Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Christian Eckhardt is the CEO and co-founder of Customlytics, a Berlin-based app marketing agency. They specialize in consulting and supporting mobile strategy, analytics, and ASO integration.Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:What was a component of the mobile marketing landscape that you had to learn the most about or that you found the most challenging when growing Customlytics?What is the Marketing Master Map?What are the goals of the Marketing Master Map?What do you think of the customer journey? How do you break it down?What surprises came up as you were creating this map?What was the process of putting this together?Timestamp:6:14 Why paid campaigns are the trickiest component of mobile marketing8:28 What is the Marketing Master Map14:32 Benefits of the new digital marketing framework17:18 Breaking down the 11 steps of the customer journey24:07 What Christian’s learn about mobile marketing in the creation of the map30:28 The making of the Marketing Master Map33:28 How to access the map, free prints of the map, and tutorial videos!Quotes:(15:53-16:02) “I think the second big benefit of the Marketing Master Map is to point you towards things that you might have been missing out on in terms of which channels to you, in terms of the different technologies to use.”(28:42-29:12) “For me, this is really just the beginning. I know and I can guarantee you that, for example, the advertising strategy chapter is a very incomplete one because all of the things that are in there--there are the most important things, but a lot of them are exemplary. And there are many, many more sub-advertising strategies that you can adapt to. And this holds true for a lot of chapters in the map. The only thing is if we were to put them the whole thing would be even bigger than it is now.”Mentioned in this Episode:Christian Eckhardt’s LinkedInCustomlyticsMarketing Master Map & Tutorial Videos

Cody Ryan is the Vice President of Growth Marketing at Ibotta, an app that gives users cashback on things they’ve already purchased.Questions Cody Answered in this Episode:How valuable is the MBA? Do you find that you’re leveraging in your job responsibilities?How difficult was it to educate the market on why people should use Ibotta?As a performance marketer, are you tracking the effects of sponsoring the New Orlean Pelicans?What does one point of brand awareness mean? How does that manifest on your end?What systems do you have in place for measurement, or to determine if something is a viable channel for you?At Ibotta, have you invested more heavily into things like data science and marketing analytics to help power what you’re doing?What’s something that’s within the 10% that worked much better than you thought it would?Timestamp:4:19 Cody’s professional background10:15 What is Ibotta? Getting brands on board with the product15:07 Tracking uplift of being an NBA Sponsor of the New Orlean Pelicans17:38 The 70/20/10 philosophy20:30 Measuring uplift, calculating testing risks27:56 Where we’re investing to grow our business31:47 Surprising growth marketing results with TVQuotes:(17:54-18:02) “What we’ve done as an approach as a team is we carve off a certain percentage of our budget to just try things that could be moonshots.”(20:37-20:58) “We try to do across the business is have our teams understand one percentage point increase in activation rate is worth X million dollars in gross profit or adjusted revenue or whatever your topline metrics are; because it helps ground people in small incremental improvements make big impacts on the business.”Mentioned in this Episode:Cody Ryan’s LinkedInIbotta

Louis Tanguay is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of App Growth Summit, an invite-only, limited-vendor mobile app conference series and content publisher for app growth professionals.Questions Louis Answered in this Episode:App Growth Summit is moving to Austin. Why Austin?How do you determine where to draw the line with attendees?What are mobile marketers talking about too much?Do you deny content? If so, how?How do you manage content to your standards while appeasing your sponsors?How have you navigated virtual event fatigue?What do you think most people overlook in creating events that are challenging for you?Timestamp:4:50 Louis’s background and the birth of App Growth Summit10:45 Deciding on the max number of attendees for an event14:31 What Louis hears too much of in mobile marketing16:51 Curating content for App Growth Summit22:48 Reducing virtual event fatigue30:48 Overlooked challenges in putting on eventsQuotes:(16:55-17:06) “What I’ll do is talk to each individual speaker, find out what they can and want to speak on; and then we’ll do a little pseudo data science and mix together the people that would make a great conversation.”(30:56-31:05) “For virtual events, we’re testing the heck out of the platform because my biggest nightmare is that people sign on and it doesn’t work.”Mentioned in this Episode:Louis Tanguay’s LinkedInApp Growth Summit

