Mobile apps are key to success in retail

appdevelopermagazine.com
Mobile retail apps are the best form of product user acquisition says a report by App Annie.

Apps are the preeminent way for retailers to reach your customers. Whether you are getting consumers to your app, measuring their engagement, encouraging purchases, analyzing their sentiment or expanding to new markets, app data will fuel your mobile success and thereby your company’s success. From competitive benchmarking to international expansion, 

App Annie has delivered new data and insights that show what is needed to succeed in the app economy, so we spoke to Lexi Sydow, Market Insights Manager, App Annie to get more insight.

ADM: What is the most interesting or thought-provoking finding in this report?

Sydow: One of the most astonishing findings in this report is that American mobile users spent nearly 50 minutes in shopping apps every month. That adds up to over 600 minutes, or 10 hours, every year in shopping apps alone. As the mobile app economy continues to grow, retailers who get a head start on app development and mobile strategy have the opportunity to grab market share early. From there, retailers can continue to optimize their mobile strategies to maintain momentum through the ongoing mobile evolution. Mobile apps are key to success in retail and should be prioritized as a primary channel to reach customers. 

ADM: What are the three most important things that app developers can take from this report?

Sydow: The first step to a successful app is building relevant features and a personalized experience. The second is getting users to download the app. Without users, even the best app won't succeed. Therefore, User Acquisition (UA), should be an active and ongoing effort, not a passive exercise. 

Secondly, it's important to notes that Digital-First retailers exceeded Bricks-and-Clicks retailers in average sessions per user and therefore generated more revenue opportunities each month. Bricks-and-Clicks apps need to focus their attention on increasing their sessions per user in order to increase their top line.

Lastly, increasing browsing capabilities, loyalty programs and product recommendations can increase the time spent per user in-app which can have a material impact on a retailer's top line. Having a trusted app partner can help app developers identify the key strategies that will help them to achieve their specific goals and drive ROI.

ADM: With the industry becoming more and more complex every day, how can businesses use this data to build a better app that stands out against the competition?

Sydow: This data pinpoints where customers are spending the most time in apps. It also gives an idea of where the industry is going. For example, we predict that we will see an increase in app-only or app-exclusive deals this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Companies that are adopting these types of strategies have the advantage of preparing their app ahead of time for the holiday traffic. To truly be successful in the long term, businesses need to stay mindful of what their competitors are doing and constantly monitoring trends and adjusting their engagement tactics throughout the app's lifetime. The data from this report allows retailers to accurately measure customer satisfaction and implement changes to reflect customer demand. Additionally, these insights help brands benchmark against competitors in order to incorporate best practices that move the needle on critical engagement metrics affecting basket size and lifetime value.

ADM: How has the global mobile competitive landscape changed for businesses over the past 5 years?

Sydow: Consumers are now spending more time on mobile than they were five years ago. In fact, global downloads of Shopping apps grew 20% year over year in H1 2017 across both iOSand Google Play, and the average Android phone user spent a minimum of 35 minutes across Shopping apps each month in H1 2017 among countries analyzed in this report, with South Korean consumers leading the pack at nearly 100 minutes spent in shopping apps each month. In the past five years, more companies have created mobile apps to engage and retain customers. This data shows that the app economy is gaining speed, not only for retailers but also app developers at large. No matter where you are on the path to mobile, data is imperative to fueling success. Also, having a reliable partner who can share insights and best practices on the industry and competitive landscape can help a business stay ahead of competitors and keep their mobile momentum strong.

ADM: What unique advantage or opportunities do retail apps have over other categories in the industry? (i.e. gaming or social apps)

Sydow: The unique advantage retail apps have is the intimate, direct channel they provide for customers and their ability to bridge the online and offline world. Increasingly apps are being used to create a more meaningful and fulfilling experience in-store. Additionally, retail apps have a wealth of data including past purchase behavior, abandoned cart data and information on consumer wish lists and favorite products. This enables retailers to push out specific product recommendations and foster brand loyalty. Retail apps also create an immersive and personalized shopping experience for each user, representing a massive opportunity for brands to reach, influence and convert shoppers. More so than any other app category, retail apps have the opportunity build true brand engagement and offer the ability for retailers to create seamless touch points between brand and consumer. 

