Ultimate Guide to App User Engagement

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

APP USERENGAGEMENT

Contents

Introduction ..............................................................................................

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Exploring Mobile Engagement Techniques .............................................................

Leveraging Personalization to Better Engage Users ...................................................

Engagement Campaigns – Use Cases for Every Vertical .............................................

5 Tips For Measuring Your Mobile Campaigns ..........................................................

An App Marketing Game Plan for Your Brand ...........................................................

01

03

07

12

20

26

References ............................................................................................... 28

IntroductionMore than 50 percent of Americans own a smartphone1. 800 apps are downloaded

every second from the Apple App Store2. Despite these remarkable numbers, which are

testimony to the popularity of mobile and its prominence in consumers’ daily lives, Localytics

data reveals that many apps — nearly 22 percent — are never used more than once3.

Having a great product with compelling, useful, entertaining & informative features & content

is no doubt the number one way brands can do in order to get people to use their app.

Introduction01

However, data from Nielsen reports that US smartphones have an average of 41 apps

installed — a 32% jump from last year4.

With so much competition, many brands have found they still need to go one extra step to

stay top of mind for users who are faced with an abundance of choices.

With such bleak retention rates, it’s not enough for brands just to “have an app” Brands also

need to enable customers to engage with their app in meaningful ways towards

monetization.

Whether a brand’s business model is driven by in-app purchases, paid subscriptions or

in-app advertising, the key to unlocking app monetization lies in engagement and

personalization. To make this happen, you need deep insights about your users, including

how you acquire them, how they interact with your content, and every step they take

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/05/16Apples-App-Store-Marks-Historic-50-Billionth-Download.html

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/05/16Apples-App-Store-Marks-Historic-50-Billionth-Download.html

http://www.localytics.com/blog/2013/localytics-app-user-retention-data/

http://www.localytics.com/blog/2013/localytics-app-user-retention-data/

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/05/16/nielsen-us-smartphones-have-an-average-of-41-apps-installed-up-from-32-last-year/

Introduction02

through the conversion funnel. For digital marketers, this isn’t rocket science - it’s Marketing

101. When it comes to mobile, things aren’t as easy. Fortunately, during the past five years, the

industry has made huge strides in gaining a deep understanding of mobile users. There are

app user engagement techniques like in-app messaging and push messaging that can help

brands cultivate relationships with their users so they will use their app more frequently and

spend more time engaging with the app. When done properly, in-app messaging and push

messaging will

drive users to the most compelling app features and help them establish optimal user habits

within the app – ultimately leading to higher lifetime value (LTV).

Top-notch mobile analytics are the foundation for brands to achieve this. The discovery of an

app’s best features is accomplished through user behavior analysis, tracking in-app actions

completed and correlating those actions to users with the highest customer lifetime value.

Additionally, analysis of behavior leads to the identification of segments of users who are

interested in particular app screens and features – like particular news content – and lays

the groundwork for personalized and more impactful marketing campaigns.

In this eBook, you will learn

best practices for in app

messaging and push

messaging including

cross-industry and some

vertical specific use cases

and how to measure the

effectiveness of your mobile

marketing campaigns

Chapter 1EXPLORING MOBILE ENGAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Chapter 1: Exploring Mobile Engagement Techniques04

Chapter 1EXPLORING MOBILE ENGAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Let’s take a look at the mobile user engagement options we’re focusing on in this eBook:

Push messaging and in-app messaging.

In-app messages, on the other

hand, are contextually-relevant

messages sent to users while

they are in the app and are a

great way to communicate with

users as part of the app

experience.

You are probably familiar with push messages, which are also commonly referred to as push

notifications. An important function of push messages is to drive users back into your app if

they are not actively engaged with it.

See the table below to learn some of the differences – and similarities – between the two.

Sent

Uses

Features

Format

Function

Value

Set up

IN APP MESSAGING PUSH MESSAGING

In the app Outside of the app.

