💎 Growth Gems #54 - Revenue Growth, ASO and Ad Monetization
Hi there,
This week I’m sharing gems on ad monetization in 2022, in-app events and optimizing web payments for subscription apps. These insights come from Thomas Petit, Josh Chandley, Simon Thillay, Sofia Gilyazova, Zachary Shakked and several more.
🥇 TOP GEM OF THE WEEK
💎 Apple Pay has been touted as the solution to reduce friction for web payments. However, with Apple Pay the payment seems to be tied to the device: there is a device-level token that is revoked if a user changes device (e.g. iPhone 12 to iPhone 13). If confirmed (this is still being investigated), this means you might need to get people to pay again when they have a new device, therefore creating involuntary churn.
by David Barnard (Developer Advocate at RevenueCat)
at 28:10 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps.
Revenue Growth: web payment for subscription apps (challenges & opportunities)
💎 Something to consider when introducing web payments: the whole funnel is going to be different.
Before payment: conversions (and therefore onboarding)
After payment: renewal rates, refund rates
It makes it hard to compare app vs. web payment. The comparison can also take a long time, during which a lot of mistakes can be made.
by Thomas Petit
at 22:05 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps
⛏️ Going Deeper: the panel shared that renewal rates on the web tend to be higher for several apps. It’s probably due to a combination of things: users don’t get a nudge on renewals like they do with Apple, you’re sending your highest intent users to the web flow (e.g. email opt-ins for promos), the initial friction of putting in the credit card filters out the lower-intent users. This is why you need to take the whole funnel into account (cf. LTV/CAC ratio in Growth Gems #50).
💎 Apple Pay has been touted as the solution to reduce friction for web payments. However, with Apple Pay the payment seems to be tied to the device: there is a device-level token that is revoked if a user changes device (e.g. iPhone 12 to iPhone 13). If confirmed (this is still being investigated), this means you might need to get people to pay again when they have a new device, therefore creating involuntary churn.
by David Barnard (Developer Advocate at RevenueCat)
at 28:10 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps
⛏️ Going Deeper: if you have more on the above, please reply or comment. On payment methods: Zach also pointed out that the PayPal gateway vastly increases conversions vs. the credit card option (it might vary by country). See BetterMe example below (spotted by Thomas).
💎 Web funnels give more attribution insights for paid user acquisition (through URL parameters), but because of the added friction you might not be able to scale your web ads as much as app ads. So you have to run web and app ads in parallel.
by Zachary Shakked (Founder at Hashtag Expert)
at 34:08 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps
💎 You can unlock new channels by leveraging web payments. Examples:
Pinterest doesn’t have an app ads product anymore, yet it can be a relevant channel for some apps
Outbrain and Taboola work well for a lot of subscription apps
by Thomas Petit
at 36:40 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps
💎 The win-back and discount opportunities depend on how big your subscriber base is and on what you have already implemented (e.g. in-app discounts). It can be done poorly yet bring results, but doing it holistically can be complex.
by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann (Head of Product at RevenueCat)
at 44:55 in Optimizing Web Payments for Subscription Apps
ASO: in-app events
💎 With iOS 15, if your app is already installed on a device then the screenshots do not appear anymore which decreases visibility. In-App Events allow you to regain this visibility while showcasing what’s happening in your app or game.
by Simon Thillay (Head of ASO at AppTweak)
at 03:00 in That’s the tea on mobile growth - Session #4
⛏️ Going Deeper: 3 effects of in-app events: increased browse visibility, increased search visibility, better UA performance and conversation rate for new, lapsed and existing installs (see below).
💎 With the In-App event “purpose”, Apple asks you to specify which segment of users you’re trying to target with the event (all users, new users, active users, lapsed users). Apple also says they’ll take this information into account when considering showcasing your event in the Today/Apps/Games tabs (“events you might like”).
by Jonathan Fishman (VP of Marketing at Storemaven)
at 06:40 in That’s the tea on mobile growth - Session #4
💎 Each in-app event card has its own URL that you can use in campaigns, cross-promotion, event marketing, etc. The link in the In-App Event can be a deeplink so you can send users directly to the right part.
by Jonathan Fishman (VP of Marketing at Storemaven)
at 09:50 in That’s the tea on mobile growth - Session #4
Ad Monetization:
💎 CPM’s evolution depends on the game genre as well as the type of ad units (banner, interstitial, rewarded video). Across all ad units, Digital Turbine/Fyber saw CPMs go down 12%-18% on iOS on average but CPMs on rewarded videos actually went up (advertisers using contextual targeting might be an explanation).
by Offer Yehudai (CMO at Digital Turbine)
at 06:50 in Mobile Ad Revenue 2022 | Future and 2021 Retrospective
⛏️ Going Deeper: Fingerprinting is only part of the explanation of flat/increased CPMs, because fingerprinting is fading. For Wildcard Games: June → fingerprinting in MMP caught 90% of SKAN installs, September → fingerprinting in MMP caught only 2/3 of SKAN installs.
💎 You still should maintain LAT and non-LAT waterfalls, especially for more mid-core games. There are still pockets of audience that could be more valuable.
by Offer Yehudai (CMO at Digital Turbine)
at 16:50 in Mobile Ad Revenue 2022 | Future and 2021 Retrospective
⛏️ Going Deeper: Josh also explained that it’s important to have a mediation platform that allows you to A/B test meaningful changes and to be agile, especially for LAT inventory (ad networks make significant and quick improvements to bid more effectively there vs. Facebook/Google where changes are more incremental).
💎 UA at Social Point post-ATT: games dependent on Facebook were initially suffering and games not dependent on Facebook were “kind of fine”. But if you have more hardcore games that need niche players, it’s harder to rely less on Facebook.
by Sofia Gilyazova (Head of Ad monetization at Social Point)
at 20:04 in Mobile Ad Revenue 2022 | Future and 2021 Retrospective
💎 With all the acquisitions happening (e.g. Adjust-Applovin), you have to understand the data you shared and how this data can be used by certain players. Ask your tech team to look into the data the SDKs can collect and how it could be used by others.
by Sofia Gilyazova (Head of Ad monetization at Social Point)
at 38:54 in Mobile Ad Revenue 2022 | Future and 2021 Retrospective
⛏️ Going Deeper: this relates to stories like AppAnnie’s data visualization tool, the recent “SKAN postbacks” feature from AppLovin (which should have probably been opt-in), etc. There can be difficult decisions to make regarding more potential revenue vs. data safety.
And before I leave, a quote on upcoming “data wars”:
“We’re going to learn how valuable SKAdNetwork data actually is, and it’s going to become a new area to be fighting over” - Josh Chandley
See you next time. Stay savvy!
⛏️ Sylvain