Business of Apps Podcast

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

Do you like the holiday season? Yes - it is a hypothetical question, we all do. Why do we love this time of the year? Because this is the time when we all buy something nice, right? We download shopping apps and go ahead and pick up something we desperately need.
Ok - it’s all great but if you are a retailer and you launch app user acquisition campaigns during the holiday season, there is very important insight for you in this episode - so listen carefully.
Today’s Topics Include:
Thomas's background
About Airship
About the Airship's "Peak App Install Research" report
How retailers can improve retention rate for customers acquired during peak shopping periods (think Black Friday)
Key metrics brands should monitor to effectively drive app engagement
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Thomas miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Thomas Butta on LinkedIn
Airship
Peak App Install Research report
The Mobile Consumer 2023 report
Airship blog
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Thomas Butta:
"And we, we surveyed more than 60 million app installs. So of the number of apps that were installed during that period, we looked at 60 million new ones that were added to your device and we were very interested in understanding what happens after that peak shopping season."
" First of all, the way you onboard people is really, really important. I mean that idea of a welcome kit. So they download your app, right then and there you have their attention. What you do next is really important. So that onboarding experience, that welcome experience is really key. And what you're trying to do is two things. You're trying to get to know these people that are downloaded your app. And you're doing it in a way that's showing them with a little bit of information here and here, you can provide a more curated or personalized and relevant experience for them over there."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

I bet, as an app marketer, you are on a constant hunt for new marketing channels, right?
What do you know about affiliate marketing? If the answer is "zero", "not that much" or "I know what it is but what is your point" than you’ve come to the right place - we have Taras to tell us how affiliate marketing works for mobile apps.
Today’s Topics Include:
Taras's background
About ClickDealer
What is affiliate marketing, the main changes for the last decade
What affiliate marketing verticals were impacted by mobile the most
Effective strategies to grow app user base and revenue through affiliate marketing
KPIs to measure the success of affiliate marketing campaigns
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Taras miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Taras Kiseliuk on LinkedIn
ClickDealer
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Taras Kiseliuk:
" The last one will be, as cliche as it sounds like, would be AIs. AI is now doing all the media buying for us in some sense. In a way, the affiliate marketing is working as it worked before - you have to optimize and find the right spots, but now it's kind of like - hey, just trust the pixel, trust Facebook, trust TikTok, AI and so on and so on."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

I’m sure you would argue that the world of mobile apps is extremely competitive. By now, it seems like all business verticals have gone mobile and in some app categories, like games, e-commerce, social, the competition is really tough.
How do you stand a chance to win in this battle? This is the question we’ll tackling today with Deniz.
Today’s Topics Include:
Deniz's background
About InnoGame
Mobile app's unique edge (Unique Selling Proposition) identification
Methods and tools to test an app's marketability
Key factors to maintain the app's edge over time
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Deniz miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Deniz Kekeç on LinkedIn
InnoGames
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Deniz Kekeç:
"In a competitive app market, determining what sets your app apart from others involves focusing on its Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Assuming your app performs well and maintains a low crash rate, here are some strategies to identify its unique edge: game narrative, gameplay mechanics, special features & LiveOps, marketing approach."
"We are using Sensor Tower mainly for competitor analysis. Quadrics for understanding our audience( coupled with our user surveys). For creative testing Meta is the main tool, however depends on the ad concept we happened to use SDK networks too. KPI's are depending on the test phase. For initial testing, i recommend to check upper funnel kpis such as CPI, IPM. For later phase i recommend mid funnel KPI s such as Retention and session duration etc."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

On one of the recent episodes of this podcast, we talked about the app growth, claiming that growth is likely the notion that has been discussed by app marketers the most. It’s like - wake up any app marketer in the middle of the night and ask her “what is your name?”, she would tell you “Growth”.
And yet - sustainable growth is what exists app marketers and developers even more. I don’t think that there is anybody who still doesn’t know that an app project is a marathon and to run it you need a sustainable strategy, you need a sustainable growth strategy.
So in this anniversary episode #200, we will be talking with Mike about “The Sustainable Growth Handbook” recently developed by his company ConsultMyApp.
Today’s Topics Include:
Mike's background
What services ConsultMyApp provides and its position on the market
What is sustainable app growth
Sustainable app growth key principles
How to balance user acquisition and user retention
Insights and examples of how data-driven decisions lead to sustainable app growth
Common pitfalls and mistakes that hinder app growth
Trends and innovations that will impact sustainable app growth
What Mike would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Mike miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Mike Rhodes on LinkedIn
The Sustainable Growth Handbook
ConsultMyApp
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Mike Rhodes:
"The biggest challenge I think our clients always see is siloed behavior where acquisition teams don't talk to paid, but acquisition teams don't talk to CRM and retention teams and and then the data doesn't talk together even if the teams do, they're not connecting the dots because they don't have a CDP or a warehouse, and they haven't got a reporting stat that sits on top. And that is the biggest single thing."
"I think the biggest issue is not with developers, but actually with the product marketers. And that comes when the wrong metrics are really being focused on. So things like installs, category ranking, the keyword ranking, these things are vanity metrics. You know, they don't really matter. Like how many a month you have. It doesn't matter to a large intent. What does matter is the users I got, how are they converting? How are they converting into meaningful users? It might be watching ads. It might be whatever your core metric is. But ultimately it's got to be understand that is the metric."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