Lexi Sydow, Market Insights
Manager, App Annie

ADM: What will be the biggest challenge for retail apps this holiday season?

Sydow: One challenge retail apps will struggle with is trying to set themselves apart from other apps. In a saturated market, retailers need a solid app strategy to ensure they're attracting and retaining customers. Retailers must continuously be examining app analytics to determine how people are using their app and what features are most valuable to these users. This information in turn influences how they measure success, whether it is sessions per user, total time in-app or ratings and reviews. This report specifically highlights how cross-app usage can shed light on users' preferences and affinities and in turn better inform User Acquisition (UA) techniques, tips for competing with Digital-First retailers, and details on how particular companies have used mobile to expand their footprint globally. As the retail industry continues to innovate to stay relevant, creating a strong mobile app can easily become the cornerstone of retailers' overall strategy for success. 

ADM: Why do you believe increased time in app leads to more dollars spent?

Sydow: Consumers today are on track to spend well over 1 Trillion hours using apps in 2017, as more and more functions migrate to mobile (banking, video streaming, dating, etc.). A greater portion of people's lives are being integrated into smartphones (e.g. shopping, banking, paying, dating, music streaming, communication, ride-sharing, etc). As a result, people are using more apps each month and spend more time in apps to complement their daily activities. When it comes down to shopping, consumers are spending more time in-apps to both browse, collate wish lists and ultimately make purchases. Each app session, whether to browse products, unlock deals, access loyalty programs or order a product, ultimately drives the consumer one step closer to purchase. 

A Critical Look at the Ecosystem, Part 2: How to Build a Solid Talent Development Structure

esportsobserver.com

This is the second in a two-part guest series, written by Hendrik Mokrusch, looking at the esports ecosystem. Specifically, what needs to change in the semi-pro scene, in order to build a solid structure for talent development. You can find the first part here.

Part 4: Building a solid structure for talent development

In a recent academic journal, Llorens (2017) compares the sports and esports ecosystem and argues that one of esports’ most pressing social questions is how the young amateur scene is going to be supported to consistently bring up new and diverse talent. I agree with Llorens, and I would specifically say that the semi-pro scene needs to improve its Cooperation, Transparency, and Efficiency.

Cooperation

The biggest issue with the current ecosystem is its inefficiency in consistently bringing up new talent.

Value co-creation is big in esports and as such I would argue that cooperation is the most developed success factor in the industry. People and organizations tend to stick together because they all push towards the same goals: professionalize and grow esports. It’s an industry that we keep close in our hearts — a hobby turned career. Yet, we have to be careful that we don’t let some parts of our network starve. I would personally like to see greater cooperation between:

• Game publishers and semi-pro leagues
• Team orgs and player associations
• Entrepreneurs and the semi-pro scene

Transparency

I wouldn’t say the ecosystem is cloudy or incomprehensible for the uninitiated. If you sit down with someone who has never heard of esports before, and you talk them through the basics of what an esport game is and how people compete, they will understand. But again, there are aspects that I would like to see more transparency in:

• Organisational structures (who owns what & who has a stake in what). Esports journalist Richard Lewis has extensively covered some of the most recent conflicts of interests relating to this.
• Semi-pro teams need to show players more clearly where their salaries will come from and how they intend to make money. Denial Esports recently made news in this area, and not in a good way.
• Player contracts. Luckily there are many new projects starting up here such as this one, featuring retired LoL pro Marcel ‘Dexter’ Feldkamp)

Efficiency

The biggest issue I have with the current ecosystem is its inefficiency in consistently bringing up new talent. In a 2015 interview with RedBull, LoL pro sOAZ said that playing and climbing in Solo Queue was the only way for aspiring pro players to get the attention of pro organisations — other pros such as Rekkles have echoed this as a ‘best practice’. Doesn’t this sound deeply troubling?

If you make it to the top of a game’s ladder it will most certainly get you on the radar of pro teams, but esports is not only about the top 1%.

If you make it to the top of a game’s ladder it will most certainly get you on the radar of pro teams — but esports is not only about the top 1%. What about the semi-pro teams that look for top 1000 players or players who have shown great learning and growth potential but haven’t made it beyond 3999 SR in Overwatch? These players deserve a shot at esports recognition as well, but they often fly under the radar of team managers.

