Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

In the second part of this two-part episode, Tara Kirkpatrick, a Mobile Trends Analyst at Apptopia, breaks down popular engagement and retention strategies used by the most downloaded apps of 2022, according to Apptopia’s report “How App Download Leaders Are Winning” (released Feb. 2023). Learn how apps got ahead of their competitors with loyalty schemes, reward programs, and retention “core loops.”Apptopia is a performance intelligence platform that generates insights across mobile apps and connected devices. Every year, they put out the app download leader charts for app store categories and sub-categories. This year they took a closer look at the strategies apps are using to increase their downloads and broke them down in a report into three areas: acquisition, engagement, and retention.Questions Tara Answered in this Episode:What can apps do once they get users to download their apps to ensure that they remain engaged?Tell us more about the retention portion of the report.Timestamp:28:23 Winning strategies for app loyalty and rewards programs34:00 Clear progress tracking and custom rewards37:52 Ushering users into a “Core Loop”Quotes:(31:26-31:55) “Earning a reward is actually a rewarding experience for humans because we’re innately geared towards progress. If you can incentivize action and make that experience fun, or use a bit of scarcity so that the experience becomes a little bit more exciting, then that’s where you’re motivating the acquisition and activation piece  – and then long-term engagement.”(47:47-47:55) “Gaming sets this high bar for the mechanisms of mobile that if you are an app in any category you can look to gaming for inspiration.”Mentioned in this Episode:Tara Kirkpatrick’s LinkedInApptopiaApptopia Report: “How App Download Leaders Are Winning”

In the first of this two-part episode, Tara Kirkpatrick, a Mobile Trends Analyst at Apptopia, breaks down popular acquisition strategies used by the most downloaded apps of 2022, according to Apptopia’s report “How App Download Leaders Are Winning” (released Feb. 2023). Learn how apps get ahead of their competitors with app store search ads and curating the right ad network mix. Apptopia is a performance intelligence platform that generates insights across mobile apps and connected devices. Every year, they put out the app download leader charts for app store categories and sub-categories. This year they took a closer look at the strategies apps are using to increase their downloads and broke them down in a report across three areas: acquisition, engagement, and retention. Questions Tara Answered in this Episode:What does it mean when you’re bidding on branded key terms versus non-branded key terms? What would that be from a user experience standpoint?Timestamp:1:15 Apptopia & Tara’s role10:42 How app download leaders are winning14:08 App store search ads: Home Depot vs Lowes18:33 Bidding on branded vs non-branded key terms in app store20:53 Curating the right ad network mix25:11 Temu case study: DoubleClick over Meta Ad NetworkQuotes:(7:28-7:42) “We joked 10 years ago that there’s an app for that because there were so many apps, but in fact now you need an app for most businesses just to have that need for an environment that you control with your customers and that consistent customer experience.”Mentioned in this Episode:Tara Kirkpatrick’s LinkedInApptopiaApptopia Report: “How App Download Leaders Are Winning”

Lomit Patel returns to the Apptivate podcast to share his experiences marketing Tynker, an Edtech product that teaches kids how to code. The platform reaches 60 million users in over 150 countries. In his new role as Chief Growth officer, Lomit discusses how the team got kids excited about coding and engaged teachers and parents to use the app.Lomit Patel has worked in growth at startups for over 20 years. He is the author of Lean AI and a Forbes Business Development Council Member. He’s worked at a number of startups that have gone on to become an IPO, like Roku, or that have been acquired by other companies, like Texture.Questions Lomit Answered in this Episode:How is Tynker and what do you do there?How did Tynker acquire its 60 million users?Does your approach to growth stay consistent from company to company?Do you see investing in branding initiatives as a more valuable medium when remarketing isn’t possible?Where do you see AI going in the near future, specifically as it relates to growth marketing?Timestamp:1:37 Lomit’s background4:00 Tynker & Lomit’s role7:00 How Tynker reached 60 million users10:50 Genesis of their Mindcraft angle14:15 Changing the growth playbook for kid-oriented products19:29 Marketing to mass audiences23:40 How we’re evolving with AIQuotes:(2:16-2:26) “As I’ve spent more and more time learning about growth, you really come to realize the value of data and how important that is to make different decisions.”(11:12-11:19) “It’s really hard to market directly to kids, so you have to figure out how you can influence kids to really learn about your product?”(17:04-17:18) “You can’t really remarket to kids. So the big part comes down to how do you use your data and how do you create better personalized experiences, how do you use in-app messaging to really be contextually relevant to what the user’s looking for?”Mentioned in this Episode:Lomit Patel’s LinkedInTynkerLean AI by Lomit Patel

