing the key features and benefits that are most valuable and relevant to users.
4. Be User-friendly & data transparent: CBe upfront about the onboarding process and data collection methods to foster trust and understanding.
5. Relatable Communication: Use an eye-level tone of voice for clear, relatable, and user-friendly communication. Use animations to make onboarding more engaging and intuitive, thereby enhancing the user experience.

The Power of a Well-designed Onboarding Experience

Your onboarding experience's design significantly influences your app's success trajectory. Here's why:

1. User Retention & Orientation: A well-crafted onboarding experience helps users understand the app's value and benefits, increasing engagement and retention. Which is our major goal for this article.
2. First Impressions: The initial interaction with an app leaves a lasting impression. A seamless and engaging onboarding process can significantly enhance user experience, thereby encouraging continued usage.
3. Lower Abandonment Rates: Users who face confusion or frustration during the initial interaction are more likely to abandon the app. Effective onboarding reduces this risk.
4. Reduced Support Costs: A proper onboarding process reduces the likelihood of issues arising that require customer support, resulting in cost savings.

6. Retargeting campaigns to avoid User Churn

In our journey to tackle user churn, we focus on retargeting campaigns. Retargeting refers to re-engaging users who've previously interacted with your app.

The Benefits of Retargeting

Retargeting holds a basket of benefits. It zooms in on users already acquainted with your app's value, negating the need for initial education. This increased familiarity often leads to continued app use. Additionally, retargeting cuts acquisition costs by focusing on users more likely to re-engage, making it a cost-effective approach compared to sourcing new users.

Retargeting mainly targets users who've previously installed the app, those who've downloaded the app on a different device, and inactive users. By reminding them of your app's value, retargeting boosts reactivation rates and drives downloads, potentially leading to higher ROAS and LTV.

Best Practices for Retargeting Campaigns

Crafting successful retargeting campaigns entails personalized messaging and relevant incentives. Highlight app updates or new features that may interest returning users. Utilize A/B testing to optimize your campaigns and set clear, measurable goals.

Track metrics like CTR and conversion rate, and monitor retention and revenue for a comprehensive view of your campaign's performance. And don't forget about the lifetime value of your users – it's a significant guide for ad spend allocation.

Note that returning users may have already completed actions like subscribing or purchasing. Hence, if your KPI targets unique events, returning users might not trigger them, skewing your performance metrics. Therefore, revenue should be your key growth metric, offering a more holistic perspective of your campaign's success.

7. Re-Engage your users with Rewards and Incentives

With a strategic and generous approach to rewarding your users, you'll retain existing users and transform them into brand advocates. Here's how you can harness the power of rewards to drive user engagement and loyalty.

Deploy Strategic, Timely Rewards

Encourage habitual app use with well-timed rewards that hold true value for your users. Daily challenges and trophies add an enticing element in gaming apps, while in retail apps, time-limited discounts or gifts could make all the difference. Consider offering rewards for consecutive daily logins, much like a loyalty "streak". Such incentives remind users of the advantages they stand to lose by churning.

Celebrate User Milestones

People love to be acknowledged. Use Appodeal's automated reward triggers to celebrate users' milestones. A little gift goes a long way, be it a birthday, an app-usage anniversary, or a significant achievement within the app. This keeps your brand relevant and creates a warm, personal bond with the user.

Keep Users in the Loop

If your app uses a tiered reward system, ensure your users know their current status and the rewards they stand to gain. Notifying users of their proximity to the next reward tier or any pending rewards could catalyze further app engagement. Make use of Appodeal's powerful data analytics to offer personalized reminders.

Reward User Feedback

Promote a culture of open dialogue with your user base. Encourage them to share feedback by offering rewards or incentives. This re-engages them and offers invaluable insights into their needs and preferences, thus enabling proactive churn management.

Entice Users with Exclusive Trials and Offers

Roll out exclusive, time-sensitive discounts or trials of premium features to select users. This creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency that could encourage dormant users to return and engage with your app. The key is to make the reward redemption process straightforward and user-friendly.