Great for deriving more value out

of users who already use the app.Great for re-engaging latent

users.

In-app messages can be rolled out

more subtly and tested without

compromising the overall mobile

user experience.

Supports more complex

messages with more room for

longer copy and images.

You can only get this message to

people if they have the app

open. So if the message you

want to send is time sensitive

(like literally a timer going off)

push is better.

Your brand is top-of-mind when

the user is in the app. Therefore

in-app messaging is a great way

to ask for user feedback about

your app in real-time as the user is

actually using it.

Requires extra time to implement

in-app messages effectively and

make them look like they are a

seamless part of your app. More

design work.

Pushes are louder – show up

outside of the app and when

people are using other apps and

websites.

Only room for a few lines of text.

Standard format, so no images.

Simpler messages.

Push is great for time-sensitive

messages - a sale ending today,

flash sale, geo-targeted

messages, breaking news,

emergency alerts.

Push messaging is a great way to

gently poke users back to your

app and keeping top of mind.

Can be used to convey time and

location specific information.

Push messages are meant to stand

out and are in a standardized

format. Requires just a few lines of

text and the standard design for

the app’s operating system.


“The key to

successful customer

engagement is to

think about

personalization and

context.”

How to Use In-App Messaging and Push Messaging Together

For the best results in your app marketing efforts, in app messaging

and push messaging should be used together to engage with users

based on where they are and what they are doing.

There are two reasons why you should do this. First, in-app messaging is

great for communicating with users who are in the app, while push

messaging helps you stay in contact with users who aren’t in the app.

Second, context matters for your messages. Certain messages are better

sent as in-app messages whereas others are better as push messages. For

example, an app store rating request is probably best sent to your most

engaged users in the app while your brand is top of mind. An in-app

message would work great for that. If you sent that as a push message to

people who haven’t used your app in months, it would probably come

across as intrusive, random and out-of-context. To use another example, a

flash sale is a time-sensitive message. You don’t want to wait for your users

to open the app to see that message. Instead, in that case, use push

messaging to get users attention.

The key to successful customer engagement is to think about

personalization and context. In the next chapter we’ll learn more about the

data that drives better personalization and in turn, greater ROI.


Chapter 2LEVERAGING PERSONALIZATION TO BETTER ENGAGE USERS

Chapter 2LEVERAGING PERSONALIZATION TO BETTER ENGAGE USERS

With so much discussion in the industry about the value of personalization in marketing, it’s

worth taking a moment to elaborate on what we mean when we use that term.

Context is important. An in-app message or push message should be relevant to the user

because it is related to what the user is doing now or has done in the recent past.

When we talk about personalization, while every marketer’s dream, we don’t mean down to

the individual person level. In other words, we are not talking about the ability to market

specifically to Emily, a 24-year old Bills fan in Buffalo NY. Rather, we are describing the ability

to scale contextual messaging to thousands or millions of people like Emily – Bills fans,

women ages 18-24, app users located in Buffalo, NY - based on interests proven through

their in-app actions.

M A R K E T T O

Chapter 2: Leveraging Personalization to Better Engage Users08

Segments

A segment is a group of users with

distinguishing characteristics who can be

categorized into marketable, contextual

groupings, through analysis of their

common in-app actions, acquisition

sources, devices and operating systems.

With segments you can:

Identify specific relationships of usage between different parts of an app


Analyze conversion rates of various funnels – registration screens,

check out process, and more

Identify groups of users interested in certain kinds of content or features

See how certain features or campaigns impact likelihood to purchase,

upgrade, register and lifetime vvalue

Trigger in-app messaging and push messaging campaigns to segments

Create more contextual and personalized app marketing. Your

messages will be relevant to the segment’s proven interest, as

evidenced by an analysis of their current and historical actions

While segmentation is an easy concept to understand, in practice creating

and using data-driven segmentation is difficult given it entails shifting

through thousands, if not millions, of data points, to be accurate. Solutions

such as Localytics offer simple yet powerful segmentation tools to

automatically enroll users into segments and workflows based on their

in-app actions and on events completed or not completed.