For my own master thesis, I conducted two online questionnaires and received over 270 responses from esports players — 14% Casual, 51% Amateurs, 32% Semi-Pro, 3% Pro. Across the board, players did not have a solid alternative to what sOAZ and Rekkles proposed.

In a separate survey, I then asked team owners and managers about their scouting and recruiting approaches. In total, I received feedback from over 20 managers — 10% Casual, 41% Amateurs, 32% Semi-Pro, 16% Pro.

I found that teams rely heavily on a variety of approaches to find players. This is not only time consuming but also resource-heavy (both the search and integration of a new player). Time and other resources — talk about things that semi-pro teams don’t have.

Finally, when asked about what made their player scouting and recruiting most difficult, the respondents highlighted the following.

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Conclusion

In a regular sports career, you go from Regional to Global. In esports, you go from nowhere to Global.

I think the semi-pro scene needs something more tangible.In my conversations with semi-pro and pro team managers, it simply came down to this: the rank you achieve in any given game does not determine your fit for a team. Motivation, interpersonal skills, mindset — these were all aspects of a player’s persona that teams said were equally or even more important than raw skill.

If you can show that you are resilient, that you are self-motivated and great with people then you will be much higher up on the list of players that teams want to pick from.

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TL;DR

Academic

• In a regular sports career, you go from Regional to Global. In esports, you go from nowhere to Global. Currently, a career as an esports player is simply not as straightforward and transparent.
• The esports ecosystem development is still in its infancy, meaning there are many more actors to join and improvements to be made before we have a sound structure and industry backbone to build on.
• Common success factors of business ecosystems are: Cooperation, Transparency, Decentralisation, Flexibility, Efficiency.

My own opinion

• Esports, and specifically the semi-pro scene, need greater cooperation between game publishers & leagues, teams & player associations, entrepreneurs & semi-pro scene.
• More transparency is needed around ownership and structures of esports organizations, player contracts and the financial sustainability of teams.
• The semi-pro scene needs more efficient talent development structures that offer advanced solutions for talent scouting, recruiting, and professionalization of talent profiles.

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References/Further Reading

Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien (2004): “The Keystone Advantage” – Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti and inventor Roy Levien introduce the idea of keystone actors who lead the development of business ecosystems.

Shaker A. Zahra and Satish Nambisan (2012): “Entrepreneurship and strategic thinking in business ecosystems” – Two business scholars from the US explore how actors influence each other in ecosystems, and what is needed to make ecosystems succeed.

Mirva Peltoniemi and Elisa Vuori (2008): “Business Ecosystems as the New Approach to Complex Adaptive Business Environments” – Two finnish business researchers define business ecosystems by referring back to biological ecosystems and give a comprehensive overview on the topic.

Kevin Kelly (2010): “What Technology Wants” – The founding executive editor of ‘WIred’ takes a broad look at how technology enhances our lives. He also discusses what makes biological ecosystems successful and sustainable.

Juha Markus Winter (2014): “Success Factors of Mobile Business Ecosystems” – A PhD Thesis in the general field of Technological Science that researched the mobile business ecosystem, e.g. app developers, customers, phone manufacturers, and highlights what allowed the ecosystem to be highly profitable and sustainable.

Felix Brockmann (2012): “eSport im Spannungsfeld zwischen Profession und ‘Szene’” – A German magazine article in the field of social sciences and professional practice that takes a look at the professionalisation of the esports infrastructureG

T.L. Taylor (2012): “Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalisation of Computer Gaming” – Taylor’s book is a perfect read for anyone who is interested in the history and development of esports. Amazing for industry newcomers, interesting for everyone.

Katherine E. Hollist (2015): “Time to be grown-ups about video gaming: The rising esports industry and the need for regulation” – A critical look at the esports ecosystem from the perspective of a US law scholar. Includes interesting viewpoints about the issues players face as employees.

Shahin Adl Zarrabi and Henrik Nel Jerkrot (2016): “Value creation and appropriation in the esports industry” – A Master Thesis from two swedish students at Chalmers University of Technology. Deals primarily with value creation in esports and may be considered the most comprehensive article so far on this topic.