Jennie Lewis is the Senior Manager of Customer Insights at Airship. In this Women In Mobile episode, Jennie shares her positive approach and experience to navigating male-dominated tech fields, such as solutions architecture. She and the host, Maria Lannon, discuss how to build a more diverse pipeline of executive leadership for the future. At Airship, Jennie helps brands understand the economic impact and quantitative results of their mobile app strategies. Airship is known for its push notification and in-app messaging solutions and for mastering mobile app experiences to engage customers and win their loyalty. Previously, Jennie worked at Epsilon in custom email development and CrowdTwist in solutions architecture.

Saadi Muslu is the Head of Content and Product Marketing at Singular. She immigrated to the U.S. when she was 6 years old from Turkey and was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. These experiences, among others,  taught her how to ask a lot of questions, be resourceful, and build relationships with the right people – ultimately fueling her success in the mobile industry. In this Women in Mobile episode, Saadi shares how to overcome impostor syndrome, what makes a good manager, how to attract and hire top talent, and all the reasons she’s excited to be working in mobile right now. Singular is a next-gen mobile measurement partner and thought leader in SKAdNetwork. Singular’s intelligent SaaS platform enables mobile marketers to unify, analyze and optimize all of their marketing channels through a single dashboard, without any required SDKs. Prior to her role at Singular, Saadi was the Product Marketing Manager at Kenshoo.Questions Saadi Answered in this Episode:How did you get to where you are today?How did you build the confidence to start asking questions and speaking up?How did you transition into a management role?How did you attract top talent and scale your team?What are you most excited about in our industry?Any resources you recommend?Timestamp:1:31 Saadi’s story9:00 Overcoming impostor syndrome15:40 Leaning into being new to the industry17:27 What makes a good manager?23:44 Attracting and hiring top talent34:07 Disruption, competitors, and opportunities38:46 More women in mobile marketing43:51 ResourcesQuotes:(8:59-9:17) “I think being a really young immigrant, I learned how to assimilate. The feeling of feeling unfamiliar is familiar to me. I was facing what a lot of young professionals face, which is impostor syndrome.”(11:38-11:58) “One thing that I learned to [help me] overcome the impostor syndrome or my lack of technical background now that I worked in AdTech was letting myself be comfortable in asking questions and being vulnerable by explaining that I don’t understand this concept – can you explain it to me? That was really life-changing for me.”(12:48-3:09) “Being comfortable asking questions and being resourceful is a part of being a successful worker and growing professionally. It’s not a sign of weakness. Overcoming that mental misunderstanding or that misperception that, ‘Oh asking a lot of questions means I don't know what I’m talking about.’ Quite the opposite. Asking a lot of questions means I’m trying to become an expert at this.”Mentioned in this Episode:Saadi Muslu’s LinkedinSingularMobile Dev MemoRemerge’s BlogThe Mobile Attribution Privacy CoalitionJohn KoetsierElena Madrigal’s LinkedInUdi Ledergor’s LinkedIn

Welcome back to another year celebrating International Women’s Month and the women who work in our mobile marketing industry. In this episode, our host, Maria Lannon, interviews Allie Hitchcock, the Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Houzz. They talk about helping users get the most out of an app product, turning mistakes into positive opportunities, and how to be successful when working remotely.  Houzz is an app for home designs and remodels. Prior to becoming the Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Houzz, Allie was a Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Loom. She is based in Orlando, Florida.Questions Allie Answered in this Episode:What channels are you using to retain the pros on Houzz? What does your day-to-day look like?How are the two groups of users getting connected and are you a part of that cycle?What brought you to Lifecycle Marketing at Houzz? Where were you before?What advice do you have for anyone working remotely and by themselves in their role? What’s helped you be successful in a remote work environment?What are some KPIs that you’re looking at on a day-to-day basis?Is there anything that you want to work on professionally or personally in 2023?What are you most excited about regarding the future of mobile marketing?Do you have any advice for women starting out their careers?Any resources that have been helpful to you that you’d recommend?Timestamp:2:33 Allie’s role as Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Houzz8:04 Allie’s background13:16 Tips for success in remote work environments16:48 The KPIs that matter18:48 Switching up my remote environment21:15 Connecting users with their own data24:00 Words of wisdom for emerging marketers25:28 ResourcesQuotes:(9:08-9:20) “I learned a lot about understanding the user perspective – making sure that you’re understanding things from their point-of-view and not taking for granted the things that we know working internally.”(21:16-21:24) “There are more opportunities than ever to help connect users with their own data and their own successes in using an app.”(22:04-22:10) “I think any opportunity to spark joy and help users be genuinely happy about what they’re doing with your app is a win-win.”Mentioned in this Episode:Allie Hitchcock’s LinkedInHouzzBook: Build a Brand like Trader Joe's by Mark GardinerBook: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim CollinsAdWeekwww.askamanager.org

