Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Today’s guest, Ariel Cohen, is the head of mobile UA for the cybersecurity startup Kape, a one-stop-shop for services like data encryption, anonymity, VPNs, and anti-virus products. Previously, Ariel was a marketing manager in the mobile casino game space for Playtika and Aditor.Questions Ariel Answered in this Episode:How important is it to understand your audience of users and how do you go about learning the composition of your audience within an app? What do you mean by profiling users? What are some techniques you use to find and convert users? How you’ve found that sponsored content works? Or how do you bring nuanced messages to your users in order to get them to engage with your product? Do you have to educate consumers about your services after they begin to engage with your product? Timestamp:4:33 Profiling users for new startups6:39 Defining profiling and its application to content strategy7:30 Browsing where your competitors are marketing8:56 Using your network to source insights11:20 Using segmentation for messaging12:43 Surprising insight on continuing to educate usersQuotes:“We don’t market with simple messaging as you would to an open audience. We try and come up with much more specific to the points that are crucial in the decision making.”“What we saw is that when we bring that information or different capabilities that we have up to their awareness from time to time, we see that it substantially increases traction.”“We figured if the users went through all that process and compared and eventually chose us, they know everything that we bring to the table. But, it turns out, it was just not the case.”Mentioned In This Episode:KapeAditorPlaytika

Lomit Patel, the author of Lean AI, is the vice president of growth at IMVU, the world’s largest avatar-based social network. He is responsible for user acquisition, retention, and monetization. Prior to IMVU, Lomit managed growth at early-stage startups including Roku (IPO), TrustedID (acquired by Equifax), Texture (acquired by Apple), and Earthlink. Lomit is also a public speaker, advisor, and recognized as a “Mobile Hero” by Liftoff.Questions Lomit Answered In This Episode:How did you build out and leverage AI at IMVU?Do you still have a lot of web users? And if so, do you have a way of varying your app data with the data that is non-app focused?Did you build out technologies that could iterate through creatives quickly?What makes it challenging for companies to build out this type of infrastructure?Timestamp:3:34 Lomit’s new book, Lean AI, and becoming an author6:55 Why IMVU decided to introduce AI, machine learning, and automation8:12 Getting started with AI10:05 Using unique customer IDs for data integration12:25 Golden moments of opportunity with AI15:01 The effect of AI on IMVU’s strategy for creative18:31 The challenges and considerations of using AIQuotes:“The easiest way to think of AI is how to get a machine to think like a human but to really do it at scale.”“We had to figure out a better and more creative way to tackle the problem of how we were going to scale growth and grow the business.”“At the end of the day, the difference between a great growth team and a good growth team isn’t about the great team really knowing all the answers. It all comes down to who’s able to increase their velocity of experiments.”Mentioned In This Episode:IMVULean AILomit’s LinkedInLomit’s blog

Meet Kevan O’Brien, the Marketing Director at LBC Studios. This Canadian mobile gaming developer is responsible for “Hempire,” the world’s largest mobile cannabis game.Questions Kevan Answered In This Episode:How has the legalization of marijuana affected your business?What are 3 lessons you’ve learned from making mistakes?What are some dos and don’ts of influencer marketing?Timestamp:2:37 How marijuana legalization is affecting LBS Studios5:48 Kevan’s $17,000 overnight mistake and what he learned11:02 “20% for Testing” rule12:18 Google Drive hack for looking smart at events15:05 The real value of working with influencersQuotes:“What we’re really looking for now as we work with influencers is the content that they create for us.”“If they leave us a review, we want it to be honest and we want it to come from their mouth. And also, we want to be able to use that asset in our own marketing.”“When you work with an influencer and you’re looking at reaching their network and providing them with some money to plug a product, the cost actually becomes really, really viable because you can use both the distribution as a KPI but also the asset itself as something that adds value.”Mentioned In This Episode:LBC StudiosHempireTommy Chong Plays Hempire YouTube video

