Business of Apps Podcast

#256: Ad quality is hurting retention & app revenue with Alex Yerukhimovich, General Manager at AppHarbr

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 03:00:00 +0000

For many app teams, ads are treated as a necessary tradeoff — something you accept in exchange for revenue. But ad quality isn’t just an ad ops issue. It directly shapes user experience, retention, and how people perceive your app.

In this episode, we’re sharing an App Talks interview where David Murphy speaks with Alex Yerukhimovich, General Manager at AppHarbr. Alex breaks down what ad quality really means in practice, why the problem is getting worse, and how bad ads can quietly undermine performance — through shorter sessions, higher churn, and even one-star reviews that impact store visibility.

From disruptive ad behaviour to scams and deceptive creatives, this conversation is a practical look at why publishers need more transparency and more control over what gets served inside their apps.

Today’s topics include:

Ad quality defined: why users see ads as part of the app experience — and blame publishers for what they see
The three major categories of “bad ads”: inappropriate content, disruptive behavior, and malvertising scams
Why ad quality is becoming a bigger problem outside gaming, especially for apps built on long-term retention
How bad ads damage monetization and growth: shorter sessions, uninstalls, churn, and one-star reviews that affect store visibility
What publishers can do about it: transparency, proactive enforcement, and real-time control instead of relying on ad networks to fix issues

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Alex Yerukhimovich

“Users associate any bad experience within the app with the app itself.”

“If the ads in your app are bad for your users, your app is bad.”

“Ad quality in the industry deteriorates… it’s getting worse and it requires active approach to solve it.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#255: ChatGPT and the future of app discovery with Dan Shabtay, Co-Founder of Z2A Digital

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 03:00:00 +0000

The way app users discover, evaluate, and even build apps is starting to shift — and large language models are at the center of that change. As AI platforms evolve beyond chat and into full ecosystems, app growth teams are facing a new set of questions around discovery, distribution, and long-term strategy.

In this episode, we’re sharing an App Talks interview with Dan Shabtay, Co-Founder of Z2A Digital. Dan explores how the emerging app ecosystem inside ChatGPT is opening the door to a new wave of app creation — from no-code tools and solo entrepreneurs to entirely new user acquisition channels embedded directly within AI platforms.

Today’s topics include:

Dan explains how ChatGPT is evolving into a platform with its own internal app marketplace, giving developers access to hundreds of millions of users without relying on traditional app stores.
Entrepreneurs and creators can now build and publish functional apps without engineering teams, fundamentally changing who can participate in app development and how quickly new ideas can reach the market.
Unlike iOS or Google Play, apps built inside LLM ecosystems immediately tap into an existing, engaged user base, reducing friction around discovery and distribution.
Traditional user acquisition isn’t disappearing, but it is shifting. Classic channels will coexist with new LLM-based acquisition models, including potential in-chat placements and AI-native ad formats.
Beyond IQ and EQ, adaptability becomes the defining skill for app growth teams navigating rapid, AI-driven change.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Dan Shabtay:

“It’s the most efficient infrastructure ever that has been created for entrepreneurs.”

“For me as a business owner and as an entrepreneur, it’s a gold rush.”

“AQ is adaptability… you have to be adaptable to the high-paced technology that’s going on right now.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#254: Subscription App Growth: Insights from the Frontlines with Shumel Lais, Co-Founder at Day 30 - by Branch

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Happy 2026, everybody!

We're kicking off this year with an episode from our partner Branch - mobile attribution platform and app analytics solutions for enterprises.

Join Adam and Amanda of Branch as they sit down with Shumel Lais, a mobile growth expert with over a decade of experience, to explore the essential strategies for launching and scaling subscription apps. From setting up proper analytics and understanding payback periods to navigating iOS challenges and leveraging AI, this episode delivers practical insights for both startup founders and established app developers. Learn why immediate ROI isn't always the goal, when to start paid acquisition, and how to build a sustainable growth strategy in today's complex mobile landscape.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Shumel Lais:

“In the app ecosystem, there’s traditionally two key verticals: gaming and non-gaming subscription apps. The gaming folks are typically pretty well resourced when it comes to BI and data science, but on the non-gaming side it’s lacking — and that’s really where we’ve seen the opportunity.”

“There are a lot of really exciting things possible with data science and machine learning. The question is how good we can get the signals that feed these black-box algorithms through prediction.”

“What I see with early-stage teams is a desire to recoup their investment almost immediately. That makes sense when cash is constrained, but the bigger apps grow faster because they’re willing to wait six to twelve months to get that money back."

#253: How paid campaigns boost your ASO with David Quinn, VP of Strategy and Partnerships at Gummicube

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:12:40 +0000

App Store optimization is often treated as a checklist item — update keywords, run a few tests, maybe layer on some paid traffic. But when those pieces operate in isolation, teams miss the real opportunity: using paid and organic together as a single, feedback-driven system.

In this episode, we’re sharing an App Talks interview with David Quinn, VP of Strategy and Partnerships at Gummicube. David reframes ASO not as a standalone discipline, but as a full-funnel acquisition and conversion engine — one where keyword strategy, creative testing, and paid campaigns continuously inform one another.

Today’s topics include:

Why ASO only works when keyword strategy, creative testing, and paid campaigns are treated as one system
How paid campaigns can actively support organic rankings instead of cannibalizing them
Using Apple Search Ads taps and share of voice to influence App Store search performance
Structuring Apple Ads campaigns and ad groups for clearer insights and better optimization
The role of custom product pages in improving conversion and lowering paid acquisition costs

Links and Resources:

Quotes from David Quinn

“ASO isn’t any one of these things in a vacuum — it’s the combination of keyword updates, A/B testing, and paid campaigns, and the learnings you get from all of them together.”

“If you launch paid campaigns before setting up your metadata, you’re missing a huge opportunity for the algorithm to understand what you should rank for.”

“Paid search placements can help organic performance because taps are signals — if users choose your app more often, the store learns to rank it higher.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#252: Fixing app store funnel drop-offs with Vivian Dang, Senior Director of Accounts & Client Services at Gummicube

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 03:00:00 +0000

In today’s episode, we’re digging into one of the most overlooked levers in mobile growth: the App Store page itself.

Developers obsess over UA budgets, creative variations, and dashboards — yet leave untapped conversion sitting on the table simply because the storefront experience isn’t aligned with how users actually arrive.

To get clarity on what really moves the needle, we’re sharing with you our App Talks interview with Vivian Dang, Senior Director of Accounts & Client Services at Gummicube. Vivian breaks down why most teams still treat their App Store presence as static, why aggregate conversion numbers hide more than they reveal, and how to rebuild your storefront around traffic sources, intent, and user expectations.

Across this conversation, Vivian shares practical strategies you can apply immediately — from structuring A/B tests that produce meaningful learnings, to building custom product pages that match funnel entry points, to using in-app events and promotional content to re-engage segments. If you want a clearer playbook for improving conversion and getting more value from every campaign, this episode is a must-listen.

Let’s dive in: here’s Vivian Dang, Senior Director of Accounts & Client Services at Gummicube.

Today’s topics include:

Why aggregate conversion rates hide the real performance issues inside your App Store funnel
How to use custom product pages and custom store listings to tailor the storefront to each traffic source
Leveraging in-app events and promotional content to surface new features and re-engage lapsed users
Building disciplined, hypothesis-driven A/B testing frameworks that deliver continuous learnings
The key metrics that actually matter on iOS and Google Play — and how to measure impact channel by channel

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Vivian Dang

“If you’re not tailoring your App Store experience to each of the different traffic funnels that exist, then you’re literally just spending money to drive users to the page and then lose them.”

“A/B testing needs to be something where it’s extremely structured, where you have hypotheses going in so that you can get clearer answers at the very end of it.”

“You should be taking stock of every single individual channel and source you have so you can best prepare yourself for launch and ultimately for your long-term success.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#251: Solving app growth complexity with AI with Eoin Hallahan, CRO at SplitMetrics

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 03:00:00 +0000

For years, mobile marketers have been navigating a storm of signal loss, rising UA costs, siloed data, and an explosion of tools that promise growth but rarely deliver clarity.
Now, with 2026 on the horizon — and budgets tightening even further — one question keeps resurfacing: How do you drive confident, profitable app growth in the year ahead?

In this App Talk special of the Business of Apps Podcast, David Murphy speaks with Eoin Hallahan, Chief Revenue Officer at SplitMetrics, about what the mobile growth landscape is really demanding of teams as they prepare for 2026. Eoin lays out the new realities UA and ASO managers are facing: deeper signal loss, more channel fragmentation, and rising internal pressure to deliver results without expanding headcount.

You’ll hear how SplitMetrics is reshaping app growth with a unified approach to Apple Ads, App Store Optimization, and AI — including SplitMetrics Iris, an AI agent trained specifically on mobile marketing data. Eoin explains how Iris gives UA teams a strategic edge by turning competitor activity, keyword trends, and performance blind spots into instant, actionable guidance.

If you’re reevaluating your growth playbook for 2026 — or looking for a smarter, faster way to connect the dots across UA, ASO, and analytics — this conversation is essential listening.

Let’s dive in: here’s Eoin Hallahan, CRO at SplitMetrics.

Today’s topics include:

Why app growth is getting harder heading into 2026, from signal loss to budget pressure and fragmented data.
How UA and ASO workflows need to evolve, and why aligning paid and organic strategies is now essential.
What SplitMetrics Iris does, and how an AI agent built specifically for mobile marketing changes decision-making.
How AI speeds up competitive research, keyword strategy, and campaign optimization — with examples from Flow and NordVPN.
Where app growth is heading next, including automation, real-time intelligence, and a new operating model for mobile growth.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Eoin Hallahan

“Mobile app marketing is hard, and SplitMetrics exists to make it easy for our customers and to drive growth.”

“Conditions today are more volatile and unpredictable than ever, with trends shifting all the time — marketers need a new way of working to keep up.”

“Iris isn’t just automation; it’s a new operating system for mobile growth — it flips the model from dashboards and guesswork to instant, actionable clarity.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#250: CTV powering mobile conversion with Kaitlin Stebbins, Mobile Growth & Performance Media Lead at Samsung Ads

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 03:00:00 +0000

As mobile marketers head into another year of rising costs, shrinking signal, and fiercer competition across search and social, one performance channel keeps gaining momentum where few expected it: connected TV.

What used to be dismissed as “just a brand play” is now becoming a measurable, high-intent driver of installs and in-app actions — especially when powered by OEM data.

In this App Talk special of the Business of Apps Podcast, David Murphy sits down with Kaitlin Stebbins, Mobile Growth & Performance Media Lead at Samsung Ads, to unpack what CTV can really do for app growth. Kaitlin breaks down how Samsung’s unique data layer, measurement integrations, and precision targeting are helping mobile marketers reach new audiences, hit their KPIs, and diversify beyond the crowded Meta-Google-TikTok triangle.

You’ll hear why CTV is no longer an upper-funnel luxury, how Samsung connects exposure to mobile conversions, and why even allocating 5–10% of spend can unlock incremental users that traditional channels miss. If you’re rethinking your performance mix for 2026 — this conversation is your roadmap.

Today’s topics include:

Why CTV is no longer just brand awareness and how it now drives installs and in-app actions.
How Samsung Ads leverages OEM data to deliver precise, performance-focused targeting.
Why mobile marketers should diversify beyond search and social to reach higher-value audiences.
How CTV measurement works, including IP-based attribution through mobile measurement partners.
What success on CTV looks like, from KPI alignment to full-funnel performance across TV, mobile, and web.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Kaitlin Stebbins

“The idea that CTV can’t drive performance is a big misnomer — we’ve been working with direct-response advertisers for years, and it absolutely drives action.”

“CTV reaches a completely different audience than social — older, higher-income, and far more likely to take meaningful action after seeing an ad.”

“Lean heavily into CTV in 2026. Your big, beautiful creative deserves to be seen on the largest screen in the home — served to the right person at the right time.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#249: "The Modern UA Funnel: From Acquisition to Unstoppable Retention" App Promotion Summit NYC panel

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 03:00:00 +0000

You know it better than us - acquiring users is no longer the finish line. It’s barely the starting line.

In 2025, growth happens in the layers after the click — where segmentation, onboarding, product activation and value messaging determine whether a user becomes a one-and-done trial or a compounding revenue cohort.

In this special episode, we’re syndicating the App Promotion Summit NYC 2025 panel The Modern UA Funnel — from Acquisition to Unstoppable Retention. It’s a real-world look at how UA has changed — not just in channels, but in how teams measure success, attribute value, and design creative that bridges acquisition, activation and loyalty.

From ATT- pressure to creative fatigue to first-party signal strategy — this is where modern growth teams are now placing their bets.

Moderated by Nicole Weiss, Founder of Brass Finch, the panel of experts included:

Vincent Eterlet, Senior Director of Marketing at Fubo
🎗️ Jonathan Reich 🎗️, CEO of ZEDGE

The panel’s topics include:

the shift from measuring ROAS to measuring incremental value across the user lifecycle
full-funnel UA as one system — not acquisition vs retention teams
how creative testing now needs first-party signals, not broad meta heuristics
turning trial users into long-term revenue cohorts through moments that matter
durable growth during ATT era — building compounding retention loops instead of chasing cheap installs

#248: Beyond walled gardens: Unlocking new paths for UA with Omri Argaman, Co-Founder and CMO at Zoomd

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 03:00:00 +0000

As app marketers navigate rising costs and tightening privacy rules, one truth is becoming clear — relying solely on Meta, Google, and TikTok is no longer sustainable.

Beyond those walled gardens lies a vast, often overlooked landscape — the open internet — where opportunities for user acquisition remain untapped.

In this App Talks special of the Business of Apps Podcast, David Murphy sits down with Omri Argaman, Co-Founder and CMO of Zoomd, to unpack how brands can scale efficiently outside the major ad platforms. Omri shares lessons from running thousands of campaigns across more than 600 integrated channels — from SDK and OEM partnerships to mobile operators and in-game ads.

You’ll hear why advertisers need to rethink where their users are, how to combat fraud while operating in open markets, and what strategies help brands grow globally without overspending on the usual platforms.

If your growth plan still starts and ends with Meta or Google — this episode will change how you think about your acquisition mix.

Let’s dive in: here’s Omri Argaman, Co-Founder and CMO at Zoomd.

Today’s topics include:

Expanding beyond walled gardens: Why advertisers should move past Meta, Google, and TikTok to access untapped audiences and reduce competition.
Understanding the open internet: Overview of ad channels like SDK networks, OEMs, mobile operators, DSPs, affiliate, native, and in-game advertising.
Key challenges: Need for experienced partners, patience in optimization, regional differences, and higher exposure to ad fraud.
Success stories: Case studies showing 200% growth for a streaming app and 30% lower acquisition costs for an e-commerce brand.
Practical advice: Start small with test budgets, focus on performance models, use anti-fraud tools, and find reliable partners for sustainable scale.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Omri Argaman

“A lot of advertisers avoid the open internet because they don’t have the knowledge or the right partner — but that doesn’t mean their customers aren’t there.”

“Success outside the walled gardens takes patience. You need to test, measure, and adapt across regions — not just spend and hope for results.”

“Don’t be afraid to step beyond Meta and Google. Start small, work on performance models, and you’ll find a whole new ocean of users to acquire.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#247: "AI & App Engagement" App Promotion Summit NYC panel

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 03:00:00 +0000

What happens when AI meets lifecycle marketing? In this special episode, we’re bringing you a panel discussion from App Promotion Summit NYC 2025, featuring leaders from WHOOP, theCut, and Grohaus.

They unpack how AI is transforming app engagement — from personalization at scale to the rise of 100,000-message permutations. You’ll hear where AI makes a real impact, where it still stumbles, and what it takes to maintain brand voice when your intern is… ChatGPT.

🎧 Tune in for tactical insights, candid lessons, and fresh perspectives from the frontlines of app growth in the age of AI.

The panel of experts included:

David Brown-Landron, Founder & CEO of Grohaus
Samantha Smith, Sr. Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Engagement & Retention at WHOOP
Darrian Cate, Head of Growth at theCut

#246: How D2C is reshaping game monetization with Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 03:00:00 +0100

Building a sustainable game business has never been more complex—or more full of opportunity. As platforms evolve and user acquisition costs rise, developers are rethinking how they monetize and engage their players directly.

In this episode, Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla, breaks down the rise of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) transactions and how Xsolla’s Web Shop is helping game studios reclaim ownership over their player relationships.

We explore how going D2C opens new revenue streams, what infrastructure developers need to support it, and why the Web Shop is becoming more than just a payment layer—it’s turning into a strategic channel for growth, loyalty, and long-term success.

Today’s topics include:

Why D2C model's popularity grows among mobile game development studios
What is Web Shop and how it works
How Xsolla helps developers handle regulatory compliance, fraud prevention, global payments, and more
Building stronger connections with game players via D2C presence
What's next for the Web Shoo and D2C
What Chris would like to change in mobile space

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Chris Hewish

“When you go direct-to-consumer, you get the full power of e-commerce, the full power of the web for discovery, and the full power of building community. It creates a better, healthier business environment for your games.”

“It’s not just putting your in-game store on the web. It’s about doing much more with it—rotating sales, personalized offers, regional pricing, loyalty programs, and having full control over your player data.”

“Going off-platform sounds great, but now you’re responsible for taxes, VAT, compliance, and customer support. That’s why you need a partner who can be your merchant of record—handling it all while you focus on making great games.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#245: The future of web-to-app funnels for app growth with Andrey Shakhtin, Founder & CEO of FunnelFox

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 03:00:00 +0100

September rolls on—Apple’s big reveal is behind us, and the tech world is still catching its breath. With the unveiling of the iPhone Air, Apple has once again raised the bar in mobile innovation.

But while hardware dominates headlines, we’re zooming in on a quieter, yet equally game-changing shift: the migration of payments from app stores to the web.

This week’s episode of The Business of Apps Podcast features another App Talk special—conducted by David Murphy with Andrey Shakhtin, Founder & CEO of FunnelFox. The topic? The future of web-to-app funnels for app growth.

Andrey brings a wealth of insight from helping leading apps optimize their revenue stacks. He explains why the move to web payments isn’t just about saving fees—it introduces new friction points in refunds, compliance, and orchestration that many teams overlook. You’ll also hear how performance, UX, and product-led strategies are becoming central to making the transition stick.

If your team is exploring app-to-web monetization—or already deep in the trenches—this episode is your playbook for avoiding costly missteps.
Let’s dive in: here’s Andrey Shakhtin, CEO at FunnelFox

Today’s topics include:

More app developers are shifting payments from in-app to web to gain control and increase revenue, but the shift comes with serious operational complexity.
Web-to-app transitions often neglect the payment flow, leading to revenue leakage and conversion drop-offs due to poor infrastructure or oversight.
Optimizing the payment stack is now critical, and requires orchestration tools and performance visibility similar to what’s used in user funnels.
Many apps make the mistake of treating payments as an afterthought, ignoring failure handling, tax compliance, and retry logic.
The future lies in hybrid web–app monetization models, giving developers more flexibility and users more choice.
Speed, clarity, and trust in the payment flow are essential, especially as users become less tolerant of friction or confusion at checkout.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andrey Shakhtin

“Web-to-app funnels unlock attribution, reduce payment commissions, and give developers the flexibility to design user journeys that simply aren’t possible inside the app stores.”

“The main mistake I see is teams trying to build everything in-house. It slows down experimentation, drains resources, and pulls focus away from the product itself.”

“The future of app growth will belong to the teams that experiment fast, diversify acquisition channels, and master web-based monetization.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#244: Boost app revenue: intelligent pricing & payment with Andrew Davies, Chief Innovation Officer at Paddle

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 03:00:00 +0100

September is in full swing - Apple is about to host its highly anticipated event - fingers crossed the new iPhone will be awesome! “Back to School” theme is everywhere you look; one of the things that kids need to learn about is obviously finance. OK, not for kids but for app brands and developers, we want to share yet another App Talk interviewconducted by Peggy Anne Salz with Andrew Davies, Chief Innovation Officer at Paddle.

Yes - you will hear about innovation in the app pricing and payment; Andrew is a brilliant speaker and really knows the space. He explains how Paddle simplifies back-office complexity, enables web-to-app monetization, shares best practices in pricing and retention, highlights data-driven strategies to reduce churn, and outlines a future shaped by AI, no-code tools, and democratized monetization.

Today’s topics include:

Paddle’s role in solving back-office complexity: simplifying global payments, taxes, fraud prevention, and subscription management so founders can focus on product and growth.
The rise of web-to-app monetization: why app developers are diversifying beyond app stores and the opportunities this creates for both scaled and early-stage apps.
Customer insights and best practices: pricing experimentation, retention tactics like downgrade/pause offers, and the importance of true localization.
Retention strategies: macro trends like growth via reactivation, reducing involuntary churn, and Paddle’s case studies on churn prevention.
Future vision: preparing for the shift of volume out of app stores, the impact of AI and no-code on app creation, and Paddle’s mission to democratize monetization.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andrew Davies

“We often say second time founders choose Paddle because first time round you don’t really know what the problems are that are going to come tomorrow. But second time around you think, okay, I’ll put something in place at the beginning that means I’m not building up debt for the future.”

“If you are changing your price every quarter, you’ll outperform someone who isn’t by about 103% on ARPU. It’s not that every pricing change is good—it’s that you’re building a muscle for testing.”

“This is not just about making business work or removing complexity. You’re actually democratizing it for everyone who’s going to be a maker—to make and to sell. Because what’s the fun of making if you can’t monetize it?”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#243: Acquiring quality mobile users programatically with Rui Mateus, CTO of Mobrand

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 03:00:00 +0100

Yet another summer is wizzed by with a jet speed. With a few days left, we want to signify this moment by sharing with you yet another App Talk interview from App Promotion Summit London 2025, this time with Rui Mateus, CTO of Mobrand.

At the interview, Rui brilliantly laid out the state of programmatic advertising for mobile apps. He touched on the need for control and transparency in programmatic, the performance-based model, scaling and rebranding, ad fraud challenges, the role of AI in programmatic, and more.

Today’s topics include:

Control and transparency in programmatic: why marketers now demand visibility into KPIs, performance, and audience targeting rather than just raw results.
Performance-based model: Mobrand’s approach of charging advertisers only when quality users take meaningful in-app actions.
Technology as core DNA: Mobrand building its own bidder, using open RTB, and positioning itself as a tech company in the ad tech ecosystem.
Scaling and rebranding: maintaining momentum, keeping a lean but skilled team, and presenting Mobrand as a premium partner for app developers.
Ad fraud challenges: the scale of invalid traffic, detecting fraud through behavioural analysis, and the constant “arms race” with fraudsters.
Role of AI in programmatic: lowering entry barriers, enabling better audience modelling, and driving higher quality performance for advertisers.
Expansion of programmatic channels: growth in connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home, and cross-channel strategies.
Client focus: subscription apps, gambling, and finance apps with long conversion funnels where performance and quality users are critical.
Future vision: becoming a one-stop shop for app developers, simplifying promotion, and delivering seamless growth without unnecessary complexity.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Rui Mateus

“I consider that Mobrand is not necessarily a marketing company. It’s a tech company. We have a very big technological background, and when you have the technology, you have the control — and then you can give that to the companies you’re working with.”

“Our biggest challenge with programmatic at the moment is the amount of invalid traffic that exists on the bidstream. You think you are bidding on real users and you are not. There is a lot of bots making the whole flow as if they were users”

“Our objective is to be an alternative for app developers and to provide real value. We want to cut a little bit of the complexity of this market and build a platform where everything is as seamless as possible.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#242: Turning AI into real app business value with Steve Toy, Chief Executive Officer at Memrise

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 03:00:00 +0100

We’re certain you’re experiencing this feeling as well - it’s as if we’re finally living in the world that was promised to us by science fiction movies. To be fair, AI has evolved into Artificial Intelligence that is indeed intelligent. While it lacks consciousness, the distinction between the two would be a topic for a separate conversation on another podcast.

Today, I’ve invited Steve to assist app brands in understanding this complex landscape of Generative AI. Our goal is to empower you to make informed decisions about which AI tools to utilize, avoid common pitfalls, comprehend the skill sets your team requires, and more.

Today’s topics include:

How to evaluate AI tools without getting lost in comparisons between models
The most common mistake people make trying to integrate AI into their work
Given AI influence, what skill sets development teams need to develop
What role will "middle layer" tools play in AI adoption
Advice to leaders trying to help their teams adapt to rapid AI changes

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Steve Toy

“You don’t really care about the performance metrics of all the different models out there. What matters is whether it can do the job you need it to do well and effectively.”

“The biggest mistake is not understanding the job to be done. If you just bring tools into your system without a clear goal, you end up as the proverbial hammer wandering around looking for a nail.”

“Expertise is actually less important in this world. What separates those who succeed with AI from those who don’t is perseverance — the willingness to go one more round”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#241: App revenue growth ideas with Jens-Fabian Goetzmann, Head of Product at RevenueCat

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 03:00:00 +0100

When it comes to growing app revenue, there’s no shortage of advice — but separating the shiny “growth hacks” from the strategies that actually move the needle is another story. In today’s crowded subscription app market, you can’t just set a price, launch, and hope for the best. You need to understand your users, their behaviors, and the subtle levers that can turn one-time downloads into long-term customers.

In this episode, I’m joined by Jens to draw on his experience both inside a subscription app team and now supporting others, Jens shares practical, tested ways to increase revenue — from smarter pricing strategies to better handling of cancellations and reactivations.

If you’re building, marketing, or monetizing an app, this conversation is packed with insights you can start applying right away, whether your goal is to capture more value from your most loyal users, adapt pricing for different markets, or simply stop leaving revenue on the table.

Today’s topics include:

The most effective ways to identify untapped revenue opportunities
Balancing global pricing strategies with local market purchasing power
How to decide what innovations (new tools, APIs) are worth adopting vs which might distract from the core offering
Th most overlooked techniques to reduce churn and increase reactivations
The role of partnerships in creating long-term customer value

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

“The core offering should always come first. Value needs to be created before it is extracted—monetization works best when you’ve already built something that engages and retains users.”

“Start experimenting with new customers first. They come in without preconceived notions, making it easier to test pricing, tiers, or new models without alienating your existing user base.”

“Premature optimization is the biggest distraction. If your business model doesn’t work with the basics, you’re unlikely to fix it just by tweaking monetization tactics.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#240: Creative that drives growth: ConsultMyApps’ playbook with Megan Evans, Creative Director at ConsultMyApp

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 03:00:00 +0100

OK, how many times do you hear on your team’s meetings “You need to be more creative!” Well, I have this question: “How can I be more creative with my app’s ad creatives?”

Yes, today we’re featuring another App Talk interview that covers how creative drives app growth. It was taken by our Peggy Anne Salz with Megan Evans, Creative Director at ConsultMyApp during App Promotion Summit London 2025.

In this interview, Megan talked about treating app creative as a specialized, data-driven discipline — not just design — means testing systematically, embracing what works (even if it’s off-brand), integrating across the user journey, and using AI to scale strategy, not just production.

Today’s topics include:

App creatives deserve the same strategic focus as acquisition and product decisions.
Generalist designers often miss the nuances that drive mobile conversions.
“Ugly” or off-brand ads can outperform polished ones because they connect better with users.
Isolating variables is key to knowing what actually works in creative testing.
AI helps creative teams save time and focus on strategy by automating repetitive tasks.
Creative assets for ASO, UA, and retention should work together as part of a unified strategy.
Success comes from treating creative as a specialized, system-driven discipline.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Megan Evans

“Sometimes it’s the one you don’t want that wins, which is difficult for brands to understand.”

“Don’t change too much at once — otherwise you’re never going to understand exactly what’s moving the needle.”

“Instead of spending time on things that can be automated through AI, we’re now focusing on the parts that need the human brain.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#239: Building communities: Stream’s approach with Kenzie Wilson, GTM Lead - AI Moderation at Stream

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 03:10:00 +0100

How is your summer so far? I hope you’re listening to this episode lying somewhere in a shadow on a beach, and with a breeze keeping you relaxed. I also hope that you are in a company of people you love to hang out with - be it your family or friends. Why? It’s because we all belong to a community, right? Yes - this is the moment when I’m tying in my intro with this week’s episode’s topic 😊

So here we go - today we’re featuring one of our latest App Talk interviews. This time, Peggy Anne Salz interviewed Kenzie Wilson, GTM Lead - AI Moderation at Stream - the platform that helps apps build real-time experiences that scale.

Kenzie talks about why community is the key to app stickiness and how Stream’s APIs power real-time chat, feeds, video, and AI moderation for millions of users. You’ve heard it right - millions!

Today’s topics include:

Why in-app communities matter: Building social features directly in your app boosts retention and gives users a reason to return.
Strava’s evolution: A case study in transforming utility apps into thriving communities.
Flexible, fast integration: Stream’s API lets even mature apps easily add chat, feeds, and video—with AI-powered moderation tailored by industry.
Unexpected use cases: From HR tech to field ops and Telehealth, community tools aren’t just for social apps.
Real engagement uplift: Apps typically see up to 50% more engagement, especially if they already have an external audience.
Trends and tools: Live-streaming with chat, audio rooms for gaming, and embedded features like schedulers or activity maps drive stickiness and insight.
Focused, niche social: Users now prefer smaller, purpose-driven communities over noisy platforms.
Stream’s future: Expanding video offerings, deeper moderation tools, and positioning as a one-stop platform for in-app communication.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Kenzie Wilson

“If you already have kind of that cult following of your app, and then you give them a place where they can actually talk to each other, your engagement is going to go through the roof.”

“Every app is a community. You have users, you can have a community—and it’s actually pretty simple to do.”

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#238: Stand out with smarter mobile messaging with Jason Lyman, Chief Marketing Officer at Customer.io

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:00:00 +0100

In today’s crowded, AI-fueled landscape, it’s not enough to just have messaging — it has to stand out. In this episode, I’m joined by Jason from Customer.io to unpack what makes great mobile messaging work: from building frameworks rooted in value and differentiation, to using first-party data to deliver the right message at the right moment.

We’ll talk strategy, execution, and the tools that help brands stay personal, timely, and unmistakably themselves — even at scale.

Today’s topics include:

Jason Lyman''s bio
What is Customer.io
How brands can can use AI but stay authentic
The role of first-party data in making messaging more timely and relevant
Timing and channels for effective mobile messaging
Common mistaken made at personalizing messaging at scale
Balancing automation with authenticity

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jason Lyman

"Yeah, this is an interesting paradox that we've kind of created for ourselves. We have all these incredible tools like AI recommendations, powerful automation, sophisticated targeting, but everybody's using that playbook. And I think the result is customers are getting bombarded with messages that sounds very, very similar. so standing out needs to be less about being louder or frequent, and it needs to be focused around being more authentic."

"So, first party data is absolutely the future, especially with privacy regulations that are tidying up across the globe. So here's what I see happening. think gold marketers are sitting on these gold mines of customer data, but they're not using it effectively. know, a lot of people are, are thinking about segmentation in a very traditional way."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#237: What not to do: Lessons from consulting hundreds of apps Reed Kuhn, Head of Business Strategy at Branch.io

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 03:00:00 +0100

All right, I think all of you would agree—regardless of your role or area of expertise in this industry—that learning from the mistakes of others saves you time, money, and, most importantly, nerve cells. Because let’s be honest, trial and error is great… until it’s your budget on the line.

So, today we have Reed on the show to help us skip some of those growing pains. He’s here to share what’s working, what’s not, and some fresh, thought-provoking approaches to both app marketing and development. Whether you’re scaling a product or just getting started, I think you’ll walk away with a few insights worth stealing—or at least borrowing.

After founding the Business Strategy team at Branch six years ago, former strategy consultant Reed Kuhn has worked closely with hundreds of customers across verticals. Along the way, he’s picked up some sharp lessons—not just about best practices, but more importantly, about what not to do. In this episode, we’ll explore guiding objectives for app product owners and marketers, the greatest hits of killer use cases, mobile growth fails, and some simple ideas to make more from what you already have. Plus, we’ll look ahead with some bold predictions about how all of us will interact with apps in the AI-powered future.

Today’s topics include:

Reed Kuhn's bio
What is Branch.io
A guiding principle for what brings value to app users
Common mistakes
A quick win in app development
Effective strategies
New strategies on the Reed's radar
What's coming up - in the near future and far out

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Reed Kuhn:

"Over the years, so many of our customers fall into two big buckets. And this is, I think, the simplest framework that I have for differentiating between apps and what they're trying to achieve in terms of value. And that is you have commerce apps, which are the most obvious ones. This is your retailers, fashion, even quick serve restaurants, fast food chains, Starbucks, and also the big box retailers, the best buys of the world, even department stores like Nordstrom.

Those are commerce apps. Users primarily are going in there to shop. And hopefully, they actually buy something. And we do know that conversion rates are much higher in apps than on mobile web or even desktop. So those are easy to wrap your head around. The app exists to make it much easier for the user to shop and, in some cases, actually get support. If you want to manage a delivery or send something back, you can do that in the app rather than having to call someone up.

On the flip side, you have apps that don't really sell you anything, but they still serve a very important purpose to the user. So I call those companion apps and they're more diverse than commerce apps. So whereas commerce apps are very conversion focused, companion apps are much more feature focused. It's, I able to access information? So almost everybody is going to have their credit card or bank app on their phone, or at least they should be at this point. If they don't want to go there in person."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#236: Web-first growth: the new playbook for app UA with Gessica Bicego, Marketing & Growth Consultant

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 03:00:00 +0100

If there is one feature that helps app marketers to persevere through so much of a market change, it is adaptability. As app user acquisition costs were rising and privacy constraints in mobile emerged, marketers came up with the solution - web to app user acquisition channel.

Rather than sending users directly to an app store, marketers now route users to a mobile web page first—typically one optimized for onboarding, education, or even a light product experience. This allows for better control over messaging, tracking, and personalization before nudging users to install the app.

In this episode, we’ll delve into the concept of web-first growth with Gessica, exploring the new playbook for acquiring app users.

Today’s topics include:

Gessica Bicego's bio
What convinced Gessica to switch to web-based strategies for mobile app UA
How to decide what specific "web to app" approach to take - go with mini landing pages, full web onboarding, or else?
Web versus app testing
How to avoid getting lost in lots of onboarding screens

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Gessica Bicego

"I would say there are two approaches. Like either you send them to a landing page, but ultimately they convert on an app store - so all the call-to-action will lead to the App Store, or Google Play store. Or you guide them through a web funnel, where you have like lots of questions and you end up purchasing on the web."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#235: “Next gen ad creative: hits & misses” App Promotion Summit London panel

Mon, 26 May 2025 03:00:00 +0100

What makes a mobile ad stick — and what makes it flop?

In this special episode, we feature a panel discussion from App Promotion Summit London 2025, we hosted in April.

Creative leaders explore next gen ad creative — the bold experiments, the unexpected successes, and the flops we can all learn from. From storytelling trends to performance-driven design, discover what’s working, what’s not, and where mobile advertising is heading next.

🎧 Tune in for fresh insights, practical takeaways, and real-world lessons from the frontlines of creative innovation.

The panel of experts included:

Yoann Pavy, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer at AIApply
Freya Fine, CMO / Founder of Koru / &Fine
Mustafa Mohamed, Founder of Shroomi AI

#234: “Beyond installs: the future of app growth (2025)” App Promotion Summit London panel

Mon, 19 May 2025 03:00:00 +0100

It’s been a couple of weeks since we wrapped up our App Promotion Summit London 2025. We were really happy to have so many bright, smart people under the same roof to share their knowledge and experience in app growth, app product development, ASO and so much more.

We had several hundred folks from all corners of the world listening and learning from presentations and workshops, connecting with each other and do business.

One of the highlights of the event was the “Beyond Installs: the future of app growth 2025” panel and in this episode we want to share it with you.

The panel brought together people from four verticals - navigation, financials, e-Learning and gaming.

This panel of experts included:

Nidhi Singh, the Regional Marketing Manager for UK & Turkey at AppsFlyer
Greg Turtle, Head of Growth at what3words
Giulia Saletto, Head of Performance Marketing & Growth at Tide
Diane Germann, Head of Paid Content and Social at Blinkist
Yagiz Ozyurek, UA Team Lead for Product Madness

#233: AI-powered creative optimization for mobile today with Asaf Yanai, CEO at Alison.ai

Mon, 12 May 2025 03:00:00 +0100

The level of adoption of ChatGPT, the revolutionary LLM-based AI chatbot, is staggering. I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that by now ChatGPT and other similar AI chatbots are everywhere; people use them for work and leisure all the time.

Sometimes, it feels like at some point generative AI chatbots will be joining team meetings not to take notes and summarize what was said but to report on what they did last week.

OK, jokes aside - today we want to talk about the role of Generative AI in mobile ad creatives optimization.

Today’s topics include:

Asaf Yanai's bio
About Alison.ai
AI's impact on ad creative optimization
Balancing AI-driven automation with human creativity in mobile advertising
Staying competitive with AI-powered tools

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Asaf Yanai

"It changes everything from start to finish, or it could potentially change everything. It depends on the adoption. And I'll explain. I think that what happened in the past five to six years is a complete, complete change in the industry. However, if you look closely, you'll see that not all companies have changed. Not all companies have changed their operations or processes.

The ones that adopted AI early on and those that adopted AI fully are a lot more advanced now. They're faster, they're quicker. They are spot on when it comes to strategy. And also the entire operation became a lot less heavy, heavy with costs, heavy with headcount, and heavy with processes and operations."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#232: Mobile app paywalls & cognitive biases with Max Amelang, Product Marketing Manager at Prematch

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 03:00:00 +0100

One of the most important metrics for a mobile app is its conversion rate. It tells you how many people that use the app for free become your paying customers. It’s about how profitable and sustainable your app is.

Now, if you are one of the die-hard Pink Floyd fans, you gotta love their song The Wall. If you are an app marketer, your wall is the paywall :-) Among many tools that you may use to increase the number of people who become your paying customers, once they hit the paywall, are cognitive biases.

You may heard of them if you have a peripheral interest in psychology.

Today, Max will tell you about using cognitive biases to significantly increase your app’s conversion rate.

Today’s topics include:

Max Amelang's bio
About PreMatch
Ethical boundaries in cognitive biases
The most underrated cognitive biases
High-impact experiments with paywalls
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Max miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Max Amelang

"Yeah, it's absolutely a valid question because especially in the beginning, it's extremely tempting to see all of these tools you can use to somehow increase this conversion rate by margin or by another percent and so on. But then I also quickly realized not only as a product manager, but also as a user, how would I feel if I stumble across this? "

"Obviously I know the tricks, so maybe I need to be a bit harder in order to define if something is good or not so good anymore. And I then came up with like, how would my parents behave on this paywall? Because parents just as a symbol for an older generation that are not as native with mobile apps.

And I always am fascinated when I see how my dad navigates his app and when I realize, why did he just click on this button because it's blinking quicker? And I realized, okay, this is how easily he's influenced. So as a very soft first test, I'm thinking about, okay, how would my dad would behave on this paywall? Would he buy just because of the cognitive biases or would he still be able to make his own decision?"

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#231: Beyond behavior: unlocking intent with on-device AI with Dieter Rappold CEO at ContextSDK

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 03:00:00 +0100

Ok, here is the thing.

Most apps are still built on rigid, one-size-fits-all user flows. They rely heavily on historic behavior - what a user clicked on last week or which segment they’re in. But user needs change moment to moment. And when apps fail to adapt, users just leave.

The next evolution isn’t about personalizing based on identity - it’s about adapting based on intent. And that intent can only be accurately understood in context.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about the Context Platform by ContextSDK that enables apps to detect real-world context in real time - whether a user is walking, relaxing, commuting, charging their phone, or simply on the move - and then infer their intent. Using a combination of on-device machine learning and server-side intelligence, the platform helps apps deliver the right experience or message at the right moment.

This isn’t just a UX upgrade - it is a fundamentally better way to retain users and drive revenue, while respecting privacy and improving performance.

Today’s Topics Include:

Dieter Rappold's' bio
About ContextSDK
Switching focus from app users' behavior to their intent
How Context Platform helps LiveOps maximize their efforts
Example of how detecting user context in real-time improves the app experience
How context-aware delivery fix the issue with intrusive push notifications
Achieving personalization without relying on personal data or permissions
What it takes to implement Context Platform into the app

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Dieter Rappold

"It’s great to know a lot about past behavior, but past behavior is looking into the past. Intent is happening in the moment and is looking forward"

"We collect enough data points on patterns of movement and behavior and analyze them with the smartest machine learning models out there. That allows us to infer intent—and that’s something extremely powerful when shaping app experiences,"

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#230: “Beyond Downloads: App Engagement Strategies” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 03:00:00 +0000

I think by now you’ve noticed that the last few episodes weren’t regular ones, on those we featured our discussion panels from App Promotion Summit Berlin 2024.

Why? Well, the physical space in the venue in Berlin was obviously limited and it’s not like you can fly to Berlin to visit the summit on a whim - time and money aren’t always there when you need them, right? But we don’t want you to miss an opportunity to listen to these discussions and learn from it.

So here comes the next panel - “Beyond downloads: app engagement strategies"

It was hosted by Keziah Husselbee, Product Marketing Specialist at Adobe.

It was a pleasure to have on the panel people from:

Jelena Zbijowski, Head of CRM & Product Marketing at Blinkist
Roma Rey, Head of CRM at ParshipMeet Group
Robert Vaternam, Senior CRM Manager at Freeletics
Jon Genovard, Senior CRM Manager at ShareTheMeal

#229: “How top apps win at user acquisition” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Good news - the winter is finally over, and I’m sure you’ve missed the warmth just as much as I have.

Today, I’m thrilled to share with you another special episode featuring one of the discussion panels we hosted last December during the App Promotion Summit Berlin.

This panel covers a wide range of topics, including user acquisition strategies, incrementality and ROI measurement, retargeting and re-engagement strategies, and more.

The panel was hosted by Bob Hollanders, Head of Sales & Account Management, EMEA & US at Appier.

We were fortunate to have on the panel:

Victoria Chang, Performance Marketing Lead at Wooga
Pascal Priso, Performance Marketing Manager at Babbel
Karst Kortekaas, Director, App Solutions, EMEA at Appier
Cansu Bengü Ağaoğlu, Head of Sales (Central Europe) at Adjust

#228: “Data-drive strategies for UA” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Another week - another bonus episode for you.

There is no other way to put it - data is the fuel that powers current economy. When we look at the mobile industry, we see that it is the absolutely essential part of the picture. You know it so well - acquiring app users was never easy but these days it is a real challenge. To win the game, you need to work out a data-driven strategy to acquire users for your app.

On this episode, we feature “Data-driven strategies for UA” panel discussion we hosted during App Promotion Summit Berlin last December.

The topics covered on the panel included user acquisition strategies, incrementality testing and attribution, branding and consistency, creative strategies for UA, creative fatigue, fake ads and transparency, playable ads, future plans for 2025, and more.

This panel of experts includes:

Ece Stepien, Regional Director Western Europe & MENAT at AppsFlyer
Jessica Gotti, Head of Performance Marketing at Paired
Matej Jurcak, ASO & Growth Partnerships at Pixel Federation
Marta Fogel, Head of Marketing at NeuroNation
Misha Osintcev, Growth Director at Kolibri Games

All right, without any further ado…let’s go.

#227: AI UGC: Scaling Mobile Creative with Andy Willers, Co-Founder at Favoured

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 03:00:00 +0000

AI is reshaping the way brands create and test ads, and mobile marketing is at the forefront of this revolution. With AI-generated UGC (aka User Generated Content), creative testing at scale is no longer a challenge—it is an opportunity.

Today, I’m joined by Andy to explore how their partnership with HeyGen is unlocking new possibilities for mobile advertisers. How is AI changing the game, and what does this mean for the future of creative? Let’s find out.

Today’s Topics Include:

Andy Willers' bio
About Favoured
Challenges Favoured faced before integrating AI-generated UGC
What impact AI UGC had on one of the campaigns Favoured was running
Biggest opportunities and risks for brands scaling creative testing with AI-generated content
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Andy miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andy Willers

" What AI has allowed us to do, particularly on the UGC side, is massively increase our capability for creative testing,” Andy said. “HeyGen’s digital avatars enable us to quickly generate multiple UGC scripts or executions—allowing us to test different messaging and ad styles at scale.."

"We’re not at a stage where you type in a prompt and AI spits out a perfect execution. The human touch is still essential,” he explained. “HeyGen gives us the raw material—high-quality AI avatars—but it still requires skilled video editors to integrate them effectively with B-roll footage and visual elements."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#226: “User Acquisition in 2025” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Today, we’re excited to feature a panel discussion we hosted at our App Promotion Summit Berlin last December. It focused on a crucial topic for all app marketers: User Acquisition in 2025.

The panel covered a wide range of topics, including optimizing ad channels, the shift from attribution to incrementality, exploring new growth channels, and more.

It was hosted by George Natsvlishvili, Co-Founder at We Up and the panelists were:

Şebnem Alpaylı O'Rourke, Senior User Acquisition Manager at Stillfront Group
Mark Mukhin, Team Lead App Marketing at AutoScout24
Gaurav Bhattacharya, Performance Marketing Lead at Zenjob
Alper Taner, Head of Performance at BGNet Mobile

#225: Driving App Growth with A/B Testing with Tina Kim, Director of Product Management at Huckleberry Labs

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Today, we begin with another trivia question for you - can you think of the best case for A/B testing? Are you thinking about a particular app, service, or product?

No - it’s bigger than that, I’m talking about the evolution of life on this planet. No, there is no a girl or a guy, sitting with a MacBook Pro and running A/B tests for all flora and fauna on this planet :-) My point is that testing is very fundamental and, if it will make you feel a bit more important, you’re doing it along with the Mother Nature.

To talk about A/B testing for driving app growth we invited Tina.

Today’s Topics Include:

Tina Kim's bio
About Huckleberry Labs
Using A/B tests to make confident decisions
Generating actionable insights with limited resources and tight timelines
Incorporating learnings from failed A/B tests
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Tina miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Tina Kim

" So A-B testing is really useful for when there is a shadow of doubt. Put it so whatever you A/B test, it's not some idea that you've picked from the air. It's always based off of some well-informed hypothesis, whether it be analyzing your behavioral data of your users or you've done some user research market research as well. There is always some well-informed hypothesis that drives you to build something."

"The other thing is where A-B testing can really help you move forward faster is during the development process, the design process, there may be countless arguments about the perfect copy. Some people are very particular about copy, but and we may spend like endless cycles just trying to perfect the copy, but that's not the point of the change. Let's just test it. And A-B testing is iterative. And so you find something that you feel good with, it doesn't have to be perfect, and you test it and move forward. And if you feel like there's opportunity to squeeze more juice, test it again, right? And so I've been able to move forward faster."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#224: Breaking down the Subscription Value Loop strategy with Phil Carter, Growth Advisor at Elemental Growth

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 03:00:00 +0000

In the future, history textbooks will be telling the story of how, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, we all collectively jumped into the world of mobile apps.

Now, you may be super excited about the growth of the mobile ecosystem or shake your head about its externalities, unintended consequences, but it’s undeniable - mobile apps take a huge spot in our lives.

Today, a big chunk of the mobile app economy space belongs to app subscriptions - Netflix, Apple TV, Tinder, Duolingo, the list goes on and on. If you build apps yourself and monetize them with the subscription model, you will be really interested to learn about Phil’s Subscription Value Loop strategy.

Today’s Topics Include:

Phil Carter's bio
Key challenges developers of subscription-based apps face today
Identifying and refining the core value proposition
Strategies to convert free users into subscribers, while maintaining a great user experience and ensuring long-term profitability
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Phil miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Phil Carter:

"The core of the subscription value loop framework that I teach about in my course is a company's core value promise. In other words, what is the value that you're providing to a user, and ideally to a paying subscriber, that is going to not just bring them to the product in the first place, but cause them to continue paying you a subscription over a long period of time?"