Simon Kreienbaum is the co-founder of kitchn.io, a drag-and-drop visual platform that allows marketers to build their own customized automation tools to replicate their workflows without having to learn code. Previously, Simon was the head of performance marketing at Asana Rebel and rekindled his childhood love for coding as a senior online marketing manager at Junique. Simon is based in the Berlin area.  Questions Simon Answered in this Episode:How has Berlin’s startup tech seen changed the last 7 years you’ve been there?Once you joined Asana Rebel, were you able to continue building out automated practices and saving yourself time?Tell us what kitchn.io does and why people use it?What are the prevailing use cases for automation that you see from your clients?Do you think the role of the marketer is changing dramatically, and if so where do you think it’s going?Timestamp:2:22 Rocket Internet--Berlin’s startup scene in 20145:29 Simon’s background & 3 reasons coders make good marketers9:08 Quick history of automation in marketing evolution since 201511:00 What is kitchn.io?14:48 Entry use cases for marketing automation: quality assurance and creative testing20:44 Commitment is key for automation tools and processes21:53 The future performance marketerQuotes:(12:27-12:44) “So we think our name kitchn, or kitchn.io, comes from the fact that we believe in recipes. So, reusing templates, having best practices, and developing systems or processes that you do manually, and then build automated workflows around it.” (18:13-18:31) “In the age of algorithmic bid optimization on the platforms, without a human doing anything, Facebook is already optimizing my campaigns. The biggest lever that you have is creative. And so that means, if you want to do this professionally, you better develop a system that helps you test as many creatives as possible and at the same time improves your hit rate.” Mentioned in this Episode:Simon Kreienbaum’s LinkedInGet in touch with Simon: simon@kitchn.io Kitchn.ioKitchn’s YouTube tutorials channelApptivate Ep70 with Matt Pate - How to Implement Rapid Experimentation (Finimize)

Megan Price is a media buying executive for M&C Saatchi Performance. She is based in the U.K. and graduated from the University of Glasgow with an M.A. in Economics.Questions Megan Answered in this Episode:What was your greatest challenge coming into performance marketing?Have you found that when you think about different verticals your strategies change in regards to creatives, or do you think there are fundamental learnings that apply across the board?Did your team really dig into having a diversity of creatives because of 2020?Is there anything more you can do to create active engagement with creatives beyond playables and shopables?Timestamp:2:30 Megan’s background6:17 Entering into performance marketing7:57 The media buying team at M&C Saatchi Performance11:09 Distinctive and engaging creative12:38 Avoiding creative fatigue15:58 The future of creative strategy18:58 End-of-year wrap-ups for brandsQuotes:(5:37-5:55) “[Performance media] isn’t a one-size-fits-all case. And that’s where you have networks, these media owners having fantastic ways of targeting people in a specialist manner. So, that’s actually where it ties in really nicely with understanding that everyone is different and that if you target people in the way that’s best for them you are going to get the best results.”(13:58-14:09) “[Gen Z/Millennials] grew up with phones, with technology, with all the platforms that we’re using to advertise to them so they can spot an advert and they want something out of it, so something like a value exchange.”9Mentioned in this Episode:Megan Price’s LinkedinM&C Saatchi Performance

Christian Knudsen is the CMO at Valiu, the safest way to send money electronically from Colombia to Venezuela, and soon expanding to other countries in Latin America. Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:Is it challenging to educate your users on the cryptocurrency technology that you use? Are you seeing a growth in fintech startups in Latin America or, more specifically, in Colombia?How did Valiu get started? What’re some lessons you’ve learned from your experience driving acquisition in Colombia that would apply to driving acquisition next in Venezuela?Was Facebook an adequate platform for you to articulate that message of trust in your product? Did you find that their display ads did a good job depicting your value proposition? Did you make any mistakes that will serve you as you move into Venezuela?Looking forward to 2021, is there anything that you’re really excited about in terms of expansion or marketing channels?Timestamp:4:16 Christian’s background8:20 About Valiu 10:13 Using cryptocurrency11:43 Why fintech is exploding in Colombia15:50 Driving acquisition in a culture new to Christian23:13 A/B testing value propositions on Facebook25:42 Learning lessons for 2021Quotes:(12:15-12:20) “A great percentage [of Colombians] don’t have accounts because the bank doesn’t let them or doesn’t offer that service.”(20:02-20:22) “There comes the first barrier to getting into a market, and it’s trust. That was the main issue that I had as I was generating traction. Why would our users trust an app when they’ve been robbed before? Why would they stop using their confidant black market seller and change it for Valiu?”Mentioned in this Episode:Christian Knudsen’s LinkedInwww.valiu.com/enNewBank

Matt Pate is the Growth Lead at Finimize, giving you a team of finance and investment analysts in your pocket. Previously, Matt started up a VR/AR development studio in London. Questions Matt Answered in this Episode:What does the Finimize product do?What is your theory around testing and what systems do you have in place to do it effectively?How many iterations of creatives does it take to arrive to a big winner? How do you find your audience on TikTok as a fintech app?What are you looking forward to in 2021 in regards to performance marketing or the fintech space? Timestamp:5:20 Matt’s background11:05 What is Finimize?14:21 Matt’s views on testing16:21 Building a system for rapid experimentation at scale22:32 Fintech & TikTok26:25 What to look for in 2021Quotes:(15:45-16:04) “Where we saw our massive improvement was when were testing maybe four or five creatives a week and then we doubled, tripled, quadrupled that and got into the 15 to 20 range - and I can’t say we always test that much because it’s dependent on a lot of variables, but when we got to that, we saw significant decrease in our cost per acquisition, like 50%.”(20:59-21:26) “Your biggest asset as any startup, as any founder, as anybody in growth marketing,  product, sales, whoever you are as a person, is creativity. And, it’s the ability to empathize and to understand somebody else and put the message in front of them. You are never going to do your job as well as my API or a computer, you know? So it’s get rid of those repeatable tasks and have as much time as you possibly can to spend on vision, creativity, and then you’ve got the utmost chance of hitting success. ”Mentioned in this Episode:Matt Pate - LinkedInFinimize.com

