By Barak Vinkler, Product Manager at Zoomd

ROAS, or Return on Ad Spend, is a critical metric for any marketing campaign. It measures the amount of money a company earns for every dollar spent on advertising, helping to identify which strategies are the most cost-effective. In the world of mobile app user acquisition, achieving a high ROAS is essential for driving growth and maximizing the return on investment in marketing efforts. 

One way to boost ROAS in user acquisition campaigns is by using artificial intelligence (AI). AI can help optimize campaign performance by automatically adjusting bids and targeting based on user behavior and other factors. This allows marketers to maximize their ROAS while minimizing wasted ad spend. 

As a product User Acquisition expert, I will share my insights on the advantages of incorporating AI into user acquisition strategies and guide how to effectively set up and optimize AI to achieve a high return on ad spend across various channels. 

The Benefits and Challenges of Advertising in Multiple Channels 

Advertising in multiple channels can be a powerful way to reach a wider audience and drive growth for a business. By expanding beyond a single channel, marketers can access new audiences and increase their chances of finding and converting potential customers. 

However, advertising in multiple channels also comes with its own set of challenges. Each channel has its own unique features, targeting options, and ad formats, which can make it difficult to manage campaigns across multiple platforms. Additionally, different channels may have different audiences, which can require customizing campaigns and targeting to fit each platform. 

Despite these challenges, the benefits of advertising in multiple channels can be well worth the effort. By leveraging the unique features and audiences of each platform, marketers can reach a wider range of potential customers and drive growth for their business. By using AI to optimize campaigns across multiple channels, marketers can streamline the process and make it easier to manage campaigns and achieve great ROAS.  

Understanding AI for User Acquisition 

AI for marketing refers to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze data and automate marketing activities. It can be used to identify the most effective strategies for reaching target audiences, improve KPI, and optimize campaigns for better results. 

AI can be used to automate bidding and targeting decisions based on user behavior and other factors such as event, impressions, or location. This can help marketers tailor campaigns to specific users, resulting in higher ROI from each ad spend. 

Applying AI for User Acquisition

Setting up AI for mobile user acquisition requires collecting user data, training a machine learning model, and implementing the model into your existing campaigns. This can be a complex and expensive process, but many tools are available to help marketers get started, including Skipper by Zoomd.  

AI for user acquisition requires testing new media strategies, analyzing user data, and adjusting bids and budgets regularly. In order to maximize ROAS, advertisers must pay attention to trends in their field and adjust their strategies accordingly. 

Maximizing ROAS with Skipper: A Tool for User Acquisition Across Multiple Channels 

One tool that can help marketers achieve great ROAS in user acquisition campaigns across multiple channels is Skipper, created by Zoomd. Skipper is a powerful platform that helps marketers optimize their campaigns by automating decisions such as bid and budget, campaign status updates, and more. 

One of the key features of Skipper “Automation Center” is its use of the “IFTTT” (If This Then That) methodology, which makes it easy and fast to create and edit campaigns. With IFTTT, marketers can set up simple “rules” that dictate how their campaigns should behave based on certain triggers.  

For example, a marketer might set up a rule that says “If the ROAS of a campaign falls below a certain threshold, then pause the campaign.” This allows marketers to automate their campaign management and make real-time adjustments based on performance for multiple campaigns and channels.

Skipper also offers a range of features that make it easy to track campaign performance, such as real-time reporting, budget allocation, graphs, and dashboards. This allows marketers to stay on top of their campaigns and make informed decisions about how to optimize them for the best results. 

Overall, Skipper is a tool for app owners, campaign managers and overall marketers looking to achieve great ROAS and stay on top their data in their UA. By automating campaign management and making it easy to track performance, Skipper helps marketers focus on driving growth and maximizing the return on their marketing efforts. The use of the IFTTT methodology makes it easy and fast to create and edit campaigns, helping marketers to quickly optimize their campaigns and achieve great ROAS. 

