Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Meet Erik Hegely, Head of Growth Marketing at Pixel Federation, a mobile gaming developer from Slovakia. Pixel Federation does simulation, puzzle, and RPG mobile app games. Questions Erik Answered in this Episode:How do you go about developing a creative strategy for each of these titles? How do you understand what will motivate a user or what creative will resonate the most for a particular game? What do you do with the information you get from the third-party userbase survey?What makes optimizing the onboarding or game start challenging?How long have you been doing the in-app survey technique and why did you start doing it?Timestamp:6:13 Developing a creative strategy for each game9:37 Learning what motivates a user in a game13:34 The catalyst for utilizing in-app surveys15:10 The importance of consistency in user flowQuotes:(7:25-7:33) “We certainly took it to the next level after running a psychological survey with our user base and understanding really, truly what motivates them to play.”(18:41-18:47) “It makes you work at your game as a service. You don’t just play the game for a while. You play the game for years.”Mentioned in this Episode:Erik Hegely’s LinkedInPixel Federation

Adam Lovallo is co-founder of Grow.co, the MAU Vegas Conference, and Thesis, a conversion rate optimization company. He got his start at growth marketing at Living Social. Questions Adam Lovallo Answered in this Episode:What was the greatest experience you took away in growth marketing and acquisition from Living Social?How much are you curating the topics and speakers at MAU? And, how do you go about balancing the topics?What do you think might change in the next few years as it relates to creatives?Can you tell us about what you do at Thesis? What does conversion rate optimization look like as a business?Do you see the subject of incrementality becoming a bigger focus for us?Timestamp:4:42 Understanding payback periods10:48 On curating MAU’s topics13:48 Why the mobile app industry is hot on creative15:50 Performance creative agencies19:24 What is Thesis20:16 Conversion rate optimization as a business21:52 Pulse on incrementality in the industryQuotes:(13:48) “You see more discussion around creative. That’s a big variable. It’s a big driver. Probably the most important point of leverage these days.”(15:50-16:03) “I think the big trend has started to touch the mobile app ecosystem, but really hasn’t yet, but is full bore in the direct-to-consumer e-commerce ecosystem, is performance creative agencies.”Mentioned in this Episode:Adam Lovallo’s LinkedInGrow.coMAU ConferenceThesis

Andy Carvell is the partner and co-founder of Phiture and editor of Mobile Growth Stack, Phiture’s blog. Phiture is a mobile growth consultancy based in Berlin, helping B2C app publishers tackle their key growth challenges. Previous to Phiture, Andy joined Sound Cloud as a mobile marketer, helping the company transition from being a web-first product to a mobile-first product.Questions Andy Carvell Answered in this Episode:Is there a specific component of mobile app growth that you feel Phiture nails?What are app marketers overlooking the most when it comes to retention and re-engagement?What is a framework for marketers to do in-app messaging better and measure the results?How do you prevent overloading a user with in-app messaging?Do you have baselines for incremental conversation rates?Timestamp:4:47 Phiture’s specialization8:07 In-app messaging is overlooked9:54 Measuring impact of in-app messaging17:05 Untapped potential of in-app messaging for surveying users20:58 How not to overdo it with in-app messaging26:00 “Scale, iterate, or kill”Quotes:(12:56-13:14) “I think some product teams are a bit scared of tapping into the potential of in-app messaging because they are so kind of intrusive, basically. You need to deploy them with care and make sure you’re not overusing them because you’re overriding the user’s normal interaction with the app. Now, that can be very powerful as well. You can direct them to features they’ve never seen before.”(26:01-26:18) “This is the decision which I’ve written about that I call ‘scale, iterate, or kill.’ It’s like this is the one decision in which a growth marketer and a growth marketing team need to make very regularly; and they’ll only get better at it by making that decision many times, sometimes getting it wrong.”Mentioned in this Episode:Andy Carvell’s LinkedInPhitureMobilegrowthstack.comMobile Growth Nightmares Podcast with Andy Carvell and Gessica BicegoASO ConferenceAdvanced Guide to App Store OptimizationApptivate Episode #35 - Gessica Bicego (Blinkist)Apptivate Episode #46 - Peggy Anne Salz (Mobile Groove)Apptivate Episode #38 - Warren Woodward (Upptic)