"And value delivery is typically led by marketing teams, sometimes with the support of growth product teams or sales teams if you have a B2B business. And value delivery is all about making sure that you have sustainable unit economics, right? You're going to have some amount of LTV that you get from users. But in order to have a sustainable business, you need a strong LTV over CAC ratio and a rapid payback period. And that depends critically on your cost of user acquisition."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#223: “AI breakthroughs: revolutionizing mobile app marketing" App Promotion Summit San Francisco panel

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 03:00:00 +0000

The holiday season is practically around the corner. We can all hear The Jingle Bells singing and some nice gifts from Amazon are waiting underneath the Christmas Tree.

Anyway, this week, we have yet another exclusive bonus episode for you, featuring the panel discussion from the App Promotion Summit San Francisco 2024.

As you know, we organize the App Promotion Summit several times a year to bring together app marketing, growth, product, CRM, and revenue executives. These events feature panels where industry professionals share their experiences and insights on emerging trends that significantly impact the sector.

During this year’s App Promotion Summit San Francisco, we held a panel dedicated to AI breakthroughs in mobile app marketing.

It was hosted by Jenny Pollock, Mobile App Expert & Founder of WOMEN AND AI and the panelists were:

Lindsey Witmer Collins, Founder & CEO of WLCM
Jillian Arnold, co-founder of Snapback
Xenia Kupriyanova, senior growth marketing manager at houzz
Nancy Roberts, president of CRAFTSMAN+

#222: App marketing success in the privacy-centric era with Nicoline Strøm-Jensen, Head of Program Management at Adjust

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 03:00:00 +0000

Last year, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the App Store and Google Play. If you’ve been part of the app industry for all these years, you saw the sea of change in app marketing.
We all remember the exponential growth of both stores, and the moment when they hit the ceiling. We witnessed the rise of freemium and subscription models, the introduction of app store optimization, and the burst on the scene of Pokémon Go, for Christ’s sake.

And then all of a sudden, it turned out that for all these years the industry had been missing one crucial component - the app user’s privacy. So, it’s been more than three years since Apple introduced its ATT framework, and, of course, GDPR fundamentally changed user data collection and digital advertising.

Today, we have Nicoline to talk about what it takes to achieve app marketing success in the privacy-centric era.

Today’s Topics Include:

Nicoline Strøm-Jensen's bio
The biggest obstacles for app marketers in the privacy-first landscape
Effective strategies for measuring and optimizing ad campaigns in today's privacy-focused environment
Emerging strategies tools and strategies to stay competitive and compliant
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Nicoline miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Nicoline Strøm-Jensen:

"So, the first thing I want to point out is that I often use the term “signal loss” as a buzzword in this field when discussing privacy-first approaches. So signal loss is what makes and has been making marketers the most nervous because in practical terms, this references device identifiers and device identifiers were the key granularity of data that marketers prior to the push for new privacy focus was what they used to efficiently target their user segments with personalized ads and promos. But even as an aspect of that and higher level was just to understand where their marketing dollars were bringing in the best return."

"And over the past three years, the industry has been working together. And this is something that I've talked about in different conferences or just with clients. That's one aspect that I have enjoyed. When I entered this industry, it was rather competitive and, you know, then we had this moment of, okay - we got to work together. We've got these different components and we're not going to be able to all see success without that collaboration. And so, going from that, the conversations that I have with clients are first and foremost, all right, I'm sorry, but we have to let go of the past."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#221: Shaping the future of app distribution: trust, growth, and regulation with Shalom Michaeli, Managing Director, Alternative App Stores at Digital Turbine

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 03:00:00 +0000

A quick trivia question - what was significant about the year 2008 technology-wise? It was the year when Bitcoin was introduced, and Spotify was launched. Am I missing something here? Right - both the Apple App Store and Google Play stores were launched that year. It was about the introduction of the new software distribution model for developers. Then followed the witty slogan from Apple: “There is an app for that!”, and both platforms began to count and brag about the number of apps released on those stores.

Moving forward, the status quo that was established was Apple only had one app store - an exclusive distribution channel for iOS developers. On the other hand, Google had multiple third-party app stores for Android, on top of the Google Play store. For a while, it felt like it was going to be like that forever.

And then “forever” ended. On March 5th of 2024, Apple released iOS 17.4, enabling third-party app stores on iOS devices within the EU, complying with the EU’s regulation.

On this episode, we have Shalom to talk about shaping the future of app distribution: trust, growth, and regulation.

Today’s Topics Include:

Shalom Michaeli bio
What is Digital Turbine
The impact of European regulations and new tech on the future of third-party app stores
Essential strategies for alternative app stores to build consumer trust while scaling their presence globally
How Digital Turbine uses research and partnerships to prepare for the future of app distribution
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Shalom miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Shalom Michaeli:

"You know what, building consumer trust is crucial for alternative stores to compete with Apple and Google. Because the goal is not only to bring the user to install once or purchase once from your alternative application. The goal is to get a repeatable customer base that coming over, engaging, installing, spending, coming over again because they had a good interaction, because they had good experience."

"This is this is a perfect storm the way I used to call it and for an app developer and for the entire ecosystem. Because this is the time when three elements in my opinion are coming all together. The regulation changes like DMA and few others that are happening across the world in different countries. The second point is developers' needs for growth. And the third one is available technologies."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#220: Using cognitive biases to boost app engagement and revenue with Senior Product Manager at Cleo

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

One of the staples of app marketing is understanding of your customer. If you understand her needs, her likes and dislikes, her behavior, you can build a winning strategy to connect your app with people who will be your loyal users.

Now, do you think people behave rationally, logically? Sometimes they do but way more often their behavior is influenced by biases, cognitive biases. Wonder what this is and how it connects to app marketing? You’ve come to the right place, in this episode Angèle will answer these questions for you.

Today’s Topics Include:

Angèle Lenglemetz bio
What is Cleo AI
What are cognitive biases
Striking a balance between leveraging cognitive biases and ensuring ethical practices
Fitting using cognitive biases into the broader app development strategy
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Angèle miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Angèle Lenglemetz:

"Cognitive biases are like shortcuts that our brain takes to make decisions faster. They're really powerful because they tap into universal human tendencies, things like avoiding loss, valuing scarcity, or seeking closure.

At Cleo, we use biases thoughtfully. One example is loss aversion. People feel the pain of losing more intensely, something more intensely than the joy of gaining the same thing. So we leverage this with features like saving streaks. If a user is consistently saving, Cleo will remind them like don't lose your streak and it's super simple but it taps into that innate desire to avoid loss and it actually really works."

"I think as fun and as important as cognitive bias are, they are never more than like the icing on a solid cake. And they're amazing for enhancing an experience, but they won't work if the product itself doesn't solve a real problem. For app creators, my advice is therefore like first, focus on the fundamentals first. If your core product doesn't deliver value, no amount of nudging and cognitive bias layer you add to it will fix that."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#219: “Beyond 2024: innovative user acquisition strategies” App Promotion Summit San Francisco panel

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

This week, we are pleased to offer an exclusive bonus episode. As you know, we organize the App Promotion Summit several times a year to bring together app marketing, growth, product, CRM, and revenue executives. These events feature panels where industry professionals share their experiences and insights on emerging trends that significantly impact the sector.

During this year’s App Promotion Summit San Francisco, we convened a panel dedicated to innovative user acquisition strategies that are poised to shape the app industry moving forward.

It was hosted by Kevin Kinnison, Client Partner Lead at Adjust and the panelists were:

Sandy Shen, Mobile Marketing Lead at LinkedIn
Drew Hambke, Director of Marketing at Kongregate
Lomit Patel, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Tynker
Lenette Yap, User Acquisition Lead at Public

#218: Future of advertising: privacy and AI with Gaylord Zach, Head of Mobile Product at Verve

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we delve into the evolving landscape of digital advertising, where privacy and precision intersect. Our guest, Gaylord Zach, Head of Mobile Product at Verve, brings his expertise to the forefront, exploring how the advertising industry can adapt to a privacy-first world without sacrificing effectiveness. With regulations like GDPR and Apple’s ATT reshaping the ad tech ecosystem, Gaylord unpacks the challenges advertisers face today, from diminished data signals to the rising importance of trust and transparency.

Throughout the discussion, we learn how Verve is pioneering solutions like ATOM, their anonymized targeting technology, which identifies user cohorts while safeguarding individual privacy. Gaylord also shares insights into leveraging AI at the edge and integrating Google’s Privacy Sandbox to redefine audience targeting. Tune in to discover how advertisers and publishers can thrive in this new era of privacy-conscious innovation while maintaining meaningful connections with their audiences.

Today’s Topics Include:

Why targeting is crucial for advertisers and publishers
Verve's approach to user privacy in ad targeting
Privacy-first targeting approach
Addressing relevant audiences without identifying individual users
Practical example of such implementation
Handling big diversity in targeting
How Verve uses AI for its ATOM solution data processing
Example of such usage
What 3rd party ad targeting tech Verve team has tested and implemented so far

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Gaylord Zach:

"For publishers aiming to monetize effectively, it’s crucial to represent their inventory accurately so advertisers can confidently invest in ad placements. Advertisers need to target the right audience, personalize messages, and present them with the best possible creatives. This helps create a good match between the ad campaign and the user. Finally, advertisers must measure campaign success and attribute performance to the relevant placements."

"Our technology, known as ATOM—short for "Anonymized Targeting on Mobile"—enables us to identify relevant user cohorts and create audience segments directly on the user's device. This approach allows us to deliver personalized ads without relying on third-party data, thus preserving user privacy. "

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#217: Cracking international app pricing with Jacob Rushfinn, Founder & Author at Retention.Blog

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

For every mobile app out there there was this moment when somebody in its team was making a decision about the app’s pricing. Coding an app isn’t easy, designing an app is not easy either but when it comes to deciding how much money you’re going to charge for an app, it is more complicated then one would think. Charging for an app copy, in-app purchase or app subscription are all not easy things to crack.

Now ask yourself - what if I want to go international with my app? How should I price my app in UK, France, Sweden, Japan, on Mars? Ok - the last one isn’t your worry, yet. Jokes aside, international app pricing can be really complicated and that’s why we have today Jacob to explain how it works.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jacob's background
Common mistakes app developers make setting prices for international markets
Building a global price index
Developing effective pricing strategies with limited resources
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jacob miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jacob Rushfinn:

"Yeah, I think the most common one is just relying on Apple and Google. So Apple and Google in App Store Connect and Play Store have give you default price recommendations or price localization. So you input your price for the country, your base data of your largest in, and then they suggest, OK, what should your price be in these other countries?

And I think people often get confused about what Apple and Google are actually saying here. We look at these prices and we think, okay, Apple and Google know best, but really what all they're doing is saying, on the taxes and fees in those other markets, this is the price that would get you the same amount of revenue or equalized revenue across those regions. But they're not actually optimizing and maximizing for conversions in those local markets."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#216: Balancing profit, people and planet in mobile apps with Yves Benchimol, CEO & Co-Founder at WeWard

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

This episode will a bit usual. Previously, we covered a broad spectrum of app marketing topics that are on all people’s minds - user acquisition, app retention, app monetization, app subscriptions and so forth. Today, we’re going to touch on something that unfortunately isn’t appreciated as much as it should be.

If you ever watched the 2020’s movie The Social Dilemma, that explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, you would remember that addiction was in the heart of the issue that the movie explored.

Well, in today’s episode we’ll be talking about how to build apps that engage with people on a big scale and yet - they don’t lead to forming an addiction. To that end, we have Yves (ИВ) to talk about his app WeWard as a great example.

Today’s Topics Include:

Yves background
What is WeWard
How to make money while promoting eco-friendly behaviors without encouraging unhealthy screen habits
Making sure streaks enhance user well-being and don't foster addictive behaviour
Benefiting users and the plant by driving behavior change
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Yves miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Yves Benchimol:

"Create a habit to people is very complicated, but when you create a habit. It's very difficult also to remove. Some people say that it's more difficult to remove a bad habit than creating a good habit. So to create a good habit, you have to use the classic tricks that the brain likes. And the brain, if you read some cognitive science book, you will understand that every brain is working the same."

"If you want to launch an app, I would suggest try to focus on the main benefit of the app, try to run the most simple version of the app. Remove every aspect, like the streak was not part of the app when we launched it, the gamification was very little. The concept was giving reward to people for working, so it was just a step counter and you earn one coin every 1,000 steps.

Today the app is well more developed with social environment gamification but at the beginning we just need to verify the concept and you can have thousand and hundred of thousand of users with a very simple concept, you just need like to simplify as much as possible, because this is where you will have the ability to test more quickly and to improve your app and to test and learn the most faster."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#215: Empathy-based onboarding: boosting conversions and user experience with Yeva Koldovska, Product Manager at Headway

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 03:00:00 +0000

A busy life of an app marketer is full of problems, you don’t need me to tell you this. But here is the special one that you may stumble upon. How can you do both at the same time - truly care about your app users needs, making their life easier and meet your financial bottom line?

I’m really glad if you already know the answer or you never encounter this dichotomy. Great - kudos to you. But if you do, on this episode we will help you to resolve it.

Today’s Topics Include:

Yeva's background
What is Headway
What is empathy-based onboarding
Balancing user experience versus conversion and revenue
How to identify emotions to create personalized experiences
How to scale empathy-based onboarding
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Yeva miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Yeva Koldovska:

"So let's take the first step - identify feelings. There is a ton of ways to do that, from just asking questions to doing user research to forming your own hypothesis. Let's take, for example, forming your own hypothesis. Let's say you have a drop in conversion rate on the email step on the web funnel. So the user has went through the questions or the screens, and then they have to input their email.

What might the user be feeling at the moment? What would you feel at the moment? Maybe a bit anxious, maybe unsure if the website won't send you a ton of spam messages over the next day or week. Maybe you would be scared about your data being leaked or given to some third parties. So you kind of form those hypotheses on what the user might be feeling. And this is the first step."

"So we've tried utilizing this framework for most of our products and we have never had an unsuccessful test in this regard. But of course you have to understand that it depends on the area, on the product, on the offering that you have to your users. So I would not say that this approach is a silver bullet that helps everyone."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#214: How online communities fuel app user growth with Sherwin Su, Senior Sales Manager of App Dev at Reddit

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 02:45:00 +0100

One of the most important skills in life is the ability to zoom out and take a holistic view on a problem. This approach is really instrumental in marketing as well. If you are an app marketer and your job is to drive growth, you should always take a broader look at where your potential or existing app users spend their time online.

On today’s web, there are many online communities where app users go to dig for information, seek an advice or to share one. But there is only one of a kind that we’ll be talking about today - Reddit and to do so we have Sherwin.

Today’s Topics Include:

Sherwin's background
What is Reddit
How app users use Reddit communities
How brands can leverage communities on Reddit
Advice for brands for how to work promote their apps on community-centric platforms like Reddit.
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Sherwin miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Sherwin Su:

"So when you think about mobile app users, Reddit is a place where we as an organization, as a company, as a platform, are sitting on 18 plus years of conversations across different types of mobile apps.

And it's at different stages of the journey where app users either try to discover, learn how to use and maximize the different apps and then eventually make recommendations on how other folks in their communities can also enjoy the benefits of like the apps that they're using.

So for app users, they trust Reddit because they know that these communities have genuine discussions about the apps that they care about."

"First, being in advertising, I want to talk about it from a media perspective, that a lot of brands can really leverage the power of community to build their brand and build very authentic and genuine relationships with the customers that they want to serve. There are lot of different ways here at Reddit, having community at the core, that enables brands to engage meaningfully in the space and the internet that no other platform is able to provide.

The second one is acquiring customers. And I think this is a journey on its own, because acquiring customers really pushes brands to focus on the core value propositions that they want to share."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#213: Building a cookieless future: mobile strategies for success with Ishan Singh, Activation Lead at Bunq

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

OK, this time my setting the stage begins with a disclaimer - the cookies we’ll be talking about on this episode have nothing to do with the ones you love on your dessert. The Oreo cookies future is just fine, it’s not going to disappear anytime soon:-)

No, today I have Ishan to talk about what happens in mobile marketing with the third-party cookies, small pieces of data for digital tracking that disappear from the scene and yet mobile app marketers still need to somehow stay efficient and drive traffic to mobile apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

Ishan's background
Strategies to gather and leverage first-party and zero-party data
Strategies to collect more data about customers, while respecting their privacy
Strategies to maintain and improve conversion rates, while the usage of third-party cookies declines
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Ishan miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Ishan Singh:

"You have to give more value than you used to gain trust, because right now everyone has so many options, from where they're spending their time to where they're spending their money. You're not a single monopoly in the market as a business. So you have to show value for a lot lesser cost than before. And with that value, you generate trust. And once you have that trust is only when you can."

"So one of the tested strategies, which have worked, is you advertise for a broader lead magnet or value which you're trying to deliver. For instance, if I am specifically solving a problem of stock market investments and I'm a stockbroking platform, I would still sell something like a retirement calculator to advertise on Instagram where now advertising is a little less personal because I don't have a lot of cookies to specifically target to my customer base or my ideal customers. So I would be targeting to a broader customer base with values which would be appealing to a lot more of users."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#212: Gamify your loyalty: the secret to mobile engagement with Thomas Yannopoulos, VP of Revenue, Americas at adjoe

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Running app marketing campaigns, marketers have several goals - I’m sure you know them better than the fingers of your hand.

So, it is to find new users for the app, convince them to install the app and…what’s new next? Right - make sure they are engaged with the app and do with it what you expect them to, thinks like placing orders, signing up, subscribe and so on.

In this episode, we want to talk about app engagement and to share with you what actually works, we have Tommy.

Today’s Topics Include:

Tommy's background
About Adjoe
Loyalty and engagement trends in consumer behavior
Balancing between personalization and user privacy
Emerging impactful app engagement trends or techs to anticipate

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Thomas Yannopoulos:

"Not necessarily a change in behavior as much as it is a change in accessibility as to how users interface with loyalty programs today.

We'll take an example of a partner like ours, which is Fetch. So Fetch rewards is the largest shopping and rewards platform in all of the U S today. They have something like 12 to 14 million weekly active users. So it's just an enormous app. And historically they focused on CPG partnerships. So if you want to box a general mills cereal, you can go to your local store, grab that cereal, take a snapshot of the receipt and you can earn some Fetch points in exchange for that behavior. \

Now, what we did when we talked to Fetch was we made them aware of the fact that likely the majority of the users were also gamers. When we think about gaming tendencies in the US, I think over 60 % of all smartphones have a game on them and over 43 % of all time spent on the smartphone in the US is spent playing mobile games."

"I think we're squarely of the belief that consent is consent in our space. And we as a business pride ourselves on the fact that we will never collect any privacy or any data on someone who doesn't consent to us collecting that data. It's related to what they might be doing on their smartphone or their preferences or whatever the case may be. So when you enter our experience for the first time, you're hit with a number of prompts that essentially ask for your consent.

Users are not obligated to say yes to any of these prompts, but if they do, it enhances our ability to personalize their experience. Personalization, obviously for a platform like ours, and in general for any platform, is I think rather key to success."

#211: Mastering mobile product development: data & agility with Jennifer Camacho, Mobile Product Lead at Nespresso

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Think about it - every single day hundreds of millions of people around the world use mobile apps to do something. From checking a weather forecast to booking their next trip, buying something, or less pleasant things like, for instance, paying their taxes. Every app developer wants to keep her or his app users happy.

But in real life, your idea of the best experience for your app users doesn’t always match with what they think the best one should look like. So how do you fix that? That’s a good question and today Jennifer will share her experience of doing that.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jennifer's background
About Nespresso
Aligning product development with evolving customers' expectations
The balance between using data-driven insights and staying agile and responsive to unexpected challenges
Strategies to fostering collaboration and alignment across different teams
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Jennifer miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jennifer Camacho:

"Yeah, as you said, it's a balance. We are experts in coffee. So that's our greatest asset and the most important piece that we want to communicate about that product. But then there are industry standards for things that people are accustomed to doing. So we are not trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to, for example, purchasing processes or presenting the most convenient ways of paying because that's already set as a standard."

"As you may know, we have lots of variety in coffees and we're always trying to push the boundaries of exploring new tastes and of allowing people to enjoy coffee from very differentiated parts of the world. So the amount of products that we have sometimes could be intimidating for some people because they may be just starting to understand the world of coffee."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#210: Mastering ASA: Proven ASO Strategies with Simon Thillay, Head of ASO at AppTweak

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Your phone has become an extension of your brain. You store a ton of information on it, you use it to get through your day or to plan something in advance. You’re working on it, you are spending your leisure time with it.

Every once in a while, when your existing 80-100 iOS apps (this is how much apps we have on our phones these days) aren’t enough and you need a new one, you go to the App Store. When you launch a search query there, the first search result you can see is on a blue background - this is an Apple Search ad.

Whether you’ve been driving traffic to your iOS app with Apple Search Ads or you never used this paid advertising platform before, today Simon will tell you how to use it efficiently.

Today’s Topics Include:

Simon's background
About AppTweak
Apple Search Ads overview
Balancing between keyword discovery and existing high-performance keywords
Using Atlas AI to identify and cluster high-performing keywords for Apple Search Ads campaigns
Measuring and mitigating the impact of cannibalization on brand defense campaigns

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Simon Thillay:

"So for those who not familiar, today there are actually four different types of inventories in Apple search ads. The one, I think most people are familiar with and the one you were mentioning in your intro, is search results campaigns, which is basically being able to put an ad at the very top of a search result page and based on what potential customer has just searched for.

But there's three more that Apple has released over the years. The second one is a search tab. So it's another ad that you can see, before people start typing in the search tab. And it's basically a game of trying to catch the attention and play on other signals to kind of convert there.

A third one would be the product page, so if people scroll down to the bottom of the page and look at the You Might Also Like section, there will also be an ad in there. But I think the final placement, the final inventory, is the one that gets the most hype these days. It's the Today tab."

"It may be called a discovery campaign, but the campaign part trumps the discovery part. And in other words, at first, the campaign is going to find keywords that fit the criteria you've set. But once it's found those keywords, unless you give it different instructions, it's going to stay focused on those. It's basically the principle of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We found something that's working."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#209: Quick-Track to User Loyalty: From On-boarding to Engagement with Jeremiah Runser, Marketing Director of Sandbox

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Ok. A quick recap of the app marketing industry history. There was a time, circa 2008 - 2016, when all marketers were going out of their way to acquire as much installs for their apps as possible. Pretty much everyone was playing that game. Then came the moment when marketers realized that if they don’t retain their users as they acquire them, they can not build a sustainable app business. Right, it’s no brainer for you now but back than it took time for people to shift their mentality.

Ever since we’ve been hearing about mobile app users churn and how to deal with it, LTV (I’m sure you know it stands for Live Time Value) became a really important metric.

But if I ask you today “What is TTV?” No, I don’t mean Twitch TV. Ok, today Jeremiah will help us to expand your marketing vocabulary.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jeremiah's background
About Sandbox
Effective strategies to streamline onboarding and quick engagement
Measuring and optimization of the time it takes for a user to realize the value of an app
Tactics to transform first-time users to repeat customers
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jeremiah miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jeremiah Runser:

"The reason why that's so important is we capture them right at that moment that's the most pivotal for them. They can sign up and they can send a notification free of charge to the service member, to their family members about the opportunity to use Sandbox to write letters while they are there. So because of that, can sort of insert ourselves into a process that already happens, which helps us optimize that. And the real value is that supporter gets to see those weekly updates."

"The way we primarily measure this is TTV (time to value). We really did a lot of testing early last year and how do we optimize for first purchase, which we would consider time to value. And how do we do that in the least amount of time? And really that's kind of by optimizing the onboarding process, getting all the information that we need for somebody before they ever even sign up for the app."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#208: From SKAN to AdAttributionKit: winning with privacy-first mobile campaigns webinar with The Verve, Kochava, Wavemaker, and Dataseat

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 18:23:49 +0100

This is one of our special episodes, when we share either one of our webinars or in-person panels from the App Promotion Summit.

This time we have a webinar with the fascinating topic on the table - running a successful privacy-first mobile campaign. Experts from DataSeat, Kachava, and Wavemaker discuss the challenges of privacy-first mobile advertising, including overcoming attribution hurdles such as privacy thresholds, crowd anonymity, and delayed postback data.

They also dive into optimization strategies, the future of mobile ad attribution and measurement, and the adoption of SCAD Network among publishers and advertisers. The conversation concludes with insights into the potential of re-engagement tracking and upcoming innovations in privacy-compliant user acquisition.

The agenda of this webinar includes:

Apple, privacy and the switch to AdAttributionKit;
Overcoming crowd anonymity and driving success with SKAN and AdAttributionKit;
The future of AdAttributionKit and iOS attribution;
Questions and answers.

To cover it all we had the following group:

Mark Menery from Dataseat (part of Verve)
Grant Simmons from Kochava
Zach Gryphon from Wavemaker
And Alexandra Klimashevich from Verve

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#207: Maximizing growth with Web-to-App funnels with Anastasiia Karlova, Head of Marketing at PlantIn

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Today, all businesses, brands and marketers are focused on mobile. It is no brainer - people spend two - three hours a day on mobile devices, so much of the action is there.

And yet - we still use laptops and desktop computers. Ask yourself - why would Apple introduce the macOS Sequoia iPhone mirroring app if desktop computers weren’t still relevant? We do work on our favorite MacBooks and iMacs, watch movies, plan our next vacation and so forth. It is just, for a few years since the iPhone was introduced, mobile was sucking out all the oxygen in the ad space.

So, if you are an app marketer, for you the answer is clear - you need to work with both mobile and desktop ad spaces to grow your app’s user base and generate revenue. Web-to-App advertising is what we’ll be talking about with Anastasiia today.

Today’s Topics Include:

Anastasiia's background
About PlantIn
Customized User Journeys
Challenges in transitioning to a web-to-app funnel
Internal tools and third-party solutions for ad campaign automation
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Anastasiia miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Anastasiia Karlova:

"When we talk about customized user journey for apps, we are talking mainly about Web2App funnel. It could be based on a funnel with the questions completely based on the web or about the funnel that consists only one landing page and then push you to the store to download the app."

"I think the best thing is that you don't need to deal with opt -in rates. You're just skipping that part because this is considering web campaigns and web experience. The limitations about iOS 14 are not working here. And you just have all the information you can get based on clicks."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#206: Evolving apps: Meeting user needs and staying intuitive with Paul Sakhatskyi, Head of Product Marketing at Readdle

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0100

I think for all of us this experience is familiar. We download a new app we’ve been looking for to fulfill specific needs and for some time the experience is great. Then your needs may evolve and now you need a new version of the app to cover it. If your updated requirements for the app are more or less in line with what other people need, and if the developer closely monitor these needs, soon you’ll get the updated version.

Of course, the opposite is as likely - you may never get an update for the app, you can’t wait anymore and you go and download a similar app from other company. So, the question - how do app developers’ team can keep their users happy? On the other hand, how do you make sure that over time your app stays intuitive for its users?

Well, today we have Paul to talk about how their team handles these hard questions for their app Documents.

Today’s Topics Include:

Paul's background
About Readdle
The Documents app by Readdle quick overview
Staying ahead of app users' evolving needs
Introducing new features while keeping user experience familiar
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Paul miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Paul Sakhatskyi:

"So this is a very interesting question because we can look at it from different perspectives. So, I think there are two components, major components in this area. The first one, you should definitely reflect current needs of your users all the time, addressing their requests, addressing their issues, addressing new technologies that emerge all the time. But at the same time, you need to look forward to create something that people and users might not think about right now."

"We are using multiple things here. So first of all, we don't do dramatic changes that touch every single piece of the product. So we break it down into kind of components, use cases. So for example, we might redesign or create a new hypothesis, for example, an audio editing that we have inside the app. And we launch it."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#205: Unlocking app growth with Marketing Mix Modeling with Gary Danks, General Manager for AIM by Kochava

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

The field of app marketing is full of jargon. Just from the top of my head a few acronyms for you - ASO, CPI, CPA, LTV, FBI (sorry the last one was obviously a joke). Here is another one - MMM, which stands for Marketing Mix Modeling. Do you know what it is?

Well, in this episode Gary will explain it for you, showing how it works and why it’s important for you to use it in your app business.

Today’s Topics Include:

Gary's background
About Kochava
What is Marketing Mix Modeling (aka MMM), why it's effective for unlocking app growth
Key steps to implement MMM in a company's marketing strategy
Common challenges in adopting Marketing Mix Modeling
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Gary miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Gary Danks:

"MMM is a methodology used to measure and analyze the impact of various marketing activities on your conversions. Now, where the sort of the confusion comes in is that it sounds quite familiar to the industry standard of last touch attribution. But to truly grasp marketing mixed modeling or MMM, it's important to distinguish it from last touch attribution."

"The biggest challenge is probably just old mindset. We've been in this industry for many years and last touch attribution is the standard form of measurement and it's been around for 12, 13 years or so. So quite often companies are testing MMM but they don't want to believe the data because they've maybe built lifetime value models of their last touch attribution."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#204: Transforming ‘meh’ to magic: AI-driven app engagement boosts with Steve Toy, Chief Executive Officer at Memrise

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

How many languages do you know? Would you like learn a new one? Science unequivocally says that it is good for your brain to learn new languages. You will thank us when you’ll be in your 70s or 80s :-) The thing is that on top of immediate benefits, it will help you to keep your brain healthy down the road.

Now, today AI is on the path to impact our lives on so many levels. Learning new languages is one of them and today Steve will tell us about how AI allowed his company to transform their Memrise app dramatically.

Today’s Topics Include:

Steve's background
About Memrise
Ai-driven features that enhanced user engagement on Memrise
The biggest challenges in integrating AI into Memrise
Using AI to personalize learning
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Steve miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Steve Toy:

"Well, I will tell you that we are probably still working on overcoming the biggest challenge that has been brought to us by all of this amazing technology. And that is unbelievable freedom, right? We now, because of what we've deployed, have given people the freedom to learn the words that matter to them, not the words that we decide in any given course."

"The first axis I alluded to earlier, is heretofore in school or in any course that you might take or in any of the other apps, you learn words in a certain order. Right? You're just marching everybody through the first 100, 200, 500, 1 ,000 words in the same order because you're marching everybody in lockstep to be able to interact with certain content and certain tasks.

But we don't have to do that. We have fully atomized dictionaries because no matter what words you know, we can start to run you into other experiences. And so that's the first level of personalization is let you decide why you want to learn a language."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#203: Helping retailers retain app acquisition gains with Thomas Butta, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Airship

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Do you like the holiday season? Yes - it is a hypothetical question, we all do. Why do we love this time of the year? Because this is the time when we all buy something nice, right? We download shopping apps and go ahead and pick up something we desperately need.

Ok - it’s all great but if you are a retailer and you launch app user acquisition campaigns during the holiday season, there is very important insight for you in this episode - so listen carefully.

Today’s Topics Include:

Thomas's background
About Airship
About the Airship's "Peak App Install Research" report
How retailers can improve retention rate for customers acquired during peak shopping periods (think Black Friday)
Key metrics brands should monitor to effectively drive app engagement
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Thomas miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Thomas Butta:

"And we, we surveyed more than 60 million app installs. So of the number of apps that were installed during that period, we looked at 60 million new ones that were added to your device and we were very interested in understanding what happens after that peak shopping season."

" First of all, the way you onboard people is really, really important. I mean that idea of a welcome kit. So they download your app, right then and there you have their attention. What you do next is really important. So that onboarding experience, that welcome experience is really key. And what you're trying to do is two things. You're trying to get to know these people that are downloaded your app. And you're doing it in a way that's showing them with a little bit of information here and here, you can provide a more curated or personalized and relevant experience for them over there."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#202: App growth with affiliate marketing with Taras Kiseliuk, CEO at ClickDealer

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

I bet, as an app marketer, you are on a constant hunt for new marketing channels, right?

What do you know about affiliate marketing? If the answer is "zero", "not that much" or "I know what it is but what is your point" than you’ve come to the right place - we have Taras to tell us how affiliate marketing works for mobile apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

Taras's background
About ClickDealer
What is affiliate marketing, the main changes for the last decade
What affiliate marketing verticals were impacted by mobile the most
Effective strategies to grow app user base and revenue through affiliate marketing
KPIs to measure the success of affiliate marketing campaigns
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Taras miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Taras Kiseliuk:

" The last one will be, as cliche as it sounds like, would be AIs. AI is now doing all the media buying for us in some sense. In a way, the affiliate marketing is working as it worked before - you have to optimize and find the right spots, but now it's kind of like - hey, just trust the pixel, trust Facebook, trust TikTok, AI and so on and so on."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#201: Testing the app’s edge marketability with Deniz Kekeç, Performance Marketing Manager at InnoGames

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

I’m sure you would argue that the world of mobile apps is extremely competitive. By now, it seems like all business verticals have gone mobile and in some app categories, like games, e-commerce, social, the competition is really tough.

How do you stand a chance to win in this battle? This is the question we’ll tackling today with Deniz.

Today’s Topics Include:

Deniz's background
About InnoGame
Mobile app's unique edge (Unique Selling Proposition) identification
Methods and tools to test an app's marketability
Key factors to maintain the app's edge over time
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Deniz miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Deniz Kekeç:

"In a competitive app market, determining what sets your app apart from others involves focusing on its Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Assuming your app performs well and maintains a low crash rate, here are some strategies to identify its unique edge: game narrative, gameplay mechanics, special features & LiveOps, marketing approach."

"We are using Sensor Tower mainly for competitor analysis. Quadrics for understanding our audience( coupled with our user surveys). For creative testing Meta is the main tool, however depends on the ad concept we happened to use SDK networks too. KPI's are depending on the test phase. For initial testing, i recommend to check upper funnel kpis such as CPI, IPM. For later phase i recommend mid funnel KPI s such as Retention and session duration etc."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

🎉 #200: How to grow an app sustainably with Mike Rhodes, Founder and CEO at ConsultMyApp

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0100

On one of the recent episodes of this podcast, we talked about the app growth, claiming that growth is likely the notion that has been discussed by app marketers the most. It’s like - wake up any app marketer in the middle of the night and ask her “what is your name?”, she would tell you “Growth”.

And yet - sustainable growth is what exists app marketers and developers even more. I don’t think that there is anybody who still doesn’t know that an app project is a marathon and to run it you need a sustainable strategy, you need a sustainable growth strategy.

So in this anniversary episode #200, we will be talking with Mike about “The Sustainable Growth Handbook” recently developed by his company ConsultMyApp.

Today’s Topics Include:

Mike's background
What services ConsultMyApp provides and its position on the market
What is sustainable app growth
Sustainable app growth key principles
How to balance user acquisition and user retention
Insights and examples of how data-driven decisions lead to sustainable app growth
Common pitfalls and mistakes that hinder app growth
Trends and innovations that will impact sustainable app growth
What Mike would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Mike miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Mike Rhodes:

"The biggest challenge I think our clients always see is siloed behavior where acquisition teams don't talk to paid, but acquisition teams don't talk to CRM and retention teams and and then the data doesn't talk together even if the teams do, they're not connecting the dots because they don't have a CDP or a warehouse, and they haven't got a reporting stat that sits on top. And that is the biggest single thing."

"I think the biggest issue is not with developers, but actually with the product marketers. And that comes when the wrong metrics are really being focused on. So things like installs, category ranking, the keyword ranking, these things are vanity metrics. You know, they don't really matter. Like how many a month you have. It doesn't matter to a large intent. What does matter is the users I got, how are they converting? How are they converting into meaningful users? It might be watching ads. It might be whatever your core metric is. But ultimately it's got to be understand that is the metric."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#199: Data-driven mobile app marketing with Summer Liu, CMO at SocialPeta

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0100

I’m sure you’ve heard this adage “Data is the new blood of the economy”. When you operate on a big market with lots of competitors you better make sure you make decisions about your business based on hard data.

App marketing is one of the brightest examples where this adage and it is so close to home. When the number of users of your product is in thousands, tens of thousands or millions informing your app marketing decisions with reliable data isn’t a question of should or shouldn’t but must.

In this episode, Summer will help us to learn about leveraging mobile ad data, competitive analysis tools, as well as share her advice for marketers who are just getting started in the app marketing space.

Today’s Topics Include:

Summer's background
What is SocialPeta
Leveraging app performance and ad creatives data effectively
Staying competitive in a crowded app marketplace
Upcoming features in the SocialPeta pipeline to benefit app marketers
What Summer would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Summer miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Sumer Liu:

" If we talk about mobile ad intelligence tools, I think I can boast that there is no better platform that can be as friendly as SocialPeta.
We dived in the mobile advertising business for over 8 years. We grew together with those top global publishers. We evolve our product from time to time.
In the new era of AI technology, SocialPeta will firmly develop towards this direction on aspects like Ai recognition and analysis. We will draw the digital market picture in a much more intelligent way."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#198: App Growth Strategy: the Deezer’s case with Sherina Khalidi, VP Performance Marketing at Deezer

Mon, 27 May 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Ok, a bit of trivia to begin with - what is the most common and most used word app marketers and app owners use in a conversation about their apps in pretty much any country you can think of? Well, if they have a conversation in English that would be growth.

It’s that notion that everybody is agree is extremely important for a mobile app project to succeed. There is a set of app growth marketing techniques we all have heard about, tried ourselves and hopefully benefit from using. But because mobile apps’ audiences are different, we know that these techniques aren’t expected to be equally efficient for everybody and so it is always wise to listen to other app marketers’ experiences to learn something new.

In this episode, Sherina will share her experience with the Deezer app’s growth strategy.

Today’s Topics Include:

Sherina's background
The Deezer app and what people use it
Acquisition strategies that worked for Deezer
Data and analytics to inform the app's growth
Tactics to retain the app's users
Partnerships and collaborations to foster the app's growth
Emerging trends and tech to impact app growth strategies in the future
What Sherina would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Sherina miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Sherina Khalidi:

"On the measurement front, at Deezer we use the triptic Attribution / MMM / Incrementality, and I would love to use AI to get a synthetic view of these 3 components to help me predict the outcome of future invest."

" As the mobile industry is maturing, I feel the good old recipe of UA and ASO will work less & less, and it will be more about building a strong brand that is able to connect with their users, in trust and authenticity. I think there's really something here for us to reinvent."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#197: Growing your app outside of the app stores with Jakub Chour, Mobile Growth at HER app

Mon, 20 May 2024 07:00:00 +0100

There is a decent number of ways to market your mobile app on app stores. I think by now we all know them so well - App Store Optimization to drive native traffic, paid user acquisition via Apple Search Ads or Google Ads, acquiring users via paid ad platforms from Meta, TikTok, Alphabet and some more.

But at some point - for savvy app marketers this point comes pretty early in their app marketing journey - you realize that it is not the end of the story. As much as it makes sense to connect your app via built-in search on app stores or use paid ad platforms, there are more ways to build your app’s user base when you think out of the box, specifically out of the app store :-)

In this episode, we’re going to cover with Jakub a few app marketing techniques to grow your app outside of the app stores.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jokub's background
What is HER app and its competition
Ways to market an app outside of app stores
Affiliate marketing or referrals as an app marketing channel
Using Generative AI for content marketing: pros and cons
How Viral marketing works for mobile apps
Most overhyped app marketing channel
Takeaways
What Jokub's would like to change about app marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jokub miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jokub Chour:

"Well, I'll stick with the rule that says that if everyone else is doing it, it's not worth doing it. I've seen a lot of outcomes from generative AI and I wasn't impressed in general for our niche. I mean like it's great to write an email, or, I don't know, a PR release, but it's it hasn't been great in the niches like ours."

"I wouldn't say channel, but definitely like Multimedia Modeling or Incrementality measurement are something that are like talked about a lot but I don't think that we are at a point to fully utilize that as I've seen some tools that are going this way. It's like telling a fairy tale. At this point you can have it generating numbers, but for me, it is hard to trust it fully."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#196: B.I.G ad opportunity in mobile games with Ravi Pimplaskar, Director of Marketing at Digital Turbine

Mon, 13 May 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Let’s state the obvious - people love playing games, especially on their smartphones, and they do love brands.

Now, if you ask a mobile marketer what does it imply she would tell you that it’s a great opportunity on one side to let brands reach more potential customers and on the other - for mobile game developers to generate revenue.

So far so good, right? But what if I tell you that there is a report that actually reveals specifically what brand categories people prefer who play games in various types of games such as Puzzle, Card, Word, and Action? Sounds even better, right?

Well, today Ravi will be talking about Digital Turbine’s BRAG INDEX IV report that brings up precisely this information.

Today’s Topics Include:

Ravi's background
What is Digital Turbine today and its mission
The BRAG Index report and its methodology
The biggest highlights from the report
The mobile games landscape today
The report insights for Word / Word Search game category
The report insights for Puzzle game category
The report insights for Card game category
The report insights for Action game category
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Ravi miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Ravi Pimplaskar:

"What we did is we sort of indexed the people who play Word games against certain brands. And we really found that they had an affinity for fitness and travel. Some of their top brands included, you know, Red bull, Delta Airlines, Panera Bread. But one of the things, Word gamers, which isn't surprising, are avid readers."

"Puzzle gamers - what we really found about their interest is they gravitate towards beauty and adventure. Their favorite brand is beauty products like Aveeno. They're into Travelocity, Lululemon's brands. One of the things that we did find about puzzle gamers - they really into traveling. So, you know, that Sudoku player sitting next to you on flight he may be more typical than you think."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#195: Mobile apps growth marketing: best practices with Gilad Bechar, CEO and Founder at Moburst

Mon, 06 May 2024 07:00:00 +0100

One of the topics, that has been permeating this podcast over the years, is mobile app growth. And in general - year after year, conference after conference, countless webinars, white papers, and podcasts have been dedicated to this topic.

And it’s all for a good reason - if your app’s user base doesn’t grow you can not build a sustainable app business and because the app landscape has been changing you always needs to be in the know of what works now and what doesn’t.

And this is exactly what we’re going to cover on this episode with Gilad.

Today’s Topics Include:

Gilad's background
What is Moburst
App marketing recent evolution
App growth marketing essential strategies
Mobile app growth common challenges
Influence of tech on app marketing
Trends that will dominate mobile app marketing
Advice to young app marketers
What would Gilad like to change about app marketing
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Gilad miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Gilad Bechar:

"I think that from the get-go apps optimization was always pretty big on app growth. And when you're thinking about app optimization, you think about how users might find the app. The app optimization, I think it became much more sophisticated in the past few years, where you have the ability to impact users with so many different gateways to the app.

So it's no longer five screenshots you're telling the story and that's it, like you used to have. Now you have 35 different gateways in the App Store on the, on iOS and 50 different gateways on custom product pages on Android."

" I think that AI is a massive improvement and advancement. And that's something that will impact the world for now and onwards. But I think that the ability to be data-driven and seeing what works and what doesn't work, which means at the end of the day, there are users. You're trying to bridge your message to the user and getting them to a very positive experience about whatever you're trying to sell.

I think that being data-driven and understanding which customers to approach with which type of messaging that will resonate with them and will get them to one step closer to the action that you want them to take. That's the key element that is with all of the tech technology advancements and with all of the new tools that are available and all of the better programs of TikTok and Meta and Google."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#194: Driving app engagement with empathy with Naksha Ruiz, Solution Consultant, UserTesting

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Ok, a bit of a mental gymnastics - imaging you’re holding a smartphone in your hand and you’ve just purchased it. You’ve unpacked it, turned on and now browsing through its default apps and checking out its features. You’re consciously taking mental notes on features that tick off boxes for you - that is the rational part. Right, but don’t you notice that holding that phone in your hand makes you feel good?

We, human beings, are driven by emotions, even on occasions when you feel like you are strictly rational, your decisions are still influenced by your emotions.

Now, this episode stands out the rest, because with the exception of the episode with Joe Schaeppi, CEO of Solsten, where we talked about the psychology of app user acquisition, we haven’t touched emotions in app marketing.

But we’re going to change it now today by having Naksha and talking about driving app engagement with empathy.

Today’s Topics Include:

Naksha''s background
What is UserTesting
What is empathy and how it is different from sympathy
Connecting with brands - how it works and why it's important
How to assess how well or bad your app connects with its users
Customer Experience First approach
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Naksha miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Naksha Ruiz:

"Yeah, I think that's a very, very good point, especially now in the digital age that we were talking about how technology brings brands more closely. I guess that would be the best way to say it. I think, at this point, consumers have endless options and it's very important to create genuine connection, to build a difference, to be a differentiator from all of the brand offerings. So ultimately, when we think about brands, brands sell, experience or sell, sell, sell you those feelings that then you can empathize with."

"I think from a business perspective, sympathy is what you will have the whole time. You're trying to keep it in mind, and the empathy will be something that you will connect to every now and then."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#193: Subscription apps monetization in 2024: best practices with Léa Samrani, Product & Growth Consultant

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Today, of all business models the subscription model is the one that rules the world of mobile apps. Long gone the times when you hear the word subscription in a conversation about mobile apps you could only think of apps for content streaming or online media. Today subscription apps are everywhere.

On this episode, Léa will share with you best practices for subscription apps monetization. She will cover things like product-market fit, language-market fit, framing the prices, and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

Léa's background
Monetization benefits for subscription apps
Product-market fit: what it is an how to achieve it
Language-market fit
Framing the prices
Building trust
How to prevent users churn for subscription apps
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Léa miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Léa Samrani:

"So, you know, it's not enough to have an amazing idea and an amazing product. You also need enough people that think this is a great idea and a great product. So you need enough of the market as well for it to work. So those are the three things that I think are very much like minimal at least that you really need to start getting some level of product market fit and start building traction. And then there's how you measure that, which is some decent activation and engagement metric, you know, around activation and maybe retention. And if your product have some sort of habituation into it, you can also look at things like stickiness."

"In a way before subscription app, one of the best way to get new customer was a referral. It was the word of mouth. You trust a lot more when a brand or a product, when it's endorsed by someone you trust. The exact same principle applied to subscription app."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#192: State of Mobile 2024 with Lexi Sydow Director, Corporate Marketing & Insights at Data.ai

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 19:22:28 +0100

We passed the Equinox a couple of weeks ago - the spring is here and, in kind of celebrating spirit, I want us to take a look back at 2023, a bird-view on the app industry via the one and only State of Mobile report from Data.ai.

The app industry is on scale of millions of apps used by billions of people, apps permeate the entire world economy. By now, you just can’t find an industry that hasn’t been influenced by mobile.

Competition is high, new technologies emerge and from time to time we all need to take a step back and take a holistic view on the industry to check out on the trends and understand how well we fit into this picture.

Today’s Topics Include:

Lexi Sydow's background
Big data points from the State of Mobile 2024 report
How much time people spent in mobile apps in 2023
How much money people spent in mobile apps in 2023
Apps vs. games - where do people spend more time?
Mobile advertising growth year over year
AI & Mobile - the increasing popularity of ChatGPT4
The influence of Generative AI on top apps growth
Top Apps & Games of 2023

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lexi Sydow:

"We saw 257 billion app downloads in 2023 alone, which is a roughly flat year on year. And that's sort of what we'd expect to see given more maturity in the market. These are completely net new installs. And it equates to about almost half a million downloads every minute is what that equates to you globally"

"$171 billion being spent across iOS, Google Play and third party Android stores in China. So the top five markets are China at $52 billion being spent alone. That actually is down 10% year on year. Number two is the U S, up $45 billion, and that's up 6%. Japan at 18 billion is our number three kind of market on mobile, up a modest 1%. "

"And in 2023, we saw $64 billion annually being spent in the non game sector, and that has grown roughly 6.5 X from 2016, where it was only $10.3 billion. So just a huge growth in like the last seven or eight years there. "

Host

Business Of Apps – connecting the app industry since 2012

#191: TikTok App Marketing Best Practices with Inna Sumovska, Senior User Acquisition Manager, Hily

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

It’s 2024 and we are all suppose to talk about Generative AI 24/7 but remember what was at the center of attention for so many app marketers before the ChatGPT arrival? Right - TikTok and marketing your apps on TikTok. Well, the platform, despite a number of looming threats for it to be banned, most notably in the US, is there and thriving.

Today, I have Inna to share her best practices for doing app marketing on TikTok.

Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Perform[cb], leading outcome-based marketing company. Perform[kb] targets marketers' ideal audience and promotes brands with AI-powered, high-value placements on a pay for performance model. Get in touch with their user acquisition team today!

Today’s Topics Include:

Inna's background
What is Hily and how it is different from other dating apps
Hily's framework to work with TikTok as an app marketing channel
Work with Creators on TikTok to run influencer marketing campaigns and TikTok Ads
Targeting on TikTok Ads
Hily's approach to ad creatives for app marketing on TikTok
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Inna miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Inna Sumovska:

"So I would say, first of all, before I start to answer the question, you need to understand that there is still a difference between TikTok and other social media. Because Tiktok is not like a regular social media. You don't go to TikTok to check TikTok. You go to TikTok to have fun, to entertain, to educate yourself. So that's why TikTok, this is like the world leading entertainment platform for short videos. And this is all about the community. So that's why to be the part of this community is to collaborate with those guys, with the Creators."

"From my point of view, there is still a difference when it comes to influencers and creators, because influencers they like influence and creators they create. So and this is actually a difference because when we began working with creators on TikTok, we wanted to adjust our experience of working with influencers on Instagram, and we were focusing on, for example, on those guys who have like some number of followers or something like this. But then we understood that TikTok it's like it's not really matter how many followers you have, since your content is entertaining. So that's why we were thinking maybe, like, the number of followers is not really important. Maybe we need to focus on those guys who can create something that our audience will pay their attention to."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#190: Better App Experiences: How to Reduce App Crashes and ANRs with Colin Contreary, Head of Content at Embrace

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:32:18 +0000

This week we have another bonus episode for you, this time it’s the recording of our recent webinar with Colin Contreary, Head of Content at Embrace, app performance analytics platform.

Right now we use and rely on so many apps in our daily life, we don’t even register when you use all those apps - it’s just how you connect with your family, do your banking, getting around in a city, shop for a variety of things and so on. When all those apps do work we are happy, when they crash they drive us nuts.

Sponsor

In this episode:

✅ Identifying pain points
✅ The battle against app crashes and ANRs (stands for Application Not Responding)
✅ Case studies

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Colin Contreary:

"And so once they were started using Embrace, when they got user complaints, they were able to immediately look up the full user experience and see what exactly the issue was."

"They're able to put out a hotfix for deep linking issues and hotfixes if they surface new crash patterns, which understandably happen when you have such a surge in interest during that big event. And so the end result of being able to immediately dive into those user experiences is that they were able to maintain 99.99% crash free rating, which is already incredible outside of a big event like Black Friday."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#189: SKAN 4.0: the 2024 hands-on insight with Pablo Pérez González, Performance Marketing Director at Admiral Media

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Every change in the app ecosystem, especially when it comes to tools and solutions introduced by Apple or Google, goes through a cycle - first you get a mix reaction, some people are thrilled, some are shaking their heads and rolling up their eyes, then they learn to adapt to this change - you can complain as much as you want but you aren’t in a position to cancel it, you need to adjust your workflow to move forward.

So back in 2018, Apple released the SKAdNetwork and ever since it became a hot topic for endless discussions on conferences, chats on Reddit, as well as internal discussions in app marketing agencies, app development teams and so on.

Today, we have Pablo to update you with what you need to know about SKAN 4.0 this year.

Sponsor

Today’s Topics Include:

Pablo's background
What is Admiral Media
What's new in the SKAN 4.0 update
Common mistakes marketers made with SKAN 4.0
Admiral Media's approach to SKAN implementation
The role of Generative AI at being more efficient with the SKAN 4.0 framework
Pablo's wish list for the SKAN framework
What Pablo would like to change about mobile tech the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Pablo miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Pablo Pérez González:

"I have seen so many people reducing is investment in terms of user acquisition budgeting or just pausing completely the use acquisition on iOS devices because they didn't know how SKAN worked, right? So that's definitely something I don't recommend. Because if you proved that those users were working for you before, meaning that they were converting into revenue, then why not still acquiring iOS users, right?"

"I have been using Generative AI in a few ways. The easiest answer would be it's helpful for Conversion Volume Mapping, right? But my experience says it's not there or it's not at a level I would expect yet."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#188: Smart Marketing for Smart Apps: AI Insights for 2024 with Günay Aliyeva, Co-Founder of Gamelight

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

We live the world of smart things - smart homes, smart cars (and I don’t mean the Smart car brand from Mercedes, in general - fleets of electric vehicles from Tesla, Rivian, Polstar and so on that are full of high tech that makes them smart). The list wouldn’t be complete if I wouldn’t mention, right - smartphones and apps.

Before late 2022 we thought we saw it all and than ChatGPT happened - boom! People who didn’t follow AI research and development (meaning the majority of population) were shocked by what it was capable of doing and quite frankly they haven’t seen what it can do for science and medicine yet, mostly the focus has been on generation of text for marketing, online publication and so on.

In this episode, we have Günay to talk about AI potential for mobile advertising and app marketing.

Today’s Topics Include:

Günay Aliyeva's background
What is Gamelight
Günay's thoughts about the state of AI and Generative AI in particular
The role of AI in mobile advertising
How does AI fit into mobile app marketing
The cons and externalities of AI in mobile advertising and app marketing
What Günay would like to change about mobile tech the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Günay miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Günay Aliyeva:

"And it's going to get just easier for image and video makers to perform better and to get better results and put their focus on something more strategic and something where we actually do need human input. You don't need actually a human to sit and click so many times to create them. So it's it's just much easier for UA managers to do their job and perform better if they have all of those tools in hand."

"There's always a need for a human who will direct it in the right direction and know how to implement the outcomes or what kind of data needs to be input to get what kind of results."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#187: Boosting App Growth with Ad Creatives with Jessica Gotti, Head of Performance Marketing at Paired

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Science tells us that 80% of information we perceive every second we’re awake is visual. We make sense of this world around us by processing lots and lots of images and some of those images are mobile ads.

Now, there are ads you just want to go away and never come back, some make you smile and some actually give you an incentive to try a new app or grab a specific app you’ve been looking for.

In this episode, we’re going to talk to Jessica about how to pull this pretty tough feat - ramp up ad creatives production to boost your app growth.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jessica Gotti's background
What is Paired
The significance of mobile ad creatives
Paired's first step on a quest to wrap up ad creatives production
Putting together a team to run ad creatives production in-house
Framework to run ad creatives production on scale
KPIs
The impact of that ad creatives wrap up on the bottom line
What Jessica would like to change about mobile tech the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Jessica miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jessica Gotti:

"Being able to leverage the creatives correctly and at scale has become mandatory for successful marketing strategies. Especially in today's marketing landscape, where we have to face so many limitations and challenges, creatives can help mitigating them. Let's think about the limitation in targeting brought by new Data Privacy Regulations, ATT’s policy. It's not us anymore actively targeting the audience we are after, but it's the creative that is finding the right audience for us, the one that resonates the best with our message."

"Yeah, it's indeed fundamental having a clear creative exploration and testing framework to make everything work smoothly and facilitate collaboration among many stakeholders. So we came up with a seven step flow, which run on a weekly basis."

"Success didn’t come right away. Getting to the first winning concept took much exploration and testing, almost 3 months […]. The new team had to learn about Paired and understand our audience, we had to set up and refine our framework multiple times"

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#186: The best and worst mobile user experiences with Eric Futoran, Co-Founder of Embrace

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

User experience. This term has become so widespread and significant for business because we all use so many products and services and if you think about it - your interaction with those products and services can make your day or ruin it.

Our smartphones and mobile apps have become our life companions and chances are your first thought in a morning can be about your experience with a mobile game the previous evening or watching something cool on Netflix or chatting with ChatGPT-4 on the OpenAI app and going philosophical about something. And if those apps worked flawlessly you had a great user experience, if they were buggy - you know what it feels like.

In this episode, Eric will tell about common technical issues apps have, the evolution of users’ expectations for app experiences over the years, unique challenges for mobile product and engineering teams, and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

Eric Futoran's background
What is Embrace
The most common app tech issues developers encounter
The evolution of app users' expectations for app experiences over the years
Unique challenges mobile product and engineering teams face
App categories that have the biggest problems with app quality
The impact of unresolved app performance issues on app marketing metrics
What Eric would like to change about mobile tech the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Eric miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Eric Futoran:

"One of our customers actually got threatened recently. A voice-to-chat app, which has millions of users got threatened recently that their app would be pulled by Google because they were below or above the threshold that you would see in the Google Play console. We help with all those things, and then we help you prioritize."

"And then they're throwing an alert which is really reactive. It's too late on mobile, your users are gone. And then because the release cycles, you're waiting a week, two weeks to a month.

And then you're trying to get an approval cycle from Apple or Google, which is getting faster. That's not perfect. But you're still waiting. And like, even a week is too long for a lot of these issues, even the smaller ones that you seemingly don't think that are a big issue, but they can pile and so the pain is getting all these pieces to work together, but also getting your teams to talk a common language."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#185: How do you scale subscription apps for kids with Luisa Zuleta, Growth Lead at Sago Mini & Toca Boca

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

As so many app developers and publishers would agree, growing an audience for an app is a challenge. Nothing is static - you find a new marketing channel that works and for a while and you feel like you can finally breath again freely but then it becomes crowded with your competitors or the app industry wide change happens like Apple’s introduction of ATT framework and… - back to the drawing board.

But today Luisa will tell you a story of what it takes to scale a subscription app for kids and if you feel like it should be even more challenging, you are right - it is.

Today’s Topics Include:

Luisa Zuleta's background
What Sago Mini and Toca Boca games are about
Limitations in app marketing Luisa faced even before SKAD introduction
Building relationships with partners to go through tough times
Rethinking app audiences
Reworking the marketing channel
Defining LTV for an app
What Luisa managed to achieve as the result
Takeways
What Luisa would like to change about mobile ad tech the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Luisa miss most?
What features she would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Luisa Zuleta:

"So when you're advertising and producing kids apps, you are you have to face two sets of regulations COPA for the US and GDPR for Europe. Those regulations affect not only marketing, but also the app development, publishing, what kind of data you can collect inside the apps, and also monetization strategies. "

"So it's not like any traditional gaming app where you look at your user base and you know that the user that's most engaged is the one who did level one to three in the first 20 minutes, or bought this pack or that. It's not applicable. Sometimes you could have a parent of a four year old having a strict screen time of two times a week."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#184: New regulatory landscape of In-App purchases with Michael Bilotta, Head of Digital Goods & Services at Worldline

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

There is this joke in Silicon Valley “US tech companies are great in software, Chinese ones are cool in hardware and EU make laws and regulations” Of course, there is always a kernel of truth in every joke and I would say that this one has a pretty big one.

Big Tech has been in a free fly mode since the inception of Google. There have been very few regulations for which you don’t event need fingers on your both hands to count. But things change and right now regulations are coming.

Today Michael will tell us about the EU’s Digital Markets Act - what it is and what are its implications for app developers and publishers.

Today’s Topics Include:

Michael Bilotta's background
What is Worldline
Digital Markets Act: definition and implications for app developers and publishers
Third-party payment systems providers response
The advantages of implementing third-party billing for mobile app developers and publishers
Trialing alternative payment systems with customers in South Korea, implications for the US
What Mike would like to change about the mobile teach the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Mike miss most?
What features she would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Michael Bilotta:

"So the Digital Markets Act is multifaceted, and essentially what it's looking to do is regulate the way that big tech can operate in the EU really from the perspective of ensuring that there are not these monopolies that are created because of the fact that these big tech companies are so expensive. "

"So when a payment goes through the traditional app store, it goes into kind of a black box that nobody is super familiar with, nor do we really understand exactly how that payment is being processed. But through a third party payment provider, we can do things like smart routing, where if a transaction fails initially, we can try and route it to another financial institution and see if we can get an acceptance. "

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#183: Boosting User Engagement and App Retention @ APS Berlin

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Another week another bonus episode for you, this time it is the Boosting User Engagement and App Retention panel discussion from our App Promotion Summit Berlin that we hosted back on November 30 last year.

Every app marketer would agree that App Retention is absolutely crucial for a mobile app project to become sustainable.

To address a number of questions about app user engagement and retention we had:

Ioana Iordache, Head of Retention at Blacklane
Tobias Lüder, Head of CRM at Delivery Hero
Isabelle Matuschka, Senior CRM Manager at Blinkist
Niklas Henckell, Head of Community Development at Jodel
Jon Genovard, CRM & Retention Manager at ShareTheMeal, United Nations World Food Programme.

The focus of this panel was on:

✅ real life case studies for retaining app users

✅ measuring app user retention

✅ how of app users habits fit in their usage of apps regularly

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#182: Your app growth strategy to survive the streaming wars with Chris Puga, SVP Mobile at Creative Clicks

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

What are you watching these days? The Morning Show or Foundation on Apple TV+? Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime? Are you listening music on Apple Music or Spotify? In other words - we live in a streaming world.

Initially it was cool to have Netflix for all your online movie watching time and now there are Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount Plus, Max (which you may still call HBO Max), Disney +. All these platforms charge you around $10 a month, but when you decide to go with a few of them at the same time, it adds up pretty quickly.

People clearly need to decide what platforms to choose because they both don’t have enough money and don’t have time to watch all of it and so they have to choose. And this is just movies, there are streaming apps for gaming, fitness, podcasts, and more.

In this episode we have Chris to help us out with your app growth strategy to survive these streaming wars.

Today’s Topics Include:

Chris Puga's background
What is Creative Clicks
Why content curation is important for streaming apps
How to make a first impression good while app onboarding
How to make your app users stick to the app
Examples of successful app growth strategies
Takeways
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Chris miss most?
What features she would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Chris Puga:

"From the brand's perspective, it's simple, like content creation is important because a seamless user experience is no longer a luxury or a nice to have, it's a necessity."

"I think deep linking is a great way to make a good first impression. I think not inundating new users with a lengthy user flow. I think that's huge. That is an amazing way to make a good first impression."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#181: App Growth Strategies for 2024 @ APS Berlin

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

This week we have another bonus episode for you, this time it’s the App Growth Strategies for 2024 panel discussion from our App Promotion Summit Berlin that we hosted back on November 30, 2023.

On the panel we had:

Wendy Tai, Head of Performance Marketing at Wolt
Ara Salbashian, Head Of Digital Marketing at FREENOW
Alexander Beresford, Chief Growth Officer at Taxfix
Rodolphe Helderwerdt, Head of Marketing at Tandem.

App Growth is one of evergreen themes in app marketing, it was relevant and important five years ago, it was crucial last year and it continues to be on minds of app marketers this year.

The focus of this panel was on:

✅ effective team management.

✅ what trends can be seen in the market

✅ suggestions for app growth 💯

Ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado - the App Growth Strategies for 2024 panel.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#180: Fitness app growth marketing lessons with Mansi Sharma, VP, Growth Marketing at MyFitnessPal

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Happy 2024 everybody! It’s time of the year when we think about resolutions like keeping yourself fit and so fitness can be one of the things on your mind right now. How about keeping your fitness app fit? I bet just like with keeping yourself in shape you wouldn’t mind to learn from other folks’ experience, wouldn’t you?

In this episode, I have Mansi to tell you about the lessons she’s learned growing and keeping the MyFitnessPal app in shape.

Today’s Topics Include:

Mansi Sharma's background
What is MyFitnessPal app
How to conduct a proper research
The role of ad creative and targeting in running an app ad campaign
A scaling of a mobile user acquisition campaign
Assessing user acquisition budget spending
Testing app marketing campaign hypotheses
How do you compete effectively?
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Mansi miss most?
What features she would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Mansi Sharma:

" So, for example, if the category is not big enough, we need to come up with category expansion campaigns, which would be much more broad reaching and sort of educational in nature. However, if the category is okay and our budgets are still small and we need results in the short term, I'd focus on growing my market share by reaching out to people who are already in the category right and win them over to my side. "

"So creative wins over targeting because what I found is that a good creative can break the targeting barriers. So for example, if you have designed a creative for a 25 year old male, if it is designed well, it can also work for a 45 year old male."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#179: App Subscription A/B Testing best practices with Steve P. Young, Founder at App Masters

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 19:53:43 +0000

Like with many things in business, when it comes to app marketing people either rely on data to make decisions or listen to their gut feeling. We are strongly suggesting to do the former, we encourage you to do your best to keep it rational and follow the data, be a scientist in your field.

In this episode, Steve will make the case for you showing what A/B testing reveals about app engagement, paywalls, and more. This episode is special to celebrate the beginning of 2024 - you can either listen it here or actually watch it on our YouTube channel.

Today’s Topics Include:

Steve P. Young background
What is App Masters
What does A/B testing reveal about app engagement?
Is introducing a paywall on onboarding a great idea?
Do discounts for app subscriptions work?
The significance of customization
Hard and soft paywalls
The right number of plans for app subscriptions
What A/B testing tells us about an efficient Call-To-Action
What Steve would like to change about app industry
Takeaways

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Steve P. Young:

"Now I had Yeva from Headway, the product manager. And she said when you have a longer onboarding, we've actually seen our clients from their data that longer onboardings actually lead to higher conversions. Yes, there will be more drop offs, but the people actually make it all the way through will actually subscribe. And the people who drop out, they were never probably going to subscribe it anyways. "

"I mean, frankly, in life, just think like a scientist, like everything is an experiment. We have a hypothesis, which may come from our gut, but we're going to test it out, and then we're going to let data decide."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#178: Using Generative AI to boost your monetization strategy with Jenny Kay Pollock, Mobile App Expert

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Generative Pre-trained Transformer or better known to you as ChatGPT. This Generative AI, based on a large language model, was launched by OpenAI on November 30th last year.

You might have heard about OpenAI’s very recent turmoil with its CEO, Sam Altman’s firing and re-hiring 5 days later. Of course such a twist with a company worth 80$ billion grabbed your attention.

Speaking of money - how Generative AI can help you to boost your app’s monetization strategy?

It’s a good question and we have Jenny to help us to figure it out.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jenny Kay Pollock background
Jenny's take on the current state of Generative AI
How app developers and brand can figure out if Generative AI is a good fit for their app
How Generative AI can help with app monetization
How to create effective prompts for Generative AI
What Jenny would like to change about app marketing
Takeaways

Links and Resources:

Jenny Kay Pollock on LinkedIn
A free AI Prompt Engineering worksheet to help you save time and boost app revenue with AI support.
Women and AI (WAAI) on LinkedIn
www.womenandai.com - join a community focused on advancing the field of artificial intelligence by empowering and amplifying the voices of women in technology.
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

Quotes from Jenny Kay Pollock:

"AI’s power to drive business growth is exciting! Organizations and individuals can partner with generative AI to create something better or faster!"

"AI is not going to take your job. You’re just going to have to partner with it. Collaborate with the AI to supercharge your efforts."

"The [AI] technology is moving fast and things like corporate governance and legislation can be slow to catch up. Your board should be talking about AI strategy and AI policies."

"AI is a new frontier and with that comes a new opportunity for more diversity."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#177: Preventing App Subscriber Churn with Vahe Baghdasaryan, Sr. Growth Marketing Manager at CoinStats

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

App user acquisition is so important across mobile platforms, countries and languages - we all understand the challenge and significance of connecting your app with users.

We also are pretty familiar, way more than we would like to, with the notion of a mobile app churn.

This infamous situation when people, users of your app you spent so much energy to find, abandon the app.

In this episode, we will be talking about how to prevent app subscriber churn in particular. When people leave your paid app it’s a problem but not as big as when they pay you a subscription fee and they stop using your app.

Today’s Topics Include:

Vahe Baghdasaryan background
What is CoinStats today
What is App Subscriber churn
Unintentional users churn and how to mitigate it
Intentional users churn and how to mitigate it
App Analytics tools Vahe suggests
Switching the tables: the case when Vahe was an app user who was persuaded to stick to the app
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Vahe miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Vahe Baghdasaryan:

"Subscriber churn is inevitable, but implementing the right interventions can make it healthy."

"Giving this your customers a grace period is always a good idea. Another very important thing here is incorporating life cycle marketing in terms of transactional communication with the users that you fail to charge. For example, if you fail to charge, send them an email notification that says your payment didn't go through. "

"So the biggest takeaway from here is like if you're gonna ask them to update their billing information, there's something that is that has a lot of friction in it. And your strategy should be also how am I gonna like minimize the friction? "

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#176: A Mobile Consumer Behaviors landscape with Paul Neto, co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer at Measure Protocol

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Ok, if you work in a brick-and-mortar mall you can see your customers in person daily and you even have a chance to know some of them better than others.

If you own a mobile app, you stare at your laptop’s screen and you better have a good consumer intelligence platform in hand to have a clue about what people use your app, so you can serve them well.

In this episode we have Paul to talk about his company’s “AppLife Report 2023 Vol. 2” report that talks about app users’ behavior.

Today’s Topics Include:

Paul Neto's background
What is Measure Protocol today
Bird-view on the AppLife Report 2023 Vol. 2
Generational differences in app preferences
TikTok users' behavior
Customers' journeys
Priority engagement for mobile apps
Top 5 trends
What Paul would like to change about the ad tech today
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Paul miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Paul Neto:

" And I think we're just in the early stages and maybe underappreciate some of the changes that are being driven by TikTok. So, for example, the volume is immense. If you look at younger audiences, they're browsing about 5,400 videos a month. Older audience, it's around, 1,600 videos. That's a massive amount of content. Secondly, actual engagement with the app is, through the ceiling."

"And so we look at what are some of the top apps that people use when they first pick up the phone. And we see often it's for communication for across for all the generations. So things like messaging, Snapchat or even Discord tend to be ranked relatively high, of the reason why you pick up this device. So it often ends up being communication or some kind of entertainment. And entertainment will be things like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. All those tend to bubble to the top."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#175: Enterprise app development security with Greg Ellis, General Manager, Application Security at Digital.ai

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Unless you’re listening to me from Mars or some other planet, you know that today cybersecurity as important as the physical one, they both are intertwined and security breaches are being reported almost daily.

It’s about personal data security on your phone and computer and security of big corporations and non-profit. In this episode, we invited Greg to talk about security in the app development process.

Today’s Topics Include:

Greg Ellis background
What is Digital.ai today
What is DevSecOps, benefits and challenges
Practices and tools for DevSecOps
How to improve app development teams' security performance
How to handle security incidents
What Greg would like to change about the Big Tech today
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Greg miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Greg Ellis:

"We've actually heard of some customers that inadvertently release a non protected application out in the wild. And so you really want to make sure that you've got those tools in place to catch that. But then once the applications themselves are deployed, it's just as important to ensure that those apps are monitored for active attacks and collecting thread analytics and then responding in real time via runtime application self protected and feeding those insights into the next. Devsecop cycle."

"So that human aspect still needs to be in there. And Ai isn't going to necessarily be the end all and be all, but it's there really to augment the work that we're doing and try to reduce our workload. And that combination of Ai technologies and human intelligence really creates a more robust defense against security incidents and vulnerabilities in these mobile app environments."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#174: Strategies to master retail on mobile with Lexi Sydow Director, Corporate Marketing & Insights at Data.ai

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

How was your shopping this year? How long is your Amazon 2023 Orders list by now?

Of course it wasn’t only you and it wasn’t only about Amazon (even though you may justifiably have an impression that it’s always about Amazon :-) ) - well, the whole planet went shopping every second on multiple retail apps.

To comprehend that scale we’ve invited Lexi to talk about one of the latest Data.ai reports “Strategies to master retail on mobile”

Today’s Topics Include:

Lexi Sydow background
What is Data.ai today
Strategies to master retail on mobile report overview
Performance Score benchmark
How much time people spent in retail apps in Q3, 2023
Number of downloads for shopping apps in Q3, 2023
Newcomers and surprises on the Top 10 Shopping Apps list
Takeaways

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lexi Sydow:

" It (the Performance Score benchmark) basically gives you this sort of compass to see how you're performing in what sectors you might need to improve.

So it's acquisition, engagement, sentiment and monetization of your app. And so you can dive deeper into each of these buckets and see where you might need to focus more on your strategy. And the beauty of this metric is that it is also driven by applied AI and it is a great sort of almost like a credit score for an app."

"So seeing that many new downloads is really impressive because we do see a lot of e commerce players that are coming in now across the spectrum. "

"Shein did something really interesting. Shein is obviously a fast fashion and its targeting tends to be more Millennial women. And they think their app very Instagramable in its presence. It kind of looks like a social app more than a shopping app at time. Even the images of clothes look like an influencer is curating it, not a corporation that's taking it in a room with models, you know, informal."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#173: The 2023 Customer Engagement Awards with Josh Hollander, Head of Customer Success at OneSignal

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Now, of course - the reason number one why we all in business is to make money, so we can put food on our table, right? But every once in a while we’re pleasantly surprised when our efforts, our midnight oil burning moments, brainstorms and nail-biting get rewarded. When we either in-person or virtually awarded with a prize for what we’re trying to be the best in.

So, today Josh will tell us about OneSignal’s The 2023 Customer Engagement Awards.

Today’s Topics Include:

Josh Hollander background
What is OneSignal today
What is The Custom Engagement Awards
The evaluation process for the awards
The winners
Reasons nominees didn't win
What Josh would like to change about the mobile industry

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Josh Hollander:

"For me, it was really about how do we identify people that are moving the needle"

"Ninety plus percent of people who download your app are going to disappear in the first thirty days. How do we move that from ninety percent to eighty five percent?"

"So there's three cardinal sins in customer engagement and with our platform specifically that I always try to coach people away from."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#172: “RIP Fingerprinting in 2024: How should advertisers prepare?” live event with Branch, InMobi, and MobileGroove

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

This week we have another special episode for you, featuring our recent live event with Brach, InMobi and MobileGroove.

There are only two months left in 2023 and the most dramatic mobile attribution shift is about to happen - when Apple’s Privacy Manifests and Google’s Android Privacy Sandbox will be coming to life in 2024. For many mobile advertisers it is still uncharted territory and so we've summoned up experts from the leading mobile marketing and attribution platforms to share a strategy to tackle this looming challenge.

It was hosted by Peggy Anne Salze of MobileGroove and the guests were: Adam Landis, of Branch, Sergio Serra of InMobi DSP.

Links and Resources:

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#171: 2023 Mobile UA and Monetization landscape with Renz Gonzales, Head of Biz Dev at PropellerAds

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0000

October of 2023 is almost over, Halloween is just a week away, Thanksgiving and Black Friday are coming - in other words we are closing this year. So we decided to take a look at what mobile user acquisition and monetization techniques worked this year.

Head of Biz Dev at PropellerAds, Renz is here to give us a tour.

Listeners can use the promo code BOAPROP to get a $35 bonus* with $150 (or more) deposit for PropellerAds new clients.

*not available for wire transfers

Today’s Topics Include:

Renz Gonzales''s background
What is PropellerAds today
2023 Best-performing ad formats and channels
UA campaign efficiency improvement
Improving app monetization
The role of Generative AI in UA and app monetization
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Renz miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Renz Gonzales:

"Many advertisers utilized the power of social media and that definitely paved the way into different types of marketing, influencer marketing is really-really trending. I would say for 2023 in thus far - it's been TikTok, Instagram, Facebook - all of the social media have been used fully for their advantage."

"With app monetization it really has to do with the balance of user experience. We don't really want to have a lot of ads bombarding the users with different types of ads units."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#170: ”User Acquisition for Subscription Apps:” App Promotion Summit San Francisco panel

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0100

This week we have a bonus episode for you. During this September’s App Promotion Summit San Francisco we had a great panel we want to share with you.

It was hosted by Carolyn Bao of AppsFlyer and the guests were: Annie Wang, Senior User Acquisition Manager at Picsart, Nick Candler, Consultant and Advisor and Zamir Wassermiller, User Acquisition at TextNow.

Links and Resources:

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#169: Winning attention of mobile audiences with Mark Slade, VP Brand at Digital Turbine

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0100

“May I have your attention please?” - how many times did you hear this ask?

When you look at the screen of your smartphone, tablet or computer, nobody is asking for your attention, companies just fight for that precious 10-15 seconds of your attention when it comes to ads in Instagram Reels or like 43 minutes when it’s about an TV show episode on Netflix.

I know you can’t answer me now but I’m going to ask this question anyway - do people pay attention to ads they see on the screen? So we invited Mark to answer this question and talk about winning attention of mobile audiences.

Today’s Topics Include:

Mark Slade's background
What is Digital Turbine today
The industry KPI measuring transition: viewability to attention
Digital ads concessions
The cooperative model on TV
Mobile gaming as a mobile example of the cooperative model
The takeaways

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Mark Slade:

“I think they do pay attention to advertising. I think they pay attention to advertising that's creative, emotive, uses sounds, uses storylines, tells stories. The best advertising has been proven by people like Orlando Wood and System One. It's the one that has all of those components built into the advertising network, and that's what gets people to remember the ads and you get all of that brand uplift.”

“Viewability by the definition of IAB is fifty percent in view. So fifty percent on screen for two seconds. So this is kind of where the foundation of the problem starts.”

“So it makes it even worse. And then the advertiser really makes the ultimate concession in digital video because they're having very little audio, very little completion and very little remote screen real estate. ”

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#168: Using AI to streamline your Mobile marketing operations with Fouad Saeidi, CEO at App Growth Network

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Today people find use for Generative AI tech for so many things - entertainment, science, art and, of course, work. For the first time this tech can actually find applications for people's daily lives, it's easy to use, for the most part, it's free. Yet. Just like any new tech, of course there is a flip side - Generative AI tools like ChatGPT used by hundreds of millions do threat many jobs to go extinct.

But today we want to talk about how Generative AI and AI in general can help to make life of a mobile marketer easier and we have Found Said, CEO of App Gardens to cover for us a few major components of mobile marketers' workflow that can be streamlined by AI.

Today’s Topics Include:

Fouad Saeidi's background
What is App Guardians today
Fouad's take on ChatGPT
How AI can help with mobile ad campaign personalization
The use of AI to analyze app installs and post-install events
The role of AI in combating mobile ad fraud
How AI can help to improve mobile ad campaign performance
Can AI be instrumental in dealing with ad campaign reporting?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Fouad Saeidi:

"Leverage AI for your future refined adjacent creation"

"There will always be demand for insights and expertise; the right AI usage can just enhance our productivity"

"UA Campaigns are all about validating the who/what/when with proven hypotheses, The right Ai usage can accelerate us."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#167: Monetization tool stack best practices, Alex Kudelka, Co-Founder & CRO at Glassfy

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Morning. You wake up, go to the gym (hopefully), take a shower and sit at your desk to continue to push the envelope of your app business.

You maybe at the very beginning of your app project journey or not - regardless, the notion of monetization is on your mind. Am I using the right tools? Am I missing something? Do I see the accurate picture of what’s going on?

In this episode, Alex is here to share monetization tool stack best practices.

Today’s Topics Include:

Alex Kudelka's background
Glassfy brief intro
Monetization tool stack definition
How to build monetization tool stack
What tools to include into the stack
What mistakes are made when it comes to building the stack
What Alex would like to change about tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Alex’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Alex miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Alex Kudelka:

“If you are in that first stage of looking to monetize, the very first decision you need to make is - I need a tool that that will to build app revenue. "

“If you are a solo developer or if you are a new app within a larger company, essential question you should be asking yourself is this a core competence in our team? Is somebody in our team an app revenue expert?"

"If it's not your core competence, chances are you aren't gonna build something as good as a tool that is specifically meant for that problem."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#166: State of playable ad formats and creatives with Greg Castro, VP, Global Partnerships at Mobvista

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0100

We carry this small rectangular computer in our pocket or a purse. One moment we complain about how we would like to use it less and wonder how the world span before the smartphone, the next - we’re relieved that it is in hand, pun intended, to help us figure out so many things.

We have a bunch of apps on it and sure thing - we see a bunch of ads in those apps or mobile websites. And you know what? Some of those ads don’t quite look like ads, these peculiar species are playable ads and today Greg will help us to understand them better.

Today’s Topics Include:

Greg Castro's background
What is Mobvista today
The landscape of digital ad formats
What is playable ad format
The role of Generative AI in creating playable ads
Playable ads usage best practices, common mistakes
What Greg would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Greg’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Greg miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Greg Castro:

“In the ever-evolving world of mobile in-app advertising understanding the role and effectiveness of various ad formats is really key. With banner ads, while they are one of the oldest formats their obtrusive nature still makes them suitable for certain campaigns."

“Videos ads have become an ideal medium for storytelling and building engagement across various types of apps, both gaming and non-gaming."

"Playable ads are perhaps the epitome of interactive advertising. They are especially prominent in the gaming industry. This try-before-you-buy model really offers potential users a taste of the actual product. "

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#165: The psychology of app user acquisition with Joe Schaeppi, CEO & Co-Founder at Solsten

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0100

App User Acquisition. Gosh, this topic has been covered so heavily precisely because only via acquiring new users for the app does it becomes possible to build a sustainable app business.

Fine.

So we’re talking about acquiring new users, and new people to use the app, right? But what happens when app marketers dive deep into their app marketing strategy, their investors’ expectations, and a ton of possible issues that may show up on the way to success? Right - they begin to think about people who will be using their app as numbers.

To be honest, it’s hard to blame them for doing that, it’s how our brain works - when it comes to planning it should be a rational cold mind to analyze the data. It is not prone to think about users who will be using the app as people, they become numbers.

But this is not to say that we shouldn’t resist this swap of notions and Joe will tell us today what exactly you should do.

Today’s Topics Include:

Joe Schaeppi's background
What is Solsten
The role of psychology in app user acquisition
How to build an app user profile using psychology
The Impact of psychology on ad creative creation
How psychology can help with a mobile app user churn
Takeaways
What Joe would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Joe’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Joe miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Joe Schaeppi:

“One of the things we noticed that changed in the app industry after IDFA deprecation is we saw a big shift in our customer base. We saw pure UA folks getting replaced with agency people, people that came more from creative backgrounds."

“I looked at the audience, I looked at the highest LTV group there and then I looked at their highest-scoring trades. A lot of times when we design the psychology we want to think of the things that really stand out of our audience. So in this case, the specific group was off-the-charts in altruism."

"One day in the distant future marketing will be a gentle tap on the shoulder from a very good friend"

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#164: Fixing bad mobile ads with Jimmy Morrow, Director of Product Marketing at Moloco

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Okay, let’s start with the obvious - nothing is perfect. By the time you get to your 40s, hopefully, sooner, you realize that as much as you try to do your best there is always a margin for error. But that is not to say that you shouldn’t try.

Speaking of something you should try harder - mobile ads. To me, it feels like nobody is even trying to make them good. How so? What are we doing about it? This is exactly what we’re going to tackle with Jimmy on this episode.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jimmy Marrow's background
What is Moloco
Why do we see SO MANY bad ads?
Digital ads' recent history
The story of ad click attribution
What's up with Click Arms Race?
What does Moloco have to offer to solve it?
What app marketers can do about bad ads
Android or iOS?
Jimmy’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jimmy miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jimmy Morrow:

“If you think about it, arguably it [digital advertising] is one of the most successful businesses for the past 30 years."

“Back in the day, it was pretty simple - advertisers had a good sense of their ROI in marketing and it made digital advertising an extremely lucrative business."

" From 2017, the pre-ATT era, to 2020 I would call it a kind of fat-thumb era, where is essentially like networks and other platforms started to introduce the idea - how can I get more credit in the ecosystem.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#163: The challenges of a mobile game player support with Eric Vermillion, CEO of Helpshift

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0100

We all like it when things go smoothly and prefer it to stay that way but the Universe is messy so people’s experience with mobile apps and mobile games can be too.

As much as app developers do their best to deliver the best experience to the users, they are just human beings, even if the code is perfect - which is extremely rarely the case if ever, there are maybe issues with how people interact with the app.

The solution? A support system that will help you to resolve all those issues for your mobile game users. Today, Eric will tell us about the challenges of mobile game player support.

Today’s Topics Include:

Eric Vermillion's background
What is Helpshift
The challenges and requirements of mobile game support
What it takes to provide support for non-mobile game platforms
The role of Generative AI in a video game player support
Can Generative AI impact programmatic ad campaigns' costs
Generative AI impact on jobs in the programmatic ad sector
AR and VR games player support
What Eric would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Eric’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Eric miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Eric Vermillion:

“I find mobile games incredibly interesting because having a nice chunk of my career working in a broader cross-vertical support environment where I've done banks, insurance companies, some legacy brands and sort of have this preconceived notion of how the support is delivered - you put a bunch of people in the building and you call them, you send out physical mail and that sort of stuff. Gaming moves faster than that!"

“For consoles, you aren't in the game, you aren't in the environment and so you have to depart and go engage and support in a different way."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#162: Generative AI in mobile ad campaigns with Levi Matkins, CEO of LifeStreet

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 07:01:00 +0100

ChatGPT from OpenAI, Bard from Google, Llama from Meta, and a decent number of smaller players are firing on all cylinders to power the Generative AI revolution that took off late last year.

Of course, for folks who had been watching the AI space, it was not a surprise but for the rest of us - it was. Generative AI based on Large Language Models is changing the business landscape. Today, we want to talk about its impact on mobile ad campaigns.

Today’s Topics Include:

Levi Matkins's background
Levi's take on ChatGPT
The impact of ChatGPT on mobile ad creatives production
Generative AI impact on programmatic bidding
The impact of Generative AI on mobile ad campaigns analytics
Can Generative AI impact programmatic ad campaigns' costs
Generative AI impact on jobs in the programmatic ad sector
What Levi would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Levi Matkins:

“As things stand today, I think it's in most cases it (Generative AI) is a very helpful tool for a design team to use both for ideation and production."

“We've been using deep neural nets for quite a few years at this point."

"This is an area (AI programmatic ad analytics) where we have done some investigations and thus far the insights we're able to see are not reliable enough today."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#161: Building apps for a billion users with Rajesh Janakiraman, Engineering Manager at Gmail Android at Google

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0100

One of the things that set mobile apps apart from desktop software is the scale. Since 2008, when the mobile app stores were launched, and on, scale has been a crucial ingredient for any iOS or Android app project success.

For both Apple’s and Google’s app ecosystems to grow mobile apps had to be affordable for lots of people. But for app developers and brands to make app enterprises profitable, they had to acquire a large number of users.

And there is more - in some cases when we talk about a free app from one of the most influential companies on the planet - Gmail app, we’re talking about roughly 1.8 billion users. This scale implies some unique challenges we’re going to be discussing with Rajesh today.

Today’s Topics Include:

Rajesh Janakiraman's background
Definition of app onboarding
Challenges of building an app for billions of users - development and management-wise
Rajesh's Thoughts on Generative AI in Gmail
Toughest projects in Rajesh's career
What Rajesh would like to change about tech the most
Android or iOS?
Rajesh's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Rajesh miss most?
What features v would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Rajesh Janakiraman:

“Having a product [Gmail] maintained that reputation for so long is a very difficult thing to do"

“It's such a massive set of users that you see this whole spectrum of how they use the product."

"Just from your device perspective, you see the latest $1,500 Samsung device running the latest version of Android with hundreds of Gb of storage, so it's not gonna matter how much space you take up of their phone, with multiple processors so it's gonna matter how efficient your app is, all the way to the $10 no-name smartphone."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

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#160: App onboarding: solving the endless choice problem with Chris Dalla Riva, Senior Product Manager at Audiomack

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Frictions. “The resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another” - this is the dictionary definition of what friction means in science. When you ask a mobile app developer “What do frictions mean to you?”, the answer is “any obstacle that prevents my app users from doing with the app what I expect them to”.

This notion sounds great but as with everything in our life, moderation is the key and today, Chris will give you an example of that.

Today’s Topics Include:

Chris Riva's background
Audiomack brief bio
Definition of app onboarding
Onboarding for the Audiomack app
Bad friction versus good friction
Takeaways
What Chris would like to change about tech the most
Android or iOS?
Chris's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Chris miss most?
What features Chris would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Chris Dalla Riva:

“One thing we noticed is that this notion of what follower means on social media or on various music apps - it doesn't always mean you can reach your followers."

“Our process is evolved pretty dramatically over the last four years. When I started the Audiomack the onboarding process was a novel onboarding process, the idea was to let the person in the app, start listening to the music, they're gonna stick, they gonna eventually create an account, start saving music."

"We just look at each step of the onboarding to see where the people stumbling, are there ways that we can improve those pages."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#159: Web-to-app user acquisition war stories with Andrew Tsui, former Director of Product at K Health

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0100

A long-long time ago, 16 years ago to be precise, there was the world before Mobile - the time when if you wanted to read the news, watch movies, pay your bills, plan your next trip and so on you had to sit down at your desktop computer or grab a laptop to open a browser window to go to a website.

Then Steve Jobs stood on the stage at Macworld Expo in San Francisco to introduce the iPhone. The rest is history. These days, as a mobile marketer, you expect the bulk of traction for your business to take place on mobile. But that’s not entirely true - today Andrew will tell you how important are customers' journeys between web and mobile for user acquisition.

Today’s Topics Include:

Andrew Tsui's background
Marketing channels Andrew used to run ad campaigns
Applying web-to-app marketing to the K Health app
Lessons learned
What Andrew would like to change about the industry the most
Android or iOS?
Andrew's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Andrew miss most?
What features Andrew would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andrew Tsui:

“I'd say that it (web-to-app marketing) has worked quite well in raising the awareness of K Health and driving strong new user growth."

“It's a powerful technique that requires a few basic things - natural user entry points, delivering value on the web as well as in the app, prioritizing account creation and attribution tech, and obsessing over the analytics."

"Hindsight is always 20/20, and I suppose the easy answer is I just wish we had done the aspects of what we've talked about way earlier."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#158: Strategic analytics for app growth with Jeff Wang, VP of Growth at Hiatus

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 07:00:00 +0100

I don’t think anybody in the app industry would argue with the fact that growth is what occupies app marketers’ and developers’ minds all the time. From Monday to Friday and, unfortunately quite often, from Friday to Monday as well, people do mental gymnastics for how to make their app’s growth more efficient.

But if you don’t measure it properly you can not improve it. What analytics reports are important to check regularly to measure your app’s growth? How do we do incrementality growth analysis? I invited Jeff to riddle these puzzling questions for you.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jeff Wang's background
Cohort and funnel definition
App analytics reports to focus on
The most important report to work with
App analytics reports to check less often
Incrementality growth analysis
The takeaways
Android or iOS?
Jeff's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jeff miss most?
What features Jeff would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jeff Wang:

“I can spend all day looking at the reports, especially when you have a lean team. It's really important to get a sense of your business impact to guide workflows as well as the strategical direction."

“One good tip I would give is to have a regular cadence for certain reports."

"I think since we're a subscription product, looking at churn is really useful, seeing what a month-to-month looks like."

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#157: Marketing with ChatGPT: lessons learned so far with Bryan Karas, CEO of Playbook Media

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0100

In this episode, we’ll be discussing how ChatGPT can help you create more effective digital marketing campaigns.

We’ll be exploring the latest advancements in language models and machine learning and how they can be used to generate persuasive marketing content tailored to your target audience.

Our guest speakers will share their insights on how ChatGPT can help you improve your digital marketing efforts by creating more engaging content, improving your SEO, and increasing your ROI. So sit back, relax, and join us as we explore the exciting world of Digital Marketing with ChatGPT!

Ok, if you ever heard my previous intros you would feel there is something off about this one. And you would be right - this intro was written by ChatGPT itself. I have no idea why it decided that I’ll be having not one but multiple guests on this episode and of course the topics run the whole gamut of what can be said about using ChatPGT in digital marketing but we only have like half an hour, not a week to discuss them all :-)

Today’s Topics Include:

Bryan Karas's background
ChatGPT area of application in an app marketing
Tools that have embedded ChatGPT
Mistakes people do with ChatGPT in marketing
Expectations from ChatGPT 5,6 and on
What Bryan would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Bryan's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Bryan miss most?
What features Bryan would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Bryan Karas:

“ChatGPT, when I think about it, I think it can be used for idea generation, output copyrighting."

“If you are thinking about translation service, as you are moving from one country to another, you could use ChatGPT"

"One of the things that drive me the most crazy about marketers, is they look at everything from last-click attribution standpoint."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#156: The art & science of a mobile user research with Rosie Hoggmascall, Head of Growth at Perceptycs

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Think about it - whatever product or service you offer on a market your success always hinges on how well you know the people you sell your product to. There is just no other way around it - either you understand their needs and their problems so you can address them and succeed or - not a chance, forget about it.

How do we conduct research for mobile app users? It’s a great question and today we have Rosie to help us to answer it.

Today’s Topics Include:

Rosie Hoggmascall's background
Mobile user research objectives
Finding participants to conduct a research
Common challenges and mistakes
What Rosie would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Rosie's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Rosie miss most?
What features Rosie would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Rosie Hoggmascall:

“It really depends on what you're trying to find out. With user research, there is a number of different methods you can use and they fit with a problem that you're solving"

“It's really hard [to find participants for research], things are on the spectrum here. One end is cheap and free, and the other end is expensive. "

"Not doing enough [of mobile user research], sometimes people just listen to like app reviews and support tickets. And if that is your user research, it's not enough"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#155: Growing your app downloads with PR with Jessica Alderson, Co-founder and CEO at So Syncd

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0100

PR - what does this acronym mean to you? If you moving from one country to the other, it’s definitely about Permanent Residency, if you’re launching a product, in our today’s conversation, a mobile product, it is about Public Relations and making a splash to grab mobile users' attention.

How big of a splash you can do with it? The size of a splash from the meteorite that killed off the dinosaurs in the Mexican Gulf 66 million years ago? Or barely noticeable? Today we have Jessica to share her experience of doing a PR campaign for her app So Syncd.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jessica Alderson's background
What is So Syncd app
PR marketing technique applicability to app categories
How to identify the audience for an app
Short and long-term strategies for pitching the press
Pitch email template
How to identify a PR campaign's success
The general strategy to approach journalists
Final tips
What Jessica would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Jessica's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Jessica miss most?
What features Jessica would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jessica Alderson:

“I don't think that PR is applicable to all kinds of apps and I don't think it's applicable to even necessarily startups in the same vertical in different states."

“I think a good lens to think of it [is your app newsworthy for PR or not] through is how does this impact other people?"

"As you develop relationships then the journalists will start reaching out to you and you have a back-and-forth dialog"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#154: The App Store is 15 years old with Simon Dussart, CEO at Adjust

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Here is a question you may not expect - do you remember yourself when you were 15? And the tough one for all parents - do you remember your kids when they’re 15? Today we’ll be talking about the very special 15-year-old “kid” - the App Store from Apple.

Time runs really fast, we all have passed wondering about the App Store as a unique mobile software ecosystem, we have other things to wonder about these days, like ChatGPT or the unstoppable growth of TikTok.

Today to talk about the App Store through the years and its evolution we have Simon.

Today’s Topics Include:

Simon's background
What is Adjust today?
Recollections from the day the App Store was launched
The point when the App Store felt big
The iOS ecosystem evolution
The App Store saturation point
Indie app developers' chances for success today
The Spatial Computing potential
What Simon would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Simon's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Simon miss most?
What features Simon would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Simon Dussart:

“What's interesting is that apps for a computer had been around, you could install them via a CD-ROM, you could physically exchange them and I think the real thing that the App Store changed was that it centralized all of it into one spot."

“On the mobile, you had to have the network to be developed to sustain developing apps. If you look at the streaming apps now, they all stream live data between your terminal, the mobile phone, and a server."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#153: Building a superior mobile product with Lisa Pickett, digital product and marketing specialist

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Remember your first day in the office at your first job? Now switch mentally to today, think about what your work on a project looks like now. What’s the difference? Why do you feel way more confident now? It’s your experience, the body of knowledge in your brain allows you to be sure about your next move and avoid anxiety.

In today’s episode, I have Lisa to tell you about her 5-point approach to working on the project, she has distilled from her more than a decade of experience in digital marketing, to achieve more while spending less.

