The Mobile Ads Dark Horse: The App Handoff (Part 1)

In this article I’m going to cover:

• Comparing 2 Different Mobile Ad Flows To Acquire Active Users
• What data matters: Facets of the Comparison

The next post (Part 2) will cover: How to Properly Setup and Analyze Each Method

What’s the core question here?

Can you convert more valuable users from a) promoting an install directly from an ad or b) sending users to a mobile site to complete the install?

As a mobile marketer it seems like the ground, under our feet, is moving as we operate. This space is changing so fast, notably with regard to navigating users to our apps and the respective referral attribution. This is no less the case in optimizing mobile ad value…

If you’ve owned performance for mobile app ads with some of the well known ad networks, like Google or Facebook, I’m sure you know how to optimize mobile ad targeting, ranking, bidding, creative, and even landing page optimization in order to drive more valuable conversions. But there’s more to explore in an underrepresented area of optimization for mobile user growth: the handoff to mobile apps.

The underlying concept here: what method of attaining an active user of the app will produce the most engaged users or highest ROAS (return on adspend).

But wait, is this active user analysis even important?

Hell yes! Here’s just some stats from 2015, to think about:

Source: Localytics

Countless apps are downloaded each day and the fight for your app to be top of mind grows more fierce. In addition, if you’re calculating ROAS correctly, you’ll need to factor in usage behavior and especially retention overtime. As retention is the most valuable metric to depend on for high growth, since it comes from strong Product Market Fit and contributes to the flywheel where users will be more apt to share your app.

Your best users might come directly from an app install ad as your ad, targeting, and even Appstore content produce the best conversions. Or they might come from users that are sent to a mobile landing page, where the content speaks directly to them (their lifestyle, demographic, current specific pain points) and they install the app, becoming the most engaged type of users.

For the latter case, there are possible variations to even this: you have a webapp and a mobile app (with marketing website), or you have just a mobile app with a standing website for branding. For webapp and mobile app: the high frequency users might be most convinced to commit to an install after engaging with marketing material on your website. With just mobile app: the conversion content geared towards them on the landing page, could produce more valuable users.

You’ll have this scenario if you A) are speaking to multiple different target audiences or have multiple content offerings, which both require different ads and therefore should tie different ads to specific landing page variants, or B) you’re a startup finding Product Market Fit and your messaging is evolving.

So which method is going to be the most optimal?

What I advocate for: don’t waste time in a “strategy meeting” discussing potential projected outcomes and values, one over the other.

Instead, science!

Test each acquisition method and analyze the behavior of each cohort of users over time. Now, for performance, you can look at and compare CTR and app signup conversion %, but this shouldn’t be your primary focus until after you’ve established an engaged user base and you have data on segments of users that will provide the best ROI.

What you’re testing for is users that provide the best ROAS. Early on, before you’re able to see how the cohorts behave over 6 months to a year, you can look at an activation metric or early usage behavior, like if a user uses X feature Y times in the first 2 weeks, as leading indicators that correlate to long term return. (Make sure to keep an eye on those cohorts over time if you make a decision on the method based on early usage behavior. You may end up reassessing the test)

Casey Winters, Growth PM @Pinterest, notes: user engagement can be optimized itself. This is important to be aware of as you’ll need to optimize a variety of elements in driving user engagement, get to a baseline first, and then test the results of the ad to install methods so you can isolate the results. This baseline will result from a number of factors, such as:

• the landing page of your mobile site
• user demographics
• the mobile app prompt CTA
• optimal mobile app onboarding
• the quality of the mobile website itself
• the quality of the mobile app itself
• how you prompt for app download
• the country of the user

Once you’ve optimized these parts, you’re testing which app acquisition method makes for the most users (the most active and revenue generating users), instead of deciding on a hunch or claiming a strategic perspective.

Great, interesting concept huh? Now the tricky part… how to make sure you’re measuring this correctly.

Part 2 covers proper tracking from ad tracking links to mobile attribution and user analysis.

Thanks to Ben Hoffman, Adam Miller, Brandon Redlinger for their edits and feedback.

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