Mobile retargeting: what is it and how to use it to return players?

The article is a brief summary of Alexey’s speech at the #TargetSummit conference in Moscow on October 26.

Alexey PisarevskyMobile retargeting shows ads for the app to its users

Today, mobile retargeting is gaining popularity among foreign and domestic companies.

This technology shows ads to users who are already familiar with the product, who have already installed a mobile application from the store and may even have launched it.

The task of retargeting is to return users who have not reached the purchase or offer something new to the previously active ones.

With its help, you can advertise new features, report new promotions, talk about new content, thereby not only returning the lost audience, but also, if desired, increasing the average check of the already paying audience.

Mobile retargeting is the next step in the evolution of mobile marketing

There are many reasons for the demand for retargeting.

Firstly, traffic is getting more expensive: the price of installing new users (CPI) is growing, it becomes less profitable to buy them.

Secondly, shareware ways to return the user, such as SMS, push notifications or mailing lists, are working worse, users ignore or simply disable them.

All this happens against the background of the fact that 80% of users do not return to the application 3 months after installation. And in general, people use fewer and fewer applications, but the remaining ones are launched much more often.

In addition, the market is oversaturated with devices. In developed countries, almost every user already has a smartphone. It’s hard to grow at the expense of new devices..

Because of all this, working with current users is much more efficient and profitable. That’s what retargeting is for.

How does mobile retargeting work?

Mobile retargeting is based on the technology of “deep links” (deep links, they are also deep links).

A regular deep link is a link that, when clicked, the user immediately opens a mobile application. Deeplink can open not only the main screen of the application, but also a specific screen inside the application.

For retargeting to work, the URL scheme must be configured in the application. The instagram://profile link, for example, opens the profile screen in the instagram app.

Proper deep links are a great user experience.

They allow you to implement the following scenario: when you surf the Internet, click on a link that interests you, for example, “sale of boosters with five-star heroes”, and you immediately fall into the window you need in a mobile game. Direct connection of the mobile web with the mobile application!

The usual URL schemes are easy to set up and work reliably, but, unfortunately, clicks on them can hardly be measured in any way.

Not so long ago, Universal Links technology appeared on the market.

Universal Links is a regular http link to a website of the form http://website.com . When you click on the link, the system automatically detects whether the application is installed on the device.

If yes, the user opens a page in the application.

If not, the user is transferred to the website or to the App Store / Play Store.

Many developers have already switched to using Universal Links — this significantly improves the UX. Although they are difficult to configure and do not work very reliably yet. The technology is young, so there are shortcomings.

Appsflyer and Adjust trackers offer their own links that work on the principle of Universal Links. The advantage of such links is that the transitions on them are fully tracked by the tracking system. The downside is that fully configuring such links is a rather time—consuming task.

Who and how to return?

There are many scenarios and approaches for returning users to the mobile application. Mobile retargeting is suitable for almost all verticals where you can make a purchase: e-commerce, travel, food, taxi, games, gambling, dating and others.

There are different ways to segment users.

The basic segments for retargeting look like this:

• we looked at the products, but did not add anything to the cart;
• added to the cart, but did not make a purchase;
• bought recently (the goal is to sell more);
• sleeping — bought earlier, then stopped.

And now let’s look at the most popular user return scenarios:

• special offer: discount on the next order;
• the appearance of new functions in the application;
• message about new ways to use the app;
• banners with products viewed by the user;
• banners with products that complement products that the user has already viewed;
• reminder of forgotten items in the shopping cart: “You forgot the item in the cart.”

Using the example of the gaming vertical, you can segment users as follows:

1. Defaulters

• installed and failed the tutorial;
• have passed the tutorial, are inactive and have not made a payment;
• have passed the tutorial, are active, but do not pay;
• played for a long time and did not pay.

2. Payers

For payers, segmentation occurs according to the RFM analysis method. The audience is divided by the amount, frequency and prescription of payments. Make, for example, a segment: they paid more than the N-amount and did not enter for 30 days. This segment is perfect for news about updates in the game, new mechanics, new maps, levels, and so on.

Basic return scenarios (custom):

• return users for certain game events;
• to return active defaulters under a certain offer, for example, shares. To target the advertising of this offer to those who have been actively playing lately, have not paid, but have not visited in recent days and may miss the promotion;
• return users by remaining resources. For example, a user has run out of some resource in the game, and you offer him a gift or a promotion with this resource;
• return to raise hold (1, 7, 28);
• return to maintain a certain DAU. Cheaper than UA (especially in online PvP games).

The success of any retargeting campaign lies in the correct segmentation of the audience. Segmentation largely depends on the subject and type of business. Therefore, before launching a campaign, select segments for a specific vertical, and also work out the main return scenarios.