Today’s Topics Include:

Lisa's background in digital marketing
Five-point approach to achieve more with less
Point #1: Get familiar with failure
Point #2: Just ask
Point #3: Grow smart
Point #4: Sweat the small stuff
Point #5: Swot up
What Lisa would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Lisa's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Lisa miss most?
What features Lisa would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lisa Pickett:

“You not gonna have all the answers, no one I know has a working crystal ball, we can't predict the future. The sooner can realize we not aren't going to get the answers, the sooner we can kind of get out of our own way."

“Working in digital products and apps is actually really great because the feedback loop times are pretty quick if you compare it kind of traditional media. You can pretty say within a few days if what you've done is worked."

"I' would just encourage you if you're starting out your career just to really invest in growing a really great network."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#152: Achieving product-market fit whilst growing 20% M/M with Nathan Hudson, Founder & CEO at Perceptycs

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0100

There are roughly 5 million mobile apps between iOS and Android (roughly speaking - the population of Norway) and of course every single of those apps has its own purpose and they collectively help all of us work, study, improve our health, entertain ourselves, and more.

But as you know only a handful, compared with the total number, are really popular and welcomed. In marketing there is such a notion as product-market fit, which indicates how well a certain product satisfies a market demand.

What does it take to achieve a product-market fit for a mobile app? Today, I have Nathan to help us answer this question.

Today’s Topics Include:

Nathan's background in marketing
What is Perceptycs
Market-product fit definition
SPOKE app growth KPIs
Having a chance to redo the SPOKE app growth campaign, what Nathan would do differently
Takeaways
What Nathan would like to change about mobile marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Nathan's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Nathan miss most?
What features Nathan would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Nathan Hudson:

“On one hand, I begin to thinking increasingly you can't have product-market fit if you are a company or an app that does't generate revenue. "

“On the flip side, if you think about apps like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, social media platforms, I doubt anyone would argue they don't have a product-market fit, they certainly do."

"So essentially a lot of people want growth but if you haven't got really strong foundation to build from then it's hard to grow anything."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#151: ChatGPT’s impact on social media, influencers, and brands with Jason Mitchell, CEO at Movement Strategy

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Six months ago, ChatGPT sounded like yet another high-tech gibberish for people who were in the know, today well more than 100 million people around the world use this cutting-edge Generative AI tool for everything under the sun.

Well, social media is obviously a part of that “under the sun” and on this episode I have Jason to talk about its implications for social media, how people use it, influencers, and what brands need to do about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

How ChatGPT changes the Landscape of social media platforms
What's ChatPGT's impact on brands' social media strategy
How ChatGPT impacts influencers and creators' businesses
What Jason would like to change in the digital marketing space the most
Android or iOS?
Jason's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jason miss most?
What features Jason would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jason Mitchell:

“One of the things that is core to what we believe in is the idea of helping companies to really establish an online persona. Who are you on social that is interesting, that it's gonna give people a reason to want to follow you."

“We are starting to see and we will continue to see an explosion of content because the content is so easy to produce. It's not any content, it's pretty good content, one of the reasons ChatGPT blew up in the way it did is because it's pretty good and the same thing is with image generators, they're just getting better and better. We're gonna see this explosion of pretty good content coming to all social media platforms and that is going to be boring."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#35: TikTok audiences with Andre Kempe, Founder at Admiral Media

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:12:47 +0100

Are you on TikTok? Who isn’t on TikTok? Although it’s popular with younger audiences, it is possible to attract multiple generations with TikTok’s advertising platform.

The story of early adoption by teenagers of YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat repeats itself with TikTok. Ask anybody on the street “Who is using TikTok?” and they would reply “Of course teens!”. The thing is – it is not necessary truth, in fact the platform has not being solely used by Gen Z.

Today’s guest is Andre Kempe, founder of Admiral Media, which now offers app brands the ability to launch TikTok ad campaigns to drive app installs. Andre covers multiple topics, giving a holistic view on video advertising for mobile apps today.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ App Advertising: Make TikTok video ads; image ads are not recommended/relevant

✔️ Career Changes: Dynamic advertising, creatives, quality, and mobile developed quickly

✔️ Attention Span: Short videos and willingness to consume creatives dominate advertising

✔️ Ages/Audiences: Which channel has massive reach, more likes, and less competition?

✔️ Real-life Testimonials: Creators and viewers gain/give attention and generate followers

✔️ Brand Advertising: Super-effective reach and frequency ads are possible

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Andre Kempe:

“I grew up in a world with no mobile phones. I come from eastern Germany. We didn’t even have bananas.”

“TikTok is dominating, at the moment, because the creators found a channel that was just massive in reach, and there was just literally not a lot of competition at the very beginning.”

“You reach an audience that is not over-advertised yet, and you have quite exclusive access to this audience on a different day at a much cheaper price level. It’s absolutely worth the effort.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#34: Privacy & data in mobile with Alex Ritchie, Product Manager, Privacy and Data at AdColony

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:08:48 +0100

Do you take your smartphone for granted? Even though you’ve had it for years and use it every day? What personal and private data is collected about you and the apps you use?

For the last couple years the importance of an internet user privacy, as well as collecting and using mobile users personal data has grown significantly. The mobile industry has come a long way from the time when these matters were perceived as purely the roam of academic discussions to growing adoption and legislations in Europe and US.

Today’s guest is Alex Ritchie, Product Manager of Privacy and Data at AdColony. Alex describes how, what, and why companies collect and use privacy and personal data in mobile.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ AdColony: Intermediary that facilitates buying and delivery of in-app ad inventory

✔️ Solution Architecture: Design and manage mechanisms for privacy compliance

✔️ Industry vs. Legalese: Not a lawyer, but translator and planner of privacy needs

✔️ GDPR, CCPA, and COPPA: Privacy-related rules and regulations to enforce compliance

✔️ AdColony collects some personal data, such as pseudonymous IDs, to share with SDK

✔️ AdColony’s End-User Privacy Policies: Above and beyond what’s legally required

✔️ Digital Privacy: #1 most important issue in mobile advertising industry now, next 5 years

✔️ Progressive Privacy: What will Apple and Google do to respond to regulation changes?

✔️ App Publishers: Proper data collection is knowing what’s being collected and processed

✔️ Privacy Rules/Sentiments: Be privacy proactive, minimalist, and conservatism

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Alex Ritchie:

“I really got to…discover my passion for privacy in helping measurement marketing providers design and kind of manage the mechanisms for privacy compliance.”

“There’s no better time than right now to be working in privacy.”

“Digital privacy is the number one most important issue in the mobile advertising industry today.”

“The mobile industry is being presented an amazing opportunity to be better at being transparent.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#33: Advertising on TikTok with Tiffany Ou, GM Americas at Nativex

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:04:51 +0100

To make an app business sustainable, app marketers need to have a robust strategy to secure their apps growth. When app growth slows down, should marketers try advertising on a new channel? If yes, what channel? TikTok, of course.

Today TikTok app marketing is one of the hot topics that you can see in agenda of so many mobile marketing online summits, webinars, and workshops. App marketing professionals consider TikTok marketing to be one of the most effective types of app marketing.

Today’s guest is Tiffany Ou, General Manager (Americas) at Nativex, which allows marketers to generate strong and sustainable growth through universal access to digital channels.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ U.S. vs. China: Similarities and differences in social media landscape, mobile ad market

✔️ 5 Major U.S. Players: Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snap, and TikTok

✔️ China Market: Immediate and dynamic platform with new players and apps every day

✔️ What to Watch: Popular/relevant content; no need to search TikTok for what you want

✔️ Age Groups: Not only under 18 are using TikTok; much more older audience adapting

✔️ TikTok: Monetization goal to create effective app ad campaign/platform is less advanced

✔️ Influencers/creators become brand advocates, if they believe in your products/services

✔️ App Advice: China is hot market with user base/money, but unique mobile ecosystem

✔️ ISBN Requirements: Don’t be a copycat or use obscene language for game approval

Links and Resources:

Tiffany Ou on LinkedIn
Nativex
Nativex Expands Media Buying Solution with TikTok Partnership

Tweets/Quotes by Tiffany Ou:

“Social network user in China is about 800 million, it’s much larger than the U.S. Also, 98% of Chinese people are using their phone to access the Internet.”

“In China, there’s so many new players coming out almost every day. The Chinese social landscape is so much more dynamic that there are so many rising stars.”

TikTok: No PC required; 100% mobile.

“TikTok is a social app or a platform that can help any brand to build their awareness globally very, very quickly. The engagement is very high.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#11: App UA and retention via geo-localized ads with Marco Scabioli, Mobile Marketing Manager at FlixBus Munich

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 15:37:21 +0100

Today the very next goal on every app marketer’s agenda, after acquiring app users, – to retain them. According to multiple sources, the app industry 90 days retention rate varies from 32% to 4% percent, meaning, within three month period, at least every third app user stops using the app.

In this episode, we talk with Marco about how to retain app users using geo-localized ads.

Today’s Topics Include:

💡 What are hyper-localized ad campaigns?

🇬🇧 A smart strategy to localize paid and non-paid ads

💪 Retention Rate: Rely on data and customized communication through the customer journey

💰Ad Spend: Budget for beta testing to create efficient, elastic, and incremental campaigns

💡Ad Creatives: Effective campaigns rely on workarounds, channels, and feedback

🤝 Media Buying: Streamline the process by screening partners/networks and creating backlog

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Marco Scabioli:

“Our aim is, actually, change the way most people travel.”

“I know how important it is for a solid marketing department to be interconnected to share knowledge and best practices that can be useful across different channels.”

“Hyper-localized ads are a solution that we came up with to match the right products with the right people.”

“Learn how different campaigns react to different spending budgets.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#149: Mobile Growth Acceleration: from 0 to 300k users in a year with Yoann Pavy, CMO at Nude

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:38:17 +0100

When you are looking for a new car to buy, chances are you may check how long it takes for your future ride to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour (for non-American listeners I mean 100 km/hour). Obviously you, as an app marketer, don’t accelerate apps in space, you accelerate their growth in time.

Today, I have Yoann to tell you a story of what it took for him and his team to acquire 300k users for their fintech app Nude during the first year on the market.

Today’s Topics Include:

Digital marketing starting point - places to discover the app
How word of mouth took off for the app
Nude paid advertising strategy
How does the newsletter marketing channel work for the app?
What Yoann would like to change in mobile marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Laricea's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Yoann miss most?
What features Yoann would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Yoann Pavy:

“We wanted to be really transparent with our customers - no jargon, very easy-going voice, we are not hiding the fig leaves."

“We came on the market differentiated with a single goal which made our job in marketing with my team a lot easier."

"We got focused really early on how could we accelerate its virality and word of mouth through our product."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#150: How to scale user acquisition in 2023 with Matthew Lord, CSO and Lee Aho, EVP of Marketers Perform[cb]

Mon, 29 May 2023 07:00:00 +0100

This episode is different, recently we hosted a webinar featuring Perform[cb] team talking about how to scale user acquisition in 2023 and we’re releasing a recording of this conversation with Matthew and Lee.

It was a lively discussion that covered a lot of ground, including:

Competitive optimizations for efficient ad spend
Maximizing reach through top traffic channels
Campaign strategies to test ahead of Q4
Three user acquisition success stories with top marketers, including FanDuel

Links and Resources:

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#148: The story of Dorothy Perkins mobile’s growth with Laricea Roman-Halliday, Head of Marketing at Dorothy Perkins

Mon, 15 May 2023 07:00:00 +0100

The retail market, and fashion in particular, has been going through some dramatic changes. The impact of COVID-19 on fashion brands was huge - people were forced to start using mobile apps to buy their new outfits sitting at home and it triggered a lot of changes in how fashion retailers do their business. On the other hand, we see the rising fashion brands like Chinese SHEIN, which has an impact on the fashion industry kind of like TikTok has on the mobile ad landscape. Long story short - the competition is fierce and managing to grow your fashion brand on mobile is not an easy feat and today Laricea will share with us her story of what it takes.

Today’s Topics Include:

The current mobile retail landscape
Native versus paid user acquisition - how it works for Dorothy Perkins mobile app
What app marketing channels work the best for the DP brand
What new channels to try
What Laricea would like to change in mobile marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Laricea's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Laricea miss most?
What features Laricea would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Laricea Roman-Halliday on LinkedIn
Laricea's book on Blurb (Paperback) - 100% of sales go towards planting trees with Forest Without Frontiers.
Laricea's book on Amazon UK (electronic)
Dorothy Perkins
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

Quotes from Laricea Roman-Halliday:

“It's been very challenging, because of the competition and also how people consume fast fashion and how they view the industry as well." “Consumers have become more and more conscious of where things are made, how are they made, fair practices, environmental issues" "I'm a big believer in continuing spending on brand despite all these trouble times"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#147: First-party data: the mobile paradigm shift with Ben Jeger, VP EMEA of Moloco

Mon, 08 May 2023 07:00:00 +0100

First-party data. Spoiler alert - we aren’t gonna be talking about what data you can collect from your first party in college or your political affiliation.

No - today the topic on the table is how the mobile advertising industry is switching to using data about mobile app users collected internally. How the industry is moving away from relying on mobile user data providers and to tell us about it we have Ben from Moloco.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is first-party data
First-party vs. Third-party data efficiency
Ben's take on ChatGPT's impact on the mobile ad industry
What Ben would like to change about the mobile app industry
Android or iOS?
Eran's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Ben miss most?
What features Ben would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Ben Jeger:

“The reason why it's being discussed [the first-party data] is we've entered a period of focus on user privacy. This period has seen such regulations as GDPR but also platform rules and regulations and enforcements, particularly by Apple."

“I think that in the app marketing space, the reliance on third-party data isn't really the key factor. I think when it comes to the use of third-party data from an advertising perspective, I do believe that the efficiency of ad creative is derived from the ability to apply Machine Learning to that data."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#146: ASO with ChatGPT with Thomas Kriebernegg, CEO & Co-founder of App Radar

Mon, 01 May 2023 07:00:00 +0100

ChatGPT. By now this AI tool’s name is so familiar to you, it took only a few months for the OpenAI breakthrough Artificial Intelligence tool to touch so many business and non-business related areas. Articles, TV interviews, podcasts, never ending Twitter exchange of thoughts, hopes and fears for this brand new tech. But how can we apply ChatGPT to the App Store Optimization? To answer this question, I’ve reached Thomas from App Radar App Store Optimization company.

Today’s Topics Include:

What Thomas think about ChatGPT
How to apply ChatGPT to ASO
What are ChatGPT's limitations ASO-wise
ChatGPT's downside
What Thomas would like to change about mobile app marketing

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Thomas Kriebernegg:

“I have to say that over the course of the last years I think I have been experiencing some of the trends that were happening within the roam of online marketing, new tech. For example, I was there when Google Ads was first launched in Austria." “I think it's just the adoption rate, it's on the different level [as opposed to the launch of the Internet back in mid 90s], how many people are getting into this topic [ChatGPT], how fast they can get into the topic."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#145: SKAdNetwork 4.0: what’s in it for you with Eran Friedman, Co-Founder and CTO at Singular

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0100

It was late March 2018, a pretty unassuming day. Except this is when Apple launched its SKAdNetwork. I bet back then many people weren’t sure what letters in this acronym should and shouldn’t be capitalized, let alone what impact this ad network API from Apple will have on the app industry.

Five years forward - it is one of the most discussed topics among mobile app marketers, app publishers, ad networks, and Mobile Measurement Partners or just MMPs. In this episode, Eran will tell about what SKAdNetwork 4.0 has brought to the table, how big of a deal it is, and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is SKAdNetwork
SKAdNetwork 4.0 updates: Crowd Anonymity and Source Identifier
Multiple Postbacks
Postbacks Delays and Locking Conversion
Web-to-app support
Conversion Value Decrease
How well this recent update addressed advertisers' dreams and hopes
What Eran would like to change about the mobile app industry
Android or iOS?
Eran's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Eran miss most?
What features Eran would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Eran Friedman:

“The challenge was though [with the Crowd Anonymity predecessor], and it leads us to the Crowd Anonymity, it was a very simplified threshold. It was practically impossible to optimize for SKAdNetwork"

“There is always room for improvement, generally speaking, SKAdNetwork. 4.0 is still new for us. It's very different from what marketers used to know from IDFA."

“I think of changes [for the app industry] that encourage more innovation, interesting opportunities. Like a potential new app ecosystem [from Microsoft] that may be launched soon."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#144: ASA + ASO = app growth app with Emre Bilgic, Senior Sales Engineer at MobileAction

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0100

If you are an app marketer, one of the ways you can slice the app marketing pie is to cut it into paid and free parts. Of course, when you think about the free part, App Store Optimization comes to mind. To be fair, it’s not entirely free but the idea is that you don’t pay for all app installs you get with ASO techniques.

When you mind wonders about the paid part, chances are paid ads with Apple’s Search Ads will pop up in your mind.

Now, the question is - can both ASO and ASA work together? Perhaps you, like me, saw this question being raised online before but I do want to hear what Emre has to say about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is Apple Search Ads platform
What is App Store Optimization
The App Store keyword ranking algorithm
How Apple Search Ads help ASO
How to increase a mobile app rankings using ASA
How ASO can be beneficial for Apple Search Ads campaigns
Custom Product Pages
Android or iOS?
Emre's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Emre miss most?
What features Emre would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Emre Bilgic:

“There are three major factors that effecting keyword rankings very strongly - the ranking that a particular keyword may have, the Conversion Rate, daily downloads number the app has for that keyword. "

“I'm really expecting a lot of things that come out from Apple in the upcoming years that probably are going to have the industry, hopefully in a more positive way."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#143: User Acquisition Strategies from Fabulous app with Natalie Drozd, Marketing & UA Lead at Fabulous

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0100

For more than a century scientists have been trying to pin down what sets us humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. The most prominent feature that seems to be doing the job is collecting, sharing, and storing information.

You, as an app marketer, are always on the quest for new information, namely - to learn from your peers how to handle various parts of the app marketing equation.

So today I have Natalie from Fabulous app to share with you the user acquisition strategies that help her at work.

Today’s Topics Include:

The marketing funnel definition
What Natalie considers essential for the app user acquisition journey
The strategy to deal with KPIs efficiently
What to do when something stops working in your app marketing campaign
How to scale up app user acquisition
Natalie's take on ad creatives
The rule of thumb for UA channels
Key takeaways
What Natalie would like to change about mobile app marketing
Android or iOS?
Natalie's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Natalie miss most?
What features Natalie would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Natalie Drozd:

“The marketing funnel - there are many ways how to describe it but I prefer to refer to the funnel as the process of the person understanding of the certain need and up to using your product and becoming a loyal customer."

“The important thing (about KPIs) is it should be realistic."

“(the important thing about ad creatives to highlight) Know your users, know your customers - this is how you can understand their needs.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#142: 2023 Influencer Marketing Trends with Lucia Aguilar, founder at TATAM.digital

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Generative AI ChatGPT and leveraging the power of AI for app analytics. Following this new trend, app marketers don’t want to be left behind and actively explore what this new flavor of artificial intelligence and automation has to offer. But this is not to say that Influencer marketing has stopped working, that influencers have lost their power of persuasion. Absolutely not. We are still human beings who trust other humans and those opinions we value. What’s on the horizon for Influencer marketing this year? I’m glad you’ve asked - today we have Lucia to talk about 2023 Influencer Marketing Trends.

Today’s Topics Include:

Creators economy trends
Influencer marketing campaigns' efficiency
Influencer Marketing CPM in 2023
App user's privacy impact on influencer marketing
App attribution for influencer marketing
Influencer marketing partnerships
Customer Acquisition Cost
What's coming for TikTok this year
Video vs. display and search formats
Things Lucia would like to change about the mobile marketing space

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lucia Aguilar:

"There are a lot of companies right now, with this harsh economy, going towards CPA type of payment to the influencers. So they are paying based on actions that they want influencers to perform.” “I think we're seeing that along with inflation that we see worldwide, we're going to see the inflation also reflected on the fees that influencers charge." “People will continue not to click on the ad :-), but we estimate that almost 50% of the people that actually click on the ad redeem the code, even if the code comes with the discount."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#141: The App Stores reverse engineering with Simon Thillay, Head of ASO at AppTweak

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Stores. We all visit several times a week a grocery store, once a week we may check out what’s cool in a nearby mall but what store do we check sometimes a couple of times a day? Right - it’s either Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Social Media, Instant Messaging, e-Commerce, streaming apps, and on and on, we download apps on our smartphones or a tablet on so many occasions. I don’t think you are that curious about how your local mall works but I bet you would like to take a look under the hood of those major mobile app stores. In this episode, Simon will give you that chance.

Today’s Topics Include:

A quick explainer for reverse engineering, metadata, and semantic meaning
The fundamental dynamics of an app store
What is Atlas and how it was built
The Atlas testing
What does Atlas allow app marketers to do?
Is Atlas useful for App Search Ads too?
What's next for the Atlas?
Things Simon would like to change about the app industry

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Simon Thillay:

"Reverse engineering is fairly common in tech - it's basically trying to recreate how something works by starting with the end result.” “The point we want to make is that the words' meaning can actually change depending on the contexts where it's been used." “What we're doing at AppTweak is not just building the Atlas but it's also building tools that are powered by Atlas that can make the life of marketers easier."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#140: Boosting app engagement with product-led growth principles with Esther Trapadoux, Growth Marketing at Amplitude

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

One of the pillars of mobile app growth is App Engagement. Month after month, year after year this is the never-ending challenge for every app marketer or mobile product manager out there. This is what keeps them up at night and put them on a plane to fly to the next app industry conference to learn more about it. It doesn’t matter what country’s app economy we’re talking about or app category - a robust App Engagement strategy is what brands desperately need to beat their competition, to stay afloat, especially in such economically challenging times as right now. In this episode, we will save you some money on a biz trip by having with us Esther to tell you about how to boost app engagement with product-led growth principles. Today’s Topics Include:

The Growth Loops concept
Esther's approach to measuring KPIs
What is a vanity metric and what to do about it
The North Star metric concept
Types of app engagement
Key takeaways
What Esther would like to change about app analytics
Android or iOS?
Esther's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Esther miss most?
What features Esther would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Esther Trapadoux: “But a lot of times, like for mobile app companies, that one session isn't enough time to get to monetization, you need multiple ones." “You don't really look at the quality of that traffic, how long you're able to retain that person, like what actually drove them there, what kind of promo you're running that actually paid off like 3 or 6 or 9 months down the line until you get into an important monetization moment." “Just get started, don't search for perfect... the faster you do the faster you start thinking about what are the inputs that move the needle." Follow the Business Of Apps podcast Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

#139: Customer-driven App Development with Josh Wetzel, CRO at OneSignal

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Look around, wherever you’re listening to this episode, many products you can see have three people associated with them - consumer, marketer, and developer/builder/designer - you get the point. So hence the following questions are always involved. What does the consumer want? How to make sure the product is what the consumer is looking for? And how to build the damn thing to meet those needs? Trying AppTweak too. In today’s episode, we welcome back Josh to talk about consumer-driven app development.

Today’s Topics Include:

The impact of the economy on mobile apps
The role of marketing in the current situation with mobile apps
Enterprise app development challenges and how marketing can help with it
App industry 2023 predictions
Things Josh would like to change about the app industry

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Josh Wetzel:

"OneSignal is a customer engagement platform, it's currently installed in approximately 1 every 5 new mobile Android and iOS mobile apps. We support businesses across the globe. We deliver about 11.5 - 12 billion messages a day.” “I see it both as a consumer and in my role here [in OneSignal]. There is a decline in the efficacy of user acquisition due to some things happing with app targeting and the costs are rising in general." “I think there is a great example [Netflix] when adding the ad component, I think it was a big mistake."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#138: State of Mobile 2023 with Lexi Sydow, Data Analytics at Data.ai

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Throughout the year we host around 50 episodes to introduce you to an app marketing technique, explain how app subscriptions work, dive into app monetization strategy building, to share tips and tricks for app marketing on holidays, and much more.

But at the beginning of the year, we get together with people from Data.Ai (formerly known as App Annie) to give you a bird-view perspective on the app industry and provide a recap for the previous year.

Now, Data.Ai commissions the State of Mobile annual report, which is about 100 pages, in this episode, we will cover with Lexi only its macro mobile trends, you can find the link below to read the entire report yourself.

Today’s Topics Include:

The app industry in 2022 vs. 2021 - a brief look
Time spent on mobile in 2022
Top mobile markets Downloads, Consumer Spent, and Time-wise
Money spent on mobile ads in 2022
Top 3 app categories Downloads, Consumer Spent, and Time-wise
Money spent on mobile games and apps in 2022
Growing app categories in 2022
The last year Gen Z app preferences
What people searched on the app stores

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lexi Sydow:

"We saw record app downloads, 255 billion new app downloads, so a lot of user acquisition happening, up 11% year-over-year.”

“On a per user basis, that's where it's really interesting. Globally, among the Top 10 mobile markets, we saw 5 hours per day spent on average person per device."

“Within the download space we saw a lot of more utilitarian, sort of tools and anti-virus apps, productivity tools, VPN and downloaders."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#137: The Future of App Attribution with Mateusz Bochenczak, Apps & Mobile Gaming Measurement at Appsflyer

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest causes of our fears and worries is uncertainty.

Ask any app marketer “What’s on your mind more than anything else?” and chances are you will hear something like “how well do I know what are the channels that bring me most of my app users today?”

App attribution is important like never before, I know it may sound like a cliche but it’s true.

In this episode, we have Mateusz talk about the future of attribution - where we stand today and where we are going to.

Today’s Topics Include:

The state of mobile marketing today
The most popular app user journeys today
What's new for the cross promotion
What's new for the organic user acquisition
Connected TV mobile attribution
What Mateusz would like to change about the app industry
Android or iOS?
Mateusz's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Mateusz miss most?
What features Mateusz would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Mateusz Bochenczak:

“A lot has changed since 2007, the competition grew. It's not that featuring on any of the apps stores will guarantee you a success. Depending on the genre and category you're operating, you need to try to, first of all, to be open to testing of different ways of acquiring those users, but we definitely see the surge of user journeys like, for example, web-to-app - trying to get the users into the mobile app."

“We see a big surge of things like Influnecer marketing, referrals, user intives..."

“Interesting enough, just for the second half of this year we saw an increase of more than 20% of clicks and installs when it comes the Connected TV to mobile app experiences. "

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#136: Creating the best monetization strategies for free apps with Andriy Sambir, CEO of LinkUp Studio

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

When you think about the Internet, what words come to your mind? Essential, cross-cultural, crucial for governance, and the word free would pop up as well. Yes - we pay for many online services, these days primarily for subscriptions, and mobile apps are a huge part of that.

But on the other hand - there is a free part of the Internet. But what do we mean it’s free? How do you monetize a free mobile app? There is a number of business models to do that but how do you decide on what model to apply to your free app? In this episode, Andriy will tell about how to create the best monetization strategy for your free apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

The landscape of app business models
Building an effective app monetization strategy mindset
Popular free apps monetization strategy examples
Free app monetization strategy - iOS vs. Android
Mobile games and non-games - which ones it's easier to monetize
What Andriy would like to change about the app industry
Android or iOS?
Andriy's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Andriy miss most?
What features Andriy would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andriy Sambir:

“However, in a case when we look at the application development from an owner standpoint of view and somebody who wants to make money on that, you actually have 9 different ways of getting money out of your app."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#135: Tapping Influencers for your app marketing mix with Marion Balinoff, Influencer Marketing Consultant

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Today I’d like to continue the Influencer marketing theme, covering with Marion running an Influencer marketing campaign. Now previously on this podcast, we covered this topic conceptually multiple times, and I bet you read about its pros and cons on blogs, watched presentations, etc but this time I want to focus specifically on launching your own campaign, I want to give you an example of how it should be done so you can avoid costly mistakes. Today’s Topics Include:

What social media platforms does Marion suggest to run ad campaigns for mobile apps?
Strategies for social media platforms that are efficient for app marketing today
Social media marketing campaign testing strategies
Strategies to mitigate issues that may arise with social media campaigns
What Influencers are capable to deliver for a mobile app ad campaign
Takeaways
A single thing Marion would really like to change about Influencer marketing
Android or iOS?
Marion's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Marion miss most?
What features Marion would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Marion Balinoff: “It starts with understanding the audience that we want to target like with any other acquisition channel. We need to understand where the audience is." “In TikTok you can place the link that it's going to be only in the bio of the influencer, hence you aren't going to get a lot of trackable traffic. On YouTube, on the contrary, you have the link that is directly in the video description, it's right below the content and it's going to be much more accessible " “...that means you need to increase the Conversion Rate. To do so you can have, for example, gift code links that will grant your audience some free goodies.”

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#134: What makes Influencer marketing tick in 2023 with Jennifer Sudo, Managing Partner at M&C Saatchi Performance

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

We’ve just passed the holiday season, perhaps some people are still under the impression from the gifts that they got this Christmas.

Hence my question - how do you decide what to buy?

Of course, your mental journey of making a decision probably starts with “what does she or her like?”, “what does she or he need?” - totally fair. But how do you decide what brand to buy from? Can’t say definitely about you but for many people, the decisive factor is an influencer she or he trusts.

Yes, you’ve guessed it - today we have Jennifer on the show to talk about Influencer marketing.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is Influencer marketing
What influencer marketing techniques were effective in 2022 and what weren't
Examples of recent influencer marketing campaigns for mobile apps
What to expect this year
A single thing Jennifer would really like to change about Influencer marketing
Android or iOS?
Jen's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Jen miss most?
What features Jen would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jennifer Sudo:

“Don't just partner with influencers who you think is your target audience, try to deviate outside of that pool"

“The genius of the platform [Tiktok] is that there is two different feeds. One of them is for people you actually follow, and the other is For You page."

“Will probably gonna see more advertisers using them [influencers] as the force for creative production. Not just using influencers but content creators at large to create assets.”

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#133: Hardcore and mid-core gaming apps marketing with Kate Lovejoy, COO, Retargeting at Adikteev

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

This is the first episode we record in 2023, so Happy New Year everybody!

It was another turbulent one, to put it mildly, and so let’s talk about something light - like games.

Specifically mobile games.

To be very specific - gaming apps marketing.

People turn to games during holidays as one of the best ways to give their minds a bit of a break and in fact, this is what they tend to do when they commute, sit in an airport and wait for their flight, and on and on.

But given the time constraints and the typical mindset people have in those situations, it’s usually about casual gaming. In a contract, today we want to talk with Kate about marketing for hardcore and mid-core gaming apps, which time-wise have different flavors.

Today’s Topics Include:

Kate spent the last decade between a global media agency, online audio & video media, mobile advertising, and top app re-engagement platform
Hardcore and mid-core mobile games definition
Audience segmentation
Monetization strategy
Hardcore and mid-core KPIs to focus on
Takeaways
Android or iOS? iOS
Kate's first mobile phone
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Kate miss most?
What features Kate would like to see added to her smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Kate Lovejoy:

“Retargeting can help throughout the funnel but really what you want to focus on, primarily and first off, is on targeting your payers.”

“Absolutely and what's who we recommend to go after. The first strategy I was describing is about creating whales - getting more users to exhibit whale behavior."

“I think what's really most important, when you start out with re-targeting is your foundation. So, who you are targeting, and how you're going to measure the results.”

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#132: Improving Your App Subscription Funnels with Jeff Grang, Co-founder and CPO at Purchasely

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Apple launched subscriptions on the app store back in February 2011. Today, when you think about what apps are powered by this business model, it’s obvious that it’s way more than paying to stream media content on a monthly basis. It’s about gaming, fitness & health, photography, education, and much more.

The reason why Apple introduced this model was to give app developers a new way to generate revenue. Its introduction took place right after Apple launched The Daily app for News Corp and they saw an opportunity for all app developers on the platform to make money in this new way. Btw, the idea with The Daily app didn’t go very well but App Subscriptions stayed and thrive today.

It made absolute sense to give developers an alternative to solely being focused on acquiring more and more users for the apps to power their business. So now they could financially support their app business on a monthly basis with existing customers and be more financially secure to grow their apps’ user base.

Today, we’re talking with Jeff about how to sustain your app subscription business, by improving your app subscription funnels.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jeff's path is from being one of the first 500 beta testers for iOS 2 back in the day to running Purchasely - a no-code paywall builder for in-app subscription maximization
App Subscription Funnel definition
Introduction of the app's users to a paywall
Trials in mobile apps
App users' retention
One thing Jeff would like to change about app marketing
Android or iOS? iOS
Jeff's first mobile phone was Alcatel
What features would Jeff miss most? The Weather app rain notifications
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Even better, a more flexible iOS Focus mode feature

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jeff Grang:

“I really like to say that subscription starts even before the paywall, it's when you're on the app's page on the app store.”

“It's very important that from the first paywall that you will be showing to your customers to raise their awareness on your business model and to explain your value."

“You can also choose to toggle on and off that trial period or offer trial only in some cases so that you create that fear of missing out.”

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#131: What does Augmented Reality have to offer to app marketing with Doddz, the top Augmented Reality artist

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In every technology, and mobile is not exception, there are transitional moments when a new tech comes in that drastically change the game.

For mobile Augmented Reality is that technology and by now it is way more than Pokemon GO - admit when you’ve heard the term, it was what popped up in your mind. Today AR is about education, shopping, navigation and more.

To me the best application for Augmented Reality so far is what Google Translate AR does - when you can just point your phone somewhere on a subway station in China and quickly figure out where you should go or why the train is not on schedule.

But today Doddz will tell us about the AR potential for digital advertising and app marketing in particular.

Today’s Topics Include:

Dodds's path - an artist becomes a top Augmented Reality visual designer
What is actually Augmented Reality
How does the cutting edge of AR in digital advertising look like
How does Augmented Reality work for a mobile app marketing
AR vs VR and Meta
What Doddz would like to change in AR today?
Android or iOS? iOS all the way
Doddz’s first mobile phone was a Samsung D500
What features would Dodds's miss most? Notes-taking apps – can’t live without it.
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Better battery life and creating AR experience with iPhone's camera on-the-go

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Doddz:

“AR is the ability to add a digital layer on what is a physical environment in real time”

“One of the stats digital marketing agencies love is the dwell time. For social media an average time on digital content these days isless than a second. The average time on Meta effect of Facebook and Instagram is 75 seconds. "

“I think there are need to be a point where the experiences [AR experiences], the use cases for wearing headsets are better than whatever we're doing at the moment."

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#130: Mobile App vs. Web3 ads with Andre Kempe, Founder at Admiral Media & Admiral Studio

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 14:33:00 +0000

Something tells me that among people who listen to this show there are some who do remember how a dial-up modem should sound like when you’re connecting to the Internet. These people witnessed the fight for dominance between the Internet Explorer browser from Microsoft and the one from the Mozilla Foundation.

Now, I’m not sure people are that familiar with terminology like Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, let alone with Web3 Ads. But today we have Andre to introduce us to web3 advertising.

Today’s Topics Include:

the current state of the in-app advertising
what is web 3.0
what is web3 advertising
what's coming for web3 ads
What bugs Andre about the app industry

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andre Kempe:

“On the mobile phone our behavior very often changes, we do the same things (as on a desktop), emails - what not but we start using games, we start using social media, we surf on Twitter to check what Elon does lately.”

“Web 1.o was when big media companies were showing us something, web 2. 0 enabled us basically starting to create content, become part of the Internet, start blogging, becoming an influencer, Web 3 is an enhancement of that - it enables creators to start monetizing and control licensing."

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#129: Creating a profitable growth strategy for Subscription Apps with Alexander Guerra, Head of Monetization from baz SuperApp

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Back in the day, when app developers made money selling copies of their apps, a growth strategy was important, then in-purchases came along and the necessity to retain app users, by having a solid strategy, became even more important. Today, when app subscriptions are the name of the game, it is absolutely crucial to have a robust app growth strategy to build a profitable app business.

Chances are you listening to this episode as you’re on your Uber ride and so who else not a former member of Uber’s marketing team should be on this episode to talk about a profitable growth strategy for subscription apps, so we’ve got Alex.

Today’s Topics Include:

The landscape of challenges app marketers face today
7-step strategy to build a profitable growth subscription strategy for apps
#1 - External Validation
#2 - Internal Validation
#3 - Conceptual Packaging
#4 - Monetization Goals
#5 - Pricing Structure & Simulation
#6 - Experimentation & Roll out
#7 - Feedback Loops
What bugs Alex about the app industry
Android or iOS? iOS
Alex's first mobile phone was an iPhone
What features would Alex miss most? Communication apps

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Alex Guerra:

“The first step is about external validation, external assessment. These basically imply making sure that your customers are perceiving your value proposition in a way that makes you identify these key success factors and which are relevant for them.”

“The second step is Internal Analysis and this normally works the best for companies that already have a subscription plan or any sort of pricing model that they want to revisit."

“I think there is a need to be more focused on monetization.”

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#128: Building user research based app monetization strategy with Jenny Kay Pollock, Lead Subscription Monetization Manager at Together Labs

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

I remember a few years ago there was an app industry-wide research conducted with tens of thousands of app developers to reveal what it was like for them to be a part of the mobile app ecosystem.

One of the findings was that there was only a very small number of them for whom developing apps was a hobby. The bulk of people went into mobile app development to make a living.

How to grow my app user base? How to increase my app revenue? How to increase it sustainably? What to do about that huge app users churn that I have? All these nagging questions cross-app developers’ mind day in, and day out.

In this episode, Jenny will tell you about how to conduct user research to help you to build the right app monetization strategy.

Today’s Topics Include:

App developers' mindset to generate more app installs
Getting feedback from people to build your app's feature set
Processing collected data
How to get creative to make the most of the collected data
How to build a roadmap for the app's development
Android or iOS? iOS on her beloved iPhone 13 mini white
Jenny's first mobile phone was Droid X 2
What features would Jenny miss most? Google Maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Further development of smartphone usage control features

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jenny Kay Pollock:

“You've built something out there, you've worked value proposition number one and you think "hey, this is what the users want. As you're talking to the users, as you're getting users' feedback, you see app reviews that, it really makes sense to iterate on what you're offering.”

“If you're trying to figure out if people are aware of the feature you offer, don't start by asking questions about that. You're going want to be very mindful of the order of the survey."

“What you need to do is to work with your internal teams to get their support. So I recommend to starting with maybe three people who will be excited about the feature you're suggesting.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#127: SKAdNetwork 4.0 and Privacy Sandbox: what do subscription apps need to know with Alex Bauer, Head of Product & Market Strategy at Branch

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Every industry has these moments - everybody is chugging along, no drastic changes are on the horizon, and then all of a sudden boom - rules of the game are changed significantly.

For the app industry that change was the introduction of the SKAdNetwork by Apple a couple of years ago. For some that was the moment of shock and terror, for some folks who kind of saw it was coming, it was just the moment when it became reality.

Today Alex will tell us about SKAdNetwork 4.0 from Apple, Privacy Sandbox from Google, and what subscription app owners should do about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

The state of the app industry app user privacy wise
SKAdNetwork. 1.0 - 4.0 history recap
SKAdNetwork 4.0 special features
Google's Privacy Sandbox for Android
Privacy Sandbox highlights
What's coming for both SKAdNetwork and Privacy Sandbox
One thing that gets Alex the most
Android or iOS? Both
Alex's first mobile phone was a small flip-phone
What features would Alex miss most? Notes-taking apps - can't live without it.
What’s missing from mobile app technology? More features to make a smartphone a utility device

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Alex Bauer:

“We need strong user privacy protection laws - this is not in a debate by anyone.”

“It's really difficult to balance those two extreme objectives [privacy and targeted ads] and the act of trying to find the balance I think is good to drive a lot of innovation.”

“I think it solves a few of the key ones that were so significant that they were really blocking even basic implementation of an ad monetization.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#126: Consumer Subscription Apps: opportunities & challenges with Eric Crowley, Partner at GP Bullhound

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 15:48:00 +0000

On this podcast, we had app marketers, developers, advertisers, and experts in various areas of the app industry. All these people shared their expertise, gave their take on challenging questions, and shared their dreams and hopes for the industry.

Today, I want to give you a perspective from somebody who is, in my opinion, in the best position to give us a bird-view of the app industry and talk about where are and where we’re going.

Eric will cover multiple bases, giving us the highlights from the Consumer Subscription Software report, issued by GP Bullhound investment bank recently.

Today’s Topics Include:

The current state of the app market
The most dynamic and promising app categories of today
Obstacles and roadblocks for the app industry today
How Eric assesses the app's potential, what KPIs are considered
One-time customers vs loyal ones, tourists vs locals
App Subscription Renewal rates
New app user acquisition channels
What app owners need to prepare to sell their apps or fundraise
Android or iOS? iOS
Eric's first mobile phone was a Cingular Wireless Touchphone
What features would Jennie miss most? WhatsApp and iMessage
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Software, hardware, or magic that allow people to isolate themselves from their phones for several hours a day.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Eric Crowley:

“There are great prices being paid for great companies at any time, even if there is a recession. If it's a great business someone will pay the price.”

“The biggest thing is App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rolled out. There is no way to put it differently - it was a huge hit to the space.”

“TikTok - it's easy to get a lot of views, it's really hard to get retention and engagement.”

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#125: A 30-day App Customer Retention challenge with Jennie Lewis, Senior Manager, Customer Insights at Airship

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:43:00 +0100

Imagine you have your bakery shop. I’m sorry if you’re listening to this episode before your lunch but it will help me to make the point :-) Anyway, you see people coming through the door every day and some of their faces are familiar to you - they’ve become your recurrent customers.

Now, as much as you like to see familiar faces and possibly become pals with these people, it’s not the end of the story. Your recurrent customers make your business financially stable and predictable. Now, switching to mobile apps, each day you’re selling your “donuts” in hundreds and, given how much you’re investing in attracting new users, you really need to have recurrent customers.

Acquiring a new app user can be five times as expensive as retaining an existing one.

And in this episode, we have Jennie to tell us about app retention.

Today’s Topics Include:

30-day app user retention definition
the average Retention rate for iOS and Android
how brands can increase the Retention rate
Android or iOS? iOS on iPhone 13 Pro
Jennie's first mobile phone was a car phone with an external antenna attached to the car
What features would Jennie miss most? Express pay on transit
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Better Bluetooth connectivity between the iPhone and headphones

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jennie Lewis:

“Only 8% are coming back to the app after a 30-day of download, which is a huge cliff.”

“The year average for a customer in North America [Cost Per User] is $5.28”

“The data shows that the worst cliff is within the first two days.”

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#124: Getting your mobile app to greater heights with Dr. J. Gonzalo, VP, Consumer Mobile Services, Europe & P. Gauden, Head of WEU Ecosystem Marketin...

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:43:00 +0100

On one hand, you know how deep mobile has penetrated our lives, how universal it is, so you realize the potential of your app project. On the other, the same reasoning drives so many competitors and you know how hard it is to win people’s attention and grow your app business.

So, today Dr. Gonzalo and Peter will tell you about services and tools that can help app marketers to grow their app businesses more efficiently.

Today’s Topics Include:

How having more touchpoints help developers to monetize, grow, and drive business results
What services should app developers take advantage of to improve their offering and reach even wider audiences.
What tools and solutions are available to help them on this quest?
What exciting and promising are coming up on a mobile tech frontier?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Dr. Jaime Gonzalo:

“The DNA of HUAWEI has three dimensions - the customer's centricity, the collaboration and technological innovation.”

“The smartphone industry has topped out, it topped out 6 years ago, which means there is no growth in the mobile app user base. But in a meantime, there are 6 thousand apps released every day, this means that even if a normal user would have maybe 100 apps on their phone, there are 3 million apps out there. It creates a bottleneck.”

“Innovations are clearly at the core of the HUAWEI's system.”

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#123: Leveraging mobile games ad tech for non-gaming apps with Andrey Kazakov, Vice President of Demand at AppLovin

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0100

You know, quite often in marketing a strategy that was proven to be really effective in one area, finds its second application with the other.

Usually, it happens when you take a holistic approach and all of sudden you can see that your calculation of why certain ad creatives or targeting work with one audience, should absolutely work with others.

From the inception of both Apple’s App Store and Google Play market, the app market is being divided between games and non-games. Analytics have been busy comparing revenues both sectors generate, number of downloads each gets, retention, and more.

In this episode, we want to show you how ad tech that has been powering mobile games’ growth in fact capable to do the same for non-games.

Today’s Topics Include:

For the last decade Andrey's career span across multiple companies, including Acquired.IO, which he launched in 2017, Adjust, where he served as COO, President and Chairman and now AppLovin, where he is VP of Demand
Mobile game categories that have been enjoying the growth the most
What ad tech that are proven to be really effective for mobile games can be applied to non-gaming apps advertisting
Non-gaming app market trends
What the future holds for non-games app promotion

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andrey Kazakov:

“Gaming definitely paved the way”

“The full stack matters how you think about the data, analytics, creative, and the flow to creative ideation that is efficient and to produce it at scale and data science that powers your LTV thinking.”

“Folks who approach their UA with a proper strategy and planning, and do it with the right partner, succeed.”

“While the environment is challenging, there are certain players that are actually approaching their user acquisition in a more aggressive fashion and growing.”

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#122: App Marketing for Black Friday & Cyber Monday with Jason Smith, VP of Sales (UK & Europe) at MoEngage

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0100

When you are a mobile app marketer, holidays mean a bit more than just the days to spend more time with friends and family and have a chance to escape thoughts about work.

In fact, I’m sorry to say, but for the thoughts, it’s the opposite - every app marketer, and marketer in general for that matter, knows that the holidays are the time when you can get more traction for your app, more traffic, and more sales.

In this episode, we have Jason give us hints and tricks for Black Friday and Cyber Monday we’re all moving in time and will get there on November 25th and 28th respectively.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jason's path in tech is from a data software engineer to VP of Sales in MoEngage - the leading insights-led engagement platform
What are seasonal promotions
What app marketers and brands need to know about app marketing on Black Friday
How Cyber Monday can fit into your app marketing strategy
Good examples of successful ad campaigns on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Mistakes made by brands on these two holidays
Takeaways

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jason Smith:

“You need to be sensitive to many cultures, many religions, and also different types of customers. It's not one size fits all.”

“Building a plan can never be too soon. So it's also building a channel strategy, as well as a communication strategy.”

“Don't push to somebody who just bought it a month before for price.”

“I think what many people like to do is rewarding most loyal customers.”

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#121: Untapping app growth with great ad creatives with Dan Greenberg, Chief Design Officer at ironSource

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0100

You’ve seen these great videos from Apple they tend to start with the WWDC event every summer, right?

Both indie app developers and big app powerhouses get a chance to share a bit of their experience of building an app business.

Do you know what’s in common for such a broad spectrum of app developers? In one word - growth. The scale can be very different but the necessity to grow their user base is always there.

It’s 2022 - pandemic, recession, wars, iOS 14.5, a huge competition, how do you grow your mobile app in this environment? Ad creatives are one of the answers, it may sound trivial to you but that’s only when your ads do work when they do generate sales and revenue. When they don’t - I bet you don’t think it’s trivial that a good ad can bring you sales.

In this episode, we’ve got Dan to tell us about the role of quality ad creatives in mobile app growth.

Today’s Topics Include:

Born in Tel-Aviv, graduated as a graphic designer, and joined ironSource pretty much from day one to grow to its Chief Graphic Designer
What is in today's app marketer's toolbox
What makes an ad creative, pun intended, to click with people
What makes a mobile app's UI cool for Dan
Android or iOS? iOS on iPhone X
What features would Dan miss most? Easy - WhatsApp :-)
What’s missing from mobile app technology? More advances for AR and VR

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Dan Greenberg:

“4 years ago when apps and games were doing user acquisition, most of the creatives would imply investing a lot of money to create a kickass like the trailer but that would be just one creative. ”

“In the end, creative, and you can say for some extent marketing, is something that we are always trying to quantify and turn into something that is machine-lead. ”

“There are a lot of ads that take it to 11, meaning everything is exaggerated. If it's a game, for example, it would be something that looks epic and could be way more than the actual game.”

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#120: 2022 Mobile App Experiences Gap Survey with Corey Gault, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Airship

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Think about it, from the time you wake up in the morning to the moment you fall asleep at night you use tools. Please, don’t picture necessarily a hammer or a screwdriver as a tool, I mean tools in a broader sense - means that help you to do tasks, small and big - create a reminder, set a timer, calculate something, get up in time, and so on. And, of course, a big part of the toolbox you take your tools from are mobile apps.