I’m sure you’ve heard this adage “Data is the new blood of the economy”. When you operate on a big market with lots of competitors you better make sure you make decisions about your business based on hard data.
App marketing is one of the brightest examples where this adage and it is so close to home. When the number of users of your product is in thousands, tens of thousands or millions informing your app marketing decisions with reliable data isn’t a question of should or shouldn’t but must.
In this episode, Summer will help us to learn about leveraging mobile ad data, competitive analysis tools, as well as share her advice for marketers who are just getting started in the app marketing space.
Today’s Topics Include:
Summer's background
What is SocialPeta
Leveraging app performance and ad creatives data effectively
Staying competitive in a crowded app marketplace
Upcoming features in the SocialPeta pipeline to benefit app marketers
What Summer would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Summer miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Summer Liu on LinkedIn
SocialPeta
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Sumer Liu:
" If we talk about mobile ad intelligence tools, I think I can boast that there is no better platform that can be as friendly as SocialPeta. We dived in the mobile advertising business for over 8 years. We grew together with those top global publishers. We evolve our product from time to time. In the new era of AI technology, SocialPeta will firmly develop towards this direction on aspects like Ai recognition and analysis. We will draw the digital market picture in a much more intelligent way."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

Ok, a bit of trivia to begin with - what is the most common and most used word app marketers and app owners use in a conversation about their apps in pretty much any country you can think of? Well, if they have a conversation in English that would be growth.
It’s that notion that everybody is agree is extremely important for a mobile app project to succeed. There is a set of app growth marketing techniques we all have heard about, tried ourselves and hopefully benefit from using. But because mobile apps’ audiences are different, we know that these techniques aren’t expected to be equally efficient for everybody and so it is always wise to listen to other app marketers’ experiences to learn something new.
In this episode, Sherina will share her experience with the Deezer app’s growth strategy.
Today’s Topics Include:
Sherina's background
The Deezer app and what people use it
Acquisition strategies that worked for Deezer
Data and analytics to inform the app's growth
Tactics to retain the app's users
Partnerships and collaborations to foster the app's growth
Emerging trends and tech to impact app growth strategies in the future
What Sherina would like to change about digital marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Sherina miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Sherina Khalidi on LinkedIn
Deezer app
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Sherina Khalidi:
"On the measurement front, at Deezer we use the triptic Attribution / MMM / Incrementality, and I would love to use AI to get a synthetic view of these 3 components to help me predict the outcome of future invest."
" As the mobile industry is maturing, I feel the good old recipe of UA and ASO will work less & less, and it will be more about building a strong brand that is able to connect with their users, in trust and authenticity. I think there's really something here for us to reinvent."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

There is a decent number of ways to market your mobile app on app stores. I think by now we all know them so well - App Store Optimization to drive native traffic, paid user acquisition via Apple Search Ads or Google Ads, acquiring users via paid ad platforms from Meta, TikTok, Alphabet and some more.
But at some point - for savvy app marketers this point comes pretty early in their app marketing journey -  you realize that it is not the end of the story. As much as it makes sense to connect your app via built-in search on app stores or use paid ad platforms, there are more ways to build your app’s user base when you think out of the box, specifically out of the app store :-)
In this episode, we’re going to cover with Jakub a few app marketing techniques to grow your app outside of the app stores.
Today’s Topics Include:
Jokub's background
What is HER app and its competition
Ways to market an app outside of app stores
Affiliate marketing or referrals as an app marketing channel
Using Generative AI for content marketing: pros and cons
How Viral marketing works for mobile apps
Most overhyped app marketing channel
Takeaways
What Jokub's would like to change about app marketing the most
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jokub miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Jokub Chour on LinkedIn
HER app website
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Jokub Chour:
"Well, I'll stick with the rule that says that if everyone else is doing it, it's not worth doing it.  I've seen a lot of outcomes from generative AI and I wasn't impressed in general for our niche. I mean like it's great to write an email, or, I don't know, a PR release, but it's it hasn't been great in the niches like ours."
"I wouldn't say channel, but definitely like Multimedia Modeling or Incrementality measurement are something that are like talked about a lot but I don't think that we are at a point to fully utilize that as I've seen some tools that are going this way. It's like telling a fairy tale. At this point  you can have it generating numbers, but for me, it is hard to trust it fully."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

