Retargeting Is a Must for App Marketers

More than half of app marketers worldwide buy ads to retarget app users, and many who don’t currently plan to in the next 12 months. Still, most app marketers are only allocating a small percentage of their budget to retargeting.

In August 2016, omnichannel data management platform Apsalar in conjunction with Thomvest, a venture capital fund, polled 146 app marketers worldwide. More than half of respondents said they field re-engagement or retargeting campaigns for apps, and 28% said they don’t, but plan to within the next year.

Only a small percentage, 5%, said they don’t currently do so or have plans to. Interestingly, though retargeting existing app users is important to many app marketers, most are just allocating a small percentage of their total app marketing budget to it. For example, more than a third said they allocated up to 5% of their total app marketing budget, and nearly a quarter of respondents said they allocated anywhere from 6% to 10%. Just 1% of app marketers said they allocated 31% to 50%, and another 1% said they allotted between 51% to 100%.

Getting discovered and downloaded is more challenging than ever, and retaining users is getting more difficult as well. Most apps are failing to keep mobile users interested and engaged for long. The 24 hours after an app is first used is when most users disappear. Only 24% to 29% of iOS users who installed an app used it again within 24 hours of their first app session, according to a Q1 2016 analysis conducted by measurement firm adjust.

Tune , which provides software for mobile marketing management and measurement, found that what motivates smartphone users to download an app in the first place is rather simple—they had a specific task, and they thought the app would help. Other reasons were just as straightforward. Nearly a third of respondents said they downloaded an app because a friend recommended it, and nearly a quarter saw an ad for an app and found it to be interesting.