As someone who works for a large app marketing measurement company, I see how many apps set their goals and strategies. A few years ago, app marketing focused almost exclusively on driving massive install counts. But the industry has matured. Many brand leaders now focus on attracting fewer but higher quality users. High quality users stick with an app. Most important: they make purchases and drive revenue. After all, 100,000 regular buyers beat 10 million installers that don’t use an app. Here are six great strategies to get you started improving your app user quality.

1. Thanks to for publishing this content first.
SIX WAYS TO IMPROVE
THE QUALITY OF
YOUR APP USERS
By Jim Nichols
VP-Marketing, Apsalar

2. Optimize Marketing to
Revenue Not Install Counts:
Every marketing program goes through a process of optimization to improve performance. In
the past, many app marketers optimized to partners and programs that drove the most installs.
But cheap users aren’t necessarily quality users. The best media partners attract users who
stay with an app and buy.
Two years ago, I worked with a company with greats install counts, but flat revenue. The
problem was that they were optimizing to focus more spending on vendors that drove cheap,
low quality installs. When the company adjusted its optimization models to favor slightly more
expensive media partners that drove quality users, revenue grew.
People
Be Cautious about Incentivized Installs:
One way media partners drive lots of app downloads quickly is via incentivized install programs.
These campaigns offer users rewards for installing an app. For example, a farm game might
offer fast-growing “atomic seeds” if the user downloaded an app for a muffler chain.
Many people might install the app for the super seeds – but most probably wouldn’t become
regular muffler app users. When a partner gets incentivized right, they find users who are
predisposed to wanting an app. For example, a hunting game that offered a discount if the user
downloaded a sporting goods retailer app. Just be careful of incentivized programs that pair
your app with unrelated properties.
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2Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved worldwide. | www.apsalar.com
As someone who works for a large app marketing measurement company, I see how many apps set their goals and strategies. A few
years ago, app marketing focused almost exclusively on driving massive install counts. But the industry has matured. Many brand
leaders now focus on attracting fewer but higher quality users.
High quality users stick with an app. Most important: they make purchases and drive revenue. After all, 100,000 regular buyers beat
10 million installers that don’t use an app. Here are six great strategies to get you started improving your app user quality.
Introduction
Monitor User Quality
from Sites Other
than the App Stores
(“APKs”):
In the Android universe, app
publishers can make their apps
available for install in venues other
than Google Play. An Android
Package Kit (APK) makes apps
portable -- ready for download on
other app stores.
Some third-party app stores drive
great installs. But others are havens
for fraudsters to drive up install
counts from faked mobile devices.
Others may illegally grab your SDK
and subcontract to media partners to
secretly provide installs. Watch your
data for lots of APK installs with no
subsequent launches or purchases.
Just look for lots of installs that
DON’T take place in Google Play or
the App Store.

3. Collaborate with Media Partners to
Improve Uninstall Rates:
By comparing the rate at which users uninstall your app across
partners, you can identify media companies that deliver durable
users. But don’t automatically flush companies at the first sign of high
uninstall rates.
By partnering with these media providers, you may be able to identify
the sources of lower quality users. For example, an ad network may
unknowingly work with a specific publisher engaging in fraud. If you
alert them to the high uninstall rate they are driving, you can work
together to see if one or a few publishers in that network are the
responsible parties. The network will cut the site(s) from your plan and
campaign performance will improve.
Monitor and Respond to Signs of Fraud:
As media spending in our category increased, so has fraud. Often,
you can easily spot fraud in your campaign data. Look for disparities
between metrics that are easy to fake – like ad clicks – and metrics
that matter, like installs and purchases. For example, a campaign that
drove huge numbers of clicks but relatively few purchases.
About a year ago, I worked with a retailer that was testing a new
media partner. In one week, the partner generated 6 million ad clicks,
but only 100 app installs. Clearly, 60,000 clicks per install showed that
something fishy was happening across the network. The brand cut the
media company from their plan and put the money to better use.
3Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved worldwide. | www.apsalar.com
Recognize that Many Quality
Users are Made Not Born
An install is just the first step of cultivating a profitable
long-term user relationship. Craft a marketing program to
keep users engaged and buying. Perhaps most important
is to ask users for permission to deliver push notifications
– those little messages that tell you about app news and
offers. A variety of industry sources have shown that
people who opt-in to receiving push messages are 2-6
times more likely to stick with an app.
Further, you can also use re-engagement advertising to
reach all users. A growing number of media providers can
target your users as they browse via mobile. They use
the media exchanges to pinpoint desirable audiences by
matching device IDs to people actually browsing online
in real-time. For example, you can deliver ads to people
who have placed items in your app shopping cart but left
without buying. The right message can get them to return to
complete their purchases.
These are just a few strategies you can use to attract and
monetize quality users. Consider the unique characteristics
of your app and app category and define a broad set of
tactics to get the job done. Because install counts aren’t
going to help you if your KPIs are tied to revenue.
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4. About Apsalar
Apsalar Mobile Marketing Cloud helps app marketers solve their
biggest challenge: attracting and developing profitable, loyal users.
Rely on Apsalar to optimize installs, analyze the business, build
high-performing audiences, and distribute audiences to partners for
customized marketing efforts like engaging new users, winning back
uninstallers, and closing cart abandoners.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
https://apsalar.com or email info@Apsalar.com.
In the US you can also call
877-590-1854
Copyright 2017, Apsalar, Inc. All rights
reserved. Apsalar and the Apsalar logo are
trademarks of Apsalar, Inc. All other brand
names and logos referenced herein are
property of their respective owners.