Mariano Sáenz is the co-founder and CEO of Winclap, a marketing platform providing media services and building mobile marketing tech solutions. Winclap helps its clients grow their businesses by running user acquisition, retargeting, and re-engagement campaigns across multiple channels, with a focus on visualization, AI engines, and capacity building.Questions Mariano Sáenz Answered in this Episode:Tell us the story of Winclap. What are your core competencies?Is there anything you would have done differently when you started your company?What are some of the advantages of being a business based in Argentina?In your opinion, what are some of the strengths and challenges of Latin American mobile marketers?What does the future hold for Winclap?Timestamp:6:57 What is Winclap?8:57 Why Winclap added media services on top of building tech12:26 What Mariano would have done differently starting his company16:05 Argentina: Access to amazing, passionate talent & business opportunities18:35 Strengths: Adaptability to crisis; sophisticated ability to localize21:25 Weaknesses: Lack of access to international industry conversations in real-time24:40 What’s on the horizon for WinclapQuotes:(12:59-13:17) “Focusing on what’s important is the main lesson we learned. Focusing on what our clients really, really, really need and having that obsession to solve real problems. I think we’re working nowadays with that way of thinking but it was not always this way in the past.”(20:09-20:58) “Adapting to the information. Adapting in general. We are super dynamic. We are super used to crisis, like we have a crisis here every 5-10 years. So we are always adapting. Actually, for example, I always hear from U.S. advisors, not only U.S. but advisors in general, is ‘failing fast.’ Here in Argentina, we’re very used to failing. And actually, we never fail 100%; we’re always putting another effort to stay alive. I think that ability to always try to stay alive--it’s amazing. And that happens because, since we were born, we’re always living in economic crisis and fighting against the ecosystem, and I think that builds a really tough personality. We’re really able to survive for the long run.”Mentioned in this Episode:WinclapMariano Sáenz’s LinkedInBlitzscaling - book

Amanda Lulewicz is the director of product marketing for Crowdstar at Glu Mobile, a leader in 3D freemium mobile gaming. Amanda works with the game Covet Fashion. She came to mobile marketing from a background in fashion public relations. Questions Amanda Lulewicz Answered in this Episode:How do you interact with your consumer base to empower the decisions you make in your marketing initiatives?How do you communicate with the users who are not a part of the ambassador program?What’s been the empirical result on your growth and retention from proactively communicating with your users?How do you leverage the feedback you get from your ambassador program in your marketing?What’s your process for sharing feedback with the product team?How do you focus your time?What’s the main reason people churn from your app?Timestamp:5:40 Crowdstar’s history and relationship to Glu9:15 The feature flop that got Glu talking directly to its consumers12:45 Glu’s channels for communicating with users14:56 Impact on retention17:13 Getting called out on ads by game ambassadors23:27 Releasing 6-7 new pieces of content every day25:36 Celebrating Covet Fashion’s 7th anniversaryQuotes:(7:00-7:20) “Women often don’t like to take time for themselves. They feel guilty if they’re just kind of off, maybe just playing a game, just doing something purely to relax and enjoy themselves. And they wanted something that actually tied back into their real life. They wanted to feel like they were learning something, like they were accomplishing something. So Covet Fashion was kind of born to meet that need.”(13:03-13:20) “We realized we needed to be a lot more transparent with our community about the updates we were making, why we made the decisions we made; if something was going wrong in the game, explaining what was going on. And from there, we kind of lifted the veil of this cold, hard tech company and actually showed them who we were as people.” Mentioned in this Episode:Amanda Lulewicz’s LinkedInGlu mobileCovet Fashion