Setting Up Analytics to Provide Better Engagement

In the app analytics and marketing world, the actions that trigger your marketing campaigns

are called events. Events are used to describe interesting actions that happen within your

app, such as a news article read or action posted to a social network. Additionally, events are

used in funnels to determine drop off and conversion rates toward specific goals. Events are

also used to define user segments that help identify different usage patterns such as users

who did or did not do certain events, or a pair of events in sequence. In turn, events can help

answer questions like “Which app users have looked at a product page this week but never

purchased an item?”

EVENT NAME ATTRIBUTES (EXAMPLE VALUES)

App Start: To describe how an app was opened

Registered/Login: This describes how users are registering/logging into the app.

Push Messaging Choice: This describes if the user has opted into push messaging or not.

Social Media/Content Share: This describes the different social interactions available within your app.

App Exit: To describe various high-level actions of your users in summary form.

Source (Push, Campaign, Organic)

Type (Facebook, email, Twitter)

Choice (Yes, No)

Platform (Twitter, Facebook)

Content ID (Article 123, Article 456, Article XYZ)Action (Share, Like, Follow, Friend)

News Articles Reads, Videos Watched, Items Viewed


Events also have details that describe the action taking place, called attributes. While event

names should be kept broad, attributes describe the specifics about the event. Attributes are

essentially more details about your events that help you track the popularity of specific

content at a more granular level. For example, if you have a magazine app and your event is

“article read,” the title of the article would be the attribute.

Here are some basic events and attributes every app should have set up for fundamental

tracking of their users. These will set the foundation for analytics-driven marketing.

Additionally, depending on your app category, various app features will lend themselves to

different events to be tracked. Here are some vertical-specific event ideas:

No matter what kind of app you have, event-tracking should help you achieve two things:

First, events should build upon each other in a sequence to create the conversion

funnels you envision for your users – such as a product screen view, adding a

product to a shopping cart, and a checkout.

App users who repeat this event most consistently over time provide the highest lifetime value

(LTV). The nature of the app will also help determine what is its ultimate conversion event. For

many apps, like games (which are often free), that would likely be an ad click. For a health and

fitness app, total pounds lost would be a measure of engagement with the tool that indicates

customer lifetime value better than other metrics. Using an analytics solution like Localytics, you

can set a dollar value for your event and track it over time – no matter what that event is or how

you define lifetime value for your brand.

VERTICALEVENTS TO TRIGGER PERSONALIZED

ENGAGEMENT

News apps

eCommerce apps

Social apps

Article viewed, Article shared, Ad clicked, Subscribed

Browse item, Share item, Add to cart, Begin checkout, Complete checkout, Error encountered by app

Friends added, Interact with friends, View content, Post content, Subscribe

1

2


Second, tracking events should help you identify what you would qualify as your

ultimate conversion event such as an in-app purchase.

Chapter 3ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGNS – IDEAS FOR EVERY

VERTICAL

Chapter 3: Engagement Campaigns – Ideas for Every Vertical13

Chapter 3ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGNS – IDEAS FOR EVERY VERTICAL

You now have a good understanding of what in-app messages and push messages are, as

well as how to personalize these messages with context, events, attributes and segments.

TOP 5 ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGNS FOR EVERY APP CATEGORY

1 NPS Survey

The Net Promoter Score survey has

become a standard business metric for

customer happiness. The 1-question

survey asks customers to rate on a scale

of 1 to 10 how likely they are to

recommend your company. Use an

in-app message to send an NPS survey

to app users. App and brand “Promoters”

can be pursued with follow up in-app

message campaigns requesting an app

store rating. Detractors can be sent to an

internal feedback channel.

We are now ready to create campaigns to engage with customers. We have collected nine

tried and tested engagement campaigns; five that work across every app category and four

industry-specific engagement campaigns for push messaging and in-app messaging.