Rebecca Nackson is the founder of Notable, an agency focused on engagement retention in the user journey. Rebecca brings over a decade of experience managing acquisition, engagement, and product development for Prolific Interactive, iHeartMedia, Bandsintown Group, Audible, and IBM.Questions Rebecca Answered In This Episode:What are 3 things people should know who want to start their own agency?Timestamp:3:00 Recipe for engagement retention and reducing customer loss4:47 Taking notes on being an end-user to build empathy7:22 Learning which parts to outsource11:35 The people part of the puzzle14:17 Identify the one thing you do bestQuotes:“There has to be this ruthless prioritization about what any of us can bite off in a day.”“Better to be top-of-mind when someone thinks of one thing, rather than middle-of-mind for a bunch of things.”“What really hit me is how it’s not about having the best solution or the best deck or the best pitch -- It’s about the human nature and the human side of the relationships, and that’s how you get them to change.”Mentioned In This Episode:NotableJustworks

Matthew Sadofsky is the chief growth officer and chief marketing officer at Studio, a fitness app providing instructor-led video classes. His experience in the mobile app marketing industry runs the gambit, from dating and gaming to music and fitness.Questions Matthew Sadofsky Answered In This Episode:What are some things that mobile marketers are doing wrong or overlooking?What does your ideal team look like?Where does over-bloating occur the most in regard to job function?Is paid media becoming more or less effective for marketers?How are you measuring incrementality in new user acquisition?Timestamp:6:30 Don’t over bloat the size of your marketing team7:30 The ideal size and makeup for marketing teams9:28 UA is overstaffed, retention marketing is underserved.10:38 Usability tests and surveys at Studio for retention13:00 Today’s value of paid media16:33 Indicators within incrementality analysis in new user acquisition17:18 The similarity method21:51 The importance and barriers to iterating on creativeQuotes:“Don’t over bloat. You can create a lean marketing machine using technology nowadays.”“There are ways that you can build these really robust pipelines and even tools that’ll do automation management for you where you don’t need the size of teams that some companies still have in their marketing departments.”“I think we all strive to balance creativity and analytics, but I think we all skew more slightly toward the analytic side. And very few companies, unless you’re a very large company, have an in-house creative director for their user acquisition program.” Mentioned In This Episode:StudioPaltalkPeerStream (formerly Snap Interactive)Tilting PointTIDALHerClearBrainUberTryMyUI

Meet Moshi Blum, General Manager, Adjust IL, a third-party mobile measurement and fraud prevention company. He oversees the growth of the company in Tel Aviv, Israel.Questions Moshi Answered In This Episode:“What do you attribute to Israel being such a major hub for startups and new tech?”“How did you become interested in incrementality?”“What was the progression of your interest in incrementality for re-engagement and user acquisition?”Timestamp:1:43 Why Israeli character is complimentary to tech startups8:17 Moshi’s start to incrementality14:29 The challenges of incremental user acquisition17:50 Closing in on UA growth sources with incrementality22:51 On incrementality being counter-intuitive to performance24:35 Two caveats to incrementalityQuotes:“I would say that anyone that searches for Facebook will go and then click on Facebook, right? There is no other solution if you’re searching for Facebook. So by me clicking on the paid ad for Facebook doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve now convinced me to go and use Facebook.”“I think agencies are the best when you want to learn fast how to progress.”“In one point, you need to trust your instincts. So the first incrementality test will give you, let’s say, half of the reality. Right? The second will give you another 30%. But, you will never reach to 100% sure that your campaigns are incremental.”Mentioned:AdjustViberMoburstRemergeeBayBasecamp

Questions Ryan Answered In This Episode:“What are two or three things you wish you’d known when you started in this space that would have saved you time, money, or energy?”“What are the techniques you’ve used to grow your audience at scale?”“Does your search marketing inform your target marketing on Facebook?”“Are there any future products or concepts in the marketing space that you’re excited about? Timestamp:0:56 Background of onXmaps4:21 Getting started in mobile marketing6:18 Lessons for newer mobile companies starting out8:45 Thinking through variable a/b testing with an onXmaps example12:30 Why user acquisition growth took off at onXmaps15:09 How search and Facebook can inform each other18:34 The prospects of multi-touch attribution Quotes:“Engineers and marketers a lot of times think differently. We look at the world differently. And being able to bridge that gap from a communication perspective is really important.”“A ton of what we do, or try to do, is basically a reciprocity play. It’s like, ‘Hey, this can help you. We will help you become better. Here’s information that you can use while using this product to help you achieve your goals.’” Mentioned: onXmaps  