Now, your experience of using those apps is a function of how much energy and brainstorming was put into the apps by their developers. In this episode, Corey will be talking about Airship’s brand new survey that talks about how much effort goes - or should go - into a mobile app experience development.

Today’s Topics Include:

Corey's career spans 25 years in public relations with being Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Airship now
General findings of the 2022 Mobile App Experiences Gap Survey
Gap #1 - ASO
Gap #2 - Release Cadence
Gap #3 - Onboarding
Gap #4 - Preference Centers
Gap #5 - Customer Surveys
Gap #6 - Experience Optimization
Gap #7 - Team Communications
Android or iOS? iOS on iPhone X
What features would Corey miss most? A bunch of apps, hard to pinpoint any specific one
What’s missing from mobile app technology?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Corey Gault:

“We've seen a lot of industry research, lots of companies earning reports, showing the exponential value that apps deliver for their business.”

“If you really think about ASO, it's the first step in any app's success. People need to be able to find the app.”

“In fact, the survey found that 97% of marketers that feature walkthroughs, permission prompts, these types of onboarding experiences have a significant impact on user behavior.”

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#119: LTV in Mobile with Levi Matkins, CEO of LifeStreet

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0100

At the heart of any sustainable business is knowing how much money you actually make with each client. When you launch a mobile app project, your hope is to sustain this business for years to come, not just months or weeks, right? This is a header level 1 Google said it’s going to extend billing choices for users of its Play Store to India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and Europe.

Google said it’s going to extend billing choices for users of its Play Store to India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and Europe. How do you achieve that? For starters, you absolutely need to know what revenue each of your app users generates for you. Here comes the notion we’re going to spend on the next half an hour or so - Live Time Value, aka LTV. Today’s guest is Levi Matkins, CEO of LifeStreet—a programmatic marketing platform for app developers. He talks about lifetime value (LTV) in mobile, which is a measurement of how much money a user will generate.

Today’s Topics Include:

Levi's career spans 20 years in digital advertising, half of which he's spent in mobile. From founding a company with his brother while he was still in college to the leading mobile marketing platform.
What is LTV and how it is different from ROAS
The significance of LTV
How to acquire app users with a higher LTV
How to increase LTV
App categories it's hard or impossible to measure LTV
Moving forward, does LTV become harder or easier to measure?
Android or iOS? Android only
What features would Levi miss most? Google Maps to get around everywhere
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Pretty much all good, perhaps except a holdable display would be nice

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Levi Matkins:

“Generally speaking, it's a measurement how much money the user will generate for an app at given amount of time.” “Having a good LTV in an app is the difference between success and a failure.” “You can't impove what you don't measure. It's critical to track and measure LTV.” “LifeStreet’s belief is that return on ad spend is the most important thing to optimize for in a successful campaign. By paying the right price for a user, allows a campaign to scale more effectively.”

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#118: What an app and the Black Mirror movie have in common? with Emily Tate, Managing Director at Mind the Product

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0100

At this very moment, somewhere on the planet app development teams are working on new mobile apps. Some of them are thinking through features of those apps, others are ready to launch them on an app store, yet other teams are already marketing their apps to acquire users. It’s non-stop and you bet all those teams believe their apps are only capable of bringing good to this world. Let's try AppTweak. Now, did you watch the “Black Mirror” TV series on Netflix? Can you guess the connection between this movie and the app development process? Well, patience - on this episode - among many things - you’ll get the answer :-)

Today’s Topics Include:

Emily started her career managing software solutions for airlines before taking her experience to the traveler’s side of the journey as the product manager for a leading travel management app, TripCase. She spent 5 years working on TripCase, where her first major project was to redesign the mobile app from the ground up. Then as the app grew, she worked on wearables, including a launch app for the Apple Watch and two different Samsung Gear watches.
The app project Emily loved the most
Challenges of working on apps for wearables
Mobile apps versus web apps
Optimism, negligence, and short-sightedness in app development
What do you do when your app has externalities you didn't anticipate?
How do you break through on the app market?
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Emily miss most? City Mapper app to navigate and Apple Pay to pay everywhere

Links and Resources:

Emily Tate on LinkedIn Mind The Product

Quotes from Emily Tate:

“It's one of those fun things where you can have a problem that looks similar and the tactic you used to solve it the time before will not work this time.” “Where was one of the launch app for the Apple Watch when it came out. And it was a really fun project, both from the perspective of obviously getting to play with new shining technology. But really starting from the ground level of figuring out what is the use case for a smartwatch in the context of travel. ” “Admitting that you've made a mistake is step one. And I think we're so hesitant to do that, you see it all the time.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#117: App Subscriptions Best Practices with Tobias Boerner, Co-Founder at Admiral Studio

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0100

It’s been a while since we talked on this podcast about App Subscriptions - the latest business model for mobile apps that powers revenue generation for so many apps today.

It all started with video and audio streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify but then….it turned out that the model actually works for so many other apps.

But popularity doesn’t necessarily mean that app brands actually know how to make the most of it. In this episode, we have Tobias Boerner, Co-Founder at Admiral Studio talking about the best practices for App Subscriptions.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is Admiral Media/Studio all about? Connecting Web3 world with NFT space
NFT: Non-fungible token concept is out of this world and over the heads of most
App Businesses: Rely on three models—app ads, purchases, and subscriptions
Switch to subscriptions? Tobias recommends adding not switching revenue streams
App Subscription Mistakes: Not enough or no A/B testing in place for conversion rates
App Subscription Successes: Duolingo uses a world-class gamification approach
Pay Subscription Plans: When 1 revenue stream doesn’t meet financial needs to grow
Future of App Subscription Model: More flexibility and creativity for app businesses
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Tobias miss most? To be connected
What’s missing from mobile app technology? AR and VR: Connect with the real world

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Tobias Boerner:

“To be very good in things, it’s very important to have a very deep understanding of how this world is working.”

“We believe here, in the studio, that very soon in the near future, a lot of companies need help with marketing approaches and make that happen. We will very soon release a lot of new activities in Web3 space.”

“Apps, they monetize through ads, only start along the journey of thinking, ‘Oh, how can we implement subscription or how is it possible to switch to subscription?”

“I’m a very big fan of subscriptions, but I would not recommend to switch the model. I think it’s an additional revenue stream.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#116: An App Launch: Expectations vs. Reality with Amrick Chauhan, Lead Product Manager at Which?

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Expectations versus reality. This theme is as old as this world. In so many walks of life, we set our expectations high, we’re driven by optimism, which on itself is a great quality but sometimes it may lead you to a very frustrating experience.

Mobile app development and marketing can be one of the brightest examples, especially when venture capital is involved and the expectations that app projects will deliver quick returns are high.

Today we have Amrick to tell us the story of expectations versus the reality of developing and launching the app called Which?.

Today’s Topics Include:

Amrick's career spans Financial Times, Sainsbury, KFC, Guardian, and now Which? - the UK's consumer champion, the non-profit organization that protects consumers.
Which? app development key lessons learned
How app development teams can avoid making common mistakes
What app categories are the hardest to develop apps for
Android or iOS? iOS longtime user
Amrick's first mobile phone. Nokia 3010
What features would Amrick miss most? Apple Pay
What’s missing from mobile app technology? More AR and VR capabilities

Links and Resources:

Amrick Chauhan's LinkedIn profile.
Which?'s website.

Quotes from Amrick Chauhan:

”It was quite interesting to me because I had a chance to reflect on the journey of building and then launching an app."

"So that first assumption about product features was really us having an expectation we knew what we needed to build. We thought we did."

"I think a lot of it comes down to the culture that you have within the company. There are some obvious mistakes that you should avoid doing, things like choosing the right text style..etc. But I don't think anyone should really be afraid of making mistakes."

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#115: Chasing app users’ rapidly changing interests with Fabien-Pierre Nicolas, Advisor at SmartNews

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:08:00 +0100

If you app marketer, one of the things at your job that rises your pulse and eyebrows is the mobile churn. This is the KPI that measures the percentage of users who have abandoned your app, the logic goes – the smaller the number the better but unfortunately in real life, this number is always bigger than you would want it to be.

So people leave apps, in some cases to some glitches but in some cases because their interests change. From a technical perspective, the app may be fine but it just doesn’t deliver the experience they need.

In this episode, Fabien will tell us the story of chasing app users’ rapidly changing interests.

Today’s Topics Include:

Fabien’s career spans the famous PC console gaming company Ubisoft, the industry-leading mobile data analytics company Data.ai (formerly known as App Annie), and now Smartnews – the award-winning news app.
Product-driven vs. Consumer-driven culture
What changes SmartNews team introduced to strengthen their business
Segmentation
Chosen segments to scale
Product-Marketing alignment
Adaptation
The right technology stack
Proactive vs. reactive
Trying unusual ideas
Android or iOS? Android
Fabien’s first mobile phone.
What features would Arthur miss most? Apps to read news 🙂
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Live translation capabilities

Links and Resources:

Fabien-Pierre Nicolas’s LinkedIn profile

SmartNews’s website.

Quotes from Fabien-Pierre Nicolas:

”Typically, a lot of people are comsuming news in the morning time, just as you wake up to catch up with what happened or what might happened when you’re asleep. And there is as well a phenomen of consumption right before going to bed.“

“I will probably compare it to the dart board is essentially your marketing budget. And you should say “hey, where should I throw my darts and whom should I aim this budget?”

“When we looked at all Japanese market, we asked ourselves – “which segments are we underindexing, especially when it comes to preferences and what do they want?”

#114: Does Connected TV become the next big thing in UA? with Arthur Querou, CEO at Vibe

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 23:08:00 +0100

Let me ask you something, do you watch TV? Sem Nexus, Apptweak Depending on your age, when you hear a question like this, you may get a mental picture of a TV set or your Roku box, your Apple TV, or even your iPhone, if watching movies and TV series on a smartphone is your thing. Now, remember all those never-ending commercial breaks on your TV set?

Well, you may also remember how people began watching video content more and more on their computers and then, especially on their beloved mobile devices. So, naturally, businesses followed people and so desktop and mobile advertising began to squeeze ad dollars from the traditional TV ads. Well, by now you would think TV ads are about to go extinct completely? Not so fast. Enter Connected TV and the advertising on it.

Today’s Topics Include:

Graduated a decade ago University of California, Berkley, Arthur was Co-founder & CEO of the mobile playable ad units company, Chief Mobile Officer at Adikteev before launching Vibe in January 2021
Unpacking what is OTT
How advertising on CTV works
CTV ads' competitive advantage
App categories that fit the best CTV advertising
The future of advertising on the Connected TV
Android or iOS? iOS
Arthur's first mobile phone. Nokia 3310
What features would Arthur miss most? WhatsApp and email
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Brining more AAA quality game titles on mobile

Links and Resources:

Arthur Querou's LinkedIn profile Vibe's website.

Quotes from Arthur Querou:

”At tech we hvae this strange addiction to acronyms." "OTT stands for Over The Top and it means any content that goes over a standard channel." "I think the most important thing is to think about, when you are marketer and you want to leverage CTV - can I capture my audience on TV in an effective way?"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#113: How Lose It! hit 2 million monthly active users with Erin Webster-Shaller, VP Marketing at Loose it!

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Ok, a quick experiment - try to recall apps on your smartphone, that you’ve been using since the inception of the App Store?

And now, I am not talking about the native iOS apps, no-no, apps developed not by Apple. Can you think of any? If you do have some, at least one, it means the app hasn’t lost your trust and the trust of so many other people. It just works for you all and that’s why to this day it is still on the market.

Today, we’ll be talking about one of the apps from the early days of Apple’s App Store, that is still out there and has more than 2 million people using it regularly.

Today’s Topics Include:

Erin's background is in the biotech company in Boston and was involved in a wearable product development
7 ingredient recipe to stay afloat for years and years and grow your app's user base to millions of users
Ingredient #1 - Maintain an Effective Product
Ingredient #2 - Prioritise User Experience
Ingredient #3 - Active Free USer Base
Ingredient #4 - Empower & Encourage
Ingredient #5 - Key Promotion Times
Ingredient #6 - Data-Driven Decision-Making Process
Ingredient #7 - Stay Selective & Nimble
Android or iOS? iOS
Erin's first mobile phone. Pink Nokia Razor
What features would Erin miss most? Spotify
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Software and hardware feature to adapt the smartphone to different use case, based on the time of the day and location.

Links and Resources:

Erin Webster-Shaller's LinkedIn profile
Erin Webster-Shaller's Twitter handler.
Lose it! website.

Quotes from Erin Webster-Shaller:

”Since then the company has grown sustainably, we've remained really small and nimble, which really differentiate us in the fitness app space."

"We have over 50 million people downloaded the product, collectively they've lost over 120 million pounds."

"When you look at the competitive landscape of companies that we've been competing with for the last 14 years, we all have taken very different approaches for the free versus paid landscape. Where do you draw that line? And for Loose it! I think the early team saw the value of having a really robust free product."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#112: How to hack TikTok with Mike Cimmarrusti, Co-Founder & CEO of Realize

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0100

By this time you’ve heard about TikTok countless times, on some occasions, you heard about it from your children, and on others when tech pundits were arguing that TikTok is the first solid rival for Instagram & YouTube & Snapchat video market empires.

But you may get this impression “well, this is not for me, it won’t work for my business, because I have no clue what to do with it”.

Well, in this episode we will do our best to change your mind.

Today’s Topics Include:

Mike's career spans sports, trading, and now being CEO of the leading home design app with 2 million users
TikTok's competitive advantage
How TikTok is different from other platforms conceptually
TikTok content creation best practices
How to approach the right Influencers and Creators
What Mike didn't like about TikTok
Android or iOS? Actually both iOS and Android
Mike's first mobile phone. Motorola Razor
What features would Mike miss most? Audible / Spotify / Google Maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Suggest what you get for dinner.

Links and Resources:

Mike Cimmarrusti LinkedIn profile
Mike Cimmarrusti's email address.
Realize website

Mike used these channels to reach out to influencers and creators to run an ad campaign for his app:

Quotes from Mike Cimmarrusti:

”That when I realize that I want to spend the rest of my life helping people communicate visually."

"We landed on TikTok because it was really easy to create. We spent some time on it ourselves obviously to use the platform and realized this is really to consume and really easy to create."

"What I realized it was way less work and more likely to get viral if you just copy what is on the platform and tweak it toward you message"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#111: Push Notifications with Nicole J Castillo, Senior Director, Mobile Products at NewsCorp

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:29:00 +0100

How do you get your app users’ attention and communicate something to them?

Well, if you could just be next to them, if you could just live in their neighborhood that would be easy to do. But you can’t live next to tens of thousands, even millions of people who use your app at the same time, right?

So what do you do? You use digital communication channels like email, in-app messages, and yes-push notifications. The latter is the topic of my today’s conversation with Nicole.

Today’s Topics Include:

Nicole’s 10-year journey spans telecom, real estate, and today it’s media & publishing
How push notifications stack up against other digital marketing channels
How many push notifications do people get on a daily basis and their attitude toward them
From what kind of apps people don’t mind getting push notifications
Types of push notifications
Challenges app developers and brands face when it comes to pushes
Nicole’s wishes for what to change in push notifications tech
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Nicole miss most? Google Maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? The tech will allow the balance between using your smartphone for so many things and yet not being addicted to it.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Nicole J Castillo:

”I think it’s obvious for push notifications as the way to leverage the economy of scale. You have push notifications, people are aware how they work. Anybody who has a phone for any number of years they know how to turn them off when they become annoying. But there has been a lot of rise in opt-in and opt-out options, Focus Time and the newest stuff with Apple’s lock screen.”

What we’re seeing is that one average we’re talking about 46 push notifications a day, like almost 50 a day and probably more depending on your type of apps”

I’m really interested to see the evolution, so I’m not necessary interesting in seeing a new standard, I really want to see where push notifications can evolve to.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#110: Making social media campaign go viral with Jonathan Maxim, CEO at HeyPal

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Every app marketer would love for their app marketing campaign to go viral. Spending less by getting your potential users’ attention to spread the message about your app is pure gold.

Today’s guest is Jonathan Maxim, CEO at HeyPal and former marketing strategist. He talks about how to make your social media campaign go viral.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is HeyPal? Social language learning platform (no affiliation to PayPal)
Countries: HeyPal’s biggest blessing and downfall is supporting them all
What is growth hacking? Where organic and paid campaign meet to play nice together
KPIs: Measure click-through rate, downloads, cost per install, and retention
Going Viral: Cost per acquisition drops exponentially; growth is used to gauge success
Common Mistakes: Are you going for reach, downloads, sales, or spread a message?
TikTok: How valuable are dance videos to society? Very powerful, free, relevant content
Android or iOS? iOS - Jonathan is an Apple fan, but admits Android is getting better
What features would Jonathan miss most? Voice notes feature
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Delegate and trust, not micromanage

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jonathan Maxim:

”We just crossed the million downloads mark, and it’s been an awesome ride. We had some viral moments with HeyPal, no doubt.">

"It makes it really easy to speak with somebody from another country if you’re trying to learn a language. The whole idea is to build a gap between curriculum learning and practice."

"It’s really the social glue on the language learning space."

"Social media is one component of the marketing strategy to make things go viral."

"The ads that have an influencer or a real human in them, they convert better. They have better click-through rate, better conversion rate, even though they cost less and the production quality is lower.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#109: Solving the AdTech Maze to make UA manager life easier with Ankit Rawal, VP - International Sales & Marketing at Affle’s MAAS

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Every person on this planet who needs to get up on a Monday morning to tune in his brain to work and, basically, it never stops till Friday evening, would agree that it is tough.

Now, if you are an app marketer, there are several questions that are floating in your mind all the time - who are my app users? Do I know all kinds of app users that may need my app? How should I approach all these people? Where? What marketing channels should I use?

All these questions push app marketer over and over to brainstorm new ideas with a mind mapping app or just drawing diagrams on a paper, peering into data points on her or his laptop. Day in. Day out.

So on this episode we will try to address all those questions and make her or his life easier.

Today’s Topics Include:

Ankit's has 15+ years experience being in the IT industry under his belt, his background spans across companies like Microsoft and Oracle and many others.
The changes in AdTech for the last decade
Challenges in the industry
Helping advertiser to navigate the convoluted maze of the Adtech
MAAS platform capabilities
Android or iOS? One+ running Android
What was Ankit’s first mobile phone? Nokia 3100
What features would Ankit miss the most leaving his smartphone at home? Audio content to listen to on the go
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Advances on the VR and AR frontiers

Links and Resources:

Ankit Rawal LinkedIn profile.
MAAS powered by Affle website.
MAAS powered by Affle profile on Business Of apps.

Quotes from Ankit Rawal:

”As the penetration of smart phone increased with both iOS & Android growing App stores were launched… It for the first time developers can build software in one part have easy distribution thanks to global appstores across the world. You could develop locally & sell globally… Hence it became a wild west advertisers were focusing largely on growth and volumes. .. with incent traffic, burst campaigns..

Unfortunately our Ad industry is notorious which I should also take blame for is the 3 letter acronyms CPM, CPI, DMP, DSP, MMP, CDP & what have you… which makes anyone outside it wonder Huh?? App is a conduit to any activity a user wants to accomplish be it shop, play, get entertained, study & more.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#108: How to market apps via Influencers with Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency at BuzzGuru

Mon, 30 May 2022 07:00:00 +0100

So it’s Monday morning, you’re sitting at your desk, taking a sip from your coffee mug and go like “Ok, I know my app’s user base isn’t growing as I planned. That’s obvious. I need to try another channel. Hm….”

Let me interrupt your thinking at this point, that thing you’re looking for right now is Influencer marketing. This is how you can reach out more people that need your app and get them excited about it.

To unpack Influencer Marketing for you, I’ve got a today Nadia to talk about types of apps it fits the best, how to reach out the right Influencers, what to expect and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

What types of apps do fit for an Influencer marketing campaign
Examples of apps for those Influencer marketing campaigns were ran
In-house vs. hiring an influencer marketing agency
KPIs to assess an influencer marketing campaign efficiency
How Influencer marketing helps apps to go international
Influencer marketing trends for 2023
Android or iOS? iOS
What was Nadia’s first mobile phone? Motorola Razr
What features would Nadia miss the most leaving his smartphone at home? Apple Pay
What’s missing from mobile app technology? More features for the Health app

Links and Resources:

Nadia Bubennikova LinkedIn profile
BuzzGuru website.

Quotes from Nadia Bubennikova:

”Basically on this platform we have coaches from different spheres that teach end-users on the platform how to get a specific skill, like how to play a guitar, learn a specific language, basically anything you can image. Seems pretty easy, like a nice feet for the Influencer marketing but there is a catch. That catch is that, in this case, our goal was not to drive not a general audience and the end user of the product that would learn some skills, but to recruit coaches of some very specific skills.

That would sound strange but for me the most awful would be disconnected from the campaigns, from the work because Influencer marketing never stops.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#107: Apps and brands with Charlie Cooke, Head of Growth at Sidekick by Sorted Food

Mon, 23 May 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Let’s make a quick mental experiment. When I say brand, what pops up in your mind? Apple? Nike? Tesla? That’s right - all those are brands, in fact if you think about it you can easily count like a dozen of brands around you.

And there is more - you can think of some of the mobile apps on your phone as brands as well. Today, Charlie will help you to get a better grasp on how to apply a brand concept to your app.

Today’s Topics Include:

Charlie has been working with a variety of the startups across of multiple sectors like sport, property, language learning and now food.
What is brand
What role brand plays for a newbie app startup
How different generations, like Millennials and Gen Z, perceive brands
Common mistakes people do applying a brand concept to a mobile app
Android or iOS? Android, never dabbled into the iPhone stuff
What was Charlie’s first mobile phone? Nokia 3310
What features would Charlie miss the most leaving his smartphone at home? Spotify to listen podcasts everywhere all the time
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Features to decrease distractions the smartphone brings into our life.

Links and Resources:

Charlie Cooke LinkedIn profile
Sorted Food website.

Quotes from Charlie Cooke:

"For me it’s really fundamental thing. A lot my thinking around it starts with, and maybe for lots of people, the Simon Sinek “Start with Why” book. It’s around why the company exists, like how we communicate our ideas clearly, build relationships with customers, it’s actually a starting point for a company.

I’ve started to see some research that there is that shift towards cause marketing, activism where where they kind of expect a brand to have a purpose.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#106: How we gained 200M+ downloads with Anton Volovyk, COO at Reface

Mon, 16 May 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Since the inception of the iPhone and its innovative App Store, we heard many success stories of apps that grabbed so many people’s attention because of their novelty, practical application or just pure fun. Some of those apps were brainstormed, developed and marketed by Ukrainians.

But that was before the war in Ukraine. Now, imagine if you own one of the most popular mobile apps of today and your home country was invaded. How do you reconcile the challenge of growing your app and the wa-a-a-ay bigger one caused by the invasion?

Today Anton will tell us the story of those challenges.

Today’s Topics Include:

Anton’s path in business - from hopes to joint financial corporate world to one of the most popular mobile apps of today
What is Reface
Reface underlining tech
Reface’s growth trajectory
Reface app creating & marketing lessons learned
Android or iOS? iOS
What was Anton’s first mobile phone? Motorola
What features would Anton miss the most leaving his smartphone at home? Calendar app
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Being able to use the iPhone as a bottle opener :-)

Links and Resources:

Anton Volovyk LinkedIn profile
Reface website.

Quotes from Anton Volovyk:

"I think the link between our kind of machine learning magic, the product features, the product flow and content is what makes Reface so amazing.

When the user clicks on creating a Reface or Faceswap or any other mechanics than this request goes to a backend and the backend reroutes this request to machine learning production, which utilizes GPUs to create an output which then sends to the mobile.

It’s a hard question because I think every new technology, every new breakthrough comes with potential problems. It really depends on the main actors who try to handle this tech and then it may take the good and the bad turn. But in general, I think, the good thing is that a lot of companies who work in this space such as Reface, build a business around this technology and therefore it’s super important actually to make this area as ethical as possible.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#105: How we bootstrapped to 1 million users with Ania Wysocka, Founder At Rootd

Mon, 09 May 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Anxiety. If this word doesn’t tell you anything, lucky you. So many people on this planet are familiar with anxiety. Essentially, it is a fear of what is about to come, it’s a dread over something you anticipate.

Sometimes your feel of anxiety is justified, on many occasions it is not and what is worse it triggers a panic attack. But there is a way to calm yourself down to be able to dealt with it.

Today Ania will tell you a story of connecting her panic attack & anxiety relief mobile app Rootd with a million people who needed help to deal with these issues.

Today’s Topics Include:

Polish Canadian, living abroad in multiple countries, graduated in Vancouver, Canada, Ania had a personal reason to create an app like Rootd to help people deal with anxiety and panic attack.
Focusing on a niche - how Ania managed to reach out the first audience for the app, starting with a narrow problem to address with the app and than going more broadly.
Engaging the app’s user base
Story submissions
Press Releases
Translation to go international and reach broad audiences in multiple countries
Onboarding
Being praised and criticized by the app users
Android or iOS? iOS
What was Ania’s first mobile phone? Nokia
What features would Ania miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Rootd :-) and Google Maps.
What’s missing from mobile app technology? iOS features and the iPhone & Apple Watch hardware advances to address more health related issues.

Links and Resources:

Ania Wosocka LinkedIn profile
Rootd website.

Quotes from Ania Wosocka:

"Fast forward a few years, I learned a lot of different tips and techniques that helped me to understand anxiety, where it comes from and really just learn to manage it in my daily life. And that is the promise of Rootd.

And I think one key point is that as a bootstrapped app, it made a lot of sense for me to get users who are downloading via the keyword and they are getting what they’ve searched for exactly.

Often local papers want to feature local entrepreneurs and so that who it started and that was the first one I did when Rootd was launched and it was picked up by local papers.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#104: State of Mobile Messaging 2022: Insights from 100B messages with Josh Wetzel, CRO at OneSignal

Mon, 02 May 2022 07:00:00 +0100

According to Statista, in 2021, daily, emails alone were sent a whopping 320 billion times. Emails - the first kind of digital messaging that was adopted at mid-90s and by now they exist almost solely for business and occasionally Millennials or older generations may share something via email when really don’t need or don’t want a quick turnaround.

Now add on top of it 100 billion WhatsApp messages, countless number of FB Messenger, Apple’s iMessage, Telegram, Viber, WeChat messages and some more send via dozens less popular Instant Messaging apps. It’s an ocean of messages that circulate every day, every hour, every millisecond.

In this episode we have Josh from OneSignal to share with you an insight from 100 billion messages sent by OneSignal.

Today’s Topics Include:

Josh’s story - born in Palo Alto, for the last 20+ years his career included working for Adobe, CBS Interactive, eBay, PubMatic and since 2018 at OneSignal
Mobile messaging options for app marketers to use
Email as the first mass communication tool
Push Notifications
In-app Messaging
Josh suggestions to app developers, marketers and brands for how to adjust to Apple’s ATT framework
Android or iOS? iOS
What was Josh’s first mobile phone? Hard to say, Josh got his hands on a lot of early smartphone models, working as CNET reviewer back in the day
What features would Josh miss most leaving his smartphone at home?
What’s missing from mobile app technology? iOS features to balance the use of a smartphone

Links and Resources:

Josh Wetzel LinkedIn profile
OneSignal website.

Quotes from Josh Wetzel:

"So it’s really thing about those moments. Thinking about these critical points in that journey and building messaging around that. And then taking a step below, you gotta about what are the options best for what thing.

If you gonna do an asynchronous kind of weekly update or some random promotion. That’s a great promotion for an email.

If you send a note about “Hey, your order is taken” of “Your order is on the way” it’s about to come or “Hey, come back we’ve got a promotion - in the next 20 minutes for a pizza”, you wanna use push.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#103: Driving app installs with TikTok Ads with Ryan Thorpe, CMO at Reflectly

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Alright, so you’re looking at the number of daily and monthly active users for your app and wonder “is there a new app marketing channel I am missing?” You’ve heard about TikTok, you know that there is an advertising platform from TikTok - TikTok Ads. But you’re not quite sure that how to use it and if it’s actually capable to help you to grow your app’s user base.

In this episode we want to help you out. We’ve got Ryan to walk you through driving app installs with TikTok Ads.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is Reflectly
Creating TikTok Ads campaign
How to create an effective video content for TikTok Ads
How similar or different TikTok Ads from Facebook Ads
KPIs to focus on
Hype about TikTok
What Ryan believes can be improved with the TikTok Ads platform
Android or iOS? iOS
What was Andy’s first mobile phone? Nokia
What features would Andy miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Slack for work, messaging apps for communication with friends and family
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Adding Time Tree app features to the iOS native calendar app

Links and Resources:

Ryan Thorpe LinkedIn profile
Reflectly’s website.

Quotes from Ryan Thorpe:

"The hype around TikTok at the moment is that it is easy to go viral. I don’t think it is easy to go viral. However there is a math to go viral.

People think that after 5 or 10 videos that should hit of winning creative style but what you need to do is to create 30, 40,50 videos at TikTok to really understand why there is hype about things going viral.

The question you are trying to ask yourself is this creative going viral”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#102: The Mobile Growth Stack 2022 with Andy Carvell, Partner at Phiture

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0100

No matter what it’s about, if you are serious about building something, like building a house / car / space ship or your mobile app product, you need a plan or what we call in IT - a stack.

I’m sure you see where I’m going with it, I have Andy Carvell on the episode and I’ve just mentioned a stack… Right - on this episode we’re to talk about The Mobile Growth Stack to be precise, 2022 edition. I bet for many of you this situation may look familiar - either you are at the beginning of your app project or its well underway, you wonder what are my ALL options to build and launch a successful app business?

As it happens quite often with many concepts or ideas that go viral, the Mobile Growth Stack was conceived by Andy out of necessity when he needed to put together all his ideas for an app project, working at SoundCloud.

Now, to be clear, do not think of this stack as your ultimate To Do list. It service a different function of being a depiction, if you will, of the entire landscape of possible activities you may be involved with, working on your app project, including such stages as app user acquisition & retention, app engagement, monetization, tech solutions to use and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

Andy’s background - from a software engineer at Nokia, Marketing Lead at SoundCloud to Partner & Co-Founder at Phiture - Berlin-based 100+ strong mobile growth consultancy
Mobile Growth Stack: definition and its genesis
The Acquisition section of the stack
The Engagement & Retention section of the stack
The Monetization section of the stack
The Tech section of the stack
The Strategic Management section of the stack
The Analytics & Insights section of the stack
The Management Insights section of the stack
Android or iOS? Actually both :-), to be up-to-date with what’s happening on both platforms
What was Andy’s first mobile phone? Nokia 7110
What features would Andy miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Google Maps :-)
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Even better Night Mode on an iPhone.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Andy Carvell:

"Than I ended up joining SoundCloud, who were a growing platform at that point, I think I joined at 29, I was employee number 89, I think.

That’s one of the major misconception, actually, about the Mobile Growth Stack. There is lots of stuff in it, if you’ve seen it you can see at mobilegrowhstack.com, it’s a quite a busy page, there is a lot of information on there. And I think one of the things that people often think is that they have to do all of these things in order to succeed and it’s absolutely not the case.

I really do believe that app analytics and insights should be the foundation on which you’re building your whole growth efforts on.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#101: The year of Cross Promo with Cameron Thom, Directory of Sales at Adikteev & Matej Lancaric, Marketing Consultant

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Ok, what are your options today when it comes to marketing your app?

I can tell you from a point of view of a guy who was in app marketing back in 2010-2015 time frame, the portfolio of app marketing tools has grown significantly. Today when you’re tasked to grow an app’s user base, you have App Store Optimization, paid UA, ads in podcasts, on TV, on radio, PR, social media marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing.

And there is one more app marketing tool, which isn’t always applicable but once you’ve got a number of apps in your portfolio, you can turn your attention to cross-promotion and this is what we’re gonna talk about today with Cameron and Matej.

Today’s Topics Include:

Cameron and Matej’s background in mobile
What is cross promo for apps
What it takes to promote mobile apps via cross promotion
What mobile games are compatible to be paired for a cross-promotion campaign
Parting words for app marketers to make cross-promotion work for their apps
Android or iOS?
What was Cameron and Matej’s first mobile phone?
What features would Cameron and Matej miss most leaving his smartphone at home?
What’s missing from mobile app technology?

Links and Resources:

Cameron Thom LinkedIn profile
Matej Lančarič LinkedIn profile
Adikteev website.

Quotes from Cameron and Matej:

"It’s always a tough job to run a cross-promotion, other from a valuation standpoint or just from a point of talking to the game team.

You can cross-promote players across different games and can be successful. It’s about trying to identify user segments and trying to find sweet spots where they might churn.

I was always a big fan of cross-promotion, it’s been thought to evolve it properly."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#100: 60 shades of App Growth with Gessica Bicego, CMO at Paired

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0100

This week is a special one - the Business Of Apps podcast has reached episode #100.

For this special occasion we’ve invited Gessica Bicego, one of the most well-known mobile app marketers, with years and years of experience in app growth, and talk about what we call “The 60 shades of App Growth”. During the conversation, we cover what it takes to increase a mobile app user base and, of course, the revenue it generates. Every app marketer and every brand that launches a mobile app is focused or should be, on its growth. A brand new app brings a bunch of challenges to an app marketing team, a well-established app has its own challenges that somewhat overlap with the former but for the most part, are unique.

Today’s Topics Include:

Gessica’s background
What is Paired app
Growing well-established app versus a brand new one
What app marketing channels Gessica considers the most effective
TikTok Ads
The impact of Apple’s ATT and Google’s Privacy Sandbox on app marketing
Gessica’s parting word for app marketing newbies
What features would Gessica miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Google Maps, Instagram

Links and Resources:

Gessica Bicego LinkedIn profile
Gessica’s podcast - Mobile Growth Nightmares.
Paired’s website.

Quotes from Gessica Bicego:

"I would say that there is no such thing that is like the best app marketing channel. I think it really depends on the product you are advertising.

I have this passion of working for mobile products that are building something new. And so the issue is that people are not really looking for what you do.

TikTok for me is like this question mark platform, I open it once a month - I get lost in it. I watch like a thousand videos about dogs and I close it again and I forget about it."

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#99: Are we living through the App-ocalypse? with Brett Orlanski, SVP Product and Sales at Bango

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0100

In every industry there are periods of slow gradual changes and very rapid ones, when companies have to adopt quickly and deal with the consequences of those changes to keep their business afloat.

Last April, Apple finally released its ATT framework, ATT stands for App Tracking Transparency that implies for app marketers to be able to track app users' actions across multiple apps they need to ask for permission first.

This February, Google introduced its Privacy Sandbox for Android with a similar function. All in all, today we’ve got two major mobile platforms that have drastically changed the app tracking and this is the topic for my conversation today with Brett.

Today’s Topics Include:

Brett’s background
How privacy changes hurting app marketers today
How we got into this trouble
What app marketers need to do to move forward in the post-IDFA world
What side of the Android & iOS duopoly Brett is? iOS
What features would Brett miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Google Maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Overall smartphone performance speed

Links and Resources:

Brett Orlanski LinkedIn profile.
Bango’s website.

Quotes from Brett Orlanski:

"Very few places that offer product that actually allows to define payers.

It’s a double-edge sword, I think we can say it’s for end user in a sense it gives more privacy and control of your own data. It’s bad for mobile marketers that use these signals to send you really good ads you maybe interested in.

The best way of thinking about is people always worry about is my phone listening to me or Facebook is listening to me. Sometimes I get an ad so early on point…"

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#98: The State of Mobile 2022 with Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights at Data.ai

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Earlier on this year, data.ai, perhaps you still better know them as App Annie, published the State of Mobile 2022 report which is the ultimate bird-view on the app industry. Take any field, any market - being able to have a holistic view is what allows you to see a complete picture and compete with other players on the market. The app industry is one of the brightest examples for this approach.

In this episode, to talk about what app categories are the most popular today, how much money people spend on mobile apps, what are app trends in different countries and more we have Lexi, she’s been on the show couple times before and is always welcome back.

Today’s Topics Include:

The story behind App Annie’s rebrand to data.ai
The snapshot of the report - major data points
Waking hours benchmark
Consumer spend on apps
App categories people spend on the most
Number of new apps released in 2021
App blockbusters
App categories by generations - Gen Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lexi Sydow:

"We are spending around a third of our waking day on mobile."

"We are spending around seven of every 10 minutes in a combination of either social, communication or photo and video apps, so very heavily media-oriented".

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#97: TikTok: the impact on ad business and influencers with Sheyda D, Co-Founder and CTO at ViralMoment

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

On one hand, ask your teenage daughter how her girlfriends spend time, quite often including school time, and she will tell you “well, they are fooling around with TikTok”.

On the other hand, ask any brand marketer about TikTok and she or he will tell you whether they already use its advertising platform, try to go with it natively, or consider using it. So for the latter case wouldn’t be great if there was an analytical tool to tell you what’s trending on TikTok?

Well, lo and behold there is one and it’s ViralMoment and we have Sheyda to tell us all about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

Being a software engineer by training and liking to tackle hard problems, in early 2021 Sheyda was introduced to the idea to develop an analytical tool to measure video virality on TikTok subjectively, outside of the silos that the platform creates for individual users
What is ViralMoment
Does TikTok replace other ad platforms or compliment them for brands?
How does TikTok influence consumer behavior?
What is TikTok's impact on Influencers?
How ViralMoment can help to mitigate TikTok's externalities?
Sheyda's overall assessment of TikTok's impact on society
What side of the Android & iOS duopoly Jason is? iOS
First mobile phone owned by Sheyda - Nokia mobile phone with everyone's favorite Snake game on it :-)
What features would Jason miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Not being able to get in touch with people, it's not about a specific app but the function
What new app technologies is Jason most excited about? More tech that would regulate smartphone usage (Think Siri telling you you should spend more time off your smartphone)

Links and Resources:

Sheyda D LinkedIn profile.
ViralMoment website.

Quotes from Sheyda D:

"Back in January 2021, my co-founder Chelsey came to me with the idea for ViralMoment. She's been working in the Social Listening industry for a while and noticed that there was really no solution for visual-based social media."

"We also work with non-profit organizations and we are also currently working with a research group out of Carnegie Mellon centered on identifying hate speech on TikTok."

"If you are trying to buy a pair of shoes and I see a billboard for Nike - that is an advertising and once my friend tells me I have this pair of shoes, these are great! Which ones am I'm gonna left with? I'm gonna buy the ones my friend told me to. It's the same on TikTok - you're looking at these people as a part of your community that is telling you about what they are using."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#96: What your consumers want: their expectations and preferences with Jason Smith, VP of Sales (UK & Europe) at MoEngage

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

There is a good, very well-established principle in marketing - know your customers. Whatever app you need to market, your first priority needs to be to get to know people you’ll be marketing your app to. It is how you will be able to find places online where to approach them, what ad creatives to use, and what tone of your ad should be to speak their language.

You need to answer the following question for yourself - what do your customers want?

Well, this is the question that is at the basis of the MoEngage, the leading customer engagement platform, recent research, built on the survey data gathered from 1,000 consumers in the United States, Canada, UK, and Germany.

Today’s Topics Include:

Being a true tech geek in heart, Jason went a long way from being a software engineer in times when mainframe computers were a thing to becoming VP of Sales in a leading mobile engagement platform
The major unexpected insight that came off the report is that people want both don't want to be tracked online and yet ads they see are personalized
The key figure from the report: 21% of consumers from North America and Europe have adopted mobile apps for shopping, 33% of North American and European consumers prefer email for communication.
What frustrates customers and how it varies between women and men
Kind of messages that help solidify brands' relationships with customers
Most popular value-added services
Top 3 preferred communication channels
How shopping behavior has changed since COVID-19 hit the world in 2020
New communication channel(s) adopted by consumers
What side of the Android & iOS duopoly Jason is? iOS
First mobile phone owned by Jason - the early Panasonic model available in 1988
What features would Jason miss most leaving his smartphone at home? A constant buzzing in his pocket caused by a stream of notifications
What new app technologies is Jason most excited about? Nothing really, everything is cool as it is.

Links and Resources:

Jason Smith's LinkedIn profile.
MoEngage website.
MoEngage Personalization Pulse Check Report 2021.

Quotes from Jason Smith:

"What was really interesting in this particular research is how tuned in is consumers are when it comes to their data and how it's best used for personalization. And the expectation is that it's still 50% of customers or consumers that were surveyed still expect their message to be personalized based on their interests or behavior.

Inconsisent messaging really annoyes people, when men being targeted with female messaging and vise versa.

If you look at North America and Europe, 21% now have adopted a mobile app and email as new digital communication channels."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#95: Mobile App Onboarding: how to get it right with Marissa Hsu, Senior Designer at Phiture

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Alright, if you ever traveled somewhere by plane you’ve got a chance to hear this announcement “Boarding complete”. If you were lucky to buy a ticket on a cruise ship, that long process of staying in the queue and getting yourself and your stuff on the ship is called onboarding.

Where else do you have a chance to encounter this notion? Well - mobile apps! To explain what exactly do we mean by that we’ve got Marissa from the mobile growth consultancy Phiture. Mobile app onboarding is one of the must-have components of every app marketing strategy. Today, with a rare exception, brands need to think through the entire interaction experience their users have with the app, otherwise, mobile app churn will ruin that app project.

Today’s Topics Include:

With a background in graphic design and social media marketing, three years ago Marissa moved to the one and only Berlin to do e-commerce and B2B
What is onboarding
The best practices for mobile app onboarding
No-nos for app onboarding
The shortest and longest app onboarding
The key message to app marketers
What side of the Android & iOS duopoly Marissa is? iOS
What features would Marissa miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Google Maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? More apps to tackle big challenges our civilization has been facing.

Links and Resources:

Marissa LinkedIn profile.
Phiture website.

Quotes from Marissa Hsu:

"Onboarding is your users first impression. The purpose is to guide the user activation, which is essentially the user's experience of the value of the app for the first time.

I think just framing copy in terms of ways that it benefits the user, like not saying necessary look at this feature but saying this is how this feature can benefit you.

I'm more excited to see technology kind of blossoming in ways that add clear value to our lives. "

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#94: In-App Purchases: are they here to stay? with Jens-Fabian Goetzmann, Head of Product at RevenueCat

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Ok, here is the thing - even if you aren’t into tech, you can see Apple Incorporated being mentioned in the news pretty much on a daily basis. These days, a big chunk of this coverage is dedicated to the situation around Apple’s monopoly with its App Store. And one of the central figures in that story is in-app purchases.

A quick recap of how app developers have been making money with apps over the years.

Well, it all started back in 2008 when app developers were being paid for each copy of their apps or they could provide it for free but display the app users' ads and make money that way. Later on in-app purchases came along as the way for app developers to make money on extra features inside the apps or provide an option to turn off advertising inside those apps for a small fee.

And of course, later on the App Subscriptions became a big part of the app monetization options app developers could choose from.

Now, when Apple introduced its App Store, a big appeal for app developers was that Apple said that they will be charging only 30% of each app’s copy being sold. At that point, if you were in the software business and you wanted, let’s say, to release a game on a console you would have to pay way more than that 30% Apple was asking for. For a while, everybody thought it was a fair deal and developers were happy.

Fast forward to the present days - years later of struggling to achieve visibility for their apps and actually making money, many app developers aren’t that optimistic anymore. And especially if your app business is the size of the Epic Games studio.

To give you a comprehensive picture of what’s going on and what are implications for you we have Jens.

Today’s Topics Include:

Jens got into the app industry a bit late in 2017, being hooked on apps as a consumer, working in tech, he first joined 8fit fitness app and than in 2021 he joined RevenueCat team.
Recent updates around Apple's App Store and in-app purchases
Implications from the recent changes with in-app purchases and other aspects of how the App Store operates
Web payments - pros and cons
What's coming for in-app purchases
What side of the Android & iOS duopoly Jens is? iOS
What features would Jens miss most leaving his smartphone at home? Messaging apps and Twitter
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Having a direct connection between his brain and a smartphone (think Neuralink)

Links and Resources:

div>Jens-Fabian Goetzmann LinkedIn profile.
div>RevenueCat website.

Quotes from Jens-Fabian Goetzmann:

"I would argue regardless whether you are trying to make money or you're tinkering, building in-app subscription infrastructure is not a lot of fun either.

I think basically the headline is that for now most developers and app publishers that are currently or having been mandated to use in-app purchases will continue to use in-app purchases.

I think the security has multiple different levels. I think this kind of stance falls to how good the app review is really? Because there are various levels of security. There is a ton of security features baked into the operating system on iOS and those could still apply"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#93: The impact of creativity on Paid Social with Natalie Rozenblat and Isabella Zulli at Phiture

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Alright, every once in a while I like to begin an episode with a question to the audience - what do you do every morning? You brush your teeth, at least I hope so, have your breakfast, take a shower. Am I missing something? Yes - you check your Instagram or TikTok feed. Why do you do it? This is the question for another time and another episode.

Right now, my point is that sometimes in those feeds one of the ads grabs your attention. Why? If you are an app marketer and your job is to acquire new users for your app, to generate more revenue, I bet you would love to know the answer on this question. You would love to have those graphic creatives that really engage people and lure them to your app, wouldn't you?

To answer this question, to give you some fodder for what those highly engaging mobile app ad creatives look like, I’ve invited Natalie and Isabella.

Today’s Topics Include:

Natalie's and Isabella's background
What makes an ad creative stand out the rest, what allows it not to blend with other graphics in people's social media feeds
How to design your ad creative hit
Tools to use to get an inspiration to design your own highly engaging ad
Psychology behind high engagement of successful ad creatives
Ad creatives A/B testing: best practices
Android or iOS? iOS for both Bella and Natalie
What features would Natalie and Isabella miss most? Messaging apps and maps
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Better battery for Bella and Natalie is just fine with her smartphone current capabilities

Links and Resources:

Natalie Rozenblat LinkedIn profile.
Isabella Zulli LinkedIn profile.
Phiture website.

Quotes from Natalie and Isabella:

"The first step is really understanding who the audience is, what are their business needs. Then we look at historical ad performance, we can already learn from what was tested, what worked, what hasn't worked.

It's really about like standing out of the rest, which is why like that step three, when we conducting a competitive research and we are gathering inspiration - it's a really important stage for design team.

Depending on your audience of course, celebrity influencers can generate really positive performance. But depending on the experience, depending on the app, you know, just getting your real users even to create content for you. Like I would recommend to not being afraid apps to reach out their user base and, you know, see if anyone actually use the app in everyday life."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#92: App Monetization in 2021 and beyond with Linda Ouyang, CRO, Fyber - a Digital Turbine company

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Today, there are about 27 million app developers worldwide, it's a big, diverse and dynamic community of mobile software developers who build apps for iOS and Android. If you ever watched the Apple’s keynote presentations at WWDC, you saw some of them talking about apps they pour their heart into. It’s remarkable to see the commitment of these people to develop an app that will make a difference in somebody’s life.

Now, at the same time they develop apps to make a living. What is the state of app monetization today? To answer this question we’ve invited Linda.

Today’s Topics Include:

The Linda's background spans from being a part of the Yahoo team, moving to MoPub team and ultimately becoming a part of the Twitter team and finally joining Fyber - a Digital Turbine company
Fyber if the leading monetization platform helping app businesses grow revenue
How app publishers adopting to the Apple's SKAdNetwork
The impact of COVID-19 to the app publishers business in 2020 and 2021
What should be the focus of app publishers right now, in the midst of this Holiday season
Challenges app publishers are facing right now
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Linda miss most? Spotify :-)
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Widely adapted IoT support, being able to manage multiple sensors at home via a smartphone

Links and Resources:

Linda Ouyang LinkedIn profile.
Fyber website.

Quotes from Linda Ouyang:

"I grew up in a very entrepreneurial mobile tech-forward household. So the apple didn't fall very far from the tree actually.