2 “Upgrade Your App!”

To drive engagement, you want users on the

latest and best version of your app. Prompt

users to upgrade to the latest version a push

message campaign.

3 “We’ve Missed You!”(So Try This Feature)

On it’s own, “We’ve Missed You!” isn’t a very

interesting push campaign. But as you

become more sophisticated in your analysis

of your users, you will see connections

between particular features and repeat app

use. Once you discover these signature

features, you will know what the most

compelling features are that you’ll want to draw

attention to in order to bring latent users back

into the app.


Localytics customer Swagg uses in-app

messaging to prompt users to upgrade their

app. They make the call to action that much

more enticing by drawing attention to a

feature the user can take advantage of in the

new version.

4 Sales and Coupons

Mobile users love great deals. In fact,

according to Juniper Research, consumers

are 10x more likely to redeem mobile

coupons than print coupons!5

5 Earn Rewards

In the same vein as the previous suggestion,

mobile users love ways to use their apps to

save money and earn rewards. To do this,

users may need to complete a user profile or

add membership credentials. However, this

requires the completion of several steps in

the app that the user may forget, or decline,

to complete, no matter how much they want

to earn those rewards. Track users who

drop-off from registration funnels, segment

them and roll them into re-engagement push

campaigns that remind them of the value that

awaits them once they complete registration.


Time-sensitive offers like flash sales work

particularly well for push message campaigns,

while in-app messages are especially great at

driving in-app purchases.

http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/2162288/shoppers-to-redeem-10-billion-mobile-coupons-this-year------research?goback=%2Egde_4862881_member_215803984#%21

1 News Apps

For news apps, your monetization goal is two-fold. First, you want to drive ad revenue. To do

this, you need to increase time users spend in the app. With targeted push messages, you

can pull users back into the app toward content they have previously shown interest in. Sec-

ondly, you may offer paid subscriptions. Nudge users down the purchase funnel toward a

paid subscription upgrade with in-app messaging.

4 INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC CAMPAIGNS

Push Campaign

Say you have identified a segment of users who have shown interest

in sports news through an “articles read” event. Alert those users of

today’s top sports news stories with a push message campaign.


In-App Messaging Campaign

The readers who click through that push message are clearly

an engaged and prime audience for a paid subscription

upgrade. Offer them a free trial.

2

In addition to all other channels, mobile is yet another valuable customer touch point that will

help you drive more lifetime value out of that relationship. As a retail company your objective

is to drive in-store purchases, and you can help users do just that with the help of the app.

Retail Apps


Push Campaign

A retail store can send a “one-day-only 50% off all new

merchandise” offer to frequent shopper club members. For those

who aren’t in the frequent shopper club, the store can in parallel

target non-members with a campaign that encourages them to

login to the app and join the frequent shoppers club in order to

take advantage of the discount.


Retail apps can unify the in-store and mobile experience

through app features like in-store barcode scanners that reveal

in-app product reviews that help customers make more

informed in-store purchases..


3 eCommerce Apps

As an eCommerce company, your primary goal is to drive in-app purchases. Highly

personalized messages based on real in-app behavior can drive the user further down the

funnel toward conversion. For brands with retail stores, geo-targeted messages can drive

in-store traffic by promoting new brick and mortar locations.

Push Campaign

Whether it’s a fishing pole or a pair of high heels, abandoned

items left in the cart is pressing issue for eCommerce companies.

Push messaging truly shines in this use case because of its ability

to communicate with these users outside of the app.

Nudge forgetful, but high value, users out of limbo with a push

message campaign offering free shipping or a discount


Registered users are more frequent buyers. Stored credit card

credentials facilitate easier repeat purchases and email

subscribers have your brand top-of-mind with daily updates on

sales and other special offers. Encourage users to register

during onboarding with a series of in-app messages.