Eran Friedman, Co-Founder and CTO at Singular, joins Apptivate to talk about what the initial postbacks from SKAdNetwork 4.0 mean for mobile marketers. In this episode, he and host Brian Altman discuss the new features of SKAN 4.0 for mobile advertisers, how to leverage these features, and how to transition from SKAN 3.0 to SKAN 4.0. You’ll also learn about FLEDGE and how to prepare for privacy changes with Google’s Privacy Sandbox for Android. Singular is a next-gen mobile measurement partner and thought leader on SKAdNetwork. Singular’s intelligent SaaS platform enables mobile marketers to unify, analyze and optimize all of their marketing channels through a single dashboard, without any required SDKs. Eran is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Questions Eran Answered in this Episode:Remind us, what’s new with SKAdNetwork 4.0?What postback data are you receiving from SKAN 4.0 and how long have you been receiving it? And is there anything that you can pull from that data that’s actionable?In terms of the changes to SKAN 4.0, what would you say excites you the most based on the initial data that you’ve seen?If you could name one change that SKAN 4.0 has done that advertisers should focus on first, what would that be?Are you currently using SKAN 4.0 to build models that prove ROAS for your customers?What would you advise advertisers on how to best transition to using SKAN 4.0?Have you experienced any challenges or surprises with the initial data from SKAN 4.0?What’s your prediction for what to expect in the next versions of SKAdNetwork?What is FLEDGE, and how does it differ from SKAN?How is Singular preparing right now for Android’s Privacy Sandbox?What is the best thing advertisers can do to prepare for the impending changes with Google?Timestamp:2:20 What’s new with SKAN 4.0?4:04 Initial postback data from SKAN 4.06:43 Use cases for SKAN 4.0 for small and large advertisers11:11 Singular solutions for analyzing your ROAS with SKAN 4.014:56 Transitioning from SKAN 3.0 to SKAN 4.019:10 What advertisers can do to leverage SKAN 4.0 features22:41 Introducing more randomness in longer-window postbacks26:19 Eran’s predictions for the future of SKAdNetwork29:00 Google’s approach to privacy changes with Privacy Sandbox on Android35:13 Preparing for Andoird Privacy SandboxQuotes:(9:27-9:51) “The feature that’s been most discussed and the most exciting for the large-scale advertisers out there is definitely the longer windows and the multiple postbacks. So, the 35-day window you mentioned is a potential game-changer for working with SKAN, especially for the companies who see more of the signal and value of the user after more than 24 hours.”(19:40-19:59) “Technically, you don’t need to do anything as an advertiser to start getting SKAN 4.0 postbacks. It’s the network that actually has to make a change. The advantage of updating your MMP SDK to support SKAN 4.0 is that you would leverage the features coming from it.”Mentioned in this Episode:Apptivate Episode 141: Tips for Overcoming SKAd Network’s 3 Biggest Issues - Eran Friedman (Singular)Eran Friedman’s LinkedInSingular