João Pedro Brito Cício de Carvalho (2015): “Business Models in Professional Electronic Sports Teams” – Takes a look at esports teams and compares their workings with traditional businesses and academic models. Also looks at the value creation in the broader esports ecosystem.

Robert F. Lusch, Stephen L. Vargo, and Mohan Tanniru (2010): “Service, value networks and learning” – An academic article from 3 business and marketing scholars on value networks and ecosystems in supply chain management and marketing. Offers abstract insights into the workings of ecosystems.

Yuri Seo (2013): “Electronic sports: a new marketing landscape of the experience economy” – Seo is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Auckland’s Business School. His articles are a must-read for every esports enthusiast who is interested in understanding what is behind the big esports trend.

Mike Saren, Tracy Harwood, Janet Anne Ward, Alladi Venkatesh (2013): “Marketing beyond the frontier? Researching the new marketing landscape of virtual worlds.” – An academic journal exploring the marketing potential of virtual worlds and video games, and takes a look at the consumers of virtual content, e.g. esports fans.

Mariona Rosell Llorens (2017): “eSport Gaming: The rise of a new sports practice” – This article from Law Professor Llorens maybe doesn’t settle the “Is esports a sport?”- a debate, but it is a comprehensive article that discusses arguments for and against.

A Critical Look at the Ecosystem, Part 1: Esports is Not Just About the Top 1%

esportsobserver.com

Image: Dota 2 The International, via Flickr // CC BY 2.0

This is the first in a two-part guest series, written by Hendrik Mokrusch, looking at the esports ecosystem. Specifically, the semi-pro scene and what needs to improve from an academic standpoint.

In the past, I’ve written about the different reasons why people play esports games. The greatest motivators were fulfilling the need for socialization and self-development, and being able to experience self-actualization by playing, competing and improving. This was true for players who pursued a professional esports career as well as for those who played only on the semi-pro level.

With millions of motivated, passionate and skilled players lurking out there, the question arises: How do we help them achieve what they want? We also know teams are always looking for the next big talent. How can we support them in their search?

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Part 1: The Career Paths of Sports vs Esports

 
There is a relatively clear path for someone who wants to get into a traditional sport, such as football or rugby: start in a local team/club, get better, play in trans-regional leagues, and eventually get noticed by professional scouts. On your journey you play against better and better teams that are usually from regions farther and farther away — until you compete against the best in the world. In short, a traditional sports career is regional to global.

Interestingly, advanced technologies such as machine learning are also becoming more important in sports scouting and recruiting. Today’s most advanced systems can map and compare players around the world, effectively eliminating human bias from the scouting process. So even that old regional-to-global sports career structure is advancing in a way that allows highly talented players, in lesser-known regions, to take short-cuts to the world’s top teams.

 

The career path of an esports player, however, is arguably more complex. Embarking on your journey to become a pro player might make you feel like Neo in The Matrix Reloaded: entering an endless hallway of doors. Open the right one and you will be rewarded; open the wrong one …who knows?

In general, esports is both an online and offline activity. Before players need to attend offline events (LANs) their geographical location is not a quintessential ingredient to their team’s success. While you always need eleven players on the same field in football or five players on the same court in basketball, you don’t even need any of your esports players to be in the same country while playing. However, certain requirements might have to be met, such as verifying visas, making public appearances for your sponsors, or living in the team’s training and living facility, i.e. gaming house.

Until a team gets to that level, it’s definitely not regional-to-global (you don’t start in your local “esports club”). It’s something in between.

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Part 2: The Characteristics of a Successful Ecosystem

 
Ecosystems are not tangible. We know they exist but we can’t really see them or feel them. In academia, we have hundreds if not thousands of definitions for what an ecosystem is. I’ll just give you the core idea here.

Ecosystems can be used to explain macro networks such as entire industries or micro networks, such as an esports team.

A (business) ecosystem may be described as an interconnected network of actors who vitally depend on the success of each other. Every actor both affects and is affected by the actions of others in their network. Just like their biological counterpart, business ecosystems have to be adaptive and flexible or else they will fail. In their book “The Keystone Advantage”, Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti and inventor Roy Levien also introduce the idea of ‘keystone actors’. These actors lead the development of the ecosystem and ensure that value is created and shared.