4 Games

Since mobile games are generally free, your goal is to drive ad revenue by increasing

session length and time spent playing the game in your app. You can achieve this by

creating an engaging app experience with the game and by pointing out the most interesting

aspects of the game to users whose in-app behavior suggests they are missing out.


Push Campaign

A push campaign is a great way to encourage users who have

not played in a while to come back and play again or to remind

them when it is their turn. It is also an effective way to introduce

your new games to your audience.


Trigger an in-app message if the user has been lingering for a

while without making a next move in the game. Offer the user

the option of skipping a turn or offer help. For example, for a

game like Scrabble, use an in-app message to offer a link to an

in-app thesaurus to help get users to play their next move. This

provides helpful content and prevents the user from getting

frustrated and losing interest in the game.

Chapter 45 TIPS FOR MEASURING YOUR MOBILE

CAMPAIGNS

Chapter 45 TIPS FOR MEASURING YOUR MOBILE CAMPAIGNS

As we saw through practical examples in Chapter 3, both in-app messages and push

messages can be a valuable tool for both customers and businesses. By measuring your

campaign efforts, you will be able to better understand and optimize your customer

engagement. Here are five best practices to follow for measuring your mobile campaigns.

Think Beyond App Opens1

Let’s say a department store with an iPhone app is launching a push messaging campaign to

promote a highly sought-after new line of handbags. For this promotion, the retailer will send

push messages to users who have previously shown interest in handbags to pique their

interest in a 20% off coupon off their first in-app purchase of the new line. The goal is to drive

in-app purchases of the handbags.

A B

Chapter 4: 5 Tips For Measuring Your Mobile Campaigns23

The retailer runs an A/B test, sending at least two versions of the campaign to significant

samples of its target audience to see which message yields more conversions:

20% of those customers who received Message A took the first step and opened the app

while 15% of those who received Message B took the same action.

At first glance, it seems that Message A wins the contest, because of its higher open rate.

But the contest is not over yet; the retailer wants users to make an in-app purchase. If you

were only tracking app opens from this campaign, you would continue to invest in Message

A – which may actually have a lower conversion rate to in-app purchase than Message B.

Because of this unknown, it’s critical to look at the full picture.

Define Conversions for Your Brand2

Have a clear goal in mind with your campaign. Like all good marketing, app marketing should

start with your short and long-term goals in mind, and the metrics you pay the most attention

to will be dependent on those prioritized goals. Are you looking to drive in-app purchases, or

are you looking to increase time spent in the app?

Improve Impressions and Clicks3

We now know it’s important to think beyond app opens and to track conversions. But

between the point of app open and the point of conversion lies a great deal of opportunity

for optimization.


A B

23

Low Impressions

If your metrics indicate low impressions, you need to broaden

the reach of your campaign. In particular:

If your in-app message campaign is triggered by app opens,

think about driving more app opens through a push

messaging campaign.

If your push message campaign is seeing low impressions, it

is likely a case of low monthly active users (MAUs) and you

may want to crank up your user acquisition efforts.

If your campaign is triggered by an in-app event, you need to

evaluate whether or not the audience, which could be

relatively small, is achieving a sufficient conversion rate and

LTV to validate the campaign. If not, you may want to redirect

your efforts to larger segments.

Low Click Through Rate (CTR)

If your metrics indicate a low click through rate, consider the

following:

Design performance: Does the ad creative on your in-app

message show up blurry or warped on certain devices or

operating systems? Investigate further.

Ad copy: The text, and even the translation to other

languages, could potentially use improvement to more

clearly nudge users towards a call to action.

Once you have your campaign up and running, A/B test your

copy and creative to drive more clicks and conversions. Similar

to other marketing channels like banner ads, landing pages and

email, simple ad copy tests like comparing the effectiveness of

“Buy Now” and “Checkout” on conversion buttons can deliver

major results.