Host Free Events

Foster community spirit by inviting your users to free events like webinars, product launches, or networking meetups. Such events provide an opportunity to reacquaint dormant users with your brand while simultaneously strengthening relationships with active users.

8. Use your Historical Data & Monitor your metrics

Your gathered historical data is the compass that guides your journey. Here's how to leverage your data, key metrics, and a reliable platform like Appodeal to enhance your marketing prowess.

Decoding User Behavior to Counteract Churn

Decoding your users' behavior is instrumental in combating churn. With Appodeal, you can identify trends that may lead to app uninstalls and nip these issues in the bud to retain users effectively. As an extension of this, personalized interaction becomes key. Avoid blasting users with generic messages; tailor messages to each user's context for enhanced engagement and satisfaction.

Handling large-scale user behavior tracking and personalized messaging is a demanding task. Thus, you need a robust platform to swiftly manage millions of personalized messages. With Appodeal, you can do just that, ensuring your user engagement strategy is efficient and scalable.

Employing Historical Data for User Conversion

Using Appodeal also allows you to monitor the conversion of resurrected users. You can measure your re-engagement campaigns' success by comparing this metric with your dormant users' total count. Plus, it offers insights to identify roadblocks causing user drop-offs and opportunities for improvement. These insights guide you in adjusting your product to boost retention.

Unraveling your users' feature usage patterns can provide valuable insights into retention rates. A deeper understanding of how the frequency of use for specific features impacts retention can guide you in making decisions that boost user engagement.

Knowing your power users and the features they use, most is crucial for building effective engagement strategies. Appodeal's retention analysis tool aids in identifying these power users and understanding what makes your product appealing to them.

Tracking your top mobile app & game Metrics

Lastly, keep track of essential mobile game metrics such as DAU, MAU, ARPU, retention rate, LTV, session length, churn rate, CAC, virality coefficient, conversion rate, time to first purchase, app store ratings, reviews, engagement metrics, and network performance. 

These metrics, though varying in relevance based on your game type, target audience, and monetization model, provide a comprehensive picture of your game's performance and user experience, assisting you in optimizing your game and marketing strategies.

9. Now is the time to boost your Retention Metrics

We've navigated the maze of retention strategies, delved deep into user behavior analysis, and explored innovative ad monetization techniques. 

The power to transform your game's user retention and ad revenue lies at your fingertips. With our cutting-edge mobile growth platform, we can unlock growth opportunities that have remained hidden till now. Appodeal Stack is here to equip you with more than just theoretical knowledge; it's here to provide you with an all-in-one growth platform for your mobile app business.

In-app bidding, hybrid monetization models, enhanced eCPM, and improved ARPDAU are no longer elusive concepts. Appodeal Stack has already opened the doors for thousands of app creators and developers to leverage these powerful strategies.

Step into the future of the mobile gaming industry. Start your journey with Appodeal Stack today, and turn your apps into top-earning hits.

AppBeast is an innovative global mobile advertising agency. Established in 2017, we offer a wide coverage of media buying and creative thinking, allowing our clients to find top users all over the world. Our clients see performance based approach to every decision along the customer journey.

A few weeks ago, I came across an article about a mobile gaming app that claimed to be getting a whopping 95% of its installs from a single playable ad. 

This staggering number piqued my curiosity and made me wonder if other mobile app publishers and game studios could achieve similar results by leveraging playable ads effectively.

And indeed, after extensive research, I found out that most use cases showed how playable ads could significantly enhance user acquisition strategies. We’re talking about an ad format that offers engaging experiences that drive high-quality installs and a high ROAS (return on ad spend).

In this blog post, I'll share some tips and best practices I discovered to help you make the most out of playable ads for your mobile games.