In conclusion, achieving a high ROAS is essential for driving growth in mobile user acquisition campaigns and AI can help in optimizing the performance. Advertising on multiple channels can be beneficial, but it can be challenging to manage campaigns across different platforms. Tools like Skipper can help streamline this process by automating decisions and optimizing performance across multiple channels. With Skipper’s automation center, advertisers can easily maximize ROAS and drive growth for their business. 

Will you be better off with an advertising agency or an in-house team? What will drive greater app growth while optimizing operations?

Having provided user acquisition platforms for both agencies and advertisers – and having acted as a performance user acquisition agency for some of the largest brands in the world – we know there isn’t a right or wrong way. There’s just the way that’s best for you.

Here are 5 key aspects to consider, and how both advertising agencies and in-house teams can help your app succeed, depending on what matters to you most.

Changing Industry Requirements

Choose in-house if you have the resources for continuous employee training. With the advertising and app industries changing so frequently and so widely (remember the days we only had a couple of primary channels?), you’ve got to constantly keep your team on the cutting edge of knowledge and technology.

The benefit is that employees often see professional development as an employee differentiator, so you are likelier to attract and retain top talent.

Choose agency if you just need to get going or if you don’t have the resources to keep up with all the changes, then develop or find training for your team on an ongoing basis yourself. Some agencies do that for you – they continuously train their teams on new channels and strategies. Others go deep and specialize in certain aspects.

If you need access to effective influencers *and* you want to build your app’s own TikTok community, hire an agency that has already achieved proven results for each goal, and see results faster. One of the top reasons for that is that agencies tend to have much more operations volume in one channel (in comparison to a single advertiser), thus get direct account managers introduced by the platform or social network themselves. For example, as a certified marketing partner of TikTok, we received in-depth data, best practices and faster supports from the platform. To understand the real value of a technology agency, you can read in our latest article by Zoomd VP of media.

Broad and Deep Perspectives

Choose in-house if you want a greater cross-silo collaboration. When your marketing people collaborate with sales, customer success and product people, magical things can happen. They gain a deeper understanding, better data, and end up driving better results, because they understand your app’s customers better.

You can create intentional collaborations with agencies, but the advantage of in-house teams is that they interact informally with other teams, whether it’s at lunch or on the company’s happy hour Zoom call. The personal relationships could make collaboration simpler, and some ideas might pop up spontaneously in day-to-day conversations.

Choose agency if you want proven strategies that have worked for apps like yours – or if you want the benefit of cross-industry experience. Folks who work at agencies typically work with many more app companies than the in-house marketer that “only” changes companies every 2-3 years.

It’s a different type of experience. The in-house marketers go deeper into one brand, while the agency marketers get a broad perspective. They can see how app users in both your industry and in complementary industries have responded to certain marketing initiatives, and what works in other industries that your audience might not already be used to seeing, allowing you to differentiate your messaging further.

Hiring and Compatibility

Choose in-house if you want to decide who you work with. First, you might care about certain skills that your agency doesn’t. Maybe your agency hires very creative people who design stunning campaign assets (link to assets article once it’s published), but you need someone on your team who’ll prioritize diversity and inclusion, or empathy toward your app users.

Second, maybe your agency’s team members check all your professional checkboxes, but you want someone who’ll just be fun to work with. When you hire advertisers yourself, you have more control.

Choose agency if you want access to a pre-vetted pool of industry pros, who have experience taking apps and campaigns to the next level. The hiring process can be extensive and expensive, and partnering with an agency that’s already done the heavy lifting can make your life easier and save you money. Make sure you meet with the people who’ll be working on your campaigns, to ensure compatibility in personalities and work process preferences.

Work Velocity

Choose in-house if you want greater control over your schedule and over your team’s availability.

You can tell an employee you need a project ASAP – it’s your company and you decide what to prioritize – but if you need a deliverable within two days, and your agency is already fully booked with commitments to other clients, you’ll need to find an alternative solution for that deliverable.

Choose agency if you want to grow fast. Agencies already have team members, plus relationships and partnerships with freelancers. They can likely add people to your app’s campaign quickly.

