How to re-engage mobile app users

On Friday, Google held their first 'Think with Google Live' webinar of the year, a series of events which aim to tackle the big topics in technology and marketing. They bring together industry experts for a panel and interactive Q&A sessions hosted on Google+. The topic of Friday's half-hour webinar was mobile app re-engagement, moderated by John Mew, COO at the IAB UK and featuring Matthew Goldhill, Creative Strategist at Mobile 5, David Sandler, Global Account Director at Fetch and Max Macintosh, Specialist Agency Head at Google.

The panel introduced some of the existing strategies commonly used to increase app engagement, like push notifications, as well as some emerging techniques such as data-driven display and search re-targeting which deep-link users to a specific section of the app. To re-engage your existing base effectively, an analytics solution should be used to feed-back detailed usage information, just as Google Analytics does for websites, it was said. From there, custom audiences can be generated based on usage patterns, separating regular users from dormant ones, for example.

Perhaps the most exciting discussion was around re-targeting these segments programmatically, with tailored or dynamic messaging that ensures greater relevance for the end user. The example of a hotel booking app was used, where device location and weather data could be combined to predict when someone was stuck at an airport due to bad weather; the user could be served a bespoke message which took them directly to a tailored list of hotels within the app, it was said.

AD-X also received a mention, an up and coming technical solution which tracks engagement at a granular level using on custom event tags. The panel elaborated on the potential benefits, saying that partner agencies can leverage this data to make better informed media buying decisions and improve the user experience by working closely with the developer to remedy pain-points and reduce drop off.

My key takeout from the discussion was the opportunity for digital and media agencies to help clients market their app beyond driving the initial install. With time spent within apps increasing, it’s likely that the most successful brands will be the ones investing in tracking solutions, leveraging that usage data to find efficiencies and re-engage rather than alienate their audiences.

Liam Russell.
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