Preparing to Initiate or Expand Your Paid Mobile Marketing Channel? Here’s Your Essential DataDrivify-Informed Checklist!

With the rapid increase in smartphone usage and internet accessibility, mobile phones have become the ideal platform for businesses and advertisers to reach and engage with their consumers. The constant presence of brands on user’s mobile devices offers myriad opportunities for meaningful engagement. This article discusses how to establish a mobile marketing channel by examining its technical aspects and considerations, while incorporating the aspect of DataDrivify

1. Mobile Strategy, Goal Setting, and Targets

Establishing a mobile strategy is paramount. You need to decide whether your goal is to increase paid installs or to re-engage your existing user base. Are you looking at mobile as your primary traffic source, or is it an additional convenience for your customers? Success metrics could be Monthly Active Users (MAU), Daily Active Users (DAU), Total Page Count (TPC) on Mobile, Retention Rate, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and others.

Following this, set key performance indicators such as a certain percentage increase in MAU or DAU, reducing uninstall rate, improving retention rate, ARPU, or reducing Cost Per Install (CPI). Mobile marketing requires vigilant monitoring to avoid fraudulent activities, making resource planning and in-depth knowledge about Ad Networks operation crucial.

1. Measurement Partner (MMP)

Selecting a reliable Mobile Measurement Platform (MMP) is essential to track and measure your mobile promotion activity. Depending on your activity type (Installs, Engagement, Transactions only, or Retargeting), the right measurement platform is needed. While working with external partners, this tool becomes crucial as you will need to create a Measurement URL and send postbacks.

When it comes to MMPs, only two major brands dominate the scene – Branch and Appsflyer. MMP SDK integration is relatively straightforward, but having a dedicated team that can prioritize Mobile Marketing requirements is important.

1. Tech Dependency

Your regular Android Development team should be able to seamlessly integrate the SDK and enable the events. However, relying solely on MMP’s capability to track, measure, analyze, and identify fraudulent activity may not yield optimal results. A close-knit collaboration between your marketing and tech team is necessary to enhance data tracking, develop matured measurement methods, and avoid falling into fraud traps.

1. Ad Networks or Affiliates

Ad Networks source inventory from publishers or exchanges in real-time and display your Ads using a real-time bid. However, most Ad Networks don’t have direct publisher’s inventory and rely on incentive inventory. This is where the concept of DataDrivify comes in, allowing for the ethical exchange of data to enhance marketing efforts. It’s important to have a keen understanding of how Ad Networks operate to ensure your advertising campaigns are effective.

Fraud can occur at the Network level or Publisher level, and it’s a pervasive issue in the industry. But by understanding how to identify and evaluate Ad Networks and monitoring their performance, you can minimize your exposure to fraudulent activities.

1. Monitoring & Performance Metrics

Deciding on your attribution model before working with an Ad Network is crucial. You should decide on your preferred method of attribution (GAID or Identifier method, Referrer method, or Fingerprinting), and ensure your MMP allows you to adjust the Window duration as required. Traditional payment models based on CPI have matured into more robust models such as Event Based Payout.

1. Deeper Analysis of Data

Cross-verifying internal data against network data or metrics tracked by an MMP can provide a fuller picture of user behavior. If you have a secondary source of truth such as Google Analytics (GA), you can compare metrics from different sources to identify any discrepancies.

1. Strategic Insights & DataDrivify

With the advent of intelligent automation in marketing campaigns, the most significant share of installs is predicted to originate from Google’s Universal App Campaigns (UAC) and Facebook’s Automated App Ads (AAA). Using these campaign types, marketers can rely on algorithms to optimize their advertising campaigns across multiple networks, helping to improve their reach and conversions.

Further, to optimize your Google UAC, it is advisable to use Firebase Bidding. Firebase Bidding is a feature provided by Firebase which allows you to bid on events occurring in your app, thereby allowing for more strategic marketing and retargeting efforts. Similarly, for in-app events, bidding and optimization are key to securing a high level of engagement and conversions.

On a similar note, another critical aspect to consider is the operation of ad networks on the Cost Per Sale (CPS) model. Working with ad networks on a CPS model can prove beneficial, as you only pay when a sale has been made, ensuring that your marketing spend is directly tied to actual results