Wout Laban is the senior manager of customer success for Leanplum. Leanplum helps mobile teams orchestrate multi-channel campaigns, from messaging to the in-app experience, all from a single mobile marketing platform.Questions Wout Laban Answered in this Episode:What are some of the most fundamental things a mobile marketer should know about A/B testing, and how do I apply that?What is the difference between optimization and experimentation? What changes in optimization are worthwhile?How does an increase in advertising spend or world events affect A/B testing? What does perfect A/B testing look like for a brand?What’s a typical challenge you see brands face when starting out with A/B testing?Timestamp:8:22 The fundamentals of A/B testing9:08 Experimentation vs optimization 10:00 Optimization that works across industries12:20 Defining success metric criteria for testing16:17 Setting up to excel at A/B testing18:37 Onboarding and conversion Quotes:(8:22-8:42) “It starts and ends with having a very structured strategy or process towards testing. There are so many things that can influence a test that you really want to make sure that you’re setting up a controlled environment that allows you to look at the data correctly and make decisions based on that. Because that’s essentially what you’re doing, right? You’re running an ‘A’ versus a ‘B’ and at the end, you want to make a decision.”(9:13-9:44) “So experimentation or an experiment is really something that’s totally new out-of-the-box that’s like, ‘Hey, what if we did this in a totally different way?’ And that can be part of the user journey and how you engage with the user. It can be in the user acquisition and how do we reel users in. Optimization is really where we bring out the small, little tweaks, like flipping out a word or flipping out a small part of the image or making the gradient tone a little bit stronger. Is this going to help us further optimize a strategy that’s already working? So, experimentation is finding a strategy, optimization is optimizing the strategy.”Mentioned in this Episode:Wout Laban - LinkedInLeanplum

Peggy Anne Salz is the lead analyst and founder of MobileGroove, a resource for mobile marketing content, analysis, and research. She is also a senior contributor to Forbes Magazine, the chief content officer for the mobile marketing association in Germany, and a co-host of the Mobile Presence Podcast.Questions Peggy Anne Salz Answered in this Episode:How does a brand show that it cares today?How has retention changed over the years? Can you talk about the engagement pyramid framework and how marketers actualize it to improve retention?Where can people learn more about engagement marketing and retention?Timestamp:7:51 How brands can show that they care in these times9:53  How retention has changed in the mobile industry13:46 The “engagement pyramid” framework in mobile marketing17:34 Picking up the signals to actualize the framework21:43 Evolving with our audiences today23:54 Knowing when to let go28:20 Where to learn more about retention and engagement marketingQuotes:(7:27-7:43) “Now we talk about brand love. We talk openly about these concepts. You have to show you care, particularly in these times. A brand that doesn’t show it cares right now is not going to be relevant when this all passes. People will remember who cared, who showed it, and how much.”(12:49-13:`16) “We’ve evolved in marketing. And the next step, I think, is to master the mid-funnel and the deep-funnel. We’ve nailed top-of-funnel. That’s not a problem. That’s why marketers are amazingly data-driven and accomplished. But the next step will be figuring out that journey and, above all, making it specific to individuals--or individualization, not even personalization, but really getting deep into the metrics and really getting deep into the segmentation.” Mentioned in this Episode:Peggy Anne Salz - LinkedInMobileGrooveMobile Presence PodcastPhitureCleverTap 

Antoine Lamy is the co-founder of Raive, an online donation platform working with influencers and artisans to help charities raise money. Prior to launching Raive, Antoine was a senior performance marketing manager for Uber. He’s also worked for BlaBlaCar and Addict Mobile.Questions Antoine Answered in this Episode:What is the mobile marketing community like in France?How many channels were you managing in a given month at Uber?How did you measure incrementality on a channel like Facebook?Timestamp:1:40 France’s mobile marketing scene5:12 Testing 20+ channels at Uber11:11 Moving from paid ads agencies to programmatic in-house14:15 Measuring incrementality with Facebook23:00 The creation of RaiveQuotes:(20:17-20:33) “The first thing we did at Uber, we were the first to do it, was to look at incrementality for acquisition, specifically. That’s where it’s really difficult because how can you look at a control treatment method when you don’t know the users.”Mentioned in this Episode:Antoine Lamy - LinkedInRaiveUberAddict MobileBlaBlaCar