Drew Fung, the senior user acquisition manager at Current, has spent the last five years working in user acquisition, from gaming to eCommerce to finance. In this Quick Hit episode, Drew shares the best and worst examples of sales outreach and how to perfect yours.Questions Drew Answered In This Episode:“What are three things that annoy you in terms of salesperson outreach?”“How many sales emails do you get in a given day or week?”“What makes a salesperson’s approach worth your time?”Timestamp:2:14 The worst way to do sales outreach3:41 Email no-nos for sales outreach5:06 The average number of sales pitch emails received in a week5:53 Sharing sensitive information about competitors when giving a sales pitch7:20 What works with sales strategyQuotes:“I remember this one salesperson immediately handed me her card and was literally trying to scream her pitch about her company. In the middle of the club, over the music, while we’ve already had a couple drinks. I was shocked and mind-blown that she didn’t know coming up to someone in the wrong setting would just not work.”“If you’re using a template where you copy and pasted my name wrong and you call me something else, I’ll never answer you, forever.”“A salesperson builds a report first to want to get to know you genuinely, about your company, and then just tell you how they can help you.”Mentioned:Current

Jacques Frisch brings 12 years of digital marketing experience to Glovo, a mobile on-demand product delivery service. Jacques is going on two years at the company as the Digital Marketing Director, during which time Glovo has experienced explosive international growth. Questions Jacques Answered In This Episode: “What’s something your marketing team has gotten really good at that’s allowed you guys to work efficiently as you’ve scaled so quickly?”“What do you look to hire for in your growth team? Where do you add a manual touch?”“What’s the goal of building tool automation in-house?”“Is there anything that makes the process of automation harder?”“What does the feedback loop look like between your product and marketing teams?” “What do you think is coming to the ad-tech space in the future?” Timestamp:2:07 Glovo’s rapid growth3:16 Jacques’s area of expertise at Glovo3:50 The key to working efficiently when scaling quickly4:51 Applications of marketing automation5:20 Philosophy of centralization in digital marketing6:05 Human resource needs in a rapid-growth environment7:15 The ideal mix of building automation tools in-house vs third-party providers9:48 Managing the challenges of building automation processes internally11:56 The tool Jacques wish he had 10 years ago13:05 Projections of the future within the ad-tech spaceQuotes:“I believe that most of the big players have clear interest in pushing some of the third-party providers out of the market, especially when it comes to data and ad-tech. You can already see Facebook and Google want you to do all through them directly so that way they can collect more insights into your apps’ performance.”“So we had to learn to implement one of our team as a project manager. We had to learn to prioritize all the tasks accordingly and not overwhelm him with work and try to do too many things at the same time. So, you learn as you go.”Mentioned:GlovoAmplitude

Joining the conversation are two fitness app marketers from ASICS Digital, Megan Silvey and Molly Plaehn. Megan focuses on growth and product marketing for both of the ASICS Studio and Runkeeper apps. Molly focuses on engagement with the Runkeeper userbase and connecting app users to the ASICS brand.Questions Megan & Molly Answered In This Episode:“How do you go about marketing the Runkeeper App?”“Do you find it challenging to differentiate against other platforms or do you think that you have a core message that sets you apart?”“How important is testing to ASICS in terms of acquisition?”“Are there certain learnings that you take from one app then bring to the other?”Timestamp:00:16 Megan and Molly’s introduction00:56 Megan’s background, where she came from, and her career at ASICS Digital02:14 Megan’s experience in the agency landscape03:08 Molly’s background and her career focus at ASICS Digital05:17 Challenges feature in Runkeeper07:26 Asics marketing strategy for the Runkeeper App09:39 What makes Asics stand out11:45 What does testing look like from an acquisition standpoint13:37 Budget restriction15:33 Learnings from Runkeeper and Asics Studio17:52 Engagement strategy for both Runkeeper and Asics Studio19:51 Next steps for Runkeeper after the new integrations24:06 Megan and Molly’s perspective for connecting physical and digital experiences-----------------------------------------“We think that the future lies in really connecting these physical and digital experiences.” -Megan Silvey“You know the brand because you got hit with them on Instagram about 700 times and you’re like, ‘Wow, this brand is cool, people are talking about it, and now I can see it in real life.’ So, that’s kind of what we’re getting back to is really connecting these experiences. Interpersonal connections aren’t going away any time soon.” -Megan Silvey“Taking content that we already have but funneling it a little bit different and bringing in new creative assets from that we have from this line to drive new installs and potentially reach a different kind of ASICS user.” -Megan SilveyASICS Digital Inc (formerly Runkeeper)Asics StudioRemergeGlossier