Summary

1. Why Playable Ads are a Game Changer
2. Playable ads benefits
3. Create the Perfect Playable Ad
4. In-Ad metrics
5. Playable Ads today

Why Playable Ads are a Game Changer

Playable ads have been gaining traction for a good reason – they offer an interactive and engaging advertising experience for users, giving them a taste of the game before they decide to install it. The users you acquire through playable ads are more likely to be genuinely interested in your game, leading to higher retention rates and overall better ROI.

As I mentioned, a company like ITI Studio generated an astonishing 95% of installs for their game with just one playable ad. This single ad's success increased the in-view rate (IVR) on both operating systems by 77% and lowered the cost per install (CPI) by 56%. These impressive results led ITI to allocate a staggering 96% of its advertising budget to playable ads.

Considering the global mobile gaming market, projected to reach $338 billion by the end of the decade, it's no wonder that 28% of US agency professionals have found playable ads to be the most effective in-app ad format. Playable ads convert 2.6x better than other static formats and lead to a 53% average monthly impressions increase.

Moreover, recent surveys from Appodeal partners’ revealed that, when publishers and studios integrate playable ads into their user acquisition strategies, they get:

• 70% more installs, 
• 60% more clicks (CTR)
• and 40% greater return (ROAS) 

Given the challenges of privacy constraints introduced to the market in recent years, the data strongly support the demand for playable ads.

So, if you're looking to boost your app downloads and user engagement, playable ads should definitely be on your radar. 

Playable ads benefits: attract engaged users, improve long-term retention, etc.

You might already be aware that playable ads attract engaged users and improve long-term retention. But why does this matter for mobile app publishers and game studios? Let's dive deeper into the benefits of using playable ads and how they can contribute to your app's success.

Users who install a game after engaging with a playable ad already know what to expect. They're familiar with the basic game mechanics and can start playing right away. This often leads to higher user retention and increased player lifetime value (LTV). According to Appodeal partners, playable ads can increase your retention rates by up to 40%.

Although the cost per install (CPI) for playable ads is higher than video or banner ads, the return on investment (ROI) is also higher, making it worthwhile. Moreover, since users have already experienced the game before installing it, those who might not enjoy it are already excluded. This allows game developers to focus on engaged and interested users, ultimately saving money in the long run.

Additionally, the performance of playable ads is easier to monitor, providing real-time insights into user engagement. This allows you to adjust and optimize the ad's difficulty or other aspects if it's underperforming.

In summary, playable ads offer numerous benefits, including:

• Increased engagement: Playable ads shorten the customer journey through the sales funnel, leading to faster decision-making.
• Valuable analytical information: Interactive ads provide real-time insights, allowing you to test, tweak, and optimize for maximum user retention.
• Higher retention rates and reduced app uninstalls: Users who install the game after engaging with a playable ad are already familiar with the game mechanics, resulting in higher user retention and audience LTV.

However, playable ads have some cons, compared to other ad formats. Playable ads are more complex in terms of technical aspects. As a result, creating a playable ad demands a significantly greater amount of time, effort, and financial investment.

How to Create the Perfect Playable Ad

One of the most common things we’ve noticed in use cases featuring playable ads is that this ad format is not just one component in a larger user acquisition funnel; they serve as a funnel themselves. 

For this reason, when creating effective and engaging playable ads, professionals in the industry tend to break down the essential components.

The following section is a compilation of the most common elements, features, and best practices found in several use cases and success stories, many of which come from Appodeal partners. 

Context & Audience

Understanding the context and audience is crucial for creating a successful playable ad. 

Adapting the playable ad to your player’s motivations will help you develop a better campaign. For example, if you have a casual mobile game, you can create playable ads featuring different aspects of the game that appeal to various player motivations. 

If your mobile app is more complex, you may want to keep the playable simple. Don’t put all the eggs in the sack. Sometimes less is more.

And if your target audience is unaware of the specifics of your game, you can even combine multiple ad formats to provide users with the context they need. For instance, you can create an ad creative that combines videos, playable ads, and attention-grabbing end cards for a more engaging ad experience.

