It's clear that the adoption of mobile marketing, and the behavioral shift taking place amongst your employees and customers, is being recognized by both CMOs and CTOs everywhere.
There is no lack of evidence that mobile solutions and app marketing campaigns can be successful in driving loyalty, awareness and conversion; most marketers, however, aren’t clear on how to successfully measure that traction and pull business intelligence from real-time tracking and user engagement metrics.
Sure, you can view downloads and session time from iOS and Android users, but what do your attribution models look like? How do you segment pre-, launch- and post-marketing activities to value your CPI (cost per install)? Better yet, how do you value your CPLU (cost per loyal user) once you have launched?
Most brands are in reaction mode when it comes to creating a mobile solution because their competitors are in the space, and they know customers are shopping as m-powered consumers. If that’s the case, you can bet their mobile measurement strategy is an afterthought.
Whether you are just starting out on your journey, or launching your third application, it’s always a good idea to revisit your mobile measurement and reporting strategy. Your customers’ mobile behaviors and shopping patterns change daily, and you should ensure your segment models and success metrics adjust as well.
Here are the three ways that I find are helpful in laying the foundation for your attribution models and managing continuous optimization:
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are going to be your best friends. How do you know if your app or mobile solution is successful if you don’t know what success looks like? Something else to keep in mind is that you are going to (or should) have several sets of KPIs based on segment type. What you want a user to do pre-launch is different than post-launch. Pre-launch will be focused around awareness and lead generation. Post-launch, you are going to want to build advocacy and loyalty. These need to be valued differently and tracked through different actions. Don’t just define your KPIs as awareness, downloads and engagement. You’ll miss out on a lot of data and user behaviors that can help generate revenue and help you reach your outcomes quicker.
This cannot be done unless you have a clear understanding of your KPIs and what the desired action is at each app/solution lifecycle stage. I always make sure I understand what the current value is for a CPI or CPLU so that I can gauge my spending and fluctuations throughout a campaign. The value of someone who downloads your app is different than a user who downloads your app and opens it more than three times in a week. Know the difference, and understand how to properly measure!
Make sure you leverage all tools available for tracking. Don’t just stop at SDK codes and mobile tracking codes. Integrate analytics during the initial build with Google’s Firebase (or whatever tool fits into your technology stack) so that you can optimize performance and marketing campaigns after launch. Track your social content that you hope generates awareness of the application. Use UTM codes and pixels for media buys and sponsored posts. Make sure you have a consistent naming convention and a way to put a value next to those outcomes. Understand behavior and predictive analytics to help adjust your UX before your users know they need that feature!
Mobile measurement is an ongoing and ever-changing strategy that should be managed and optimized with a clear idea of what success looks like. You won’t know where to go if you don’t know where you started.
Follow Brittany on Twitter @bmillsNYC.