Joel Debus is the Marketing Automation Manager at Klarna, a “buy now, pay later” shopping app. In this episode, Joel breaks down what good marketing automation looks like and how to implement the best approach. Joel discusses identifying trigger points in the customer journey, scaling automation, personalization based on user behavior, and using a “working backward” methodology.Questions Joel Answered in this Episode:What got you into CRM? And what brought you to Klarna?What does Klarna focus on?What does marketing automation mean to you? And what does good marketing automation look like?How do you identify a trigger point and create a marketing automation sequence behind it?Does the mapping out of the trigger points help determine the personalization strategy?How do you create easily scalable marketing automation?Is there anything you do to take qualitative data into account? Have you ever found that something you thought made sense based on the data didn’t work out in the end?Do you have a framework for A/B testing that uses data science to ensure you’ve reached some degree of statistical significance so you can draw conclusions?What is the hardest part of your job? What’s the part you love the most about working in CRM?Timestamp:3:20 Joel’s background6:33 What is Klarna10:07 What is marketing automation?11:05 What makes good marketing automation?12:23 Contextual mapping of trigger points15:24 Scaling marketing automation17:30 Qualitative data & testing23:15 Challenges of the job: contamination and cohesion25:46 What Joel loves about working in CRMQuotes:(11:07-11:14) “The best marketing automations are the ones that can scale quickly, meaning it doesn’t require a lot of manual maintenance.”(12:24-12:48) “A good way to think about what consumers are doing on your app or website is the working backwards methodology. In my case, for example, I look at when a user makes a purchase. With data that I get or with analysts I can see what’s the thing they do right before that, what’s the thing they do right before that, and etcetera.”Mentioned in this Episode:Joel Debus’s LinkedInKlarna

Connected TV (CTV) as an advertising channel for apps is exploding onto the mobile marketing scene. How does CTV fit with your other mobile marketing channels and how can you measure its effectiveness? Gijsbert Pols, the Director of Connected TV and New Channels at Adjust, a mobile attribution and analytics company, joins the show to answer these questions and more. Gijsbert led Adjust in developing the first measurement product that allowed app marketers to measure their efforts on CTV devices. Questions Gijsbert Answered in this Episode:Have you always been on the product side?Why do you think we’ve seen Adjust and the industry as a whole emerge into CTV in the past year to two as opposed to prior to this point?What are some of the challenges you’re able to help marketers with in regard to getting a better understanding of the efficacy of their programs?Do you find that when people see correlations between CTV and another medium it’s enough for them to invest more in it? Or is it hard for people attached to last-touch attribution to accept CTV Assist as a mechanism that can determine the efficiency of their campaigns?Are your partners leveraging QR codes and seeing good results? Or are they seeing CTV as a way to get a message out in a more clear way beyond a QR code?What kind of growth have you seen in the Connected TV space?What is the biggest channel that CTV faces in the near future?Timestamp:3:08 Gijsbert’s background4:38 Pioneering mobile measurement for Connected TV8:33 Why Connected TV has blown up in app industry12:49 Evaluating mobile marketing efforts with CTV17:12 Delivering those correlations between two different mediums20:03 Last touch attribution and CTV Assist22:49 Beyond QR codes25:45 Growth in the CTV space28:36 Challenges for CTVQuotes:(8:41-8:58) “Due to the pandemic, people fled into entertainment, basically, and started turning their living rooms in unprecedented levels into home cinemas. So, they were investing a lot in Connected TV.”(9:00-9:33) “Particularly for the U.S., yes, Netflix had been around for a while, Hulu had been around for a while, but we reached critical tipping points when it came to cord-cutting. So there was all of a sudden a critical mass of people who had canceled their expensive cable subscriptions and were streaming only on their CTV devices at home. And advertisers started to realize that if they limit themselves to linear television that they’re going to miss out.”Mentioned in this Episode:Gijsbert Pols’s LinkedInAdjust’s CTV AdVision

Maria Lannon, your host of Apptivate’s Women in Mobile series, brings listeners a roundup of some of the best bits from interviews with women working in the mobile marketing industry around the world. Find out their biggest leadership lessons in this special compilation episode featuring Sharon Romang, the Vice President of Creative at Headlight; Vicki Goldman, the Director of Marketing at Paramount Streaming under the Media Acquisition and Services Team; Mariana D’Avila, the Head of Growth at Appreach; and Laura Spikermann, the Client Services Lead at Customlytics. Find links to all the full-length episodes from the Women in Mobile Series here:Ep.132 Keep Your Creative Team Inspired with Sharon RomangEp.134 Authentic Networking for Introverts with Vicki GoldmanEp.128 How to Address Disrespectful Co-workers with Mariana D’AvilaEp.119 Springing into Mobile Marketing Leadership with Laura SpikermannEp.125 Building a Brand Cause for Your App with Juliana BiasiEp.118 Experience the Uplift of Work-Life Boundaries with Liia PalipeaEp.117 When Women In Mobile Speak Up and Unite with Camila CarneiroEp.116 Women in Mobile: Your Ideas In Your Voice with Fabiana Ayala