Ecosystems can be used to explain macro networks such as entire industries or micro-networks, such as an esports team. That means every time you enter into a new match of your go-to esports title, you enter into a new ecosystem. Positions and roles are given, but the execution is always unique.

If any given actor struggles to perform, e.g. mid lane feeds, then the other actors need to try help that player so that everyone benefits again.

For example, let’s imagine an ecosystem as a League of Legends team. All of the actors in this micro-ecosystem — top laner, mid, jungle, ADC, support, coach— rely on each other to perform. Their actions affect the ecosystem (team) and they are affected by the actions of the others. If any given actor struggles to perform, e.g. mid lane feeds, then the other actors need to try help that player so that everyone benefits again, such as through lane swaps and ganks. If an actor continuously fails to perform and shows no signs of improvement, he or she is exchanged. A team (and ecosystem) is only as good as its weakest link.

That is also why ecosystems are oftentimes found to co-create value.

The study of business ecosystems is relatively new, academically. It’s only started to pick up over the last twenty-five years. I would argue that the most important success factors of any given biz ecosystem are:

• Cooperation: This is what everything is built upon. Actors within the ecosystem need to cooperate, collaborate and communicate.

• Transparency: If the workings of an ecosystem cannot be understood by an outsider, then there is likely something wrong. If the ecosystem is also not clear to its own actors, then it is poised to fail. All actors need to understand how they stand in relation to each other, and with whom they have to work most closely together in order to achieve long-term goals and ecosystem sustainability.

• Decentralisation: There is not one actor with monopoly power over all other actors. Everyone has a stake, everyone has power, and everyone affects and is affected by the whole. There is, however, a certain caveat to decentralization as some ecosystems rely heavily on one actor to lead the network. Again, this is described by Iansiti and Levien as the ‘keystone actor’. Interestingly enough, Riot Games has managed to create somewhat of a monopoly ecosystem, wherein they hold the majority of the power (arguably even more so than a keystone actor should). While in the beginning, this structure has helped Riot to ensure high production quality and professional-like competitive structures, now the monopolistic-power has increasingly become a focus for critiques.

• Flexibility: If the actors within the ecosystem cannot adapt quickly enough to changes in the environment, then the entire ecosystem will fail. That doesn’t mean an entire industry would simply crash and burn, but it would mean that specific actors will be driven out of the ecosystem to make room for more effective ones to take their place.

• Efficiency: This one is simple. If the ecosystem doesn’t work efficiently it will not be sustainable in the long-run. If you win rounds in CS:GO but constantly lose the majority of your rifles and utility in the process, you will hit the bricks sooner or later. And we’ve all been there in Overwatch: You win a teamfight, but you burned 6 ultimates. Guess what? you will probably lose your next fight. Be more efficient. Communicate and cooperate!

Sources: Iansiti and Levien 2004; Pelltoniemi and Vuori 2009; Kelly 2010; Zahra and Nambisan 2012; Markus Winter 2014

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Part 3: A (Quick) Academic Look at the Esports Ecosystem

 

Sponsorships, distribution channels, casters, prize pools have made a gigantic leap in professionalism…

Amongst industry academics and practitioners alike, it is the general consensus that the esports ecosystem is still in its infancy (Brockmann 2011; Taylor 2012; Hollist 2015; Zarrabi and Jerkrot 2016).

One of the most comprehensive works on value creation within esports originates from two Masters students at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Shahin Adl Zarrabi and Henrik Nel Jerkrot (2016) identified the lack of regulations and standardization across tournaments, unclear boundaries of actors, as well as the ambiguous competitive landscape as some of the most obvious indicators for an underdeveloped industry.

…Governing bodies, player support structures, and amateur and semi-pro scene support, however, have fallen behind.

Some aspects of the esports ecosystem have developed much faster than others. Sponsorships, distribution channels, casters, prize pools — these have made a gigantic leap in professionalism (and simply growth) in recent years. Governing bodies, player support structures, and amateur and semi-pro scene support, however, have fallen behind.

It looks like the classical build-up of a speculative bubble. What’s visible to the outside (e.g. casters, prize pools, sponsorships) has improved drastically. It leads us, viewers, to assume that what looks professional must be built on a sound structure, but that’s not necessarily so.