Welcome Andrey Kuznetsov, the CEO of KamaGames, a social casino game app that claims to be number one in the world by revenue and downloads for roulette, blackjack, Omaha poker, and craps. Questions Andrey Kuznetsov Answered in this Episode:What kind of games do you develop and what releases should people know about?What influenced KamaGames in 2012 to create games outside of social casino?What are the benefits and challenges of using IP like Hard Rock?As a CEO, what is your perspective of what effective marketing is for a social casino? What creates effective retargeting?What kind of changes do you think we can expect to see in the social casino space in the next few years?Timestamp:6:22 Investing in Dublin as a headquarters11:39 The games KamaGames develop17:25 Lessons from growing a mobile gaming business19:30 Benefits and challenges of working with IPs24:48 Effective marketing for a social casino27:40 Retargeting by the numbers33:00 Changes to come for mobile gamesQuotes:Number one quality a CEO needs to have to run a social casino app?(10:40-11:03) “I would say that you need to be able to work with all sorts of people, all types of people. And, you need to mediate them, balance them, look for proper people to join the team, sometimes make hard decisions when you need to split ways with somebody. So I would say number one thing would be working with people. That’s how I see it.” What kind of changes do you think we can expect to see in the social casino space in the next few years? (33:00-33:48) “I would say, number one thing, and it sounds like a cliche but that’s inevitable, we will see more consolidation in the space, and this is actually in both social casino and casual games. Then I would say to be successful, down the line there should be more than one game offered to a player to keep this player and to monetize the business efficiently. So I would say companies will expand their offering, one or another way by developing, partnering with somebody, but just introducing more new products within this genre.”Mentioned in this Episode:Andrey Kuznetsov - LinkedInKamaGamesTexas Poker Pokerist3D Blackjack

Jim Calhoun is the CEO of Nectar 9, a company developing, selling and licensing SaaS software that combines advanced machine intelligence, automation, and human creativity to drive meaningful marketing outcomes in today’s social media environment. Nectar9 makes AI accessible and easy for marketing companies to leverage.Questions Jim Answered in this Episode:How does someone leverage AI and how does it improve their marketing stack?Why has AI been slow to adopt? What have you observed about AI’s adoption over the past 2-5 years?How do you make AI technologies that make marketers feel comfortable with the lack of control they have?How do marketers go about adopting this technology?How are data points, like clicks, lacking for AI? Or, how will the progression of data help AI in the next few years?Timestamp:6:35 Who and how Nectar9 works with customers9:15 The false fear of AI11:24 Less availability of targeting info will make AI more attractive13:29 The “Alexa” for marketers15:52 The flow of the paradigm shift for adopting AI16:50 Data outlook is choppy23:00 Marketing departments will be configured differently for tomorrowQuotes:(9:37-10:04) “I think there’s some resistance, really natural resistance, for people feeling like, ‘Well this will just take over my job.’ And we get around that, because really what it takes over is kind of the fiddly bits and the math and that stuff that really humans aren’t super well suited towards. Whereas it frees people up, who are taking advantage of it, to think more about strategy, about more creative, about different things to test.” (10:05-10:23) “You go from a situation where you’re maybe doing a dozen or a half dozen sort of experiments at any given time, where we’ve got customers who are running tens of thousands of experiments constantly learning, just feeding lots of creative, feeding the strategy, observing what’s coming out of the system.”Mentioned in this Episode:Nectar9Jim Calhoun - LinkedInLean AI by Lomit PatelApptivate Podcast: “Integrating AI & Machine Learning - Lomit Patel (IMVU)”