What is Mobile App Retargeting: Definition, Importance & Best Practices

One of every five mobile app users completely forgets about an application after downloading and opening it once. Little wonder that your daily active users are significantly low compared to your number of downloads.

There are several great tactics geared toward re-engaging users. However, you need a customized strategy that relies on insight from users' past interactions, pointing toward interests and preferences. In this case, mobile app retargeting campaigns are the best strategies for reminding users what your brand is about while fostering positive in-app usage that boosts user retention rates. This guide explains mobile app retargeting and why you need it, highlighting all the best practices.

What Is Mobile Retargeting?

App retargeting is a series of ad strategies that target customers or users who previously visited the app but stopped using it. Typically, an app retargeting campaign will use certain mobile users' previous behaviors to draw insight and create personalized ads that encourage re-engagement, down-funnel, or conversion. 

This strategy is so effective that, when executed properly, it can boost users' conversion rates by 38%. Read on to discover why it’s important and how it stands out from similar strategies.

Remarketing vs Retargeting: What’s the Difference?

Did you know that 54% of customers purchase goods they previously kept in their shopping carts because of effective remarketing? This is because some customers might need to interact with a business a few times before committing to purchase. 

Meanwhile, most of these users leave without converting on their first visit. Retargeting simply converts these passive customers to monthly active users.

However, while these two tactics might have the same goals, retargeting is different from remarketing in a number of ways. Here we present a few of them so you’d grasp the remarketing vs retargeting argument better:

Explicit vs Implicit Data For Personalization

Both retargeting and remarketing use data to personalize their offers, but the type of data used varies. Remarketing campaigns use explicit data from users or via marketing campaigns, such as usernames or customers' email addresses. On the other hand, retargeting uses implicit data collected from stored cookies or anonymized sources. These implicit data help create personalized mobile retargeting ads for individual users or user groups while surfing the net. 

Diverse Communication Channels

Remarketing campaigns employ direct communication channels such as push notifications, emails, or social media. On the other hand, retargeting leverages third-party online sites for strategic ad placements. Either way, both will effectively engage users and open a pathway towards purchasing.

Why Mobile App Retargeting is Important

App retargeting is a marketing strategy that has come to stay. Here are some of the top benefits of retargeting you should consider:

1. Personalized Approach to In-App Conversions

No one likes a generic ad that doesn’t create the right emotional connections. Mobile app retargeting campaigns leverage behavior insights and data to craft some of the most compelling and personalized experiences and offers that increase the chances of in-app conversion. 

2. Quick and Strategic Influence Over Customers

Mobile app retargeting campaigns leverage real-time data and unique user behaviors. Both key factors allow for quick but strategic modifications to in-app messaging and campaigns. Moreover, such behavioral retargeting encourages prompt responses to dynamic market trends and user preferences. Ideally, you would expect an increase in chances of boosting conversion rates and influencing purchase decisions.

3. Higher Sales

Since app retargeting helps you attract old users who previously bought or showed interest in a product or service, it directly leads to higher sales when these users make a purchasing decision. Ultimately, if your product is great, they can make repeat purchases, increasing their customer lifetime value (CLV).

4. Brand Message Promotion

There’s no better way to say this—retargeting keeps your products in the sight of those that matter. You can be so consistent in your remarketing efforts that your abandoned users would be compelled to purchase again. Similarly, this re-engagement strategy will eventually make your brand a household name, allowing you to offer users better product recommendations and increase sales.

5. Cost-Effectiveness and Precision

It offers a precise and cheaper way to focus ad expenses on specific users who have shown interest in the past. When your marketers focus on such a relevant target audience, your ad spending will be lower and more efficient.

6. Improved Customer Engagement

Special offers can increase user engagement, but if you tailor your offers and content to appeal to your targets’ emotions, you will build a loyal database of users. The more a user can emotionally identify with that service or product, the better your chances of converting.

Types of Mobile App Retargeting

So you need to convert dormant users to paying customers, but your marketer tells you you have two choices: static retargeting or dynamic retargeting. Which type of retargeting should you use? Here is what they mean:

Static Retargeting

Static retargeting is an app retargeting strategy that creates different formats of one ad as the foundation for an entire marketing campaign. It can be used to create wider awareness of a service or particular product. 

Dynamic Retargeting

Dynamic retargeting is the marketing process of creating unique ads for each user, usually with the help of machine learning technology. Machine learning utilizes computer algorithms to predict users and classify their behaviors. It then predicts the defining element capable of making each user buy a product. With the help of machine learning, marketers can recognize standout features, user interests, engagement patterns, or sales funnels and craft personalized ads that convert.

Choosing between these types depends on your campaign goals and resources. If your aim is broad awareness, static retargeting might be sufficient, whereas dynamic retargeting is ideal for personalized engagement and higher conversion rates.