Below is an illustration of a simplified esports ecosystem, created by João de Carvalho in his Master dissertation from 2015:

Hein’s (2012) esports relationship framework as found in Carvalho (2015)

 
While simplistic, the illustration does highlight that the key actors within the esports ecosystem co-create value, not only for the end-consumer (the audience on the far right side) but also for each other (Lusch et al. 2010; Seo 2013; Saren et al. 2013; Zarrabi and Jerkrot 2016).

What has not been fully integrated into this framework is the development of organizations that look to standardize and regulate the competitive environment (e.g. WESA, Esports Integrity Coalition). This may be due to the fact that these organizations are quite new and it is still difficult to estimate the impact that they can actually have on day to day esports operations. Not only that, but the very structures of some of these organizations have fallen under criticism, such as when players belonging to the Professional Esports Association spoke out against league exclusivity concerns.

Power play: How consumers will take control of the digital ad industry in 2018

thedrum.com

Let’s face it, people don’t like digital advertising. Mary Meeker reports that 80% of people dislike pre-roll video, and 82% of people have closed a web page because of an auto-playing video ad. In 2018, the rules of video advertising are set to change. Mobile will help redefine video advertising for a consumer-controlled world, where immediacy, interactivity and immersion will keep the audiences engaged.

Smartphones are putting people in the driver’s seat, and new forms of mobile advertising will have lasting and far-reaching effects on the digital advertising marketplace in the coming year.

Check out our top five insights and predictions to win at video advertising in 2018.

1. Performance overshadows awareness
   Everybody knows that video is great for driving brand awareness, and yet in 2018 advertisers will be increasingly responsible for delivering on business goals. As a result, digital video inventory will be increasingly purchased on a performance basis (rather than the age-old CPM model) to better align with campaign goals tied to middle and lower-funnel metrics. Why? Because people are at least 65% more likely to make an online purchase after watching a video.
2. Data-driven decision making will change everything
   The days of “spray and pray” are over. Based on the format the ad is seen in, the context that surrounds it and, finally, the creative itself, marketers have an enormous opportunity to provide real value and entertainment. John Montgomery, EVP Global Brand Safety at GroupM recently stated that advertisers no longer place ads for editorial adjacency, but instead they follow a specific, targeted customers regardless of site, app, or device. In 2018, advertisers will use data to create and deploy custom audience segments to better connect with the right customers. Selecting publishers based on prestige will matter less, while understanding customer preferences, habits, and moods will become increasingly important.
3. Mobile games become premium placements
   192 million Americans play mobile games. Fifty-five percent of peopleplay daily, and 60 percent of daily players are women. Apple and Google report that games are the number one most downloaded app category. Advertisers have already begun appreciating mobile games as premium destinations for their digital ads. In 2018 look for them to start spending big. Mobile game applications are highly regulated by Google and Apple; they are resistant to fraudulent traffic by requiring a touch to initiate content; and the vast majority of them are brand-safe and family-friendly. Games provide a safe, viewable, and engaging environment for advertisers to reach their customers.
4. The rise of opt-in advertising
   Sixty-four percent of people say ads are annoying and intrusive, and according to eMarketer 30% of internet users will use ad blockers by 2018. For the first time, in 2018, advertisers will not be able to interrupt their way to a positive relationship with their customers. Look for value exchange (aka “rewarded” or “incentivized”) advertising to fill this void. Value exchange ads allow people to experience ads when they’re ready, in exchange for access to entertainment, points, or other digital content.
5. Enhanced video with rich media functionality
   Ever-increasing scrutiny and the drive for measurable performance will make immersive, shoppable, and interactive ad units increasingly popular in 2018. Enhancing video with this type of “rich media” functionality delivers robust interaction and engagement in the form of swipes, web site visits, and social media actions. In fact, click-through rates are typically at least two times the norm when ads are enabled with rich media functionality. In 2018, advertisers will finally move away from cramming this space with repurposed TV and instead leverage the deeper and more engaging experiences their customers enjoy.

Video is arguably the most powerful placement advertisers have in their toolbox, but getting the most out of video requires thoughtful planning, a clear strategy, and a deep understanding of the new rules for video marketing. Video is much more than sight, sound, and motion - and in 2018 - get ready to experience the beginning of a digital video revolution. More consumer control, interactive video, and video that activates the entire marketing funnel - from awareness through to sales.