It's become more and more interconnected but specifically on the publisher side, I think the privacy changes with Apple, while the grilling stuff must be faced together, it's causing some innovation. It's a little bit like Renaissance.

I think a lot of what we've seen is coming into fruition this Holiday season."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#91: Flow Lab app: the story of the 15x growth with Clarize Marais, Head of Marketing at Flow Lab

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Have you ever had this feeling when you’re working on something, you’re focused on relevant information only, you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing the next moment? This feeling may last minutes and hopefully more.

This can be the moment you’re building a marketing plan for your mobile app, or writing a creative for an ad to promote your app or dig deep in numbers for your current app user acquisition campaign. It doesn’t matter, what matter is that these moments are rare and precious. This is when a breakthrough moment may happen for your app project and you can finally nail a problem down.

You may think that to achieve any goal, you need to be able to put your thoughts together, it feels like that, right? In fact, it’s about being able shut down everything that is not relevant to what you’re doing right now. That is the key.

vDo you think there is an app that could help you with that - to have such moments, have them more? Well, there is - it’s called Flow Lab and Clarize is here to tell us about the app and the story behind its 15x growth and gaining 5,000+ paying subscribers.

Today’s Topics Include:

Clarize path in business took off at Trivago as an International Brand Marketing Associate to become a Head of Marketing in the Flow Lab team to work hard on making sure the app takes off and grow its user base of loyal users quickly
Flow Lab is a mental coach for peak performance app for you to be productive with your work and achieve your goals, removing destruction and helping people to focus on a specific task
The story behind the app and how it was development
App marketing channels Flow Lab team has been putting at work to connect the app with people
App analytics for the app during tough times of iOS15 rollout
The app users feedback
Clarize take on the current state of offers with how we interact with mobile devices
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Clarize miss most? In fact Clarize periodically leave her smartphone at home to give her a piece of mind, leaving the tech behind
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Software features to strictly limit use of the smartphone

Links and Resources:

Clarize Marais LinkedIn profile.
Flow Lab website.

Quotes from Clarize Marais:

"As you can imagine, from the beginning it was very important to distinguish Flow Lab from other big players like Calm, Headspace.

And we aimed to educate people that it's only important to train body but also to train your mind.

Before I cam across Flow Lab I also was not aware that it's possible to train your mind over time to become more focused and productive through meditation."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#90: The state of app retargeting with Partick Eichmann, General Manager, Americas at Remerge

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Remember when Apple introduced ATT framework this spring, one of the remarks you could hear in the app marketers circles was “all right - the app retargeting is doomed”. I think you shouldn’t be surprised by such reactions and remarks. We live pretty stressful lives right now, people tend to be emotionally triggered at anytime but these days especially.

But there are emotions and there are data.

Today we have Patrick, General Manager at Remerge, app retargeting company, to tell us about what is actually happening with app retargeting since the ATT introduction and back it up with data.

Today’s Topics Include:

Patrick's trajectory is from a traditional publishing company back in 2004 that was going digital to app retargeting company in 2019.
What is the App Retargeting
How come App Retargeting is still here, even though iOS app users have been switching to iOS 14 and iOS15 for months now
Making the case why App Retargeting is a viable app marketing technique for brands to use
Verticals and companies that use App Retargeting right now
Reality check - Patrick's thoughts about what will be coming with IDFA deprecation versus what is actually happening now
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Patrick miss most? Camera and Google Maps app
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Better battery life, more apps for life enhancements.

Links and Resources:

- Patrick Eichmann LinkedIn profile

Remerge website.

The State of App Retargeting report

Quotes from Patrick Eichmann:

“We’ve developed a dashboard that provided a view into what was happening from an operating system adoption rate perspective.

And what it actually looks like to give you some more content, that is actually a 30 billion requests a day that are coming through that have IDFA associated with it.

With Android, it’s still intact, there are maybe changes in the future but that makes up the lion share of available inventories now.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#89: The big transitions in the app industry with Patrick Mareuil, Managing Director EMEA at Airship

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

To say that we live in a time of change would be a big understatement. Pick up any area of your life and you can find a substantial change there. Many changes were caused or accelerated by COVID-19 last year.

In the mobile app industry specifically, a titanic shift was caused by the notion of privacy, the safety and ownership of people’s digital information.

Questions such as “How people can protect their online data?”, “Should they let companies use their data, - even anonymized - for generating profit for those companies?” - today all these questions are being heavily debated all the time.

In this episode, we want to help brands to better understand this new environment and to do so we’ve invited Patrick Mareuil, Managing Director EMEA at Airship, a mobile app experience platform.

Today’s Topics Include:

In a contrast with a famous way of how many Silicon Valley startups were launched - in a garage - Patrick and his partner launched their first company in early 2000 in a...kitchen. Today Patrick is a Managing Director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions at Airship, a mobile app experience company with more than a decade of experience under its belt.
How brands should adapt to the new reality when mobile app user privacy is on the radar of all tech companies
Lessons for brands after a year and a half of living and operating in the world where COVID-19 impacts every aspect of economy
Mobile marketing strategy changes brands should consider
Android or iOS? iOS
What features would Patrick miss most? Camera and Google Maps app
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Better battery life, more apps for life enhancements.

Links and Resources:

Patrick Mareuil LinkedIn profile
Airship website

Quotes from Patrick Mareuil:

"I see these changes as a win for consumer privacy but it does create some challenges for a company, as you've said, have to adapt to that new era.

There is gonna have to be some equal value change between the brands and the user and the users they want more control, they want more transparency and they open to data collection if the brands are able to bring them relevancy.

Where there is that reciprocal value exchange that's when it's a win-win relationship."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#88: App User Privacy with Martje Abeldt, Chief RevX Officer

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

When you buy any digital product or service, you have two options. You pay for it or get it for “free.” Both have pros and cons, but the free option is intertwined with what we call in a society - Privacy. You should give your consent and be aware of the consequence of your action to collect personal data.

Today’s guest is Martje Abeldt, Chief RevX Officer at RevX, the company that helps app marketers to acquire users programmatically and re-engage them, who talks about app user privacy. App tracking transparency (ATT) gives iOS app users the choice to accept or reject such data from being collected by developers.

Today’s Topics Include:

RevX: Platform made for growth, built for app marketers
Remote World: Working across borders in different languages, cultures, and markets
ATT Assessment, Framework, Feedback: It’s just marketing - not much has changed
Free Internet: Came along because of advertisements to sponsor content (good or bad)
Advertising Budgets: Where and what can still be measured and targeted?
Best Practices: Use first-party data, comply with privacy framework to target audience
App Users: How can you be private if you spend more time online - it’s a contradiction
Android or iOS? Both - opts into everything for professional reasons
What features would Martje miss most? Ability to call a cab
What’s missing from mobile app technology? Virtual reality becoming reality and more practical

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Martje Abeldt:

“As an aggregate, it’s technology, it’s people, and it’s also reach.”

“We need to be where our clients are. We need to understand what they need. So, the closer we are to them, the easier it is for us.”

“Are privacy regulations enough, basically, to serve the consumer and the individual, or do we have to improve them?”

“People are spending more and more and more time online. So, how can people become more private if they spend more time on the internet where everything is about data. It’s impossible.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#87: Effective app design: 4 pillars with Ritam Gandhi, Founder at Studio Graphene

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

What does it take to create a mobile app to succeed on a highly competitive e-commerce market?

Do you remember a few years ago we used to hear this catchy phrase “Yep, there is an app for that!”. It was about the novelty of mobile apps. Well, today with several million mobile apps in the world, you don’t hear it anymore.

The days of that mantra are over. These days, a mobile app is a vehicle for an e-commerce business to reach out its customers on mobile and improve their user experience. There is just no other way around it - every app project requires a long-term marketing strategy to succeed on a highly competitive landscape.

So we invited Ritam to help us to tackle this tough question - what are the essential ingredients of a modern mobile app design.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Ritam’s path – from a management consulting practice as well system integration and technology practice, working with investment and commercial banks to founding an app design and development company with 90+ team and expertise in all areas of a modern app development.

✔️ Studio graphene is UK headquartered app development company with studios in Delhi, Lisbon and Geneva

✔️ Goal Setting, Impact Mapping, Prototyping and Specification Writing – as the 4 pillars of a modern app development

✔️ New trends in app development Ritam welcomes and the ones he is not a fan of

✔️On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Ritam is? iOS

✔️ What apps would Ritam miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Google Maps

✔️ What hardware / software features Ritam is waiting for? Both mobile hardware and software healthcare related innovations.

Links and Resources:

Ritam Ghandi Linkedin profile.
Studio Graphene website.

Quotes from Ritam Gandhi:

“I think it’s very interesting topic because what is design? Is design a visual element, is design how you think about it, the user experience."

"A lot of the times you don’t really understand what it is that you are building until sometimes you see it"

"Specification and the detail behind every feature is key to make sure things won’t get lost in translation.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#86: Post iOS 14.5 app marketing budgets with Guido Crego, VP of Product at Jampp

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

iOS 14.5. If you aren’t in the app marketing industry, this version number of the Apple’s mobile operating system won’t tell about the whole drama associated with it. It is just what the Settings app on your iPhone suggested you to update your smartphone with. That’s it. But if your job is to promote mobile apps, I bet you’ve been following the fallout of its release by Apple this spring real close.

In this episode Guido sheds light on what’s going on with App Retargeting, iOS versus Android ad campaigns shift, IDFA and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Guido started his career as a Search Engine Optimization specialist in a small but vibrant and dynamic Argentinian tech community

✔️ Jampp, part of the Affle company, is a programmatic advertising platform used by the most ambitious companies to accelerate their mobile businesses.

✔️ The update on what's going with app retargeting, after Apple's introduction of its ATT (App Tracking Transparency) framework early on this year.

✔️ Reality check on the current status of IDFA - are people really rejecting app tracking in messes as many people afraid they will a few months ago?

✔️ With all recent updates what's coming up next for the mobile app industry?

✔️On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Guido is? iOS on his iPhone 12 Pro

✔️ What apps would Guido miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Google Maps

✔️ What hardware / software features Guido is waiting for? Augmented Reality tech

Links and Resources:

Guido Crego Linkedin profile.
Jampp website.
Jampp iOS 14 resources section.

Quotes from Guido Crego:

"Argentina is actually a pretty interesting place for tech, although the internal market is small, a lot of successful companies in Latin Americas are started from Argentina.

The reality is when it comes to the split per operating system, it changes a lot depending on the region mostly because, as you may know, different markets and different countries in the world will have different penetration of operating systems. In places like Latin America they are really big on Android and iOS is not that big.

The reality is we are all learning, advertisers are learning how to do it, DSPs are learning how to do it and MMPs are learning how to do it (work with SKADnetwork efficiently)"

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#85: App Lifecycle marketing with Fouad Saeidi, CEO at App Growth Network

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0100

As you're reading these lines, around the world dozens and dozens of app marketing teams work on brainstorming new ideas to give their app a leg up on competition. They crunch data from app analytics tools, trying to figure out why people churn away from their app, decide on plugging in a new app user acquisition channel and so on. The list is endless. If you put together all those activities together you get the App Lifecycle marketing notion - a holistic view on an app marketing, when all activities are viewed as a part of the general picture. It's about long term strategy and being able to think a few steps ahead and plan ahead.

In this episode we have Fouad Saeidi, CEO of App Growth Network to walk you through the app marketing funnel that is at the base of the App Lifecycle marketing.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Fouad has been in digital marketing in over a decade. Started at a mobile games startup in 2013, in 2018 he founded App Growth Network - currently one of the leading app marketing agencies on the market.

✔️ App Growth Network is an app marketing agency with over 250 mobile apps under its marketing belt.

✔️ What is App Lifecycle marketing

✔️ Marketing funnel and its stages

✔️App user acquisition, activation, retention and monetization

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Fouad is? iOS on his beloved iPhone 12 Pro

✔️ What apps would Fouad miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Slack :-)

✔️ What hardware / software features Fouad is waiting for? Small thinks like unread feature for Messages app.

Links and Resources:

Fouad Saeidi Linkedin Profile
Fouad Saeidi email - fouad@appgrowthnetwork.com
App Growth Network website.

Quotes from Fouad Saeidi:

"A Lifecycle marketing is about creating an effective strategy that meet customers' needs at the right stage.

The first step is obviously to focus on the value proposition - how is my product is different?

You are just launching a product, do you really want that million (of users) right now? Or do you want to have thousand to ten thousand downloads to validate every stage of the product? "

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#84: Stories in your app with Aykut Bal, Head of Business at Storyly

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0100

One of the pillars of the app marketing are formats - how information about apps is packed and presented to people on various advertising platforms.

It's one thing when it's about connecting via ads a mobile app with people who need that app, it's another when retaining app users is at stake. Mobile app users churn is a continuous challenge app marketers face around the globe, from small indie developers start-ups to big app development powerhouses and brands.

There is a number of ad formats at app marketers disposal - Banners, Interstitial, Video, pop-up, pop-under and more and you may think that you know them all and there is no room for innovation.

Wrong. There is. And Aykut is here to tell us about the story format.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Storyly is a platform to bring social media content into the app, as well as to create and publish content from scratch

✔️The story format can be that edge, new angle, that distinctive feature that app marketers are looking for to set their apps apart from competition

✔️ It works for both indie developers and big brands, it's a matter of what content they publish via their social media channels

✔️Don't overwhelm your app users via content you're publishing from your social media channel packed in the story format.

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Aykut is? iOS on his beloved iPhone 12 Mini

✔️ What apps would Aykut miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Pokemon GO :-)

✔️ What new app technologies is Aykut most excited about? Machine Learning to process all personal information on the device to keep it secure, out of reach of hackers.

Links and Resources:

Aykut Bal Linkedin profile.
Storyly website.

Quotes from Aykut Bal:

"How to engage users was at the center of it all. When you fail to engage your app users, you're loosing them.

The cheapest way to grow is not acquiring the users in the cheapest way but keeping them inside the app."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#83: Catapulting app growth with Apple Search Ads with Yusuf Barutcu, Director of Business Development of SearchAds.com

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 06:00:00 +0100

Every app marketer is on a quest to acquire more users for her or his app. Today’s app marketing toolbox consists of such well time-proven tools as App Store Optimization, Paid User Acquisition via ad networks, paid ads platforms from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest and such, as well as content marketing, PR, ads in podcasts, on TV, radio and even good old outdoor ads.

But when it comes to iOS apps specifically, the Apple’s Search Ads stands out as one of the most powerful weapons in the app marketer’s arsenal. The platform has gone through a few years of evolution to become an effective tool to drive iOS app installs on multiple markets. In this episode we have Yusuf Barutcu of SearchAds.com to tell us about how to use this platform efficiently and scale up your app user acquisition campaign.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Yusuf began his career in e-commerce and for the last 12 years he’s been an app search marketer, spending the last 2+ years in the SearchAds.com team

✔️ SearchAds.com helps app marketers to plug Apple’s Search Ads to their overall app user acquisition campaigns and have a holistic view on their UA efforts. It provides tools you need to find the best keywords, scale your marketing campaigns, and to be at the top of App Store search.

✔️ 60% of all iOS app downloads are driven by search - hence Search Ads is the must platform to use

✔️ The core of a successful Search Ads campaign is to define as much keywords relevant to your app as possible

✔️ Always consider a broader context than your app’s purpose to discover additional keywords to drive app installs

✔️ Make sure you bid on keywords that present your brand to avoid loosing traffic to your competitors

✔️ To market your app on 60 markets for dozens of keywords you need to use automation tools, unless you are a super human

✔️ iOS15 Custom Pages bring new capabilities for the visual creatives on the iOS App Store.

✔️ Search is a source of a high quality traffic, people open up the App Store app to search with an intent to find a specific app

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Yusuf is? iOS (and never looked back)

✔️ What apps would Nick miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Slack :-)

Links and Resources:

Yusuf Barutcu LinkedIn profile
Search Ads website - https://searchads.com

Quoеtes from Yusuf Barutcu:

"The main quality traffic generator is search. Because there have an intent to get what they after, so if what they after is what you have then you should be there.

Once you follow the right strategy, well - bingo, it’s not a rocket science and you can easily grow your business.

To speak loudly about that, at Mobile Action platform we have around 6 million keyword crawled every day."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#82: iOS 15 implications for ASO with David Bell, CEO of Gummicube

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 08:00:00 +0100

Year in, year out Apple has been improving its mobile operating system that every iPhone runs on - the iOS. This year its 15th version has just hit the market. In some years, Apple’s focus is on introducing new features, others on polishing some features, sometimes they don’t get a particular feature right from the first shot and they need to revisit it again next year - Apple’s engineers are human beings, like you and me.

In particular, amongst all these updates there are some that are of interest to mobile app marketers. Today we’ll cover such updates introduced with iOS 15 and we have Dave Bell, CEO of Gummicube, a leader in providing Big Data Analytics for the App Stores, which is used for App Store Optimization, Mobile Marketing and Market Analysis, here to tell all about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Dave's been in the mobile marketing space since 1999, actually was among developers who created and published apps for featured phones, before the rise of Apple's iOS App Store for the iPhone.

✔️Gummicube is the oldest North America-based App Store Optimization company, more than 11 years on the market, built the tech to help app marketers to understand how the app stores work from an app marketing perspective.

✔️Apple's focus with iOS, as well as in general, is app users' data privacy and creating a more robust experience for app marketers.

✔️iOS 15 beta feature Private Relay, which is essentially Apple's VPN - another Apple's step in the direction of replacing iOS apps developed by a third party, when the stakes are high, like in the case of iOS app users privacy and data safety.

✔️Updates for the iOS's Spotlight

✔️A/B testing solution for iOS

✔️Custom Product Pages

✔️Searchable In-App Events

✔️SKAdNetwork enhancements

✔️App Clips updates

✔️Dave's iOS 15 favorite features

Links and Resources:

Dave Bell's Linkedin profile
Gummicube website.

Quotes from Dave Bell:

"Apple is moving in the direction when they are going to make it more convinient for their user to stay with Apple ecosystem.

Frankly, if you're looking at the amount of time people spend in mobile apps versus websites, I think the statistics is 88% of the time is being spent in the mobile app versus web.

But I think that actually the reality of In-App Events is going to be much more broad because of this in even in apps, you know, categories you wouldn't think of, like Productivity, Utilities simply because in-app events are re-engagement ASO."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#81: Building apps for businesses to survive COVID-19 with Nick Swenson, Managing Partner at Swenson He

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0100

We are more than a year and a half into this pandemic and, aside from the multiple challenges it’s brought into our lives, there is this one - are you ready to volunteer to help others, providing your business’s services for free? Are you entirely focused on your own survival or you are willing to help people to relieve some of the challenges they’re going through?

In this episode, Nick, Managing Partner at Swenson He - award-winning digital development company, will tell us the story of how his company's commitment to help people in need hit by COVID-19 and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Nick's story starts at MIT, where he was studying to become a bio-engineer and met his future co-founder and COO of Swenson HE Chao He, with whom he shared the same passion about new digital experiences. Nick has been fascinated with building the bridge between digital and the real world and understanding how to make this bridge useful for people based on their perception of it.

✔️Swenson HE is a software development company that works on both mobile and desktop software projects. Their portfolio ranges from Fortune 500 companies to small clients with unique needs.

✔️Luckily Nick's company team was already in the business of changing their operations to understand how they can work remotely prior to COVID-19 and hence the pandemic didn't hit hard his team.

✔️Watching how other businesses were impacted by the pandemic, Nick's team decided to figure out how they can help the most and make the biggest impact. That effort lead to launching several projects, one example was working with the Reach Project to build a platform for their latest initiative: feeding the “Invisible Aggies,” essential employees on the Texas A&M campus, who have been laid off due to Covid19.

✔️The most challenging part of any app development project - engagement, making sure people interact with the app and it brings them real value.

✔️Today innovation in app design is about figuring out how to develop apps that meet today's standards of Gen Ze.

✔️It's hard to pinpoint what today's cutting-edge tech will eventually stay or will be left in the dust over time.

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Sacha is? iOS

✔️ What apps would Nick miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Email.

Links and Resources:

Nick Swenson Linkedin profile
Swenson He website.

Quotes from Nick Swenson:

"Digital experiences are about this transitioning between the digial world and a real world and understanding how users interact with an interface and how they think, desicions they make. It's very much is in some cases is a psychology problem.

If you aren't innnovating you already behind."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#80: 2021 Influencer Compensation report with Joe Sinkwitz, Co-founder and CEO at Intellifluence

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 11:46:00 +0100

One of the biggest differences in a life of a marketer, from let’s say, 10 years ago is that today a big chunk, of not entire, marketing campaign that she or he runs for a brand's product or service takes place on social media. But the reason why marketing on social media really works is people. Influencers Or Creators.

Now question is - how much do they charge? Well, the answer is classic - it depends. It depends on a particular social media platform and other factors. Today we’ve got Joe Sinkwitz, CEO at Intellinfluence marketing platform that helps brands partner with key influencers to achieve better results, to riddle this question for you.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Joe is a veteran of digital marketing, spending a quarter of a century in this area and Intellinfluence his latest creation.

✔️Intellifluence is the largest warm contact Influencer marketing network

✔️How the idea to issue the 2021 Influencer Compensation Report came about and what did it take

✔️How much does it take to launch a marketing campaign via Influencers on Instagram

✔️How much do Influencers charge for a marketing campaign on Twitter and who are the biggest Influencers on Twitter

✔️What would be a marketing budget to fun an Influencer marketing campaign via Influencers on YouTube

✔️What is a ballpark for a marketing campaign via Influencers on TikTok.

✔️What are the biggest takeaways from the report for brands

✔️Influencer versus Creator - what's the difference and what brands should know about each.

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Sacha is? iOS

✔️ What apps would Joe miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. You would be surprised - good old making calls :-)

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? The mix of AR with auto-translation makes traveling easier.

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Joe Sinkwitz:

"The hard part was getting people to fill up the survey

So the data absolutely will be skewed towards micro-influencers internet network but it's really interesting just to see how they felt about everyone.

The coolest thing that came out 41% felt that brand is not pitching them the right amounts."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#79: Yubo: building a social network differently with Sacha Lazimi, CEO at Yubo

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0100

Even if you aren’t a tech pundit, who has been following all stories about social media companies, inevitably you stumble upon a breaking story about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok that talks about their negative impact on our society, on teenagers’ mental health and even on the democracy itself.

You may get an impression that there is no way how you can design a social network differently, so you won’t get such a flip side. But that’s not the case and Sacha, CEO of Yubo, will tell us how it’s actually possible to achieve.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Sacha is on a mission to improve how people interact online, hence his involvement into developing multiple social media apps prior to Yubo

✔️Yubo is a social media platform for Gen Z to interact with each other in small groups

✔️ It doesn't compete with big social media platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat.

✔️ Yubo is the social media app that doesn't push its users to be hooked on such concepts as Likes, Comments and Followers.

✔️ The app applies 8 age-verification procedures to make sure it has on board legit age users only

✔️ The platform is ads free, it's freemium based with paid options & subscriptions to get more engagement

✔️ Yubo is used by Gen Z on their leisure time - after school, on weekends or holidays

✔️ Once COVID-19 hit both usage and engagement shot up

✔️ Yubo is available on both iOS and Android but the bulk of users on iOS

✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Sacha is? iOS

✔️ What apps would Nico miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Good old placing calls function :-)

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Sacha Lazimi:

"...with the same mission "To improve how people meet each other and connect online"

Yubo is just an iteration of what I've done with my co-founder and we always have the same mission.

Yubo is a social platform to socialize online all over the world and designed for Generation Z. It's a public space where you have a small group that interacting publicly through video, audio and chat."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#78 :The opportunity for consumer subscription apps with Nico Wittenborn, Investor at Adjacent

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0100

On the enormous landscape of mobile apps, there are two special categories that have been grabbing a lot of businesses attention - SAAS (stands for Software As a Service) and App Subscriptions.

Both generate tens of millions of dollars for such companies as Slack, HULU, Netflix, Spotify and others. While there are obvious differences between these two, like it's a lot easier to get loads of users for a SAAS app (because all these people are employees of a particular company) as opposed to doing your best to reach out people who will benefit from an App Subscription app, but there are similarities too.

In this episode we've got Nico Wittenborn from Adjacent to tell us about these similarities and lessons that can be applied from the world of SAAS apps to the App Subscriptions.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Nico's career's trajectory: from re-selling refurbished iPhones to investing into big SAAS apps

✔️What is an App Subscription

✔️App Subscription model advantages and limitations

✔️Enterprise SAAS vs. Consumer App Subscription model

✔️SAAS and App Subscription apps growth indicators

✔️What's coming up in the mobile space

✔️ Android or iOS? both iOS and Android

✔️ What apps would Nico miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Not much, he does leave it on purpose to limit the time he interacts with the phone

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Having better tools for the smartphone screen time moderation

Links and Resources:

Nico's Linkedin profile

Quotes from Nico Wittenborn:

"Yeah, it did. It sounds like a bit of exaggeration but in retrospect the iPhone definitely changed my trajectory.

It's not really new that we pay for something on a recurrent basis that we use for a long time, it's just for software it seems to be the evolution - first we paid for a license once for a product on a CD and now we pay on a monthly basis

The interesting thing is that after one or two years, if the company is still stick around, they're flatting out in terms of their reach and retention and so there might be a big drop in the first year for a company with an app subscription but the second year they almost don't drop anymore"

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#77 : How to make more of your Search Ads targeting campaigns with Simon Thillay, Head of ASO at AppTweak

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0100

At this point, It wouldn’t surprise any app marketer that to acquire users for their apps they need to do both - App Store Optimization to get native traffic and run paid search, among many performance marketing, ad campaigns.

It’s given.

But the question they may have - what about bidding on their brand keywords? Should they do that? They’ve heard other folks do it and now they’re trying to answer this question for themselves. In this episode, we have Simon Thillay, Head of ASO at Apptweak, the leading ASO tool driven by data science, to riddle this question for you.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️Simon’s trajectory in business: from a small mobile game studio, to Deezer and finally one of the leading App Store Optimization agencies.

✔️Apptweak - ASO and marketing intelligence tool, covering both major app stores and expanding beyond to cover the Facebook Ads platform and more.

✔️Apple’s iOS 14.5 ATT framework and how it changes app marketers UA campaigns.

✔️Keywords cannibalism - what is it, how and why app brands need to pay attention to it closely.

✔️The role of ad creatives in the App Store Optimization, how app screenshots may help to communicate the app’s message to specific audiences.

✔️Apple’s A/B testing tool and custom landing pages - what should we expect

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Simon miss the most? Texting via WhatsApp and music streaming via Deezer

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Offline mode for mobile games

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Simon Thillay:

If you look at the direct impact of the ATT on Apple Search Ads it’s almost zero because Apple Seach Ads was the one marketing channel that was going to be exempted from it.

If I’m seeing a small pirating app that is based on pirated shows on YouTube, I don’t think it’s possible anymore, but just for the sake of the argument, I won’t feel the same level of threat. This is where you need to think “ok, not every threat is equal”

Don’t expect too much out of it, we still see a lot of people only now finding out what is ASO and thinking that they can get 300+ downloads just out of the thin air”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#76 : Can ASO work hand in hand with performance marketing with Anton Tatarynovich, Senior ASO Consultant at Phiture

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0100

ASO (aka App Store Optimization) has been an app marketing service for a quite a while. Soon after the Apple’s App Store was launched back in 2008, people began to wonder how to get more downloads for their apps on the store and Google Play market joined the party shortly after.

It’s 2021 and it’s time to take a fresh look at ASO and see how it can actually work with other areas of the digital marketing , such as performance marketing, together.

In this episode, Anton Tatarynovich, Senior ASO Consultant of Phiture, a multi award-winning mobile growth consultancy, tells us all about it.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Anton’s path: from a Sales Manager in a A/B testing company to the Senior Consultant at the top app marketing agency

✔️ Phiture - a hundred employee Berlin-based mobile agency with a broad spectrum app marketing expertise, famous for its Mobile Growth Stack concept

✔️ So what is App Store Optimization?

✔️ What ASO tools do we have and should use

✔️ How ASO and performance marketing can actually work together and feed each other with useful data

✔️ What results app marketers should reasonably expect from ASO plus performance marketing combo?

✔️ How ASO and Apple Search Ads can be useful to each other

✔️ What updates for app marketers has Apple’s WWDC 2021 brought?

✔️ Android or iOS? Actually both, no real preference here :-)

✔️ What app features would Seth miss most? Messaging via Telegram and listening music on Spotify

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Better Apple’s App Store experience, tech & financial media for GenZ

Links and Resources:

Anton’s LinkedIn profile
Phiture website.

Quotes from Anton Tatarynovich:

I think a lot of companies still approach ASO as new, even though it’s been around for a quite a few years.

Essential ASO tools - two main ones, obviously the App Store Connect and Google Play Store Console. That’s pretty much are high level analytics what we check day to day to understand how the app is doing.

It’s really the key to align performance marketing and ASO for apps, especially when the sheer of downloads coming from paid sources is substantial.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#75 : How Rapchat got to 7 million with Seth Miller, founder and CEO at Rapchat

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0100

Everybody loves music, right? Maybe not the same music, but all the songs you want to hear are at your fingertips. What if you want to do more than just listen, like create and write music?

Our today’s guest, to tell you the story of an app growth, is Seth Miller, CEO at Rapchat, which lets you create music and beats without using a computer to be heard, record, share, and get noticed.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Rhyme Time: It’s like Snapchat for rap, so just call it Rapchat

✔️ Game Changer: Viral loop of ability to create and share songs with more than friends

✔️ Retention: Build a great product/product-market fit to minimize app users’ churn

✔️ Recording Studio: Too many core features can clutter the music experience

✔️ Product Market Fit: Qualitative survey data positively impacts engagement and retention

✔️ Business Models and Monetization: Rapchat went from ads to subscription products

✔️ Seth’s Key Takeaways: Don’t get lost in the sauce as you start to scale your app

✔️ Back to Basics: Who’s coming and why? Clarify and analyze user research and data

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Seth miss most? Sleep tracker and Twitter

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Ability to turn off all notifications and distractions

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Seth Miller:

“It’s like Snapchat for rap.”

“Rapchat - the easiest way to make music on your phone. We really put a recording studio in your pocket for the everyday artist.”

“Build your own philosophy, your own system, and figure out what works for your product, your users.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#74 : Driving Growth with Engagement and Retention strategies with Nicole Chin, growth at Mindvalley

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0100

The app growth is the most popular and challenging topic among mobile app marketers. Pull away couple app marketers, get them some coffee and chances are they will drag you into a conversation about mobile app growth.

A mobile app lifecycle is a marathon that, like any other growth of a 🌱, crystal, 👶, it requires knowledge, planning and dedication.

In this episode Nicole Chin, growth marketer at Mindvalley will tell you how to approach an app growth as a system and even somewhat automate it.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Nicole’s path: from a management consulting to a growth marketer at Mindvalley

✔️ Mindvalley - a subscription-based app tech platform to sells online courses with a mindset of a startup, even after being for years on the market

✔️ AARRR - acquisition, activation, retention, referral, revenue, what the marketing funnel is all about.

✔️ App growth as a system, a holistic look at growing your mobile app

✔️ Is it possible to automate app growth?

✔️ How long should you wait to let your app audience to check out your app to see if it works for them?

✔️ How to get people who aren’t your app loyal core users to get back to your app? What puts they away?

✔️ Strategies to achieve mobile app users retention. Achieve the real engagement with the app, not clicking on the app for the sake of inflating the MAU to report your share holders on a quarter financial call.

✔️ The hardest part of the mobile app growth business

✔️ iOS vs. Android: iOS

✔️ First mobile phone: Nokia

✔️ Smartphone feature Nicole would miss the most leaving the phone at home: taking picture to stay safe from harassment on the street.

✔️ New software / hardware features Nicole would love to get on her iPhone: totally happy with what it does for her now.

Links and Resources:

Nicole LinkedIn profile: Nicole Chin
Mindvalley website - https://www.mindvalley.com/

Quotes from Nicole Chin:

There is a foundation that an app and a business has to reach first and it’s a product / market fit. A lot of times if you don’t reach a product / market fit, no matter what you do it’s gonna be difficult to growth.

It’s not a one size fits all, even within your product you can really drill down further for 20% who are coming back and what about the other 80%?

What you really want to know whether or not there is any traction for the app. So it’s really defined by users, installs and downloads.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#73: User Acquisition via Influencer Marketing with Lucia Aguilar, Founder at TATAM.digital

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 10:16:00 +0100

It’s mostly certain that many of you may being following so-called influencers on social media. You may follow Kim Kardasian or The Rock on Instagram or one of the came-out-of-nowhere girl or guy on TikTok who turned out to be so cool. And every once in a while you may even buy something that they introduced you to in videos. In other words - you know what is Influencer marketing first hand.

By now - it’s a huge industry.

On this episode we have Lucia of TATAM.digital influencer marketing agency to tell you about why and how this brand new kind of online marketing can help you acquire users for your beloved app.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Lucia’s path from Unilever to own influencer marketing agency to promote mobile apps

✔️ TATAM.digital - influencer marketing with focus on performance to advertise subscription-based mobile apps

✔️ Influencer marketing KPIs tracking is real. Full stop.

✔️ Influencer marketing powers incrementality for a mobile app user acquisition. It provides less intermediary steps between a person’s intent and an instance of a mobile app download.

✔️ Influencer marketing works for any kind of a mobile app.

✔️ Influencers can give future app users the best video intro that will make it crisp and clear what the app is about and how to use it.

✔️ In the world of iOS 14.5 Influencer marketing has a leg up against social media ad platforms and networks - it does not imply collecting and using mobile app users personal data.

✔️ As time goes by, more and more companies jump on using Influencer marketing to acquire users but still - marketers may don’t use analytical tools to track Influencer marketing campaign performance

✔️ Scammers continue to muddy the water of Influencer marketing and this is what Lucia would really love to see going away.

✔️ iOS vs. Android: iOS

✔️ First mobile Lucia owned was Alcatel T-331

✔️ The mobile tech Lucia can’t live without is Apple Pay. No cash. Mobile payments only.

Links and Resources:

Lucia LinkedIn profile: Lucia Aguilar
Lucia Instagram profile: @luliinvierte
TATAM.digital website - TATAM.digital

Quotes from Lucia Aguilar:

I think they (people who believe it’s impossible to track KPIs for Influencer marketing) like 60 years behind.

Great influencers are great content creators and communicators.

I haven’t found one (an app category for which Influencer marketing doesn’t work)

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#72: WWDC 2021 implications for iOS developers with Justin Welter, VP of Brand Performance and BD at AdColony

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:57:00 +0100

Every June, software developers around the world eagerly wait for Apple to release what it has in store for them. Usually, it’s technical iOS and marketing application updates.

Today’s guest is Justin Welter, VP of Brand Performance and Business Development at AdColony, which is a mobile in-app video network that helps publishers monetize their content through video ads.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ WWDC 2021: Apple announced APIs that’ll be easy for developers to use and save time

✔️ A/B Testing: Apple adds this feature that’s especially important for growth marketers

✔️ App developers still waiting for more info and insights from Apple about changes

✔️ Favorite Part of WWDC21: At the very end when earnings were announced

✔️ Apple’s armageddon? ATT impact was better than expected opt-in rates, best practices

✔️ Marketing 101: How well do you know your customers? What’s the benefit?

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Justin miss most? Google Maps

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Reduce addiction to phone use

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Justin Welter:

“Everybody knows apps, everybody has them.”

“From a developer’s stand point is, I think first and foremost, the APIs that they announced are going to be very useful for developers.”

“It feels like Apple had a big, kind of emphasis on the communication aspect of things.”

“I certainly think that there are enough reasons for people to want to develop on iOS.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#71: What does make an app a hit? with Sean Casto, CEO of PreApps

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0100

In the 1980s, the world was all about personal computers. In the 1990s, computer games became a thing. Starting in 2009, the last decade has been about mobile apps. Why do apps either have a short lifetime and fail to find space in people’s lives, or are spectacularly successful because of implemented systems, processes, and frameworks? Today’s guest is Sean Casto, CEO at PreApps. Sean talks about the past, present, and future of the app marketing business. PreApps’s mission is to continue to be the #1 app marketing agency that provides world-class services designed to help launch and grow app businesses.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Launch Status: Development was fairly easily, but marketing to consumers was more difficult > ✔️ Why start PreApps? Support and implement the same systems, processes, and frameworks ✔️ PreApps Mission: Continue as #1 app marketing agency providing world-class services ✔️ Positive Impact: PreApps does what it does to transform the world for the better ✔️ People’s Needs: Same fundamentals, always wanting app marketing roadmap and path ✔️ Common Traits: Successful app businesses have two basic principles around customers ✔️ How does app destruction work? Pure innovation and ability to adapt to changes ✔️ App Business Owners: Fall in love with users, not products to solve their problems ✔️ App Growth Marketing: Hacks are not sustainable, make app unique and irresistible ✔️ Pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and predisposed? Download app instantly ✔️ Virility and Retention: Apps don’t really go viral by accident, there’s a science to it ✔️ Win-Win Referral System: Incentives cause conversations, which lead to referrals ✔️ How apps make money? Value Ladder - combine every business model to make profit ✔️ App Features in the Future: Innovative technologies (i.e., cryptocurrency, AI, privacy) ✔️ Android or iOS? iOS ✔️ What app features would Sean miss most? Calendar ✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? ✔️ Hardware: Make it thinner and lighter ✔️ Technology: Remove notifications and other distractions

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Sean Casto:

“Everyone was so passionate and excited about the products they were creating, but unfortunately, 98% of them failed to be discovered.” “It still continues to be the wild, wild west as Apple and Google algorithms continue to figure things out and adapt with modern times.” “Any successful app business really comes down to two basic principles: 1) Attract high-quality, high-value customers at an affordable cost, and 2) Retain, nurture, and grow the value of your customers.” “Growth marketing is really the process of driving your users to your app to download your app and purchase what you’re offering while increasing the appreciation of your app in the process.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#70: App Growth Rocket model with Luca Mastrorocco, Co-Founder of REPLUG

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 11:06:00 +0100

Are you interested in rockets? Do you watch SpaceX launches? Then, you know what a rocket is and the launch metaphor came to mobile apps from the space industry.

Today’s guest is Luca Mastrorocco, co-founder of REPLUG, a mobile app marketing consulting agency based in Berlin. Luca talks about a holistic approach to app growth scaling.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ REPLUG: Services include ASO, paid acquisition, retention/CRM, and tracking/ analytics

✔️ Rocket Analogy: Upgrowth business approach that’s simple to understand, communicate

✔️ Digital Infrastructure: Engine is the basis of the app that makes everything work properly

✔️ User Acquisition (UA): Plays role in upgrowth strategy from organic, paid perspectives

✔️ Acquisition Process: Meaningful conversion funnel goes from download to monetization

✔️ UX and UI: Make sure marketing works hand-in-hand with look and feel of product

✔️ Engagement: No business wants to just acquire users for the sake of it

✔️ External Factors: App growth depends on market conditions, competition, and COVID

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Luca miss most? Calendar

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Virtual reality (VR) and surround sound

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Luca Mastrorocco:

“Without the right infrastructure, obviously, the app cannot really work properly. We like to give the digital infrastructure or the infrastructure of the app a very prominent role in our work.”

“Conversion fund is being how we make sure that we don’t just stop where our user downloads. We make sure to convert them into paying users.”

“We really care about the look and feel of the app.”

“No business wants to just acquire users for the sake of it.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#69: App Stores Trends in 2021 with Ariel Michaeli, CEO at AppFigures

Mon, 31 May 2021 06:00:00 +0100

Most of us wake up in the morning, check the weather, then the traffic on the way to work, unless your office isn’t your desk, sitting next to your bed, and of course, catch up on social media. Throughout your day, you spend time launching apps on your smartphone, smartwatch, or tablet.

Today’s guest is Ariel Michaeli from Appfigures, which takes a holistic view on the app industry as a whole and provides insights on app trends. Appfigures offers ASO tools, analytics, and intelligence to optimize for more organic downloads.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Appfigures: All about building platforms and helping as many people as possible

✔️ Gamers and Brothers: Can we make a game for the iPhone and still pay our bills?

✔️ Word of Mouth: Eventually gave access to Appfigures and no longer making games

✔️ Most popular app categories:

Before COVID (BC): Entertainment, games, and business
After COVID (AC): Health and fitness, games, entertainment, and business
Both BC and AC: Travel and business

✔️ Shift: Do you use an app to watch TV on a big screen or video stream to a small device?

✔️ Top Grossing App: YouTube, but Tik Tok is climbing the charts and taking over

✔️ Evergreen Hits: Apps that depend on want vs. need, such as hottest games and widgets

✔️ App Market Mindset: How big is the market and how much are users willing to pay?

✔️ Subscriptions are key to success or failure; always look at competitors and similar apps

✔️ ASO: Whether or not to allow apps to track and target users for search or organic ads

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Ariel miss most? Email

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Augmented reality (AR)

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Ariel Michaeli:

“It’s always been for me about how can I build a platform that takes either something I’m really good at or something that I care about a lot or, something that I see me, myself using and turn it into a solution for as many people as possible.”

“That’s how the idea of Appfigures was born. We needed some sort of platform to track our own data.”

“It’s easier to have a service that has an app, even if the service is mostly reliant on an app.”

“(App Market) For you to know that means the difference between success and failure.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#68: App Growth story in 2021: FishBrain with Lisa Kennelly, CMO at FishBrain

Mon, 17 May 2021 10:22:00 +0100

What are most app marketers doing this year compared to last year? Probably not what they planned on, which was incremental app growth techniques and trying new user acquisition channels. Instead, they are trying to adapt their businesses to the world because of COVID-19.

Today’s guest is Lisa Kennelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Fishbrain. Lisa shares how Fishbrain has been dealing with the new app industry landscape and the app's growth story.

Are you hooked on fishing?

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Mentality of Marketing: Sense of what should work for locals and worldwide

✔️ Fishbrain: App for fishing—the world’s most popular hobby

✔️ Fishbrain Data: Who, what, where, when, why, and how to catch fish

✔️ eCommerce: If you’re going fishing, you need to spend money on fishing gear

✔️ Spirit of Community: Based on emotions and relationships between people

✔️ Fishbrain Growth: Fishing’s an activity you could do during COVID

✔️ Retention and Competition: Challenge to retain customers who go shopping elsewhere

✔️ Partnership Criteria: Providers of maps, boats, brands, and data research

✔️ Marketing Channels: Google, Facebook, Instagram, affiliates, influencers, native ads

✔️ Target Audience, not TikTok: Plenty of young users, but not the revenue drivers

✔️ Subscription Model: Fishbrain Pro offer adds data to add more value

✔️ Key Takeaways: People management takes more time and energy than expected

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app features would Lisa miss most? Camera

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Too much reliance on smartphones

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Lisa Kennelly:

“Fishbrain is an app for fishing, and fishing is actually the world’s most popular hobby.”

“Even if you personally are not into fishing, I bet you know somebody very close to you who is obsessed with fishing.”

“We were able to take the social, turn that into utility, and in the last couple of years, we added in the eCommerce, as well. If you’re going fishing, of course you need to have a lot of fishing gear.”

“How do you keep people motivated? How do you see when they need a break? How do you balance that and find ways to keep them engaged? That takes a lot of effort.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#67: Managing the UK’s largest under 5’s app portfolio with Ian Irving, Senior SEO & ASO Specialist in BBC

Mon, 10 May 2021 08:00:00 +0100

If you live in the United Kingdom and have kids under 5 years old, then there’s a big chance that they play with apps on their tablet developed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Today’s guest is Ian Irving, Senior Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and App Store Optimization (ASO) Specialist in the BBC Children’s and Education Department. Ian talks about what it takes to manage app marketing for the largest portfolio of mobile apps for children.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Young at Heart: Ian’s journey from wanting to be a teacher to building apps for kids

✔️ BBC: Not only a reliable source for news, but educational and safe apps for children

✔️ Four Main CBeebies Apps: Playtime Island, Go Explore, Get Creative, and Storytime

✔️ App Marketing: You are not marketing to the children, you are marketing to their parents

✔️ Batman/Spiderman Line: Parents become uncool and don’t control their kid’s device

✔️ Three Primary Marketing Channels: TV advertising, socials, and organic SEO

✔️ App Stores: Top user acquisition, engagement, and downloads - Apple/iOS and Amazon

✔️ KPIs: Amazon app metrics are extremely limited; rely on external analytics providers

✔️ Seasonality: When audience undergoes specific emotional shift, increase acquisitions

✔️ AB Testing: Micro is variation of small elements; macro makes larger conversion impact

✔️ Learn Language: How marketers speak isn’t necessarily how people talk in real world

✔️ Android or iOS? Android

✔️ What apps and features would Ian miss most? Google Maps

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Advancement of biomonitoring health

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Ian Irving:

“Every week, about 20 percent of 0-6 years old in the U.K. use one of those four apps.”

“You are not marketing to the children, you are marketing to their parents.”

“There’s a very, very clear line, which we call the Batman line or the Spiderman line and that is at 6 years old because once they hit that age, that’s when anything that their parents are trying to expose them to becomes uncool.”

“The idea of seasonality is when there are things happening offline, where your audience is undergoing a specific emotional shift, and the idea is that if you can catch them, if you can trigger that or align with that emotional shift that they are going through, you’re going to see an increase in acquisitions.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#66: Growing an app with a mission with Aleksandra Reinert, Growth Marketing at Olio

Mon, 03 May 2021 07:00:00 +0100

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are known for chasing small ideas with big money, but what about chasing big ideas with big money?

Today’s guest is Aleksandra Reinert, Growth Marketing at OLIO, a London-based company with a big mission. Aleksandra talks about the scale and significance of problems that OLIO was built to solve and the story of the app's growth.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Food Waste: How bad is it? Pretty bad - people are big part of problem and solution

✔️ Hunger: A million people worldwide could be fed on less than a quarter of food wasted

✔️ OLIO: Free sharing app for people to give away food and other household items for free

✔️ Food Stamps to Facebook Ads: OLIO’s tried every marketing channel/strategy to grow

✔️ What can you do to grow OLIO? You need a community to start sharing on OLIO

✔️ Common Good: Prevent good food from going to waste and build relationships

✔️ Tech for Good: Companies can make a profit and help society at the same time

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What apps and features would Aleksandra miss most? Google Maps

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Make it less addictive

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Aleksandra Reinert:

“A third of all food projects globally goes to waste and over 50 percent of that food waste is actually happening in the home in the developed countries.”

“Yes, we are part of the problem - a big part of the problem - but we are also part of the solution.”

“What can I do to grow OLIO in my neighborhood? You need a community to start sharing on OLIO.”

“People know it’s an amazing feeling. We get so many users, as far as people just being so happy with the act of sharing something with your neighbor. It’s intrinsically good.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#65: How we 5x our growth in 10 months with Jimmy Davis, Head of Acquisition & CRM at Fiit

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:55:00 +0100

Do you exercise? At home or at the gym? Most of us have changed our behaviors and switched to digital fitness to stay in shape - especially because of the COVID lockdown.

Today’s guest is Jimmy Davis, Head of Acquisition and CRM at Fiit, an app that is trying to build a community of fitness lovers to ensure that digital and physical fitness complement one another - just like a marriage.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Behind the Brand: Fiit focuses on high-intensity and interval training for fitness lovers

✔️ Growth Forecast: Digital fitness is still in its infancy, but is growing at a rapid rate

✔️ Community Features: Encourage competition, participation, group support, challenges

✔️ Open Ecosystem: Calibrates w/wearable devices to offer feedback to everyday athletes

✔️ Fiit International Positioning: New country, market, culture, competition, and partnerships

✔️ Performance Marketing: Key pillar of Fiit’s growth strategy by understanding users

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What apps and features would Jimmy miss most? Maps, Slack, and WhatsApp

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Connected devices/equipment, virtual reality, and camera and motion technology

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jimmy Davis:

“Our logo, the two ii’s actually represent two people, which kind of showcases that we’re trying to build a community of fitness lovers.”