Best Practices of Mobile App Retargeting

It's one thing to decide when to use app retargeting strategies. It's another thing to do it correctly while maintaining top customer satisfaction. Here are some app retargeting tips to help you make the most of your campaign:

1. Don't be a Nuisance to Users 

Don't make your ads too frequent to avoid annoying your targeted users into deleting and never using your app again. Also, be careful not to include paying customers or users already engaging in the app.

2. Leverage Deep Links

Deep linking is the act of using hyperlinks to send users directly to a specific page or spot within your application. This contrasts with the most ads, which take users to a homepage or a business website with little guidance.

Deep links are a must-have if you want to direct more app users to particular in-app pages while boosting engagement, customer retention rate, and conversion. You also need a deep link if you require straightforward push notification strategies and precise banner campaigns that inform the user. Deep links will save your users time and effort searching for a page themselves and encourage repeat purchases.

3. A/B Testing

A/B testing involves trying out different designs or campaigns to find the ones that resonate the most with the target audience. You can channel a tiny budget to this and observe the result before doubling down on the most effective one. This will save you a great deal of resources and effort.

4. Focus on Strong User Segmentation for Accurate Targeting

User segmentation can ease the whole mobile app retargeting campaign process when done correctly. You can employ segmentation attributes such as customer purchases, location, time zone, and gender to craft a personalized ad for that targeted audience.

5. Consider Small Screens When Crafting Ads

It's important to note that your users access your app from devices of different screen sizes. As such, it's important to make your designs legible enough to accommodate all kinds of devices, from tablets to small-sized phones. You don't want people to zoom 10x to read the details of your design. That would make them scroll past without trying to engage.

Moreover, more people are consuming content on smaller screens today, and all the big firms are making more mobile-friendly content. Smaller screens allow you to make your visuals clear and crisp and the text easy to read. What’s more, any clickable element from your mobile retargeting ads will be very visible and hard to miss. 

Now that you know the best practices for mobile app retargeting, how do you effectively measure the success of your efforts? Read on to find out.

Metrics to Measure Successful Mobile App Retargeting

If you’ve gotten this far, surely you would want to know if your mobile app retargeting campaign successfully achieves your re-engagement goals. There are some metrics you ought to monitor to understand how your campaign is performing and whether you need to make adjustments:

• Cost Per Acquisition: This KPI tracks and measures your cost of acquiring new customers or users of your app during your re-engagement campaigns. Suppose you get a higher cost per acquisition. In that case, you aren’t getting that value for your ad expenses. A lower CPA means you’re doing it right.
• Click-Through Rate: Your click-through rate tells you the percentage of people who click on your mobile app retargeting ad after viewing it. As a rule of thumb, a high CTR suggests that your ad is relevant and that your targets find it engaging.
• Return on Ad Spend: As the name suggests, this metric measures the revenues of your retargeting campaign compared to its cost. You want your return on ad spend to remain high at all times; it shows that you’re gaining profitable revenue from in-app conversion.
• Conversion Rate: Finally, your conversion rate measures the percentage of users who clicked your retargeting ad and followed an action. For instance, if a user clicks on your special offer and makes an in-app purchase, this action is recorded. 

5 Examples of Mobile App Retargeting 

From using promos to harnessing the power of personalized data, these five examples will provide further guidance on how to make that retargeting investment worthwhile and increase ROI.

J.Crew Factory

J.Crew, an e-commerce platform for all things fashion and accessories, leverages promos and deadline-based offers to retarget customers. The factory created a sense of urgency by using sales offerings like the one pictured above and countdown timers to incentivize users to return to their site and complete orders.

Mott & Bow

Mott & Bow follows a unique direction in their retargeting strategy by utilizing the power of social proof. They stick to the idea that potentially targeted users can make derived purchasing decisions from others.

RedBalloon

In addition to leveraging promos and deadline-based offers, RedBalloon focuses on showing users what they are missing out on. They also remind users of details of their abandoned carts to encourage purchasing decisions and stronger app retention.

Fossil

Fossil is upfront and direct with its app targeting tactics, offering users discounts and free shipping. For instance, the picture above is a campaign aimed at Father’s Day shoppers. The simplicity and straight-to-the-point nature of the ad will help users determine early on whether they want to hop in.

Madewell

Madewell has perfected the art of leveraging users’ personalized preferences for retargeting while also using segmentation factors like location to offer the availability of its shipping capabilities.

Final Thoughts

Mobile retargeting offers many great benefits, such as improved user engagement and higher customer conversion rates. Setting up a campaign from scratch can seem daunting, but Reteno can help you stay on top of the game without breaking a sweat or missing a lead. 

Reteno is the leading user engagement platform for turning idle and lapsed users into frequent customers. Our features are tried and tested, and our prices help you optimize costs from the start to the end of your re-engagement strategy.

Do you have a special message or offer to re-engage your users? Reteno has 8 channels you can choose from: SMS, personalization for apps & web, personalized push notifications, email, and more. Join over 300 global brands today and begin your mobile app retargeting journey by signing up today.