Tutorial

The tutorial briefly introduces the main game mechanics and should be short and simple. Similar to your mobile game, the tutorial should serve as a hook to engage viewers and get them interested in the game.

Remember that simplicity is key in most mobile ad formats, especially for non-gaming apps. A playable can be as simple as choosing a favorite among songs or movies for streaming apps or a short, interactive quiz for a news app. 

This is the ideal situation for concise, straightforward copy and visual cues like flashing hands. Communicate to the user that they must take action. Employ powerful action verbs such as "match," "tap," "strike," and so on.

Gameplay

Playables don't need to represent the full game experience but should showcase basic, early-game features and mechanics. Focus on demonstrating the gameplay experience, including different game assets, animations, music, and sound effects.

Unlike the tutorial, the player interacts with the game without much guidance. 

Think about how to represent your game in the best light, and consider all the selling points of your game. It's a good idea to divide the core gameplay into several elements, showcasing different selling points with each playable ad.

Call to Action

Most playable include a call to action (CTA), either embedded throughout the ad or appearing at the end. The goal is to invite users to download the game, leading to a conversion. 

The CTA should be clear and convincing, with creative copy and bold visuals directing users to download the app or act brand-appropriately.

While you can include the CTA after the viewers are done playing, it's better to make the download button available throughout the ad. That way, users can choose to install the game at any point.

Post-Install Experience

Align your playable ad creative with the authentic in-app experience. This approach is crucial for down-funnel metrics like ROAS (return on ad spend) and LTV (lifetime value). Working with an ad partner like Appodeal's Creative Studio can help you strike the right balance, make informed creative decisions, and create custom strategies to make an impact.

Rewarded approaches, such as giving players virtual currency or in-game items in exchange for viewing an ad, can also be effective. For non-gaming apps, rewards could include coupons, deep discounts on products or services, or gifts with purchases. 

Giving users incentives to complete the activity in an interactive ad increases the chance they'll see it through to the end and take the next action.

In-Ad metrics: New KPI’s to identify a successful playable ad

While standard ad performance metrics like CPI, CTR, CPA, and ROAS are relevant to playable ads, the interactive nature of these ads introduces additional, valuable "in-ad metrics." These metrics help measure the effectiveness of various elements within the ad and provide insights for improving future iterations.

Second 1 Retention (S1 Retention)

Unlike mobile games focusing on Day 1 (D1) retention, playable ads emphasize Second 1 (S1) retention. S1 retention ensures users understand the ad is interactive and requires their engagement. Utilize clear copy, engaging visuals, and strong action verbs like "match," "tap," and "strike" to guide users.

High S1 retention indicates a well-performing playable ad. If your KPI is centered around S1 retention, your campaign likely focuses on brand awareness, aiming to create a memorable ad experience and later converting users through retargeting.

Second 6 Retention (S6 Retention)

Optimizing the tutorial phase, which occurs within the first few seconds, is crucial for retaining users. Employ best practices like showing hands for swiping, highlighting key buttons, providing clear hints, and offering concise instructions to improve S6 retention. This metric measures the effectiveness of onboarding users into the ad, reducing the chance of user frustration and app abandonment.

Second 14 Retention (S14 Retention)

At around 14 seconds, users should be fully engaged in the ad. The gameplay, a vital yet challenging section to optimize, must balance difficulty and enjoyment. Guide users without revealing all the answers and keep them engaged. Consider the game genre when optimizing for difficulty, as it can impact user behavior.

S14 retention measures overall ad enjoyment, as users at this stage have shown interest in the gameplay and are more likely to enjoy the actual game.

Second 30 Retention (S30 Retention)

By S30, users have completed the gameplay, viewed the end card, and encountered the CTA to install the game. These users are the highest-quality acquired players. However, reaching S30 does not guarantee an install. Optimizing for S30 involves carefully crafting CTAs, using appealing colors and graphics, and considering the difficulty level of the gameplay.

Winning or losing the game can significantly impact S30 retention. Users who win are more likely to continue through S30 and ultimately convert.