Alternatively, hire 2-3 agencies at once. You make 2-3 hiring decisions and book entire teams instead of 2-3 people.

Customization to Your Needs

Choose in-house *and* agency for the best mix for your specific situation.

Have some in-house advertisers to ensure your app campaigns remain on-brand across partners, and to simplify cross-silo collaboration. Simultaneously, partner with agencies that specialize in areas that complement your team’s strengths, have broad experience to help you differentiate yourself from the noise, and have the ability to help you scale fast.

Here at Zoomd, we have performance marketing solutions to help you whichever way you choose. If you need an agency that specializes in meeting ambitious user acquisition goals, we’ve got your back. Prefer to do it yourself? We recently started providing access to our proprietary AI-based platform. You gain the benefit of 500,000,000 daily data points, leverage what works on one channel to inform campaigns on other channels and increase your app growth efficiency. See what’s possible here.

Zoomd’s self-serve SaaS model enables advertisers to save time by managing their numerous user acquisition campaigns on premium media channels in a clear and transparent manner, under a single united dashboard.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, January 6, 2020 – Zoomd Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: ZOMD, OTC: ZMDTF) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Zoomd Ltd. (collectively, “Zoomd” or the “Company“), the marketing tech (MarTech) user-acquisition and engagement platform, is pleased to announce the launch of its self-serve SaaS version of its platform, with Tangelo Games, La-Mark, and MuvMobile (a WPP company) being the first three companies on-boarded onto it. The platform, which Zoomd views as a resource- and time-saver for its users in the ad buying and optimization process, units all of a user’s advertising campaigns under a single central dashboard and equips advertisers with Zoomd’s full user acquisition capabilities across numerous premium digital channels – including the popular platform TikTok. The platform is driven by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and prediction and automation technologies.

The Company is of the view that the year 2020 has accelerated the digital transformation of the marketing world. A Gartner survey of CMOs in Western Europe and the U.S. found that they spent 80 percent of marketing budgets on digital channels and this is likely to rise over the coming years. Zoomd’s experience is that many advertisers find themselves spending too much time manually managing campaigns across several channels and losing a portion of their budget to ad fraud and inefficient work. Zoomd’s experience suggests that a sizable portion of these issues stem from a lack of transparency and synchronization. Zoomd is taking a leading stance in the movement for more transparency and efficiency with its new SaaS subscription-based model.

Zoomd’s new self-served, license-based, SaaS platform allows advertisers, both large and small, to easily and conveniently access, operate, and monitor all user acquisition campaigns themselves, all on a single dashboard. The core objectives of the new platform allows advertisers to spend their budgets more efficiently and effectively. The platform offers a number of premium media channels to advertise on, including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Twitter, Apple Search, and Google – with each channel already incorporating built-in mechanisms to prevent ad fraud. Campaigns across all the channels can be managed succinctly on the unified dashboard, eliminating the need for advertisers to manage the campaign processes separately for each media channel, potentially saving both time and financial resources. Moreover, the platform provides transparency to advertisers on the entire ad buying and placement process for all the media channels and optimizes it by offering suggestions and automated rules on how to reallocate budgets based on campaign performances.

“We are thrilled to add a new license-based model in a software-based world, which was our vision when we decided to take the company public,” says Amit Bohensky, Zoomd Chairman and Co-Founder. “With larger digital budgets looming amid the pandemic’s continuing, we want to stress the importance of delivering efficiency, something that advertisers of all sizes value when they are running digital campaigns. This is the way of the future, and we are proud to be a part of the movement for transparency and efficiency.”

“Zoomd’s new SaaS platform puts Tangelo Games on the right track to accomplish the goals we had for user acquisition by providing us total transparency and convenience across the premium global media channels,” says Dany Kashti, operating principal at Third Eye Capital and CEO of Tangelo Games Corp. “It’s refreshing to see a platform that saves you time and provides the kind of transparency that the industry sorely needs, and we are excited to be one of the pioneers to utilize the new SaaS model.”