“Before the pandemic, the digitalization of fitness was well on its way. Like the digitalization of many industries, it’s inevitable. That’s not to say we believe that digital fitness is going to replace physical fitness.”

“We believe that we’re going to live in a world where they both complement one another, and we want to work with physical spaces to really ensure that users and gym members have a holistic way of training.”

“We are now a brand that is actually on people’s radar. Other brands come to us.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#64: What makes TikTok tick? with Oliver Yonchev, Managing Director at Social Chain

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 08:00:00 +0100

On this week episode we continue our coversation about TikTok and this time we're taking a close look at factors that have been fueling its exponential growth within just a couple years.

Today’s guest is Oliver Yonchev, Managing Director at Social Chain, which uses media, marketing, and technology to build brands. Oliver talks about what makes TikTok tick.

How does the most successful Instagram and YouTube rival make its magic?

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Social Chain: Social-first marketing services business (i.e., insights, strategy, creative)

✔️ Social Chain’s Philosophy: Help brands stay at the forefront of what’s possible

✔️ Vanity Ticks of Marketers: Trend on Twitter, go viral, and reach lots of people

✔️ Business Goals: Social Chain specializes in delivering results

✔️ Social Media Progression/Evolution: People still like the magic that is virality

✔️ Acknowledgement: Going viral and trending is not a predictable strategy

✔️ TikTok Numbers: Downloaded over 2-billion times and over 1-billion active monthly users

✔️ TikTok Users: Average user (not the crazy user) spends 52 minutes a day on the app

✔️ Demographic Data: Brands can benefit from but are slow to adopt platform and channel

✔️ Secret Sauce: Investment, user experience, unique algorithm, the current state of COVID

✔️ Myths/Memes: It’s all kids, dancing, cute pets, and short-form content with no value

✔️ Top Tips: Try it, create with no ego, be native, put people over product, be intentional

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What apps and features would Oliver miss most? Diary and email

✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology? Augmented reality

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Oliver Yonchev:

“Keeping brands at the forefront of what’s possible is really about helping unpick social media, find opportunities, and develop impactful strategies that really anchor to business goals.”

“People still like the magic that is virality. This idea that you can create something, not pay a lot of money and reach tens of millions of people, is always going to be attractive.”

“Going viral, trending is not strategy. That is a consequence of fortune, doing the right things, and having good values and great work. You can’t predict it.”

“If you have a product or a service that appeals to someone under 40 years old and they use it, and you’re not using TikTok, you’re missing out.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#63: TikTok marketing for brands: best practices with Evan Horowitz, CEO at Movers+Shakers

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 08:00:00 +0100

With more than 500,000 brands worldwide in more than 2,000 product categories, they are all competing for your attention. To meet the demand of reaching out to more people, new marketing channels take off. Once in a while, a truly remarkable channel emerges.

Today’s guest is Evan Horowitz, CEO of Movers + Shakers. Evan talks about best practices for brands to connect with audiences to win new customers using TikTok.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Mission: Spread joy, positivity, and love for brands via disruptive digital marketing

✔️ Cultural Relevance: Connecting brands to culture on the frontiers of social

✔️ TikTok Marketing: Create a brand channel to leverage highly engaging social platform

✔️ Storytelling: Every video on TikTok tells a story that has a beginning, middle, and end

✔️ Video Style: TikTok is all about authentic, low-production value to fit in

✔️ Do’s, Don’ts: Successful brands on TikTok have a unique strategy, don’t copy and paste

✔️ Is there still a generational gap for the TikTok app? Being too old is no longer an excuse

✔️ TikTok Influencers: Successful people are different, new, and come to be discovered

✔️ TikTok Ads: Not as mature as Google or Facebook, but follows same creative guidelines

✔️ Viral Challenges: New campaign format found only on the TikTok platform

✔️ Best Business Verticals: Consumer products and companies that bring creativity, value

✔️ TikTok’s Future: Building out direct eCommerce opportunities for brands

✔️ Android or iOS? Android

✔️ What apps and features would Evan miss most? News from RSS feeds

✔️ What is missing from mobile technology? Timer to keep Evan from spending too much time on TikTok

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Evan Horowitz:

“We’re a creative agency that’s all about putting positivity out into the world, connecting positive emotions back to the brands that we work with, and driving more brand love.”

“We’re really focused on connecting brands to culture on the frontiers of social.”

“The brand sets up a presence, doesn’t cost you anything, and then it’s up to you to post. I think the difference really is about the style of the video creation and the type of stories that are told.”

“The brands that are more successful on TikTok enter TikTok with a strategy that ‘s unique to TikTok. What doesn’t work is copy, pasting your Instagram strategy or even your content.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#62: How to grow your app during the pandemic with Grzegorz Garczyński, Director of Global Performance Marketing at Booksy

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 08:00:00 +0100

It's been a second year as the whole world has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, mobile app businesses are being impacted by this pandemic as well, for many app onwers it has changed their app development plans and how they market their apps.

On this episode we have Grzegorz Garczyński, Director of Global Performance Marketing at Booksy to talk about how COVID changed how people use the app, how the app changed itself and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Booksy: a duo of B2B and B2C apps - one for people to book their haircuts, tatooes, massage sessions and more, the other to let businesses manage their bookings with clients more efficiently.

✔️ Booksy customers and how COVID influenced their app use case: anybody who needs to book barbershops, tatoo saloons visits, hasn't changed much but helps them organize their visits during pandemic better.

✔️ Countries booksy is big at: US, UK, Poland, Brasil, South Africa and Spain, Mexico.

✔️ How COVID influenced the app itself: fast growth was replaced by survive mode as the pandemic hit, the app got online services.

✔️ COVID's impact on the app's marketing: persuading people to use the app was replaced by running search ads to reach people who want an app like Booksy.

✔️Do they use TikTok for marketing: not at the moment but it's on their radar for sure.

✔️Takeaways: good quality content is the key to survive tough times like now.

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What app would Jess miss most? Apple Pay and the Apple's Health app

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Grzegorz Garczyński:

“From the perspective of the customer application, it could be anyone. Whoever wants to book an appointment.”

“In each country, the restrictions are or were quite strong. Thanks to the application, the salon owners can control the flow of customers and at the same time, attract new ones.”

“Both apps grew in popularity after the lockdown.”

“People are trying to find their way to organize their businesses.”

“If we want to build an effective business, we need to be aligned with organic behaviors.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#61: How to balance a growth strategy for the short and long term with Jess Overton, Director of Demand at ironSource

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0100

When marketers run mobile advertising ad campaigns, just like with any business, or any situation in our life for that matter, they need to make short and long-term decisions.

Psychologically we’re wired towards making short-term decisions. And so it’s quite natural that some app marketers are still focused on short-term marketing channels that bring them revenue fast.

Today’s guest is Jess Overton, Director of Demand at ironSource. He talks about an optimal strategy to make your app marketing sustainable for growth, while finding balance between short- and long-term goals.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ ironSource: Where app developers tailor user acquisition for on-device channels

✔️ What’s the difference? Short-term is anything up to day 7, long-term is day 7 and beyond

✔️ App Growth Strategies: How many permutations of your LTV curve can you calculate?

✔️ Room for Improvement: Test new channels and build out a thousand curves

✔️ Predictive and Multiplier Models: Higher cost to lose a lot of unengaged users quickly

✔️ Out-of-the-Box Experience: Aura platform developed to discover new apps

✔️ App Growth Marketers: Know your user and know the use case for conversions

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Accidentally left his smartphone at home, what app would Jess miss most? The Podcast App

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Jess Overton:

“It’s really been a trip for me to see all the new tools that we’ve got and compare it to what we were doing 10 years ago. It’s just a different world.”

“How many permutations of your LTV curve can you calculate?”

“If you’re only looking at those first seven days, you’re going to think the channel is worthless because you’re just not seeing those users convert yet.”

“We need to be creative to find our way out of a one-size-fits-all strategy and really find those areas where we can adapt our regular curve to those different types of channels.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#60: The State of Mobile 2021 with Amir Ghodrati, Director, Market Insights at App Annie

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

We're in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it influenced every single area of our live, including mobile, of course. To get a bird-eye view on the mobile app ecosystem, we invited the industry standard mobile data and analyics company to talk about 2020 and 2021 in mobile.

So today we have a returning guest - Amir Ghodrati, Director - Market Insights at App Annie. Amir talks about the State of Mobile 2021 report and shares insights for five main data points that strengthen mobile’s role for engaging customers and growing your top line.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ New App Downloads: 218 billion downloads; 7% increase

✔️ App Stores Spend: $143 billion in consumer spend; 20% increase

✔️ Daily Time Spent Per User: 4.2 hours per person per day; 20% increase

✔️ Mobile App Spend: $240 billion in mobile ad spending; 26% increase

✔️ Venture Capital to Mobile Tech: $73 billion invested; 27% increase

✔️ App Discovery: Searching for something specific, such as branded terms

✔️ Keywords: Where your app ranks and which words are popular to move up

✔️ Mobile: Businesses should focus on this area to grow or stay relevant

✔️ Channels, Strategies, Markets: Where and how people are spending their time

✔️ Monetization: How much money app developers and app stores make

✔️ Generational Gap: More people over 45 years old experimenting with apps

✔️ OS 13 vs. 14: Upgrade and update to quickly gain access to new tech

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Amir Ghodrati:

“Not only are more people using mobile in general, but the time per person is also going up, which is how you get such big growth.”

“This is kind of the perfect time for user acquisition. People are on the hunt for new apps.”

“From the publisher’s side, even having your app on a device is a very big win because you can start doing push notifications and other types of re-engagement campaigns.”

“For the vast majority of businesses, mobile should be your main area of focus, if you’re looking for ways to grow or stay relevant.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#59: App localization best practices with Victoria Chang, International Growth Lead at Flowkey

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Growing the app's user base is what on an app marketer's mind from Monday till Friday and possibly on weekends as well. Going international is one of the ways to expand an app's user base.

Today’s guest is Victoria Chen, International Growth Lead at Flowkey, a piano learning app for beginners, returners, and advanced players. Victoria is sharing her experience of the app's localization and helping you to avoid possible mistakes you may make, having zero experience with it.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Global Landscape and Growth Marketing: Internationalization tackles local issues

✔️ Flowkey: Professional pianists create and produce in-house arrangements for all abilities

✔️ Popular Songs: Learn to play the songs you know and love (i.e., Piano Man, Swan Lake)

✔️ Benefits: App brands should go to other markets to get more users and revenue

✔️ Is it worth it? Depends on total effort, research, cost, and if the app is translatable

✔️ Market Criteria: Potential profit, market size, and purchasing power

✔️ Mental Health Market: Keep yourself mentally healthy, even if you have to pay for it

✔️ Localize App: Make product usable/available, launch it, develop authentic improvements

✔️ Regional Manager: Translate apps using someone familiar with culture, native language

✔️ Key Takeaways: As you build a localization strategy, start with a plan and local insights

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s)? Wolt

✔️ What technology would Victoria find useful in daily life? Augmented reality

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Victoria Chen:

“Going to another market directly means getting more users and having more revenue.”

“In terms of purchasing power, I will usually suggest people to go a bit deeper—not only how much people are spending, but what they are spending it on?”

“If you are a business, you have to also look at what type of category people are willing to pay for it or invest in it.”

“People know that they should pay for education for learning languages, learning instruments, but it’s still quite a new concept that people should invest in their own mental health.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#58: Unconventional ASO: custom campaigns with Binh Dang, Senior Organic App Growth Manager at Idealo

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

How do people discover mobile apps these days? Via a built-in search on the App Store and Google Play, about 65% of app downloads are powered by search. The other route - online ads in your Instagram feed, on YouTube, on TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Readit and on and on.

How do app marketers take advantage of search as an app marketing channel? Right - they do the App Store Optimization (aka ASO). But do you wonder if you're doing everything what is possible to do with ASO?

Today’s guest is Binh Dang, Senior Organic App Growth Manager at Idealo will answer that question for you. Binh talks about his ASO custom campaigns concept. Find out what you’re missing!

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ App Growth Marketing: Binh’s two favorite things—games and marketing

✔️ Idealo: Leading price comparison online shopping platform in Germany

✔️ Idealo’s Mission: Save money and buy stuff without causing damage to the environment

✔️ Standard ASO Steps: One-way road or repetitive loop processes for app store assets

✔️ Pros/Cons: Efficient system, a scientific testing method for improvements; diminishes ROI

✔️ Specific Purpose: ASO custom campaigns are short-term, story-driven sprint of activities

✔️ ASO Campaigns: Product marketing, seasonal promotion, brand communications, and extracurricular activities

✔️ Mistakes: Bad timing, confusing communication, and radical application of new method

✔️ Key Takeaways:

Talk to your peers across channels and departments
Use different processes in different contexts
Create campaign timeline and plan in advance Android or iOS? Partial to iOS, but prefers to be Android

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s)? Google Calendar

✔️ What technology would Binh find useful for everyday life? More wearable devices

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Binh Dang:

“We help millions of users, mainly inside of Europe, make smarter shopping decisions. We will continue to reach out to more to advocate a more affordable and also sustainable lifestyle.”

“A customized ASO campaign can be seen as a short-term, story-driven sprint of ASO activities.”

“I have to be flexible enough with my ASO activities to serve multiple different purposes. So, when a new opportunity arises, I can capture it.”

“I have at least four major types of campaigns. They basically serve four different purposes, and they answer four different types of strategic questions that users may ask.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#57: Higher purpose campaigns to grow your app with Luca Stefanutti, Head of Product Marketing at Runtastic

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Fact - people are tired of ads, especially on mobile. Because of such a variety of options they're bombarded in their Instagram / Facebook feeds, inside apps, on websites and of course on YouTube and Google, it is hard to expect a level of engagement app brands need from them to increase their sales.

There is a way to solve this problem and achieve a high level of engagement - launch a higher purpose campaign to let people do something for their environment, local community, something that will make them feel good and, at the same time, help an app brand to achieve its marketing objectives.

Today’s guest is Luca Stefanutti, Head of Product Marketing at Runtastic. He leads the Running Growth squad with the goal of growing the Adidas Running app. Luca’s job is to connect product and marketing to give users the best value proposition in the health and fitness category.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Runtastic: Opportunity to feel and see results with support every step of the way

✔️ Two Apps, One World: adidas Running and adidas Training

✔️ Higher Purpose Ad Campaign: App marketing tool to change the world by taking action

✔️ Success Story Strategy: Build a bridge between inspirational goal and any app

✔️ User- vs. Customer-Centric: Understand your audience and what they care about

✔️ App KPIs: Connect with users, leverage mechanics, and measure success metrics

✔️ Android or iOS? Android

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s)? Vivino

✔️ What technology would Luca find useful? eCommerce and privacy campaigns

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Luca Stefanutti:

“We are not so little, it’s simply because we have more than 370-million of downloads across the world, and we have more than 168-million registered users. We are quite famous.”

“It will really give you the possibility to create something more, something beyond the simple usage of a product.”

“It’s not about buying a product or service, it’s really about changing the world by doing an action.”

“The first thing that you always consider is your user.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#56: Product led app growth with Tanya Sharma, Product Marketing & Strategy at Babbel

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Mobile app growth and how to achieve it are in the center of any well-thought app marketing strategy. You may power your app growth with paid marketing or the product itself may lead its growth.

Every app has a diverse audience, some people find the app extremely useful and use it enthusiastically. Others are less engaging, and then there are those who download apps but hardly if ever, use them. Do you have an emotional relationship with specific apps? It’s okay. Most users do to feel connected.

Today’s guest is Tanya Sharma from Babbel, a digital language learning product. Tanya talks about product marketing and user acquisition to grow a database of app core users.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Connecting the Dots: Tanya’s path as a consultant to app marketing to acquire users

✔️ Product Managing Marketing: Balance different channels to acquire different users

✔️ Growth Marketing Principles: Follow the lean startup method—build, measure, learn

✔️ App User Acquisition: Native or paid ads? Build sustainable scheme to power UI

✔️ Channel vs. User Acquisition Strategy: Awareness, conversion/direct response, retention

✔️ Product Life Growth Guard: Quality of users acquired, not cost to acquire users

✔️ Marketer’s Best Friends: Pay attention to loyal users to increase conversion rates

✔️ Referral Concept: Understand logic and motivation for users to recommend products

✔️ Key Takeaways: Leverage core user base by tracking and rewarding repetitive behaviors

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s) today? KptnCook

✔️ What iPhone/iPad technology would Tanya find useful? Gesture controls, multitasking

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Tanya Sharma:

“What got me really excited to move into product marketing and especially user acquisition was the idea of being in the intersection of being creative, having insights, analytics, and the business knowledge needed to actually bring the kind of users that use your product.”

“Measure is important because no growth marketer can exist without knowing success metrics.”

“What makes these loyal users so special is that they’re advocates of your product. They go out there, talk about your product, and bring you free new users.”

“Leveraging your core audience to expand your user base is the fastest and the cheapest way to grow and scale your product.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#55: App users retention with out-of-the-box thinking with Catherine Bostian, Senior CRM Tech Manager at Delivery Hero

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

On this episode we're talking about app users retention - one of the hardest nut to crack for any app marketer. The method to crack this nut we're suggesting is out-of-the-box thinking.

Sink or think? When you’re trying to solve a problem, no matter how hard you try, it can all be in vain. That’s when it’s time to think out of the box by being a lifelong learner.

Today’s guest is Catherine Bostian, Senior CRM Tech Manager at Delivery Hero. Catherine talks about how to apply out-of-the-box thinking to app user retention.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Growth Marketing Career: Strategic and technical backgrounds to understand customers

✔️ Growth Marketing Levers: Power of code and communication for data-driven mindset

✔️ What Delivery Hero does? Online food ordering and delivery markets in a lot of places

✔️ Business Values: Delivering solutions, aiming higher, and caring about customers

✔️ Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Figurative box with walls made of categorical assumptions

✔️ In-the-Box Troublemakers: Common wisdom, soapbox speakers, and false assumptions

✔️ False Consensus: How humans overestimate how someone else will react to something

✔️ App User Retention Strategy:

Approach customer problems as opportunities to identify assumptions
Identify insights and elements, such as content
Test new and better ways of what you are doing to customers

✔️ Key Takeaways:

World views, marketing approach are subconsciously colored by assumptions
Be empowered to question and test assumptions to improve users’ experience
Not a one-and-done process, but a continual evolution of learning

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s) today? Down Dog

✔️ What app technology would Catherine find useful personally? Augmented reality

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Catherine Bostian:

“I kind of picture it being stuck inside a figurative box where the walls are made up of assumptions and a world view that we spent a lifetime developing.”

“Out-of-the-box thinking has to be this explosive process where we come to understand what those assumptions and worldviews are, and then we can begin to break free of them by asking questions and testing as part of an iterative process.”

False Consensus Effect: Describes how we as humans overestimate how likely someone else is to react based on how we ourselves would react to something.

“Our worldview and therefore our strategy or approach to marketing is often subcounsciously colored by our assumptions. That doesn’t make us powerless, but rather that empowers us to question and test those assumptions to improve users’ experience of our product and also, hopefully in the end, their lives. Lastly, it’s not a one-and-done process, but rather a continual evolution of learning. Go forth and think outside the box.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#54: App Store vs. Google Play marketing with Christinne Cuyugan, Growth Marketing at Drops

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Today mobile app marketers are in a constant battle to connect apps with as many users as possible and their battle field are the Apple's App Store and Google Play store.

After years of fierce competition, both Apple and Google have won the app war. Apple got the premium part of the market by delivering high-quality apps, but Google successfully scaled to reach a much broader market segment.

Today’s guest is Christinne Cuyugan, Growth Marketing Lead at Drops, a learning language app. If you want to learn a language, it only takes five minutes a day. At Drops, Christinne focuses on strategizing growth opportunities for the app and app store marketing. She talks about how app marketing is different in the Apple App Store compared to Google Play.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Christinne’s Career Growth: Customer support specialist to user acquisition position

✔️ App Marketing Psychology: How colors, tactics impact user behavior to perceive brands

✔️ Drops: Focuses on building language essentials, such as vocabulary, into a habit

✔️ What are the similarities and differences between Apple and Google app stores?

✔️ Four Elements: Great screenshots, preview video, keyword strategy, and 4-star rating

✔️ Partnership: Focus on product/app to deliver Apple’s high standards for user experience

✔️ Evergreen Techniques: Screenshots capture app and testing gains trust

✔️ Mistakes: Apps fail, so prioritize acquisition and monetization for sustainable growth

✔️ Christinne’s Wishful Thinking:

Wants Apple to allow casting and downloads per keyword
Wants Google to be transparent with reporting and rankings

✔️ Other App Stores: Amazon and Chinese must haves

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite mobile app(s) today? Drops and Too Good To Go

✔️ What app technology would Christinne find useful in daily life? Augmented Reality (AR)

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Christinne Cuyugan:

“Drops is a language learning app, whose main mission is to make language learning awesome and fun and beautiful.”

“You definitely need four things to make your app shine in both stores.”

“The first one or two screenshots definitely need to capture your app in the best way possible. It needs to be attractive enough for users to give your app the chance.”

“Even if your brand isn’t known, but the app is trusted and also you see what you would get out of it, I think that a lot of users would give it a chance.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#53: ASO & Paid UA duo: best practices with Arthur Kolayan, VP, Sales & Partnerships at Jellyfish

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ask a professional app marketer "what is in your marketing toolbox?" and he'll tell you - App Store Optimization, Paid User Acquisition, Influencer Marketing, PR, podcasts, TV and radio.

Now, you can split all that app marketing techniques into two buckets: Organic and Paid. Organic relies on distribution channels that you don’t spend your money on. With paid, you do. It’s that simple. As an app marketer, should you go with organic, paid, or both?

Today’s guest is Arthur Kolajan, VP of Sales and Partnerships at Jellyfish. Arthur talks about how to make the difficult choice between organic or paid app marketing.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ How Arthur got involved in app marketing: Recruiter, new role, and recommendations

✔️ Why is it called Jellyfish? True story—founders wanted something without ‘digital’

✔️ Organic App Marketing: Strategy and optimization needed to be successful

✔️ Paid App Marketing: Facebook, Instagram, and other channels for brand awareness

✔️ App Lifecycle: Conceptualizing, funding, developing, and marketing

✔️ Overnight success? Launching app without strategy requires marketing and money

✔️ When to launch: Anytime is the right time for marketing an app

✔️ App Visibility: Simple to find, download, generate profit; complex with number of apps

✔️ App Stores: Reasons why they exist to make informed decisions

✔️ Apple Search vs. Google Ads: Two biggest paid app platforms and marketing potential

✔️ App Ad Campaigns:

- Optimize relevant metadata for high conversion and high visibility
- Make keywords effective and creative by testing banners, copy, and users
- Track data points (Conversion, cost, consistent organic/paid communication)

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What is Arthur’s favorite mobile app(s) today? Multiplayer gaming apps

✔️ What’s Arthur’s wanting with app technologies? Social audio

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Arthur Kolajan:

“The reality is that for organic to actually work, you need to have a strategy in place.”

“It’s some additional PR, but it’s more about app store optimization. It’s more about search engine optimization for your Website. It’s about creating this viral to loop some referral campaigns.”

“The right timing is actually any timing because when you launch, you want to support your launch with the proper strategy. When you grow, you don’t want to lose to small competitors.”

“If they stop marketing, they will die. ”

“You need to go where there’s less competition, and then you will be found. The reality is that less competition means less data. So, you actually are more likely to be found if you go into a competitive category because there will be more data about what people search for.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#52: Finance for App UA managers with Martin Macmillan, CEO and Founder at Pollen VC

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 07:00:00 +0000

A mobile app user acquisition funding is a crucial process every app business owner should know well to succeed. Too often it's being neglected and it leads to an app project failure. In this episode we want to fill the gap for app developers and brands and talk about an app projects funding.

Today’s guest is Martin Macmillan, CEO and co-founder of Pollen VC—a financing model for mobile apps and game publishers to unlock unpaid revenues and eliminate payout delays up to 60+ days. How? By connecting to their app store and ad network platforms.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ App Business Funding: Solving app developer problems, payments

✔️ Use old financial services knowledge and new knowledge as app developer

✔️ Company Portrait: Digitally verify sold or displayed but unpaid receivables every day

✔️ Borrowing Base: Pull IP or ad network revenues and borrow up to 95%

✔️ Misunderstandings: User acquisition and financial staff need to speak same language

✔️ Key Metrics: Calculate user acquisition machine as an investment equation

✔️ Capital Stack: Start with cheapest, next most expensive, stop when it doesn’t make sense

✔️ Economic Laws: Demand-and-supply curve for UI for a mobile app

✔️ Public or Private: As companies get bigger, budget process gets harder

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ What is Martin’s favorite mobile app today? Vivino

✔️ What’s Martin wanting with technologies? Longer battery life and a bigger keyboard

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Martin Macmillan:

“Most developers and publishers that we’re working with, they just want to know what is available, how much can I draw, and when can I get it?”

“The user acquisition is nothing more than an investment equation. How much money do you invest? When do you break even on the money? When do you get your return on your money?”

“A lot of people didn’t really realize whether their UA was likely to be ROI-positive or not.”

“Be very focused on profitability, as opposed to a source of capital or anything else. You want to be able to do everything that’s going to keep you driving towards maximizing your return.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#51: How to win Gen Z on mobile with Lexi Sydow, Senior Market Insights Manager at App Annie

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 07:00:00 +0000

How old were you when you got your first smartphone? These days, 98% of the Generation Z demographic have a smartphone and owned their first one by the age of 10. Why? Apps.

Today’s guest is Lexi Sydow, Senior Market Insights Manager at App Annie. Lexi talks about how to build a winning Gen Z mobile marketing strategy. If you were born in the mid-to-late 1990s to early 2010s, then you’re part of Gen Z.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Why should app marketers consider different generations? Priorities and psychology

✔️ Gen Z Stats: Average user base doubled faster and engages 20% more frequently

✔️ Mobile Device Delight: App marketers offer personal, timely, and relevant communication

✔️ Why attract Gen Z? Formative years establish brand preferences and earn loyalty

✔️ Daily Active Users: KPI metric measured anytime app is opened during defined period

✔️ What app categories are most popular with Gen Z? Comics, social, and games

✔️ Time vs. Money: Gen Z spent time playing games, but interest grew in finance, shopping

✔️ TikTok and Snapchat: Gen Z marketing strategy should focus first on videos and images

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Lexi Sydow:

“Gen Z is the only generation to grow up with a smartphone in their hands.”

“Every engagement of every session is an opportunity to delight a consumer.”

“Mobile offers a really great way to garner brand awareness and trust.”

“It’s all about tapping into this market in an authentic way that resonates with them, especially as they’re forming these habits and continuing to grow in their influence.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#50: How to effectively retarget for e-commerce with Thomas Yannopoulos, Director of Sales at REMERGE

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:00:00 +0000

How do app marketers engage consumers and keep them using their apps? This is not a trivial question. For the last several years, one of the top problems marketers had with their apps was a User Churn. The numbers are staggering - around 30% of users used an app within the first day since they had downloaded it and only about 10% or less within the next 30 days.

But don’t lose sleep over app retention and engagement questions. Today’s guest is Tommy Yannopoulos, Director of Sales at Remerge. Tommy talks about the economics of mobile app retargeting to re-engage consumers.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Mobile Marketing Industry: Valuable learning experience getting acquired by competitors

✔️ Retarget: Engage consumers when they are not on your property to complete an action

✔️ Performance Marketing: Math equation that everyone is trying to crack and scale

✔️ User Acquisition: Communicate consistently with consumers

✔️ App Ecosystem: Losing consumers is part of the game; reduce churn to relate to brand

✔️ Audience Segments: First-time and previous purchases present different behaviors

✔️ eCommerce App Mistakes:

Lack of personalization
Lack of focus on seamless consumer experience
Use of poorly developed creatives not compelling to consumers
Challenge of measuring efficacy and incrementality of campaigns

✔️ Privacy Updates/Delays: Consumers have rights, companies obligated to follow them

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite App(s): AllModern from Wayfair

✔️ What’s Tommy looking forward to with app technology in the future? 5G, Apple’s innovation

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Tommy Yannopoulos:

“User acquisition, that’s my biggest argument for why you should retarget. If it’s economically in the green for you, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t do it.”

“You should retarget because you want to talk to your consumers on a consistent basis.”

“It’s important for businesses to stay engaged with their consumers because as we know, especially in the app ecosystem, losing consumers is part of the game.”

“The Holy Grail of retargeting, in general, is personalization.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#49: What app publishers need to know about data today with Lior Barak, Co-Founder at Tale About Data

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 07:00:00 +0000

App data - how much does this notion actually tell you? It's been one of the most popular catch phrases but it seems its popularity doesn't really match its comprehension.

For the past 12 years, Apple has been establishing a huge mobile ecosystem with millions of developers building apps for iOS. What allows all those developers to build successful app businesses? Data for their app’s performance on the market.

Today’s guest is Lior Barak, author of Data is Like a Plate of Hummus and podcast host of WHAT The Data?! Lior talks about what app publishers need to know about data, today. Data runs the world and drives decisions.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Lior’s Book: Data is Like a Plate of Hummus (a tasty dish that you can enjoy)

✔️ Data strategies should consist of five ingredients to collecting and storing data

✔️ WHAT The Data?! Lior’s podcast covers various topics—from fake AI to privacy

✔️ Fate of iOS 14?

✔️ Happy that Apple’s taking initiative, not being forced to do so

✔️ Disappointed by industry’s reaction to Apple’s privacy update

✔️ Data for App Publishers: Serve the user; user does not serve them

✔️ ROI: Focus on features, not revenues

✔️ KPIs: One size does not fit all or always scale; depend on needs, business, and growth

✔️ Analyze and Optimize: Fix mistakes made collecting data by understanding users

✔️ Android or iOS? Android

✔️ Favorite App(s): Vivino wine app

✔️ What’s Lior looking forward to with app technology in the future? Holograms

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Lior Barak:

“Be a little more relaxed when using data. This is our biggest problem as we go forward in this industry.”

“Data is Like a Plate of Hummus—a tasty dish that you can eat and that you can enjoy.”

“We have so much data out there that is collected and stored, but the reality is, we can’t make sense of all of it.”

“With using data, with understanding your user, you will be able to actually give them a much better product, much better features, instead of focusing on your revenues.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#48: Combatting mobile ad fraud in COVID-19 era with Luke Taylor, COO and Founder at TrafficGuard

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Mobile ad fraud has been a dark shadow on the entire mobile advertising industry for a number of year by now. It's been growing fast - fraudsters keep inventing more sophisticated ways to steal, fraud detection and prevention companies do their best to keep up and being able to detect new kids of fraud and help brands to minimize its impact on their bottom line.

It is the ongoing battle.

One would hope that COVID pandemic would slow mobile fraudsters down and that would be really naive take on that. It is quite contrary.

Today’s guest is Luke Taylor, COO and founder of TrafficGuard. Luke talks about the current state of affairs for mobile advertising fraud during COVID-19.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ TrafficGuard: Full funnel ad verification and fraud prevention solution

✔️ Mobile Fraud Before COVID (BC): Reality ever since advertising started

✔️ Wasting Money? Measure what you want and what you should pay

✔️ Traffic and Trivial Changes: Audiences, behaviors, data, and privacy concerns

✔️ Buyer Beware: When looking for a bargain, fraudsters never sleep or stop

✔️ Transparency: What does fraud look like? Look after yourself, data, and ad spend

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite App(s): 1Password

✔️ What’s Luke looking forward to with app technology in the future? On-device ML

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Luke Taylor:

“Fraud has been happening in mobile space, ever since advertising was running.”

“Fraud is everywhere. It’s even hard for the premium sources to keep it at bay.”

“People have been forced to tighten budgets. Unfortunately, that means that many advertisers are chasing cheaper traffic.”

“Anywhere that there’s money, there’s going to be some aspect of fraudulent activity.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#47: App growth in 2020: Stitcher with Julie Booth, Growth Marketing Manager at Stitcher

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Do you listen podcasts? Since they emerged as a new medium on iTunes in early 2000, they’ve grown to a huge source of information for people about pretty much anything you can think of.

Last year alone, 90 million people in the United States listened to podcasts at least once a month. They spend hours listening to hosts that they trust talk about all kinds of topics.

Today’s guest is Julie Booth, Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Stitcher. Julie shares how Stitcher has become one of the leading podcast platforms and apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Favorite Podcasts: Everchanging list includes You’re Wrong About and reality TV recaps

✔️ How do people choose podcast apps? Depends on content, curiosity, and features

✔️ Product Design Challenges: People don’t always know what they want or will use

✔️ Stitcher Difference: Advanced features for customization and control specific to podcasts

✔️ Free to use Forever: Stitcher provides podcast listeners with a great listening experience

✔️ Geographical Anomalies: Average Stitcher user is older, affluent, and educated

✔️ COVID: App usage adapted from listening during commute, not at all, to remote routine

✔️ User Acquisition: Podcasting is still a niche entertainment medium and faces competition

✔️ User Acquisition Channels/Universal App Campaigns: Google, influencers, partnerships

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite App(s): Facebook Messenger

✔️ What’s Julie looking forward to with app technology in the future? iOS 14 widgets, personal vs. professional privacy

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Julie Booth:

“For the podcast app, we find a lot of people say they want a feature, but then never use that feature.”

“A podcasting app is really the frame, it’s not the picture.”

“We provide a lot of control to users that other apps don’t.”

“Getting people into podcasting is what I focus on the most...it’s really hard to get someone to switch apps once they’ve started.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#46: Transparency and mobile performance with Jordi de los Pinos, Co-founder and CEO at SMADEX

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

It’s undeniable - when it comes to mobile advertising, performance - is what you’re looking from your online advertising partner first and foremost. Nobody would argue with that.

But then comes the second extremely important component - transparency. For an advertiser of any size - big brands especially - it’s crucial to know what channels are being used to drive traffic to their product of service. Is their brand safe with those channels?

Today’s guest is Jordi de Los Pinos, co-founder and CEO at Smadex. Jordi provides complete transparency on Demand Side Platform (DSP) performance.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Jordi’s Journey: Switch from engineering hardware to mobile app advertising

✔️ Programmatic Advertising: Real-time bidding via signal processing and machine learning

✔️ Smadex: Mobile programmatic advertising platform that places ads for user acquisition

✔️ Performance and Transparency: What Smadex strives to give its marketing clients

✔️ DSP: Difference between Digital Signal Processor and Demand Side Platform

✔️ DSP Benefits: Smart technology makes money, quick decisions in real-time auctions

✔️ Privacy and Advertising: Upcoming options and concerns for targeting individuals

✔️ COVID Impact: Mobile advertising scalability and acceleration of digital transformation

✔️ Biggest Problem: Attribution—give merit to partner/company by analyzing metrics

✔️ Android or iOS?: Android

✔️ Favorite App(s): Play Chess

✔️ What’s Jordi looking forward to with app technology in the future? 5G

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Jordi de los Pinos:

“As humans, we always want what we don’t have.”

“We help app marketers to get people to download their app into their phone.”

“They make the advertiser money.”

“What we strive to achieve for our clients, in general, is to give them two things that I believe are key on what any marketer would want—performance and transparency.”

“Choose an ad for the right person at the right time.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#45: Paid Social Campaigns with Hannah Parvaz, Head of Growth at Curio

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 07:18:00 +0000

Paid social campaigns are what our today's guest app marketer Hannah Parvaz is well known and praised for. Over the years, she was multiple time in charge of an app growth from a pre-launch to millions of users.

App marketers need to connect app with users to grow and sustain a successful app business. First comes search, followed by paid acquisition and social campaigns to drive installs for apps.

Today Hannah Parvaz is Head of Growth at Curio, an audio platform featuring a curated library of expertly narrated journalism.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Audio vs. Text: Audio is better medium for learning, understanding, and connecting

✔️ Authentic Speech Narration: Stories are narrated by people, rather than robots

✔️ Curio’s Competition? Apple News+ is simply another option with a different focus

✔️ Product, Users, Experiments: How to prepare, launch, and run social media campaigns

✔️ Social Campaign Copy: Optimize app store listing and obtain high comprehension score

✔️ Mistakes: Too much text in images, not trying/testing platforms, and narrowing audience

✔️ Creatives: Everything requires teamwork in a startup, one can’t run everything well

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite App(s): Freetrade and Letterboxd

✔️ What’s Hannah looking forward to with app technology in the future? iOS 14 widgets

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Hannah Parvaz:

“Because we’re curating everything, we know that everything is packed with insight. We only pick pieces we think will be evergreen, so they can have a long shelf life.”

“Audio is a better medium for learning. Our main goal is really to just help everyone understand the world better so that people can really connect with each other.”

“We’re more focused on journalism and storytelling. We’re not really about the fast news cycle.”

“Everything requires teamwork in a startup, unless you’re somehow like a very talented magician. You can’t really run everything by yourself well.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#44: Dating apps growth in 2020 with Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

An app growth is always on the radar of every app developer or a brand. Eavesdrop any app marketing team brainstorming session and you'll hear them avidly discussing how to gain more loyal app users and what user acquisition channels to focus on.

Now, dating apps have a special place in the app industry and in our lives. No matter where you live, your age, or your gender, you probably use mobile apps to connect with others and dating apps is surely one way of doing that.

Today’s guest is Geoffrey Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. Meeting other people to socialize or date is simply part of human nature. The Meet Group is the largest provider of live streaming dating apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Five Dating Apps: MeetMe, SKOUT, Tagged, LOVOO, and GROWLr

✔️ Dating Community: 15 million monthly users mostly in United States and Europe

✔️ Live Streaming Solution: Monetizes via users giving each other virtual gifts

✔️ COVID Impact: Created significant increase in dating game usage in past five months

✔️ Management Tools: Shift to remote work using Zoom, Slack, and more for productivity

✔️ Marketing Channels: Singling out pricing power to acquire new users for growth strategy

✔️ Types of Content: Create user-generated content in form of chats and messages

✔️ Live Streaming: Consumption and production offers connection during social distancing

✔️ Videos: More efficient, more information available, and less risk swiping left or right

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite App(s): Medium

✔️ What’s Geoffrey looking forward to with app technology in the future? Authenticity and AI

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Geoffrey Cook:

“The way we think of ourselves is really as the mobile version of the bar, the coffeehouse, this social gathering place.”

“What we’ve been doing that’s fairly unique is adding live streaming video to dating since 2016. And lately, we’ve been aiming to make everyone the star of their own dating show.”

“We, essentially, use all the same tools we used before the pandemic. We just use them more given that there is no in-person contact.”

“Marketing is always a challenge. Year over year, we’re seeing rates (cost per registrations) go up as it costs more to acquire users.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#43: App Subscriptions with David Barnard, Developer Advocate at RevenueCat

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

App Subscriptions - right now they feel so familiar and omnipresent.

Need some examples?

Do you watch movies on Netflix? Listen to music on Spotify? Get things delivered by Amazon Prime? Many app developers have gone to the subscription model to make money.

Today’s guest is David Barnard, Developer Advocate at RevenueCat. He talks about the pros and cons of app subscriptions. Spoiler alert - it’s not all roses and rainbows.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Development Background: Building apps from the beginning of Apple's iPhone SDK

✔️ Role at RevenueCat: Solve problems and make it a better product to monetize apps

✔️ App Subscription Pros: Customer and advocate uses RevenueCat to make money

✔️ App Subscription Cons: Bugs and code challenges create headaches and disasters

✔️ David’s App Business: RevenueCat, Launch Center Pro, and Weather Up

✔️ RevenueCat’s Mission: Help developers make more money

✔️ Why RevenueCat? Basic and broad platform without complexity for subscription apps

✔️ App Testing: RevenueCat’s new price testing feature sets best price to generate revenue ✔️ COVID: Accelerated RevenueCat’s business by working remotely before lockdowns

✔️ Money in the Bank: Series A funding provides additional revenue, growth, and flexibility

✔️ Free, Paid, or Freemium? App subscriptions experience slow progression on app stores

✔️ App Subscriptions: Keep consumers in mind to use app consistently and deliver value

✔️ Product Roadmap: Focus on retention, price optimization, and planning process

✔️ What’s David looking forward to with app technology in the future? Widgets on homescreen and iOS 14 release for privacy focused user acquisition

Links and Resources:

Quotes by David Barnard:

“If you’re adding subscriptions to your app, you need all this infrastructure.”

“We charge our users because we provide a really great service that actually helps them make more money.”

“You’ve really got to match the value you are delivering to users.”

“Subscriptions are incredibly difficult to implement and get right.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#42: App User Acquisition with Influencers with Federico Llano, Co-Founder TATAM Digital

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Do you know who are Influencers? Do you know that app user acquisition with Influencers is one of the app marketing techniques that help brands to connect their apps with tens of thousands of users?

Ok. Let's start with Influencers.

Influencers are movie, music celebrities or regular down-to-earth folks like you and me, who acquired vast amounts of devoted followers on social media around common interests they are passionate about. Popular influencers with millions of followers are often involved with various product endorsements, including mobile apps.

To make these product endorsements efficient and help app brands to achieve their specific goals, influencer marketing agencies stepped up.

Today’s guest is Federico Llano, co-founder of TATAM Digital. He talks about how influencer marketing works for mobile apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Entrepreneur or Influencer? Federico’s sales and marketing background as a gamer

✔️ What is influencer marketing? Consistently eyeing influencers into marketing mix

✔️ Who is an influencer? Someone with reach and influence on a certain audience

✔️ Do’s and Don’ts: What’s right and wrong with influencer marketing?

✔️ TATEM: Created to take a different approach to influencer marketing in the corporate world

✔️ Leverage Language: Connect with and talk on the same level when approaching brands

✔️ Influence Power: Equals ability to drive sales in the real world, not engagement rates

✔️ KPIs: Measure and optimize influencer performance to compare ROI

✔️ Mistakes Made: Not committing adequate time and patience to learn

✔️ Dealing with Influencers: Negotiate to price and meet deadlines

✔️ Best Fit Categories: Recurring revenue and subscription model for influencer marketing

✔️ Best Assets of Influencers: Curators of products, caring storytellers, believers in benefits

Links and Resources:

Federico Llano’s Email:
TATAM Digital

Quotes by Federico Llano:

“Influencer marketing is consistently eyeing influencers into your marketing mix.”

“We consider an influencer, someone that has both the reach and the influence on a certain audience. They are digital natives and they are actual content creators...not just a pretty face.”

Influence Power: Equals ability to drive sales in the real world, not engagement rates.

Elephant in the Room: Marketers invest $9 billion in influencer marketing, but 90% is not measured or understood.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#41: App promotion with Reddit with Ashleigh Rankin, Senior Manager, Growth Partnerships at Reddit

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 08:00:00 +0100

App marketing is not a sprint, but a marathon. You are on a constant quest to find new channels to reach your app users. Most of us know about Facebook, Google, and Apple ads, but what do you know about app promotion with Reddit?

Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website and mobile app. Launched in 2005, it has evolved into the biggest online "public square" to discussion a great number of topics, as of 2019 used by 430 million people on a monthly basis.

Today’s guest is Ashleigh Rankin, senior manager of growth partnerships at Reddit. Ashleigh shares best practices for marketing apps on Reddit.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Reddit Company: Network of more than 130,000 communities based on interests

✔️ Reddit’s Mission: Bring community and belonging to the world

✔️ Reddit’s Rules/Policies: Moderation keeps the platform clean, and safe for brands, and people

✔️ Reddit’s Robust System: Human judgment, nearly no AI involvement

✔️ Reddit Ads: Now with postgres, app marketers can drive app sales and installs

✔️ Native Ads: Brand participation adds value and resonates with specific Reddit users

✔️ Reddit Insights: Two-way communication channel for honest and targeted feedback

✔️ App Categories: Gaming and tech recruiting produce better outcomes/more installs

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Ashleigh Rankin:

“People come to engage with content that they are passionate about.”

Reddit’s Mission: Bring community and belonging to the world.

“One of the really beautiful things about Reddit is that if you run...an interest-targeted campaign, you can find audiences that you didn’t necessarily know you had.”

“It’s just really important to test and learn and then hone in on what does work and optimize towards that.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#40: App Success in 2020 with Darius Mora CMO at Reflectly

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Question to you - as an app marketer - how do you deal with stress and anxiety in everyday life to set yourself up for success? Listen to music, read a book, open a favorite app or journal your thoughts and problems?

Today’s guest is Darius Mora, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Reflectly, the world’s first and most popular intelligent journal app that utilizes AI. This year the app witnesses a significant growth in demand and we want to discuss how the mix of a great product and effective marketing channels allows the app grow happens that rapidly.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Reflectly App: Concept and competition

✔️ Mental Fitness/Wellness: Growing demand to acquire users, talent, and fresh ideas

✔️ Relax with Reflectly: Be mindful or meditate to reduce stress

✔️ Reflectly: Effective marketing made easy due to amazing engineering of product

✔️ Innovation: Reflectly won Google’s Material Design Award in 2019

✔️ Copyable Channels: No unexpected or other options that perform less successfully

✔️ Social Media Apps: Creates different levels of stress to be authentic or ashamed

✔️ Benefits of Journaling: Gain perspective, be grateful, and achieve better state of mind

✔️ Android or iOS? iOS

✔️ Favorite app(s): Wim Hof Method

✔️ What’s Darius looking forward to with app technology in the future? A/R

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Darius Mora:

“A lot of people will use journaling, which is an active way to be mindful. Meditation is a more passive way.”

“I haven’t seen any case where the marketing channel was the competitive advantage.”

“Even if your life is interesting, if you go on Instagram, you’ll feel like crap about yourself.”

“The human brain was not developed to be able to deal with so many inputs and all the attention-grabbing things jumping at us every single day.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#39: App retention: best practices with Anja Obermüller, Head of Product Marketing, Runtastic

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 09:00:00 +0100

App retention has been one of the most heated app marketing topics.

Let's put it this way. What would you say if people buy your masterpiece but only to get through a few pages or the first chapter and never open it again? It not only happens with books, but mobile apps. Ask any app marketer with a decent experience and she or he would sigh and nod.

Today’s guest is Anja Obermüller, Head of Product Marketing at Runtastic, where adidas’s running and training apps help runners live a happy and healthy life. Anja shares best practices for app retention.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Lifestyle Routine: Different apps serve different purposes

✔️ Sneak Peak: What level of retention should be expected from your app?

✔️ Sneaker Hack: Anja’s better with numbers than words

✔️ Name Change: Runtastic Running and Results to adidas Running and Training

✔️ Runtastic is Fantastic: More than 300 million downloads and 270 employees worldwide

✔️ Incline, Don’t Decline: Identify natural product usage interval (daily, weekly, etc.)

✔️ Dig into Data: Realize retention problem, not optimize what you want

✔️ Biggest Mistakes: Don’t put monetization over retention or rely on benchmarks

✔️ Push Notification vs. Proxy Metric: Create a behavior of wanting to return to app

✔️ Preventive Measures: Continue to grow and change through retention optimization

Links and Resources:

Anja Obermüller on LinkedIn

adidas Running and Training Apps by Runtastic

Quotes by Anja Obermüller:

“I’m way better with numbers than with text. I’m a total fan of impact estimations, forecasts—everything that’s related to numbers.”

“Before even getting started with retention rate optimization is identifying your product usage interval.”

“It’s really important to figure out where your retention problem really is and not just optimizing for what you have.”

“One of the biggest mistakes is to put monetization over retention...engagement builds the foundation of monetization.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#38: User Acquisition with Christian Eckhardt, CEO and Co-Founder at Customlytics

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Conversations between app marketers often focus on user acquisition (UA) and if you happen to be listening to savvy app marketers, you may listen them discussing a conundrum - when it comes to a particular app marketing, turns out there’s either not enough or too many choices to acquire mobile app users.

To resolve this puzzle, app marketers need to know what app user acquisition channels do work right now. So you need the expertise of somebody who's been keeping his or her hand on the pulse of various app user acquisition channels that have been pop up over the years.