Start with Playable Ads Today

Playable ads are revolutionizing the mobile advertising landscape, offering engaging and interactive experiences for users while providing valuable insights for developers and publishers. By understanding the importance of this ad format and implementing best practices, you can create the perfect playable ad that appeals to your target audience, effectively showcases your game's features, and encourages user interaction.

Key components of successful playable ads include understanding the context and audience, crafting effective tutorials and engaging gameplay, developing a strong call-to-action, and ensuring a seamless post-install experience. In addition to standard ad metrics, playable ads benefit from unique in-ad metrics such as S1, S6, S14, and S30 retention, which help measure and optimize various elements within the ad for maximum performance.

By focusing on these aspects and leveraging the insights gained from in-ad metrics, you can create playable ads that resonate with your audience, increase brand awareness, and drive app installs. With the right balance of creativity and optimization, you can make a lasting impact on users and elevate the success of your ad campaigns.

Take advantage of the power of playable ads in your future ad campaigns by partnering with Appodeal. Our expertise and advanced ad optimization solutions will help you create captivating, high-performing playable ads that increase user engagement and deliver impressive results for your app or game. Don't miss out on the opportunity to stand out in the competitive mobile market – start harnessing the potential of playable ads with Appodeal today!

AppBeast is an innovative global mobile advertising agency. Established in 2017, we offer a wide coverage of media buying and creative thinking, allowing our clients to find top users all over the world. Our clients see performance based approach to every decision along the customer journey.

The mobile gaming industry has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and competition among game studios is fiercer than ever. Several mobile studios have seen explosive growth in recent years, and 2023 is shaping to be another year of rapid expansion.

But with more games vying for users' attention, to succeed in this competitive landscape, it's crucial for studios to have a solid user acquisition strategy in place and find innovative ways to acquire and retain users.

In this blog post, we'll explore the cutting-edge strategies mobile game studios can implement in 2023 to boost their user acquisition efforts and stay ahead of the curve.

Summary:

1. Expand your Ad Performance Marketing
2. Research User Acquisition Trends
3. Track your CPI & CPA
4. Custom Product Pages in the App Stores
5. Align your UA with your ASO
6. Try alternative App Marketing Strategies

Expand your Sources of Ad Performance Marketing

Google & Facebook Ads are the most common platform for mobile app studios when they want to promote their games. 

However, there are other sources where you can purchase ads through automated programmatic advertising: the DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms).

DSPs allow mobile studios and developers to easily acquire ad inventories from many sources, making them among the best marketing automation tools. 

At Appodeal, we work with +70 DSPs to monetize your apps & games. Check out the list and use them to promote your game!

Marc Llobet, Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ Appodeal

When used in combination with Appodeal, you can manage all those sources and DPSs from a single dashboard, gathering all your metrics together and simplifying the process.

Major benefits of Programmatic Advertising

Most of the DSPs provide advanced targeting capabilities:

From creating hyper-target all ad campaigns to selecting specific demographics, locations, and user behaviors. This will get your mobile app or game before the eyeballs of real people who are most likely to download and install it. 

To help maximize the volume of high-quality impressions and ensure your ads have the highest chances of reaching your top users, DSPS also lets you use retargeting campaigns. This way, you can connect with users who’ve seen your ads but didn’t connect with them the first time. 

Additionally, you get granular-level insight from your user acquisition campaigns. 

Pro-Tip: From the Appodeal dashboard, you can view all your key metrics. This information will remain consistently up-to-date to keep all of the data relevant. Based on the information you collect about your campaigns, you can take the appropriate steps to optimize them further.

Marc Llobet, Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ Appodeal

Take advantage of new User Acquisition trends.

One of the latest trends for UA (User Acquisition) in Mobile Apps is the emergence of artificial intelligence. Everyone is talking about it and creating apps based on AI. 

You can check it for yourself. All kinds of Apps are jumping on the train: from art creators, avatar generators, fantasy chats, AI companions, etc.

