.png){kind=small}
Today’s consumers are mobile driven with a phone in hand through all the moments of their day, and this gives the top apps more power than ever to reach their users. The more phones your app is on, the greater success you’ll see in a market that is distinctly mobile-focused. For many marketers, that means increasing downloads – where the first instinct is to pour budget directly into a traditional display campaign. But just because the journey from click to download may be the easiest to follow, it doesn’t mean it is the best option.
Just as there’s a customary marketing funnel, there’s a mobile app marketing funnel – and in exclusively utilizing cost per impression display marketing, you’re only covering one touch point of that decision-making lifecycle. Using the right mix of strategies throughout your mobile app marketing funnel – you can increase your reach and overall success.
Improving Your Reach with Higher Funnel Mobile Marketing
A simplified explanation of the customer journey through the mobile marketing funnel looks something like this: impression, attention, conversion, and retention. Your higher funnel mobile marketing strategy will be the steps that give consumers an impression that leads to brand attention.
Social Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is relatively newer than some tactics but incredibly beneficial at sparking interest in an app. It takes the power of celebrity endorsement and puts it in the hands of your target. Based on the ideal user you want for your mobile app, you can choose influencers that appeal to that specific audience. Social platforms like Instagram and Facebook have also delivered influencers streamlined ways to include download links to your app. All it takes is a swipe up or a click for their followers to connect with your app.
Podcasts
Similar to influencer advertising, podcasts help create a more personal connection between consumers and your app. Compared to other marketing channels, podcasts have highly engaged users, with NPR reporting that 75% of listeners took action on podcast sponsored advertising.
Marketing opportunities during podcasts include integrated ads and dynamically inserted ads. Integrated ads are ad-libbed by the host of the podcast, while dynamically inserted ads are advertisements inserted during breaks. While integrated ads help reduce the chance of skipped ads, dynamically inserted ads will actually determine the best spot within the podcast to oblige the listener. Dynamic ads can also change at any point in time, meaning if your campaign message changes, your ads can even be updated on older podcasts.
Given that the podcast is still a young brand expansion opportunity, advertising standards for this medium are harder to define. This doesn’t inhibit their ability to expand a brand’s reach, though.
Native Advertising
Native advertising sits between a user's impression and held attention. These advertisements fit the aesthetic of the media format that they appear in, often seen as ‘recommended content’ on content sites your target ICP is visiting. These native ads are usually less distracting than other ad formats and work remarkably well on mobile and social media platforms or apps. Because these ads take a comprehensive look at your brand, users that end up downloading your app from native ads are normally better informed, and therefore a higher quality user.
Native ads extend the reach of your app install campaigns by serving a smart link that determines the user’s device, which optimizes the user experience and increases conversion rate of the native content.
Prompting Action Using Center Funnel Mobile Marketing
The middle of the mobile marketing funnel focuses on those users who are already familiar with your app and/or brand and considering taking action but haven’t yet.
Mobile Push Notifications
Push notifications come directly from your app across a user’s screen, enticing them to perform an action with some type of incentive. These incentives include:
Loyalty Rewards
Promotions/Discounts
New Products/Service
Limited Time Offers
This mobile marketing strategy is great for extending your app’s reach because you also have the ability to target the users that best fit your ICP for a specific campaign. For example, say you’re looking for a user that frequently adds things to their cart but rarely if ever, converts – push notifications can be the small push that they need to check out and complete the conversion.
Segmentation paired with push notifications captures a defined targeted audience with the exact content to complete a goal. Use demographics, location habits, in-app behaviors, and more.
The Final Level of Funnel Mobile Marketing to Convert & Keep Users
The final level of funnel mobile marketing tactics appeal to and target those users who have arrived at the point where they decide if your app is worth keeping. In addition to expanding your display campaigns, for a fast conversion, you may want to explore tactics that encourage re-engagement with your app throughout their user journey.
Re-targeting Campaigns
In the most successful app marketing campaigns, work does not end at installation and impression. Retargeting tactics are a great way to increase user experience by pulling users back to your app, abandoned carts, or bring back users who fell off during app onboarding. Retargeting campaigns also allow for greater ad personalization opportunities – because you already know exactly who your user is. With these campaigns, it’s important to know the perfect place and time for notifying your user without driving them to delete your app.
Determine the right moves that result in a conversion for a specific user and create campaigns that trigger at the right place and the right time. Relevance and a personalized experience are the key to conversions and continued engagement.
Conclusion
The benefits of expanding your mobile marketing range outside of display go well beyond simply increasing your number of installations. By utilizing a strategic mix of marketing channels, you also ascertain brand validity, reach a larger more relevant audience, obtain more data for personalized ads, and achieve higher engagement – in addition to increasing the volume of app installations.
BoardActive is a mobile engagement platform that works with your app user’s first-party data, location patterns, and in-app behavior to create personalized campaigns to achieve specific goals. Follow users from install through the point of sale, and gain attribution on a level never before seen in the mobile app martech space. For information, schedule a demo today!