Chapter 4: 5 Tips For Measuring Your Mobile Campaigns

Tie Campaigns to LTV5


Evaluate How Your Campaign “Ages”4

Monitor how interest in your campaign trends over time. As per the example chart below, an

initial spark of interest and conversions may happen in the beginning of your campaign,

especially for in app messaging campaigns triggered by app opens. But once less frequent

app users begin to see the campaign, clicks may trail off after a few weeks, indicating it is

time for a refresh.

Finally, the most effective way to know if a campaign is successful is to compare the lifetime

value of app users who were impacted by the campaign against those who did not. In your

analytics, you can set a value for every subscription, product purchase, ad view, or time

spent in app. Next, create an event for “Seen In App Message” with an attribute for the

specific campaign. When reviewing your lifetime value report, filter the report with this

information to evaluate whether your app engagement strategy is translating into long-term

value for your brand.

If you’re a Localytics customer, once you have set up lifetime value tracking for your app you

can head on over to the Monetize tab to analyze your lifetime value report.

To see how your app marketing efforts impact your lifetime value, apply a filter to the report.

In this case, we created a segment for users who saw the in-app message.

Now you can see the impact of the in-app message - a 12% lift in lifetime value!

25 Chapter 4: 5 Tips For Measuring Your Mobile Campaigns

Chapter 5PUTTING THESE LESSONS INTO PRACTICE

Chapter 5: Putting These Lessons Into Practice27

Chapter 5PUTTING THESE LESSONS INTO PRACTICE

App user engagement strategies like in-app

messaging and push messaging can drive more

lifetime value for brands and more delightful,

informative and useful app engagement

experiences for consumers by increasing

awareness of an app’s best features.

Push messaging is particularly great for

re-engaging latent users, while in-app messaging

can pull engaged users further into your app

ultimately and towards conversion. Taking into

account the context users will encounter your

messages is a good starting point for more

effective marketing campaigns. Additionally, some

messages lend themselves to one format or the

other, such as time sensitive ones which are best

suited to push messaging. In-app and push

messaging fundamentally complement one another

and the best user engagement strategies are ones

that use them together.

In Chapter 4, we looked at effective techniques for measuring your campaigns. We learned

that while app opens from push messages are great, conversion is king. Your definition of

conversion needs to be aligned with your app monetization strategy and that is how marketing

campaign success should be judged. We talked about how to diagnose and remedy common

campaign issues such as low impressions and CTRs, and the potential to create long-term

brand value in linking the LTV of your customers to campaigns.

Ultimately, brands looking to monetize their apps will find that robust user engagement and

personalization can lead to increased conversions, revenue and lifetime value for your brand.

To achieve this level of engagement requires deep, actionable insights about your users.

Analytics solutions such as Localytics can help you achieve this quickly and effectively.

27

“Ultimately, brands

looking to monetize

their apps will find

that robust user

engagement and

personalization can

lead to increased

conversions, revenue

and lifetime value for

your brand. ”

References28

References1 - http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx (pg 1)

2 - http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/05/16Apples-App-Store-Marks-Historic-50-Billionth-

Download.html (pg 1)

3 - http://www.localytics.com/blog/2013/localytics-app-user-retention-data/ (pg 1)

4 - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/05/16/nielsen-us-smartphones-have-an-average-of-

41-apps-installed-up-from-32-last-year/ (pg 1)

5 - http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/2162288/shoppers-

to-redeem-10-billion-mobile-coupons-this-year------research?goback=%2Egde_4862881_

member_215803984#%21 (pg 15)

Localytics is the leading marketing and analytics platform for mobile and web apps. Localytics works

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York Times, helping them create great experiences for their customers and maximizing profitability,

engagement, lifetime value, and loyalty. Localytics provides analytics and marketing for

more than 1 billion devices across more than 20,000 apps.

Trusted by top brands to provide actionable insight.

Schedule a demo of Localytics today.

For more information visit www.localytics.com or

contact [email protected] to request a demo.

For more information visit www.localytics.com or contact [email protected] to request a demo.

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