Ngozi Ogbonna is the Head of Growth at Overtime, a social-first sports media company serving Gen Z and other millennials. The OT app that Ngozi oversees growth for focuses on giving users scores and stories really quickly.Questions Ngozi Answered in this Episode:What are you focused on in your role as head of growth?What are some of the tactics you put in place to keep your Gen Z users engaged?Does email marketing or other traditional forms of marketing work with your users?How has Overtime evolved with its various business lines?Was there something you learned from your experience at TodayTix that’s transferred to your role today?Timestamp:2:58 Ngozi’s background7:34 An into to Overtime and the OT app10:13 How Ngozi sees “growth”12:15 Keeping Gen Z hooked15:52 The sweat equity of content17:02 Lessons from TodayTixQuotes:(10:141-0:26) “It’s so funny because, traditionally, when people think about growth it’s product-led. And then, on the other side of it, growth is the performance-acquisition side. I think growth it’s the full funnel.”(16:05-16:19) “If you can find the right formula, I definitely think that you can then utilize content from a marketing perspective to acquire users, to engage users, to ultimately retain users. So, using content to really activate a full customer funnel.”Mentioned in this Episode:Ngozi Obgonna’s LinkedInOvertimeOT app by OvertimeOvertime YouTube channel

Pau Quevedo is the DSP Lead for Goodgame Studios. He’s based in Hamburg, Germany, the epicenter of gaming companies in Germany. Questions Pau Answered in this Episode:What made you want to join a game development studio in the first place?What made your company decide you needed someone dedicated to programmatic?How has programmatic DSP changed in the past three years?What is your outlook of the future of programmatic buying?What’s the difference between waterfall and header bidding?When you say contextual targeting, can you give us some examples of some levers that you think will be important for us to pull in our optimizations of programmatic media in the future?Timestamp:3:34 Pau’s background6:24 About Goodgame Studios9:30 Why you need different skills for programmatic11:03 Why Goodgame pivoted to programmatic13:42 The strongest DSP model19:07 Waterfall vs header bidding22:00 Optimizing programmatic going forwardQuotes:(9:41-9:48) “We believe that programmatic is a bit more of a specific channel that requires perhaps a little different kind of skills in order to make it happen.”(10:49-10:59) “Programmatic DSP is not a big channel for games. If you look at the companies, not many companies outside retargeting are using DSP at a large scale to acquire new users. And, there’s a reason for that.”Mentioned in this Episode:Pau Quevedo’s LinkedInGoodgame StudiosBeeswax

Questions Vincenzo Answered In This Episode:“Is there a particular area where your team has really focused or has there been any particular experiment that you think will help you guys out-market your competitors?”“As far as incrementality goes within programmatic in-app advertising, are you applying incrementality measurement to both acquisition campaigns and retargeting campaigns?”“Do you use a certain methodology to achieve incrementality measurement within UI or maybe using the PSA methodology? Could you shed some light on that? ”“Is it your team that manages user acquisition that’s doing a lot of data analysis? How do you go about organizing and compiling such large amounts of data?”“What is your relationship between your third party attribution providers and what you are doing from an incrementality perspective?''“How often are you testing your creativity? Is this a big part of your business and your iterative process?”“Do you think other mobile marketers are heavily relying on incrementality as a KPI? Do you see that they are using it to the same extent as your team at DeliveryHero?”Timestamp:01:04  Vincenzo’s background03:11 Vincenzo’s career journey with DeliveryHero04:01 The one topic that Vincenzo and his team really focused on 05:06 Vincenzo on incrementality measurement and its application to both acquisition campaigns and retargeting campaigns06:34 How to reconcile different methodologies across different vendors08:45 What methodology to use for incrementality measurement within UI09:00 The GeoSplit test 10:22 Vincenzo on running GeoSplit and PSA simultaneously 11:20 Vincenzo on working closely with the customer insight team to organize and compile the large amount of data that they use in their app12:34 Efficiency and decision making in which boundaries to work with, and which not to work with14:14 Determining the short-term and long-term effects of campaigns15:14 Conceptualizing incrementality17:01 To effectively measure incrementality, you cannot rely on the third party attributors19:43 Using incrementality test as a first step in identifying whether or not to pursue with a particular vendor20:04 Testing creative25:38 Vincenzo’s perspective on incrementality as a metric or a measurement that most mobile marketers are relying on27:01 Future of Mobile Marketing and incrementality-----------------------------------------“Coordination is essential. If you start to do something without this being in place you can’t really action data in the end. You may have some findings, but those are not really actionable in the end. ”Vincenzo SerricchioMentioned:FacebookDelivery HeroVincenzo’s LinkedIn profile