Let’s state the obvious - people love playing games, especially on their smartphones, and they do love brands.
Now, if you ask a mobile marketer what does it imply she would tell you that it’s a great opportunity on one side to let brands reach more potential customers and on the other - for mobile game developers to generate revenue.
So far so good, right? But what if I tell you that there is a report that actually reveals specifically what brand categories people prefer who play games in various types of games such as Puzzle, Card, Word, and Action? Sounds even better, right?
Well, today Ravi will be talking about Digital Turbine’s BRAG INDEX IV report that brings up precisely this information.
Today’s Topics Include:
Ravi's background
What is Digital Turbine today and its mission
The BRAG Index report and its methodology
The biggest highlights from the report
The mobile games landscape today
The report insights for Word / Word Search game category
The report insights for Puzzle game category
The report insights for Card game category
The report insights for Action game category
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Ravi miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Ravi Pimplaskar on LinkedIn
Digital Turbine company
BRAG Index IV report 
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Ravi Pimplaskar:
"What we did is we sort of indexed the people who play Word games against certain brands. And we really found that they had an affinity for fitness and travel. Some of their top brands included, you know, Red bull, Delta Airlines, Panera Bread. But one of the things, Word  gamers, which isn't surprising, are avid readers."
"Puzzle gamers - what we really found about their interest is they gravitate towards beauty and adventure. Their favorite brand is  beauty products like Aveeno. They're into Travelocity, Lululemon's brands. One of the things that we did find about puzzle gamers - they really into traveling. So, you know, that Sudoku player sitting next to you on flight he may be more typical than you think."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

One of the topics, that has been permeating this podcast over the years, is mobile app growth. And in general - year after year, conference after conference, countless webinars, white papers, and podcasts have been dedicated to this topic.
And it’s all for a good reason - if your app’s user base doesn’t grow you can not build a sustainable app business and because the app landscape has been changing you always needs to be in the know of what works now and what doesn’t.
And this is exactly what we’re going to cover on this episode with Gilad.
Today’s Topics Include:
Gilad's background
What is Moburst
App marketing recent evolution
App growth marketing essential strategies
Mobile app growth common challenges
Influence of tech on app marketing
Trends that will dominate mobile app marketing
Advice to young app marketers
What would Gilad like to change about app marketing
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Gilad miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Gilad Bechar on LinkedIn
Moburst
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Gilad Bechar:
"I think that from the get-go apps optimization was always pretty big on app growth. And when you're thinking about app optimization, you think about how users might find the app. The app optimization, I think it became much more sophisticated in the past few years, where you have the ability to impact users with so many different gateways to the app.
So it's no longer five screenshots you're telling the story and that's it, like you used to have.  Now you have 35 different gateways in the App Store on the, on iOS and 50 different gateways on custom product pages on Android."
" I think that AI  is a massive improvement and advancement. And that's something that will impact the world for now and onwards. But I think that the ability to be data-driven and seeing what works and what doesn't work, which means at the end of the day, there are users. You're trying to bridge your message to the user and getting them to a very positive experience about whatever you're trying to sell.  
I think that being data-driven and understanding which customers to approach with which type of messaging that will resonate with them and will get them to one step closer to the action that you want them to take. That's the key element that is with all of the tech technology advancements and with all of the new tools that are available and all of the better programs of TikTok and Meta and Google."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

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

Ok, a bit of a mental gymnastics - imaging you’re holding a smartphone in your hand and you’ve just purchased it. You’ve unpacked it, turned on and now browsing through its default apps and checking out its features. You’re consciously taking mental notes on features that tick off boxes for you - that is the rational part. Right, but don’t you notice that holding that phone in your hand makes you feel good?
We, human beings, are driven by emotions, even on occasions when you feel like you are strictly rational, your decisions are still influenced by your emotions.
Now, this episode stands out the rest, because with the exception of the episode with Joe Schaeppi, CEO of Solsten, where we talked about the psychology of app user acquisition, we haven’t touched emotions in app marketing.
But we’re going to change it now today by having Naksha and talking about driving app engagement with empathy.
Today’s Topics Include:
Naksha''s background
What is UserTesting
What is empathy and how it is different from sympathy
Connecting with brands - how it works and why it's important
How to assess how well or bad your app connects with its users
Customer Experience First approach
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Naksha miss most?
What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Naksha Ruiz (Ghirardelli) on LinkedIn
UserTesting
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Naksha Ruiz:
"Yeah, I think that's a very, very good point, especially now in the digital age that we were talking about how technology brings brands more closely. I guess that would be the best way to say it. I think,  at this point, consumers have endless options and it's very important to create genuine connection, to build a difference, to be a differentiator from all of the brand offerings. So ultimately, when we think about brands, brands sell, experience or sell, sell, sell you those feelings that then you can empathize with."
"I think from a business perspective, sympathy is what you will have the whole time. You're trying to keep it in mind, and the empathy will be something that you will connect to every now and then."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012