The Zoomd platform, in its current form, is now available to all sizes of advertisers and advertising agencies that wish to have full transparency and save time in their user acquisition strategies and campaigns. Zoomd expects that more companies will be on-boarded in the coming weeks.

About Zoomd:

Zoomd (TSXV: ZOMD, OTC: ZMDTF), founded in 2012 and began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in September 2019, offers a site search engine to publishers, and a mobile app user-acquisition platform, integrated with a majority of global digital media, to advertisers. The platform unifies more than 600 media sources into one unified dashboard. Offering advertisers, a user acquisition control center for managing all new customer acquisition campaigns using a single platform. By unifying all these media sources onto a single platform, Zoomd saves advertisers significant resources that would otherwise be spent consolidating data sources, thereby maximizing data collection and data insights while minimizing the resources spent on the exercise. Further, Zoomd is a performance-based platform that allows advertisers to advertise to the relevant target audiences using a key performance indicator-algorithm that is focused on achieving the advertisers’ goals and targets.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Disclaimer IN REGARD TO Forward-looking statements

This news release includes certain “forward-looking statements” under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to Zoomd’s ability to successfully grow the number of users using its new SaaS platform and the overall future success of the product offering. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon several estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, technological, legal, privacy matters, political and social uncertainties (including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic), the extent and duration of which are uncertain at this time on Zoomd’s business and general economic and business conditions and markets. There can be no assurance that any of the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.

For further information please contact:
Company Media Contacts:

Amit Bohensky
Chairman
Zoomd
ir@zoomd.com

Investor relations:
Lytham Partners, LLC
Ben Shamsian
New York | Phoenix
ZOMD@lythampartners.com

How to increase App installs? Marketing Strategy for an App!

“Build it and they will come” is one of the greatest myths of business.
If you pour your heart, creativity, intelligence and late-night pizzas into an app to ensure your customers’ lives are better, you’d think they would be able to magically find it.

But while most people aren’t mind readers, most people do leave breadcrumbs of data. This data tells us the number one way they find new apps is by searching through the App Store and Google Play.

Source: richTech

Therefore, let’s explore what helps these application stores prioritize one app over another, and what helps convert browsers to downloaders once your app has been discovered. As a bonus, the more downloads you’ll get, the better chance your app has to rank.

Research Competitors’ Keywords to Rank Your Own

To help potential customers find your app, make sure you weave relevant keywords into your title and description.

When choosing keywords, look for words and phrases that have a high search volume, but not a lot of competition. Consider being specific, using longtail keywords like “plus size work fashion” (instead of a general term like “fashion”), for a better chance of ranking when your most ideal customers look for an app like yours.

Use solutions like Sensor Power to find out what your competitors are doing, and how it’s going for them. You’ll be able to see what works in your industry, and also discover gaps that aren’t being served yet.

Write Your App Description for Both Algorithms and Humans

Both application stores provide 4,000 characters for your app’s description, yet only the Play Store indexes it, according to ASOdesk.

Source: ASOdesk

Therefore, prioritize keywords in your Play Store description, but don’t go into keyword stuffing. Mention your keyword only a few times – and as organically as you can, because algorithms aren’t the only ones who’ll be reading this.

Humans will read your description in both the Play Store and the App Store, though most of them will only read the beginning, so pay extra attention to your first sentence or two.

Use your description to tell your ideal customers what they’re getting with your app, and how it will make their lives better. Include some social proof to build instant trust – how many downloads or five-star reviews you’ve gotten, a celebrity endorsement, or a short testimonial from an everyday customer like them.

Use Visuals to Show Customers What’s Possible for Them

Screenshots don’t help you rank your app directly, but as we’ll explore in a bit, downloads do impact ranking. Screenshots are the first thing many people notice when they land on your app – especially the first screenshot – so they have the power to impact downloads.

Source: Storemaven

Use screenshots from your app to show customers what’s waiting on the other end of the “download” button. Choose screenshots that show how easy or fun the experience is, or otherwise use those screens to instantly answer common questions and concerns (expressed by current users sharing their feedback).