Why your app is getting uninstalled and how to prevent it

appdevelopermagazine.com
How mobile app developers can decrease their mobile app turn over rate and improve their overall user experience.

App developers have a tough job managing the marketing life cycle. Before an app is released, app developers must have plans for user acquisition and they must be agile enough to adapt in those first hectic weeks. But as you gain traction and grow comfortable with how your app is doing, there is a huge worry that looms over you: what if users stop using your app and uninstall it? 

According to Business Insider, over 30% of apps installed across both Android and iOS devices will be uninstalled. Further, Localytics reports that 23% of users abandon an app after only one use. 

In order to prevent users from uninstalling your app, we first have to understand what makes them want to uninstall an app in the first place. Only then can we understand how to combat these reasons. Here are the most common factors that drive people to uninstall apps.

Bad onboarding experience

If your app has a bad onboarding experience, users are going to uninstall it immediately. There are a lot of things that can go wrong during an onboarding experience, like forcing users to use a social login, asking for too much access to data without explaining why that data is needed, or having poorly localised content. And if your UI needs a full-blown tutorial about how to use the app, you should probably make it easier to use.

If your app requires elevated privileges or data usage on a user’s phone, you should clearly explain why those privileges are necessary in order to reassure them that something nefarious isn’t going on.

Badgering users for ratings or having too many push notifications

It’s OK to ask users to rate your apps, but don’t badger them for it, and allow them the option to opt out of future review requests. Constantly bugging users to review your app will sour the experience and may even lead to negative reviews. 

Over-utilising push notifications can also have the same effect. If you try to boost your app’s retention via too many push notifications, users will be inclined to uninstall your app. No one wants to be interrupted constantly. Push notifications are still a great way to encourage retention, but messages should be personalised, timely, and relevant. You should always be running A/B tests for which push notifications work the best.  

App monetization friction

One of the most common reasons for app uninstalls is also the trickiest to overcome. If your monetization strategy is too aggressive, users will be turned off from the experience. Ads are a great way to monetise your app, but they must be used appropriately in terms of format, placing, and frequency. If you overload your users with ads, they’ll be frustrated and abandon - or worse, uninstall - your app.

You can also have too many tiers of in-app purchases. For games, this may turn off players who feel like they have to pay in order to be successful in your game. Instead of punishing your players with in-app purchases like with a pay-to-win model, you should offer something valuable that makes a player feel good for spending. 

Lack of updates and bugs

Depending on the type of app, lack of updates and new content can make or break a user’s experience. Mobile games especially require new content to keep users interested in coming back. While utility, messaging, and media apps may require fewer updates, developers should still have an update cycle to address user feedback and to squash bugs.

If your app has bugs or performance issues, users will be frustrated and uninstall your app. Crashes, lag, and bugs all contribute to a negative user experience, and in the saturated market of mobile apps, users can (and will) quickly find an alternative. 

In the past, we’ve gone over the must-know KPIs for measuring your mobile game’s success, and a lot of it still applies when thinking about why people uninstall apps in general and how to prevent it. For mobile games, once you’re up and rolling, you should keep an eye on engagement metrics like sessions started, length of sessions, daily active users (DAU), and monthly active users (MAU). These metrics will let you know if users are enjoying the app and what changes may be needed to keep them around. By defining and tracking the most relevant KPIs for your app, you can set goals to meet and understand better where users drop off and uninstall or let your app stay dormant. 

If your users do drop off, it’s not too late to get them back. By re-engaging users across channels like email, push, and social, you can get users interested in your app again. Targeting different channels is important as you can catch your users at the right time and in the relevant context outside of your app. According to AdRoll, marketers are taking retargeting seriously, as push notifications double retention rates and reduce the likelihood of uninstalls by 15% but keep in mind that over-utilization of push notifications will also annoy users and may result in uninstalls.

In short, your app must have a good user experience and offer users clear value with every use. In a saturated mobile app market, users will remain loyal to apps that provide the least friction, and they won’t think twice to uninstall and try another app. While it feels good to see the initial success of your app, the hard part comes in retaining your users and growing your business. If you follow the data (user retention, app load times, how users interact with ads), you’ll have a holistic picture of user behavior and will let you chart a clear path for continued success.