With the right strategy and action plan, you can use this trend in the app & gaming industry to boost your app UA traffic and even improve your ASO (App Store Optimization).

Explore and discover new trends with “Keyword Tracking tools. Check the Google Keyword Planner or any other tool you feel comfortable. There are plenty of them. Create new searches, check the metrics of each keyword, their impression shares, scores, and suggested bids, and start A/B testing with dedicated User Acquisition campaigns.

Pro-Tip: If you’re using Appodeal in conjunction with any attribution platform, you can predict the LTV of these campaigns and see future profitability and ROAS up to 1 year from now.

Marc Llobet, Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ Appodeal

And if you’re out of ideas, explore your competitor’s paid growth strategies. That’s also a great way to go.

Always track your CPI & CPA

To correctly measure if a User Acquisition strategy is successful and effective for your mobile app or game, it is mandatory to calculate your CPI & CPA (Cost per Install & Cost per Acquisition). 

You can automate some steps of this process from your Appodeal Dashboard. When accessing your reports tool, you can forecast specific revenue metrics such as LTV or ROAS for specific ad creatives, ad sets, or campaigns.  

You can even split, filter, or segment which channels provide the best ROI or ROAS. 

Pro-Tip: When calculating the CPA & CPI of a UA Strategy, it is good practice to include the cost of producing the ad creatives, the allocated budget for the user campaign, and any other promotional activities linked to it.

Marc Llobet, Sr. Product Marketing Manager @ Appodeal

By tracking the CPI & CPA (Cost per Install & Cost per Acquisition), you will be able to identify areas for improvement, tweak your UA campaigns accordingly, and ensure that your investments are paying off. 

Create custom App Store Pages for specific Audiences

The same way you create dedicated landing pages in online ads, you can create Customized Product Pages (CPPs) in iOS & Google app stores.

If you have an app or a game with multiple functionalities that target different audiences, it is always better to create other ad creatives. 

However, many game studios drive all those leads to the same product page. When the Ad Creative is too different from the Product Page, the user may feel confused or, even worse, tricked. To avoid the adverse reaction, give the user what they want to see all the time, and connect the contents of the CPP with the ad creative you’re testing. 

When we show ads to users about what they’re looking for, it should not shock us to see those particular pages performing better.

Align your UA with your ASO

When building a successful mobile app strategy, two pivotal elements must be aligned: Paid User Acquisition (UA) and App Store Optimisation (ASO). 

You can benefit from more quality traffic and better downloads when Paid UA and ASO strategies are in sync. Building a solid foundation between them will likely increase your user engagement and revenue metrics. 

Both iOS App Store & Google Play Store are powered by algorithms that take into account the number of app impressions (users viewing your App Store Page) to place you in the top ranks. 

The more impressions & installs your App Store Page gets, the higher you’re in the search results & ranks. Therefore, when running effective Paid Ad Campaigns, the algorithm gets boosted.

Try alternative App Marketing Strategies

In this blog, we have recently featured some valuable knowledge on how mobile studios can work with influencers, and even compiled a list of top mistakes to avoid when doing influencer marketing.

When an influencer creates a conversation around a brand or a product, players and users, feel less exposed to an advertisement, and they react as if they were getting a piece of advice or recommendation from a friend.

While influencers do wonders for brand awareness marketing, mobile studios use them better when they perform “Influencer Performance Marketing.” This type of influencer marketing is focused on driving users to the app more than building brand awareness.

Rhea your influencers and give them trackers and creatives. Then, check its performance via an attribution tracking tool like you would with an automated programmatic campaign on DSPs (Demand Side Platforms). 

This way, your influencers will integrate the right assets into their content or profile information, so you can later track the success of each channel and UA campaign.

Written by Mobe Growth, app agency specializing in mobile marketing and user acquisition. Our goal is to help our clients achieve sustainable growth through effective and innovative user acquisition strategies, and to be at the forefront of the rapidly evolving mobile gaming market.