Headspace, for example, wrote “learn to meditate in just minutes a day” on one of its screenshots, knowing that many people fear this process is complex and time-consuming.

Source: Headspace via Google Play

Then, use video to take it to the next level, to share your customer’s upcoming hero’s journey, to convey your brand personality, or to share more information.

Increase Downloads, Retention and In-App Purchases to Rank Higher

“Both the App and Google Play stores use the number of times an app has been downloaded to determine the app ranking” writes Neil Patel, co-founder at Neil Patel Digital. But if your app is new, you still have a way to stand out. “While an app may have 1 million overall downloads, a newer app can beat it by getting more downloads this month,” he explains.

Similarly, “how long your app stays installed and how many times it’s used while installed can help App Store search ranking,” he adds.

Source: Neil Patel

In-app purchases also impact your app. First, in-app purchases indicate an even deeper level of engagement.

And second, according to App Radar, “the names of your in-app purchases (IAPs), including subscription plans, are going to be indexed by Apple… Each IAP has its own display name, promotional image, and description. Your IAPs can show up in the app store search results and even be featured in the Today tab.”

Regularly Update Your App to Show Customers and Algorithms How Much You Care

One way to encourage great retention and in-app purchases is to update your app frequently. Make sure your customers have something new to explore on a regular basis.

You’ll end up gaining both the App Store and Google Play’s appreciation as well, since they view regular updates as a brand’s commitment to keep improving their customers’ experience. If you serve their customers well, they’ll keep sending people to your app.

Therefore, regularly updating your app is likely to have a positive impact on your ranking, according to App Radar. Plus, it adds that humans tend to agree with stores’ view on updates – and reward updated apps with better ratings and reviews.

Encourage Ratings and Reviews to Rank, then Analyze Them to Rank Higher

“Google and Apple both show a tendency to rank apps with more positive ratings and reviews higher than those with negative ones… The number of ratings and reviews your app receives also matters,” explains Business of Apps.

Source: Trello via Google Play

But even if you don’t have any reviews yet, you can use them to improve your ranking. Analyze what customers write, and figure out which words and phrases come up most often. It’s very possible you’ll discover keywords customers use that you didn’t even consider optimizing for.

Plus, you’ll be able to include phrases and insights from reviews in your description and other promotional copy. Writing in your customers’ own language will increase your user acquisition rates, because people will relate in a much deeper level, feeling that your app actually gets them.

Leave Your Title, Subtitle and App Icon to the End

Your title, subtitle and app icon are the first things people see, so give yourself and your team time before making final decisions on those. Sometimes, it’s best finalize these decisions after you’ve already figured out the rest of the steps in today’s guide. It will help you be more immersed in your customer experience and keywords, so you can be more accurate.

Apple’s tips for an app name are pretty good: “Choose a simple, memorable name that is easy to spell and hints at what your app does. Be distinctive. Avoid names that use generic terms or are too similar to existing app names.”

And, of course, include your keyword in it.

Do the same with your subtitle. Use it to be specific about what customers are getting, or show some personality. There’s no need to repeat the keyword, although you can use a secondary keyword.

Amplify all this with an app icon that stands out and differentiates your app from others in your industry. Review what competitors are doing, and look for gaps.

But, of course, align it with your brand personality.

If your app takes a serious tone, a unicorn in your icon might not convey the experience you provide authentically per se. But if your entire brand takes a more lighthearted approach to a “serious” industry, like investing, make sure your icon portrays that.

Source: eToro via Google Play

Amplify Your Results

Since download velocity, retention and in-app purchases matter to your app rank, use paid channels to amplify your reach and reengage customers. Get the most out of your budget by unifying cross-channel data sources to put the most accurate message in front of the right customer, at the right time.

In a world saturated with apps, don’t just build a great experience and hope people will find it. Help the algorithms help you find your people instead, and then walk them down a virtual red carpet to an experience they’ll want to come back to, and tell their friends about.