5 Ways To Optimize The ROI Of Your Mobile App

A recent report published by Gartner predicts that mobile apps will generate a revenue of $77 billion by 2017. The mobile app ecosystem is fast expanding beyond the smartphone generation. The future shall see mobile apps becoming more and more pervasive into our daily lives. With breakneck competition, apps which fail to gain users or retain them are missing out on mobile revenue. The key to make your app profitable is to boost app usage.

We outline 5 best practices for driving user engagement and increasing the RoI of your mobile app

1. An Improved UI: For any app developer, user satisfaction is the hallmark of success. To create an ingenious app experience, one should focus on a human centric design approach. Often there appear bottlenecks in the UI which impede a smooth app experience for the users. The trick is to use app analytics to identify where your users get stuck in the flow – That is where your hold-ups lie! Diagnosing these bottlenecks and eliminating them will help you create a fluid and engaging experience for your users.

2. Audience Segmentation: To receive positive returns on your app, you must make sure that your Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), the average revenue that app users generate over their lifetime is greater than your Cost per Acquisition (CPA), the average direct cost to acquire a user that generates the ARPU.

So, How Do You Get There?

This requires  audience segmentation that can identify specific attributes and generate targeted, personalized campaigns to interest those audience groups.

One way is to run push-messaging campaigns to reach out to users who haven’t opened your app in a while and re-engage them. Running in-app messaging campaigns can be effective towards directing users to desired events and providing them personalized offers.

Test your marketing campaigns for frequency, timing, offer, content, and audience to identify scope for improvement before actually submitting your app to the App Store.

3. Enable Social Sharing: Social media sharing is that part of the user engagement process which no mobile app developer can do without. Make sure you push social sharing enough for your engaged users to talk about and share their experiences about your app and spread the digital word of mouth. The more your app is shared, the more will it catch the attention of potential users. Build your social media presence by integrating sharing buttons in your app and using in-app messages to prompt users.

4. Reward Your Customers: The best course to drive engagement is to make your users feel special by offering them mobile rewards. These offers can be run either in-app or through push notifications and can include a wide array of options such as rewards programs, customized offers, and mobile coupons. Rewarding customers is a way to show them that their loyalty is recognized and appreciated.Targeted incentives such as rewarding a user who has reached a certain level in your gaming app with bonus credits, coins etc.

5. Leverage The Benefits Of Mobile Analytics: Firms aiming to harness the vast business opportunities should understand that traditional marketing rules do not apply to mobile app promotion. You should be able to pick and choose the right metrics depending upon the custom needs of your business and monitor them on a regular basis. Metrics such as those listed below can be used to full advantage to get insights into your mobile app performance, to identify and eliminate unproductive channels. Consequently they can be improved to ensure positive returns

• User Acquisition Cost- The exact amount spent to acquire a single user
• User Retention Rate- The number of people coming back to re-use the app after first use
• Screenflow- This metric records the order of the screens followed by the users while navigating through the app.
• Average Session Length- The average session duration per user indicates the level of engagement driven by the mobile app.
• User Lifetime Value (LTV)- It depicts the revenue that a user generates over its lifetime.

Therefore, with the right mix of app analytics,an outstanding UI design and carefully targeted marketing campaigns, mobile developers can hit the bull’s eye and eventually maximize their app RoI.