Today’s guest is Christian Eckhardt, CEO and co-founder of Customlytics. Christian shares practical advice on how to choose user acquisition channels, UA campaign optimization, how to add a new channel right and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Mobile App Marketing: Track, measure, and optimize data efficiently to acquire users

✔️ CRM: Once users are acquired, retain them

✔️ Customlytics: Stays true to its core of making mobile marketing successful

✔️ Bottom Line: Pay attention to where users are spending their time

✔️ UA Channels: Social, search, and programmatic advertising space

✔️ App’s Lifecycle: Start with mainstream channels, then narrow down to niche ones

✔️ Essentials to Execute: UA campaign app store optimization (ASO), KPIs, and mistakes

✔️ Touch Points: How and when it is appropriate to add channels and creatives

✔️ TikTok Thoughts: Brands should use platform to launch app campaigns and ads

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Christian Eckhardt:

“I went through the good school of touching every aspect of mobile marketing.”

“You have to be where the attention of the user is.”

Once users are acquired, retain them.

“What is actually influencing all those different metrics or KPIs?”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#37: Game Taxonomy and Analytics with Amir Ghodrati, Director, Market Insights at App Annie

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:00:00 +0100

With so many games available in app stores, people can play them anytime and anywhere. Both Apple's iOS App Store and Google Play store from Google don't provide mobile games classification granule enough for developers to monetize their games efficiently. How can game developers better navigate the mobile game market to make more money?

Today’s guest is Amir Ghodrati, Director - Market Insights at App Annie, a mobile market data and analytics platform. Amir talks about game taxonomy analytics, problems game developers are facing with it today and what solution App Annie offers developers and brands.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Data and People: Amir’s interest in analysis and communication of successful solutions

✔️ What is taxonomy? A branch of science that studies classifications.

✔️ Mobile Game Landscape: Game categories and popularity challenging to navigate

✔️ $100 Billion: Mobile gaming is largest platform based on spend; 3X bigger than PC/Mac

✔️ Game Lifecycle: Shift habits and conditioning of casino, casual, and core game structure

✔️ Monetization Forms: Advertising, in-app purchases, and subscription models for games

✔️ Apples to Apples? Problems/solutions of multiple app stores, inconsistent classification

✔️ Game IQ: Bring order, hierarchy, and insights to granularly segment gaming industry

✔️ Mobile Game Misconceptions: Changes over time and making money

✔️ COVID-19 Impact: Share experiences and connect with friends and family through games.

Links and Resources:

Amir Ghodrati on LinkedIn

App Annie

Game IQ

App Annie on Twitter

Tweets/Quotes by Amir Ghodrati:

“The mobile gaming industry has never been more lucrative, but also it’s never been so competitive.”

“It’s really a platform that has democratized gaming because the mobile phone is the one device that people have with them.”

“People are increasingly spending their time on mobile.”

“Information is only going to be useful if it’s accessible enough that people are willing to make decisions based off of it.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#36: How to increase app retention with Darren Last, Digital Transformation Consultant at Shell

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Retain or not retain? That’s the question when it comes to app retention -the most important metric that app marketers and publishers focus on today.

Generally speaking, on average it costs up to 7x to find a new custom than to retain an existing one. So for app marketers it means if they succeed in retaining their app users, they are better off to spend their marketing budget more efficiently and increase their app business ROI.

Today’s guest is Darren Last, Digital Transformation, Marketing, and Delivery Consultant at Shell Global. Shell’s mobile apps drive loyalty rewards and utility convenience. Fill up on coffee or fuel, and get going!

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Banks to Websites: Darren wanted to be a day trader but shifted to digital transformation

✔️ Shell Global App: Available in 30+ countries, but not the same in every market

✔️ Useful Feature: Shell Global App is primarily a loyalty app for utility and fuel convenience

✔️ Biggest Challenge: Promotional campaigns for new features/toolkits in local markets

✔️ Strategy: Optimize features to fit with customers’ experience for value and retention

✔️ Back to Basics: Core proposition, data, features, and reasons to return to use app

✔️ Key App Elements: KPIs, ratings, reviews, retention rates, and active usage

✔️ Improve app retention via product, experience, marketing campaigns, testing, analytics

Links and Resources:

Darren Last on LinkedIn

Last Consulting

Shell App

Tweets/Quotes by Darren Last:

“All the features and functionalities are then localized by local marketing teams.”

“It’s quite a complex app, if you want, but it isn’t the same in every market. It has different features and different variations in these markets.”

Don’t go by your gut feel. Rely on hard data and listen to your customers to give them what they want. Not what you think they want.

Nothing’s ever perfect. Continue optimization lifecycle."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#32: In-app bidding with Daniel Tchernahovsky, Managing Director, EMEA at Applovin

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Millions of developers have put their time, money, and sweat into creating apps to make a profit via paid ads, a subscription model, and in-app bidding.

In-app bidding is an in-app advertising technology that slowly but surely replaces waterfall tech that has been the standard for mobile publishers for a number of years. It allows publishers to increase efficiency of their monetization efforts, decrease ad display latency and consequently increase earnings.

Today’s guest is Daniel Tchernahovsky, Managing Director - EMEA at AppLovin. Daniel describes how in-app bidding is a central component to generate revenue.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ AppLovin: Goal is to entertain the world with games

✔️ App Advertising: Buying and selling formats are banner, interstitial, and rewarded

✔️ Partners: Work with everyone to monetize apps

✔️ New vs. Old: Pros and cons of programmatic advertising models, such as waterfall

✔️ Inefficiency and Inventory Issues: Time gaps and missed or random price points

✔️ In-app Bidding: Real-time auction runs parallel, not consecutively for highest price point

✔️ COVID-19 Pandemic: Stable progression of people spending time on mobile devices

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Daniel Tchernahovsky:

“Our goal is to entertain the world with games.”

“The way that the industry works is that you’ll work with a variety of partners. You’ll want to work with everyone if you want to monetize.”

“The idea of in-app bidding: Five people are competing for my impression, what is the highest price point that each and every one of you are willing to pay?”

“People have been spending their time being glued more to their devices, playing more, being entertained more.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#31: A/B Testing for an app with Karan Tibdewal, Growth Consultant at Phiture

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:00:00 +0100

When developing an app, the work of many is put together. It’s a combination of art, math, and marketing expertise that equates with users to uncover uncertainty through A/B testing.

A/B testing for mobile apps is one of the key techniques to make sure the app meets its users expectations and keep them engaged.

Today’s guest is Karan Tibdewal of Phiture, a mobile growth consulting company that assists clients with ASO, Apple search ads, mining user retention, growth consulting and A/B testing.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ A/B Testing: Important and essential to start with fundamentals

✔️ Reason for Testing: Optimizing metrics that you care about by experimenting

✔️ Common Problems: Control, don’t mix variables to measure

✔️ Problems Solved: A/B testing solves user lifecycle issues from acquisition to reactivation

✔️ Customers: What resonates and what they actually need through A/B testing

✔️ A/B Testing Strategy: Experimentation mindset and understanding basics

✔️ A/B Testing Framework: Ideation, prioritize, test, analyze, revise, and consolidate/share

✔️ Brainstorm Ideas: Everybody has opinions, but unable to prioritize them

✔️ Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Validate ideas about users through data science support

✔️ How/where to learn A/B testing? Theory and statistics courses to app industry blogs

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Karan Tibdewal:

“It’s essential to start with fundamentals. A/B testing is not something completely new.”

“You care about a certain metric, and you want to optimize for its performance.”

“When you think you know your customers really well...A/B testing can prove you wrong.”

“Experimenting is usually the solution.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#30: When COVID-19 causes a spike in demand with Tina Zhang, Paid Acquisition Manager, Memrise app

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Classic sci-fi books and movies often portray a pandemic as out of this world. Now, it’s reality. Many businesses were hit and crushed, while others experienced an increase in demand. Why?

Today’s guest is Tina Zhang, digital acquisition manager at Memrise. She describes how the language learning company, well-known for utilizing flash cards as a study aid in their legendary mobile app, navigates this new uncharted territory and meets an increasing demand.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Custom Language Courses: Learn how to speak useful, relevant, and everyday phrases

✔️ COVID-19 Impact: Lockdown spiked demand for online education and language learning

✔️ Popular Languages: Spend time productively during pandemic learning Spanish/English with a mobile app

✔️ Messaging: Memrise app helps people learn fast and have fun

✔️ Key Differentiators: Memrise is about learning a language in the real world, not school

✔️ Positive Feedback: Memrise’s engaging videos increased time in the app by 30 percent

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Tina Zhang:

“There was a surge in demand for online education and language learning.”

“How do we meet the demands and how do we capitalize on the extra volume that we’re getting?”

Messaging: Memrise helps you learn fast and have fun.

“The type of language learning that we are offering is less about the same stuff that we would learn from school. It’s more about being able to learn a language and connect with the world.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#29: Third Party ad networks with Solange Baki, Growth Marketing Manager at Badoo

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 10:21:00 +0100

Every app needs a user. Fortunately, dozens of channels exist for app marketers to find users, including social, search, and third-party ad networks.

Today’s guest is Solange Baki, Growth Marketing Manager at Badoo. Currently she leads Badoo and Bumble user acquisition expansion through video and display performance campaigns, programmatically and with ad networks.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ App Acquisition Tools: Paid social, paid search, and third-party networks

✔️ Pros and Cons: Limitations exist with third-party networks and operating systems

✔️ App World: Games vs. non-games involve developers, players, programmatic promotion

✔️ Diversification Strategy: Don’t put all media/paid acquisition spend into 1 or 2 channels

✔️ Next Steps: Explore and select new sources for app downloads, results, ROI, budgets

✔️ Common Challenges: Fraud, vendor loyalty, constant monitoring, conversion rates

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Solange Baki:

“We are a global team of brilliant product managers, designers, engineers, data scientists, and many more with the mission to create life-changing moments by building relationships.”

“You can’t allocate all your media or paid acquisition spend into one or two channels. It doesn’t give you all the flexibility that you need to reallocate budgets, in case something goes wrong.”

“Adding third-party networks onto your paid acquisition portfolio gives you a lot of flexibility.”

“Fraud is one of the main challenges that we experience. It’s important to have an anti-fraud solution.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#28: App user experience: best practices with Daniel Ushida, App Growth Hacker at Growth Tribe Academy

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 11:58:00 +0100

Who are app growth hackers?

Well, have you ever experienced worse-than-expected app engagement results? What’s the problem? Something’s spoiling user experience because your app isn’t being used as expected. There are app marketing experts whom's job is to come up with app growth hacks.

Today’s guest is Daniel Ushida, Growth Hacker and Growth Hacking Trainer at Growth Tribe Academy. Daniel helps entrepreneurs and companies grow and upscale their app businesses.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️ Evolution of app user experience

✔️ App onboarding

✔️ Actions not assumptions

✔️ Common mistakes with an app user interface

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Daniel Ushida:

“At the beginning, when apps were launched, they had this thing that they wanted to replicate or mimic...Websites on desktop.”

“If you think about tactics that were used for a user interface, there was a lot of Skeuomorphism.”

“Onboarding your user, in order to show the value and make clear what is behind the app, became a very important feature.

Key to Success: Simple and intuitive user interface."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#27: A/B Testing on Google Play with Susan Azari, Mobile App Commercial Lead at The Very Group

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 12:33:00 +0100

What A/B testing on Google Play store has to do with your daily routine?

Well, every morning, most of us hit the snooze button on our alarm app. Then, we make other small decisions throughout the day without even knowing it. How can we make the right decisions? Do you run tests? Well, in a way you do, every day you take notice on outcomes of your decisions and correct your future decisions accordingly.

Now, to make the right decisions about an Android app marketing and development is to conduct an A/B testing.

Today’s guest is Susan Azari, Mobile App Commercial Lead at The Very Group. She shares best practices and practical advice for A/B testing, specifically for Google Plays store.

Today’s Topics Include:

✔️A/B Testing: Different hypotheses and scenarios impact user behavior

✔️ A/B Testing Process: Create and document ideas, plans, KPIs, timeline, and sample size

✔️ Failed Tests: Learn from past mistakes to develop integrations, outcomes, and elements

✔️ Avoid Common Mistakes: Proofread, conduct check, control variables, skewed results

✔️ Google Play vs. Apple App Store: A/B testing easier and more efficient in Google Play

✔️ Useful A/B Testing Tools: Optimizely, Splitly, and Phiture

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Susan Azari:

“It’s very easy for people to have subjective opinions about what they think might work best.”

“Realistically, data tells the true story. That’s the main reason why I’m a big fan of A/B testing.”

“The reason why A/B testing is important can fall under a few different streams of activity.”

“There’s no such thing as a failed test. You can always learn from it.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#26: How has Covid-19 affected travel apps? With Alexandra Lamachenka, Global Marketing Manager at Skyscanner

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 08:00:00 +0100

COVID-19 has changed the world and impacted the global economy, especially for companies offering airline and other travel services.

Today’s guest is Alexandra “Sasha” Lamachenka, Global Marketing Manager at Skyscanner. The leading travel company finds the best options for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Sasha came on our show to talk about how this pandemic impacted the Airline industry and its effect on Skyscanner's marketing communication.

Today’s Topics Include:

✈️ Skyscanner’s Core Philosophy: Traveler first (listen to them and offer support)

✔️ Skyscanner’s Mission: Lead the global transformation to modern and sustainable travel

🦠 COVID-19’s impact on airline industry in different countries and signs of recovery

✔️ Skyscanner App Marketing: Not actively promoting and selling travel, yet

✔️ Travel Company Considerations: Flexibility, safety, and trust.

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Alexandra Lamachenka:

“I truly believe that one of the reasons for this success is our core philosophy: Traveler first.”

“Overall search and bookings remain super low, starting from April. However, right now, we are seeing some very early signs of recovery in domestic travel.”

“Global travel anxiety has dropped from its highest point of 72% to the current and lowest figure of 58%, which is good.”

“There are so many unknowns, and restoring traveler confidence in travel will be the key.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#25: Community-based app management: best practices with Ayat Baroudi, Head of CRM Marketing at Fishbrain

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 08:00:00 +0100

In the ocean of mobile apps there are some that are built for a community. If you take any mundane app on your smartphone, it may have thousands of users but it is not a vital part of their life, they don't open it to share their experience. On the other hand, community apps are exactly the place where people get together to share something exciting in their life.

Today’s guest is Ayat Baroudi from Fishbrain, where she’s responsible for CRM marketing, specifically - app retention, growth, conversion, and monetization and we're talking about app community management. If you love to fish, don’t let this app get away!

Today’s Topics Include:

🎣 Fishbrain: Comprehensive fishing intelligence tool and vertical social network

✔️ Fishbrain Community: All types of anglers, ages, and skill/interest levels

✔️ App Onboarding: Educate, manage, and engage diverse users using different features

✔️ Personalization: Identify needs and expectations to provide relevant content

✔️ CRM Role: Focus on customer lifecycle via product and value, not only growth and profit

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Ayat Baroudi:

“It’s for all types of anglers—professional ones or beginners or people who just want to learn about fishing.”

“Everyone likes to talk about themselves. So, we try to make users’ needs at the center of the attention.”

“Personalization is key. The more information you can get from the user, in a nice way, that’s the most important thing to be able to actually target different types of users.”

“Based on the information we get, we’re able to create very personalized and relevant content and CRM flows for these different users.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#24: COVID-19 impact on Snapchat with Samuel Bevan, Head of Emerging International, Advertising Solutions at Snap

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Today, because of the recent lockdowns all over the world to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, almost all communication between people occurs online. So, how
has this pandemic impacted the dynamics of communication related to apps, such as Snapchat?

This episode's guest is Samuel Bevan, Head of Emerging International, Advertising Solutions at Snap Inc. Snapchat is the fastest way to communicate with friends to stay connected, entertained, and informed.

Today’s Topics Include:

👻 What is Snap? Camera communication platform

📊 Snapchat App Audience: General growth and core use increases 20% annually

🌏 Demographics and Geographies: Adapt, evolve, and engage to grow in uncertain times

✔️ Behavior Trends: Shift in how people buy media and businesses get more out of them

✔️ Snapchat Philosophy: How can we make conversations happen through the camera?

✔️ Responsible Publisher vs. Fake Content: Follow social media or platform approach?

✔️ Verticals and Sectors: COVID creates opportunities for some businesses to pivot

✔️ New Norm: Unreasonable to reverse or replace behavior patterns

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Samuel Bevan:

“Why send a text when a snap can say a thousand words?”

“Certain industries have taken hits due to what’s going on in the world.”

“Across the globe, let’s face it, Snapchatters’ behaviors have adapted and evolved.”

“If you can adapt, adapt. If you can evolve, evolve. But most importantly, listen to your customers while doing this.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#23: App Store Optimization for Google Play with Marie-Laure Cruyt, Chief Product Officer at AppTweak

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:01:00 +0100

App store optimization (ASO) is the oldest app marketing technique used to acquire more app users. Since the early days of the first app store, launched by Apple in the summer 2008, app marketers have been experimenting with numerous techniques to get their apps more visible on the store and get it downloaded. Mistakes were made and lessons have been learned.

Today’s guest is Marie-Laure Cruyt, Chief Product Officer at AppTweak. She explains how to do App Store Optimization for the Google Play app store.

Today’s Topics Include:

🔢 Data Points:

65-70 percent of all app installs are driven by search
Developers/brands get 3 out of 4 app users via built-in search and app stores

📊 AppTweak: ASO tool provides data to monitor and increase app visibility, performance

👉 KPIs and Keywords: How ASO for Google Play differs from Apple App Store

✔️ Google’s Complex Algorithm: Key element is retention

✔️ Keyword Density vs. Stuffing: Repeat relevant words, but not too much

✔️ Conversion Tips: Keyword relevance, ratings, and visuals

✔️ Pros/Cons: App changes are continual, annoying, time consuming, and competitive

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Marie-Laure Cruyt:

“Google, obviously, is the one who invented SEO, so their approach to ASO really follows that path.”

“The more you repeat them, the more weight you give to that word. The more likely you will rank on that word.”

“Don’t just repeat just for repeating.”

“Everything that you put into the description should be useful from a user perspective.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#22: App product development and CRM behind ITV Hub with Stuart Jones, Head of Product at ITV HUB

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 09:00:00 +0100

Behind every successful app is a team of people working together efficiently, especially for those who enjoy on-demand and/or live TV shows.

Today’s guest is Stuart Jones from ITV Hub, an online TV platform that lets customers view anything from scientific documentaries to trivia and talent shows across its smartphone, tablet, AppleTV apps. We invited Stuart to give us his perspective on how CRM and app product teams should work together, how you choice between advertising and subscription models and more.

Today’s Topics Include:

📺 What is ITV and ITV Hub? Large, ad-free television service or online platform

📼 Live or Later: ITV Hub offers content parallel to linear television

💪 Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Strong, misaligned, or non-existent

🦠 COVID-19 Crisis: Quickly learn to work remotely and provide content via collaboration

💲 Business Models: Pros and cons of subscriptions versus advertisements

👉 Customer’s Choice: Give people more choices to get more attention

👍 Box of Wonder: What are you going to get? Guaranteed satisfaction with subscription

💵 Price Point: At least $20 a month or not profitable for acceptable amount and service

🤖 Machine Learning (ML): Ready to use for careful and constructive product development

Links and Resources:

Tweets/Quotes by Stuart Jones:

“We try and insure that our content is parallel to the linear television.”

“We can empower each other to be successful at our jobs.”

“Our collaboration is being tested, but also our ability to react quickly is also being tested.”

“Every business that serves advertising should look at the question, ‘Would a subscription model without advertising be as sustainable for me?’”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#21: COVID19 app marketing update - trends & tools with David Llewellyn, Director of Marketing EMEA at AppsFlyer

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 08:00:00 +0100

What helps us deal with uncertain situations? Hard data and analysis. We need to know what happened in the past to know what to do now and in the future.

Today’s guest is David Llewellyn, Director of Marketing EMEA from AppsFlyer, the leading mobile app tracking and attribution analytics company with 9+ years on the market under its belt. He recaps what happened with app marketing in 2019 and what's going now, when COVID-19 is impacting the whole global economy, to help adjust your strategy moving forward.

Today’s Topics Include:

📊 App Categories: Which are growing, going away, or adapting?

📈 Trends and Timelines: Similar worldwide lockdown and stabilization

👩‍💼👨‍💼 User Acquisition: Balance installs via paid channels and native traffic

🤔💰 Aggressive or Conservative? Short-term strategies to cut budgets or double-down

📣 Retarget, Reactivate, and Re-engage: Opportunities to acquire and retain users

👍 Good News: Robust, solid, enterprise software tools available for marketing automation

👎 Bad News: Challenge is to know which tools to use and when to integrate them

👉 Business Models: Conscience decision for expensive base or content with less profit?

Links and Resources:

Quotes by David Llewellyn:

“The distraction and the fun that games provide during difficult times is a really great thing for many people.”

“Everything’s changed. There’s no one rule anymore.”

“The good news is there’s tools out there for almost everything that you could want to do with your app. The vast majority of those tools are really robust, solid, enterprise great software.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#20: App Growth during COVID-19 with Loren Gould, Marketing Director at Cuvva

Mon, 25 May 2020 09:00:00 +0100

Businesses around the globe are going through the process of adaptation to the new economy. How are they coping with the COVID-19 pandemic? By sharing their business experiences.

Today’s guest is Loren Gould, marketing director at Cuvva—where insurance is a good necessity. He describes how Cuvva is managing the Coronavirus crisis.

Today’s Topics Include:

🦠 Has COVID-19 impacted Cuvva? Yes, but less than expected by taking action early

👉 What works? Messaging campaigns and more channels for marketing techniques

💪 Big Wins: Boring versus glamorous channels that both proof effective

🧪 Feedback: Don’t assume, but continually learn, research, and test what users want

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Loren Gould:

"Marketing Experience and Background: Be yourself, more fun, less awkward, and safer.

“Never thought in a million years, I would be working in insurance—let alone really enjoying it and passionate about it.”

“Our app is based on movement, so we’ve obviously taken a hit—although, not as much as we anticipated.”

“Traditional channels that you wouldn’t think would be worth doing, sometimes are and can be very effective.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#19: App Store Optimization in action with Paul McCallum, Director of Customer Acquisition at Babylon Health [case study]

Mon, 18 May 2020 09:00:00 +0100

What is app store optimization (ASO) capable of doing? It’s crucial to know ASO techniques, and learning them from first-hand experience is just as important.

Today’s guest is Paul McCallum from Babylon Health. He shares how applying ASO techniques helped Babylon Health shift the user acquisition equation from paid to native search ads.

Today’s Topics Include:

☝️ Why is ASO important? ASO provides awareness and organic visibility

💰 Paid vs. Native Search Ads: Babylon Health’s shift and switch from 75 to 25 percent

🤔 In-house or Outsource? Applying ASO to improve search and social channels

🔑 ASO Factors: Optimize keywords and refine look and feel to improve app store ranking

📈 ASO Results: 270% growth in keywords ranked in Top 3 and 180% in Top 10

💪 Test, Experiment, and Tweak: Always room for improvement and opportunities

💵 ROI: Save money, increase conversion rates for user acquisition

Applying ASO techniques to the Babylon Health app, the team managed to achieve Top 3 ranking for 56 new keywords on the iOS App Store and 24 on Google Play store.

Results Babylon Health team managed to achieve for the app

Source: Babylon Health

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Paul McCallum:

“App store optimization is vital to any app.”

“Your app store page is like your shop window to the world. Like all good shops, you want to make this as appealing as possible, so that people decide to come into your store.”

“By improving your organic visibility, you can get more people to look in that window for free.”

“We had a host of important keywords that we had never optimized app store listings for.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#18: Full Funnel App Marketing with George Sharpe, founder of Favoured

Mon, 11 May 2020 09:00:00 +0100

Mobile app marketing is a journey, that starts the moment a person sees an ad for a mobile app and finishes when she or he takes an action - buy an app copy, subscribe to it, register for a service or make an in-app purchase. And to be really accurate, it doesn't stop there - app developers and brands need their app users to stay loyal and continue to use the app and generate revenue over time.

In this episode we decided to take a holistic view on what is app marketing and its components and dissect the Full Funnel Marketing concept. To do that we invited George Sharpe, ex-Apple's Senior Marketing Manager for Apple Music & App Store, founder of Favoured, a marketing, content and branding agency based in London, UK.

The Marketing Funnel

Source: TrackMaven

Today’s Topics Include:

🔻What is full-funnel marketing?

👩‍🏫 Education and Awareness: what are people doing in your app?

☝️ Investors and Active Users: infrastructure for retention, churn, growth, and acquisition

👉 Performance Marketing: test channels to optimize creative, content, and calls to action

💰 Tools and channels to generate revenue: what's working today

☝️ Common mistakes in app marketing

📈 Effective Ways: Growth-hacking mindset and more testing

Links and Resources:

Quotes by George Sharpe:

“Full-funnel marketing, to me, means marketing beyond the app install.”

“An app install is the equivalent of a Website visit. That’s all it is.”

“It’s a massive challenge to then try and retune the mindset of app founders or head of marketing.”

“Companies should test more. Make sure you understand that there are different types of people that are willing to part with their cash in different types of ways.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#17: App marketing on TikTok with Tim Armoo, CEO of FanBytes

Mon, 04 May 2020 09:00:00 +0100

It is the app that both tech pundits and regular people like you and me talk about. Admittadly not all us use the app but we have heard about it many times for sure.

TikTok.

According to SensorTower, this February TikTok had the biggest number of downloads on both iTunes App Store and Google Play, beating WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube.

Source: Sensor Tower.

As with all apps those popularity rise exponentially, it is a magnet for brands to reach audiences, to grow their customer base. It's important to understand how the app is different from other popular apps like Instagram, YouTube and others and see what exactly companies need to do to succeed with connecting their brands with people.

In this episode we have Tim Armoo, CEO of FanBytes, the leading content, social and influencer marketing agency, to tell us about what brands need to know about TikTok and how market their products and services on it successfully.

Today’s Topics Include:

☝️ What is TikTok and why it is so popular

🤔 Why TikTok is effective for brands and what kinds of brands

🤦‍♂️ Common mistakes brands do on TikTok

📝 What an effective TikTok app marketing strategy looks like

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Tim Armoo:

“The most interesting thing about TikTok is perhaps the platform where it lends itself so much to content creation that it’s unbelievable.”

“TikTok lends itself for people to be so creative but in their own unique ways.”

“Even though the audiences can be different...the thing that stays the same is if you’re able to do it in a creative way, you’ll always win.”

“TikTok doesn’t reward good profiles. It rewards good videos.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#16: 10 Actions marketers need to win mobile with Lexi Sydow, Data Analyst at App Annie

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:00:00 +0100

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us, in one way or another. Many marketers and businesses are finding it difficult to know which specific steps to take to handle this crisis.

Today’s guest is Lexi Sydow, a data analyst at App Annie. We invited Lexi to come on the show to talk about specific steps marketers can make today to restore their business growth.

Today’s Topics Include:

⏰ How much time do most people use mobile apps each day?

🦠 How has COVID-19 impacted mobile app use?

💰 How much money people spend in apps?

💸 What are other options to generate mobile app revenue?

📺 What is the best marketing channel to leverage now?

👉 How to conduct a Keyword Search research?

🤔 Native vs. Paid Search: Bidding for generic or branded keywords

🤝 User Acquisition Campaigns: an art based on hard data and experimentation

📈 App Installs: Monitor downloads to meet demand and make money

🗣 Social Media/Comm Apps: Strategic tool to drive awareness, downloads, promotions

Links and Resources:

App Annie

"10 Actions marketers need to take to win mobile today" report by App Annie

Quotes by Lexi Sydow:

“People are turning to mobile, even more right now to stay connected, informed, entertained, and healthy.”

“Time spent is particularly useful when (identifying) total reach for establishing mobile’s worth to advertisers and marketers.”

“Consumer spend is also extremely important. It’s an indication of both a large and engaged audience.”

“In-app ads are a great way to shift the burden of cost from the consumer to the advertiser.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#15: The art of storytelling for app marketing during COVID-19 pandemic with Faye Liddle-Moore, Commercial Director, Northern Europe at Outbrain

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0100

Storytelling has been around since the beginning of time, and it continues today. In fact, it's really crucial for how our society and economy work nowadays. Think of TED Talks and Apple Inc. keynotes and you'll get an idea for what is a high standard for storytelling today.

But how does it apply in app marketing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic? Empathy and resonance are the key because the world has changed.

Today’s guest is Faye Liddle-Moore, Commercial Director-Northern Europe of Outbrain, which helps people discover content, products, and services that interest them.

Today’s Topics Include:

☝️ Outbrain: Selling a moment of discovery, rather than an audience

✍️ Storytelling: Exchange between creator and audience to convey message that resonates

👩‍🏫 Talent vs. Taught: Storytelling is natural talent, but structure can be taught via insights

👍 App Marketing Storytelling Strategy: Value proposition on why your app is better

👉 Search and Social: Tell great stories in the right places

🦠 COVID-19 Impact on Brand Marketing: Don’t push but pull your own agenda

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Faye Liddle-Moore:

“Rather than selling a specific audience, it was about connecting many audiences with content and stories that interest them.”

“Being able to inspire people is probably something that it’s not necessarily something that can be taught.”

“Empathizing with your audience is still the core of what you should be doing with your storytelling.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#14: Marketing automation on mobile with Paul H. Müller, CTO & Co-Founder of Adjust

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:48:00 +0100

What do you do all day? What does it take to be efficient and organized? Our lives are busy and hectic. We struggle to get everything done because there just isn’t enough time. A life of a mobile marketer isn't any different and, most likely, even more complicated than the most of us. Today it’s impossible to do marketing without automating repetitive tasks.

Today’s guest is Paul Müller, co-founder and CTO of Adjust, attribution and analytics software for mobile applications. Paul talks about how marketing automation on mobile actually works and how it makes life of a mobile marketer easier.

Today’s Topics Include:

🤝 Marketing automation should be about making humans work more efficient, not clicks

📊 Ad campaign challenges: Set bid/volume rules, track networks, and manage creatives

🤔 Marketing automation future? Retargeting should take the next step to change the game, bring real relevance to win users that churn away.

🏃‍♂️ What makes your users churn?

🖥🧍‍♂️ Computers or Humans: Which are better at communicating?

🦠 COVID-19 time working from home tip for mobile marketers.

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Paul H. Müller:

“We don’t want to replace the human element. I believe marketing should be about human connection, but right now, it’s about who can click the most?”

“I fundamentally believe that humans are better at talking to humans. Humans want to talk to humans.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#13: User Acquisition Challenges: from gaming to food delivery, Anh Nguyen Director Of Performance Marketing at Wolt

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:00:00 +0100

When several years ago Apple split the App Store on Games and Apps, it did so by a very good reason. By that time it was obvious that the whole app ecosystem was clearly divided between these two - mobile games and all other kinds of apps. This split has profound implications for app marketing.

Today’s guest is Anh Nguyen, Director of Performance Marketing at Wolt, a food delivery app. Previously, he worked at Rovio, best known for the game, Angry BirdsHaving experience of doing app marketing for both games and non-game apps, Anh is a perfect guest to tell you the difference between the two.

Today’s Topics Include:

🤔 Workflow at Rovio vs. Wolt: What’s the difference?

🐤 Angry Birds: Gaming is driven by data, lifetime value, retention, and investment

😉 Online or Offline? Online is easier, better, and simpler.

🤝 How to create the most efficient team? Triangle of media buying, analytics, and creative

🌎 Delivery Differences: Targeting country-by-country vs. hyperlocal advertisements

👉 Marketing Channels: Facebook and Google for games, plus Snapchat for food delivery

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Anh Nguyen:

“Gaming is very much data-driven.”

“Wolt is the food delivery company, where our product is not purely digital.”

“A lot of things can be tracked, and for informatics, that’s the best you can wish for.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#12: App growth strategy with Mick Rigby, CEO at Yodel Mobile

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 09:45:00 +0100

What comes to mind when you think of Silicon Valley startups? Growth strategy? Sustainable app business? In fact, an app growth strategy is the topic on a white board of so many app startups around the world.

It's hard to overstate how important it is to come up with the right one. Mistakes cost app brands and developers stress, time, money and, in many cases, cause their dreams about having sustainable app business to collapse.

Today’s guest is Mick Rigby, founder and CEO of Yodel Mobile. He offers guidance on successful strategies to acquire and retain users to grow a sustainable app business.

Today’s Topics Include:

💡 Best App Growth Strategy: Research idea for feedback

🤔 Functionality vs. Marketability: Products users want, like, and work to retain/recommend

📊 App Marketing Components: Data stack, CRM, analytics, attribution, and reviews

🔢 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Define North Star metric for overall objective

📏 User Acquisition Strategy: Measure cost of paid advertising, downloads, and registration

💪 User Retention Strategy: If you can’t retain users, you don’t have an app business

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Mick Rigby:

“I actually launched the business about two to three months before the iPhone launch. So, some may say that’s foresight. To be perfectly honest, I think it was a lot more luck than foresight.”

“Product is just one aspect of your app growth strategy. The other key element is obviously how you market that. You need to balance the two.”

“There is no such thing as an average user.”

“If you can’t retain your users, you don’t actually have an app business.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

#10: B2B marketing for mobile SaaS apps with Philipp Stelzer, Staff Product Manager for GoToMeeting

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Open any online marketing publication, e-book, webinar or YouTube video of a presentation about app marketing, chances are it will be about doing marketing for B2C (stands for Business Two Customers) apps. In fact, the bulk of available materials cover techniques, hints, tricks, use case of how to market a mobile app to an end user. That's cool but there is the other part of the equation - B2B apps marketing and businesses need information about it as much as for B2C.

On this episode we want to fill in the gap for marketers and business owners who need to find users for their B2B apps. Our guest is Philipp Stelzer, who is in an excellent position to talk about both B2C and B2B app marketing and what sets them apart. He spent several years being part of Wooga mobile game studio and was heavily involved with mobile games marketing to end users. Now Philipp is with LogMeIn software company, known to you by such well known brands as GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar and others, and he's immersed into marketing for B2B apps, in particular SAAs apps.

Today’s Topics Include:

💡What is SaaS? Software licensing and delivery model in purest form

❓What’s the difference between B2C and B2B marketing? User-driven vs. mass market

🗣 Challenges and Pain Points: Start conversations with customers and prospects

💰Freemium to Premium: Reach decision makers and retain them online and offline

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Philipp Stelzer:

“There need to be systems in place that make life of these people who need to manage these SaaS offerings really easy.”

“Mobile is an extension of your SaaS offering, but it’s not a standalone service that you are selling.”

“It’s never really about the installs and downloads in this case. It’s always about creating awareness for your product, being smart about who you are targeting…”

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#9: Mobile app user acquisition with Omri Argaman, CMO of Zoomd

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 09:00:00 +0000

It doesn’t matter how good a product or service is, if you can’t connect it with people who would benefit from it. Who are your customers? How often do they use your product or service? How can you improve your product or service?

Today’s guest is Omri Argaman, co-founder and CMO of Zoomd. Omri details mobile app user acquisition through digital marketing tools.

Today’s Topics Include:

Challenges: Brand safety, fraud, suppliers, retention, and reach
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Cost per install (CPI), return on advertising spend (ROAS), return on investment (ROI), first-time deposit (FTD), rankings, and training
Ad Fraud Mitigation Techniques: Third-party fraud detection system, measurement platform, and anti-fraud solution; reports; KPI rules; and incremental channel checks

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Omri Argaman:

“Fraud is really hurting the industry, and for brands, even if they don’t pay for that fraud that is happening, it’s taking from them a lot of resources.”

“Retention Strategy: If you don’t have that, as a brand, it’s going to be a lot more expensive to generate money.”

“Social channels are adapting and social channels are changing.”

“Voice is going to really change the mobile industry.”

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#8: How to get your app noticed in 2020 with Scott Tomkins, SVP at Digital Turbine

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 09:00:00 +0000

More than two million apps are available in the Google Play store and 1.8 million in the Apple app store. With so many apps, how can indie and enterprise developers get their apps noticed and connect with users? If people can’t find your app, all your efforts are wasted. It's all about app discovery.

Today’s guest is Scott Tomkins, senior vice president of Digital Turbine. He describes how to get your app noticed—what to do and what tools to use.

Today’s Topics Include:

What’s working and what’s not? Putting app in an app store and hoping it’s noticed vs. putting creative campaigns and marketing budget behind it to get noticed
Reasons for challenges? Naivety, lack of marketing skills; outspend and outsmart
Prime Real Estate: Find traffic for target audience and get app on unpackaged devices
Retainment: Update app to make it easy to use, add features, and keep users engaged
Branding: Keep your name and app in front of people to let them know who you are
Fundamental Steps: Understand cultures and consumers to market in different regions
Get Noticed: Mobile measurement, app store optimization, and multi-touch approach

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Scott Tomkins:

“The main goal they’re trying to solve is: How do I get my app onto someone’s phone?”

“You need to put some creative campaigns and most likely some marketing budget behind it to really get your app noticed.”

“The biggest concept that people miss is updating their apps to keep consumers engaged.”

“Branding is a giant factor in keeping people knowing who you are and what you do.”

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#7: The State of Mobile 2020 with Paul Barnes, Managing Director EMEA at App Annie

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the world of apps and app analytics.

You would need to think hard to find a single area in our lives that isn't influenced by mobile apps. Long passed the moment of novelty and today the major measure stick for mobile apps success is how much value do they bring to people's lives.

Now, if you are a brand or publisher you need somebody who can take a bird view on the whole app ecosystem and give you a snapshot of what apps are popular globally or in specific countries, what app categories are one their peak and wise versa and so much more.

Since 2010 such company has been App Annie, the mobile data and analytics company, which Apple itself quotes from time to time when it talks about app ecosystem.

Today’s guest is Paul Barnes, Managing Director for Europe, Middle East at App Annie. The mobile data and analytics company issues quarterly and annual reports. In this episode, we discuss the State of Mobile 2020 Report.

Today’s Topics Include:

Different World, Different Data: Report shifts focus from downloads to usage, revenue
How much time do most people spend in apps? Global average is 3 hours 40 minutes per user/per day depending on data, bandwidth, and download restrictions
Gen Z vs. Baby Boomers: What age groups spend more or less time in apps?
Current market share of mobile games? Not everyone is a gamer, but expect billion-dollar industry to remain steady
Mobile ad monetization is bigger and growing faster than what transacts through stores
Trends: Mobile apps are more engaging and effective at reaching people via brand ads
Current outlook for apps and platforms? 50% increase in sessions; multiple or bundled subscriptions for streaming services

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Paul Barnes:

“It was just incredible to see the disruption that was happening in market research and analysis as the world shifted to mobile.”

“Pretty much every country in the world, year on year, we see an increase in the amount of time that people are spending in apps.”

“As time goes on, how do you make sure you’re one of those apps that people are going to invest significant time in?”

“Digital equals mobile; digital equals apps.”

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#6: Influencer Marketing with Jidé Maduako, CEO of Yoke Network

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Is Influencer Marketing efficient for an app promotion?

What is Influencer Marketing you ask?

In a nutshell, it's how social media users with big number of loyal followers help brand to promote their products and services. Apps are just another product that Influencers can help brands with. Influencer marketing is the most powerful form of marketing because of accurate product-audience fit.

Today’s guest is Jidé Maduako, co-founder and CEO of Yoke Network, a platform for performance influencer marketing and content creation for native ads.

Today’s Topics Include:

What is influencer marketing?
Who are micro influencers?
Why is influencer marketing effective for brands?
Influencer marketing should focus on brand awareness and results to avoid:
- Misalignment of audience
- Inauthentic advertising
- Lack of skill
- Conflicts of interest
TikTok vs. Other Platforms: TikTok is all about creativity, not a person’s status
Statistics: TikTok ad campaigns easy to use but not as sophisticated as other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter
Influencer Marketing Trends: Advertisers are focusing more on investing in and understanding TikTok, short-form video platforms, and in-house production

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Jidé Maduako:

“This is helping brands and apps to establish their presence on TikTok as a platform, which I believe is the biggest opportunity for advertisers since Instagram.”

“There’s a lot more micro influencers than there are macro influencers or celebrities.”

“The influencers have the trust of their audience and anything they do recommend works at scale.”

“TikTok has unearthed a world of creativity because it’s so easy to chop and edit, and add effects to the videos that it allows anybody to look amazing.”

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#5: Better app marketing copy with Sandra Wu, Content Marketing Lead at Blinkist

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Are you happy about your app marketing copy? Why is it so important to get it right?

As you're reading this paragraph, tens of thousand people around the world are scrolling through search results in the App Store / Google Play app to find an app they need for some occasion or just because they've got bored.

On one hand - the choice is spectacular, you can get an app for pretty much anything you can think of, on the other - the process of choosing the one to actually download and use is far from being easy. How you, as an app marketer, can make the most of your app's marketing copy and its description specifically, is the topic of our conversation with Sandra Wu, Paid Content Marketing Lead at Blinkist - the app that distills world's best nonfiction books in just 15 minutes digests.

Today’s Topics Include:

What mindset app brands and developers should have when they create a marketing copy for an app
How to make your app's description compelling and persuasive enough to convince people to choose your app among others
The key to a good app marketing copy

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Sandra Wu:

"To produce a good copy I feel like everyone should know the answers to a few questions, before they pick up the pen or if they start typing. I believe if you going to write about your app you should know why does your app exist. Who is your target audience and why they should choose you over your competition."

"If you do content marketing for user acquisition purposes, you get your money back through sign ups and purchases. But at the same time you get so much publicity through it and I think that's the beauty of content marketing - people are actually share it and remember it. And before you know it, TechCrunch, New York Times and The Guardian are all talking about you."

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#4: How to drive app installs with SEO with Kate Petrakova, Marketing Lead at Rocket Internet

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 10:10:00 +0000

In the early 2000s, digital marketing for online commerce companies centered on relative keywords. The key component of search engine optimization (SEO) emerged to increase traffic to websites to generate leads, make more sales, and grow businesses. History repeats itself. App store optimization (ASO) followed to include similar techniques to apply to apps. To move forward and push decisions that need to be made, you must understand the impact of ASO.

Now, you may think ASO should always mean doing marketing for mobile apps and SEO - doing marketing for websites. You have a point - usually we don't mix these two digital marketing techniques and you may think that there is no way how SEO can actually help you to driver more installs for your app.

But on this episode we have Kate Petrakova from Rocket Internet to make the case that in fact it is possible. Kate shares insights regarding SEO for apps and how to make Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) your apps acquisition channel.

Today’s Topics Include:

SEO vs. ASO: What’s the difference? Benefits of bridging these two techniques
Key SEO Elements for Apps: Links/backlinks, paid/organic referrals, engaging and relevant content, and code-related technical SEO to improve ranking
App Previews and Review: Relevant and influential Websites, companies, and marketing
SEO relevant acquisition channel:
- Can product be used on desktop?
- Is product complex and requires additional knowledge?
- Do competitors have Web pages?
- Does product include categories/integrities?
SEO Tools: Google Search Console, Google Mobile-friendly Tests, Google Ads, and Google My Business
Keyword Ranking Tools: SEMrush, SISTRIX, and Ahrefs
Technical SEO Tools: Screaming Frog, Google Structured Data, and Google Lighthouse
How to get started? Google brand name and product to determine good and bad SEO
How, leveraging the trust they've built with their audience, Influencers do the job of app review sites when they had their moment several years ago
How to evaluate your mobile app website current performance on Google

Links and Resources:

Quotes by Ekaterina Petrakova:

"If it's a relevant website it's always worth to have a link from there."

"It's because historically, it (SEO) drives much better type of customer, really the customer that deliver the most value, has higher retention rates, higher loyalty."

“The customers that deliver the most value that have higher retention rates, higher loyalty, this is why SEO is a way to go, if it is relevant for you.”

“SEO is for free itself, but to work on SEO, it costs money.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

Ep.#3: ASO and paid search synergy with CEO of App Radar, Thomas Kriebernegg

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Every app project starts with an idea or concept that translates into development, testing, and marketing. Increasing an app’s visibility in app stores and attracting new customers used to consume too many resources and created a data intense process.

Today’s guest is Thomas Kriebernegg, CEO and co-founder of App Radar to improve app store rankings and get more users. He describes how App Radar combines App Store Optimization (ASO) and paid user acquisition campaigns to accelerate and grow your app business.

Today’s Topics Include:

Native vs. Paid Search: Implement ASO or not, or do both to increase traffic and visibility
What apps get most visibility? Apps downloaded most often with relevant keywords
Case Study: Native ASO and Paid searches proved successful for World of Warships

Links and Resources:

App Radar

Thomas Kriebernegg on LinkedIn

World of Warships Blitz Drives Up App Impressions by more than 70%

Quotes by Thomas Kriebernegg:

“When you do both (native and paid searches), actually, you can really find leverages for both ends.”

“In the end App Search Ads is the super relevant channel. Because people that already have already keywords in their mind, they already know what they’re looking for.”

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

Ep.#2: App Users Communication Done Right with CEO of Apptentive, Robi Ganguly

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:32:00 +0000

We live in the world of millions mobile apps that have penetrated all areas – work, entertainment, healthcare, art and many more. Every app on your smartphone has many users and all these people have their slightly different use case, may have their questions about its interface, some tech issues that need to be resolved and on and on. Obviously each app developer wants to have her or his app users having nice usage experience. Question is – how app developers and brands should approach app communication with that big audience, what’s important, what mistakes to avoid?

Today’s guest is Robi Ganguly, CEO of Apptentive, which is a provider of Consumer Communication, Consumer Management Service for various brands all over the world. Robi describes 3 major things app developers and brands need to be focused on when it comes to app users communication, what most common mistakes they do.

This episode topics include:

What Apptentive does for world largest brands user communication needs
Why it’s important to have two-way communication with app users
The significance of the right timing for app users communication
How to listen to your customer right and why it’s so crucial
Mistake from a case study #1: too much of asking your customers for a feedback to the point it produces the opposite outcome
Mistake from a case study #2: brand ambassadors identification to improve app communication
How to find the right moment for an in-app message

Links and Resources:

Apptentive

Robi Ganguly Linkedin profile

Quotes by Robi Ganguly:

“Communication, real communication and relationship building is two way”

“The way to make your customer feel important is to listen them just as much as you talk to them”

“When you think about how to communicate and learn from a customer, you gotta be very focused on the right time and the right place, even the right information about the customer journey”

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Ep.#1: ASO Essentials with David Bell, CEO and Co-founder of Gummicube

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 15:14:00 +0000

65% of all mobile app installs come from search, this single data point compels all app marketers have the App Store Optimization technique, aka ASO, in their mobile app marketing toolbox. Since the inception of the iTunes App Store ASO has evolved and went through lots of trial and errors.

Today’s guest is David Bell, co-founder and CEO of Gummicube, which is a provider of App Store Optimization (ASO) and App Store Intelligence (ASI) software and services to marketers and developers. David describes what and how to build, market, and optimize products and apps by avoiding common mistakes.

This episode topics include:

Beers or Bears? David describes story behind naming company, Gummicube
3 Focus Areas for Algorithms and Abstractions:
- Paid vs. organic search options
- Conversion optimization
- Paid marketing
Mistake #1: Assuming ASO is executed similarly to search engine optimization (SEO)
- Self-fulfilling Prophecy: Optimize correctly to index keywords and generate traffic
- Merchandising Game: Understand connection between related keyword terms and audiences
Mistake #2: Conversion optimization doesn’t only affect app store listing, but also occurs at keyword level
Mistake #3: Apple and Google are not the same; both app stores are evolving and changing, so success on one does not equal success on the other
David’s favorite apps include LinkedIn and Reddit; most overrated app is Flappy Bird

Links and Resources:

David Linkedin profile

Gummicube

Quotes by David Bell:

“Mobile is a fundamentally different platform than the Web.”

“Search is important, but it really only works if you are optimizing the correct way and you have the right data behind the decisions that you make.”

“This is a game of merchandising. Every keyword is an aisle. Every keyword has related terms. Every keyword has related audiences.”

“The average user gives an app five to six seconds as they’re scrolling through the search results before they decide to download it or not.

Brought to you by Business Of Apps