What Brand Marketers Need to Know about Mobile Ad Fraud

adweek.com

Mobile is increasingly seen as the next frontier for bad actors

Ad fraud remains a pernicious problem for marketers and the entire digital advertising ecosystem despite several worthy industry initiatives looking at tactics to address it. Recently, the issue prompted Google to issue refunds on its fees to advertisers whose ads reached bots rather than humans. And ad fraud is costly—estimates hover anywhere from $7.2 billion to$16.4 billion.

Now, fraud has seeped into the mobile universe where it threatens the estimated $5.7 billion app-install advertising business in the U.S. Mobile can be a particularly challenging environment in which to track fraud as tools that are used for the desktop aren’t necessarily applicable to mobile devices. At this point, mobile fraud is something of a Wild West with plenty of runway for fraudsters to wreak havoc. Fraudsters are increasingly going after mobile as app-install revenues and mobile marketing continue to grow.

As fraudsters’ methods become more sophisticated, antiquated approaches to detect install (conversion) fraud, such as checking for virtual machines or emulators, are limited because fraudsters are now using tactics like install farms. Similarly, older methods to detect attribution fraud, such as analyzing install rates for anomalies, are ineffective because they’re using techniques like click-injection on Android devices.

While bad actors continue to look for new ways to remain under the radar and undermine the digital ad supply, marketers need to become more informed in order to protect their businesses. Given the staggering amount of money at stake, there’s a surprising lack of understanding about the different kinds of fraud and how they’re generated.

Mobile ad fraud is multiflavored

There are many different types mobile-install fraud ranging from faking app installs using emulated devices (software that runs multiple operating systems on a single computer) to stealing the credit for organic installs, which is referred to as attribution fraud, a method where credit is stolen for organic installs.

Given the staggering amount of money at stake, there’s a surprising lack of understanding about the different kinds of fraud and how they’re generated.

Some advertisers turn a blind eye to mobile-install fraud, because the paid installs for purchased apps, though fake, still boost their App Store rankings on iOS and Android platforms. The reason this boost is important is because a higher ranking on the App Store helps drive real, nonfraudulent installs. Some advertisers may restrict their cost-per-install payments to a purchase an event rather than an install. For example, a travel service paying out on the value of the first hotel booked, rather than an install. While one of the motivations for doing so can be to limit install fraud, the stricter standards also limit the volume and reach a brand would otherwise be able to generate.

In the performance advertising arena, marketers pay upon conversion events such as app downloads or purchases. Fraudsters attempt to steal credit for conversions they didn’t drive, thereby gaming attribution. In the case of programmatic fraud, advertisers pay on a CPM basis, and mobile bots or mobile device hijacking allow loading as many ads as possible from fraudsters to make money.

Another form of manipulation occurs when mobile device IDs are reset by fraudsters in order to obtain a fee from marketers who assume they are paying for legitimate installs. One study projected this type of fraud accounts for as much as $1.3 billion, or about half of app-installation fraud. Organized groups use physical “device farms” that hold hundreds, if not thousands, of mobile devices to hide their activity in order to perpetrate ad fraud, while resetting device IDs to simulate legitimate installs.

Some fraudsters have moved beyond device farms to virtual-server farms that seek to emulate devices in the cloud to leverage complex scripts and open proxies to automate app installs. The upshot is that installs may appear as though they’re coming from locations marketers want, as opposed to the farms that are actually generating them.

Here’s how you can get up to speed—monitor everything

So what can you do? First, get serious about fraud education and get up to speed on the different types of fraud with special attention to mobile. Make sure the partners you work with are helping you fill in the gaps. Second, monitor everything—not just KPIs around viewability, but nonhuman traffic levels—and make sure your ads are appearing where you assume they are. Fraud doesn’t take a holiday so you and your team need to remain vigilant and monitor.

Brand marketers need to take a firm stand against fraud by adopting a zero-tolerance policy and building on the clarion call that Marc Pritchard, P&G chief brand officer, issued earlier this year. After all, marketers’ budgets are taking a direct hit from fraud and the costs continue to mount.

With marketers’ leadership, all industry stakeholders can come together in a meaningful way—brands, agencies, networks, exchanges and others—to say they won’t tolerate fraud in any part of the supply chain, blacklist bad actors and work together on shared solutions.