Discover what the Amazon Appstore learned when creating its Reward Campaigns and writing a service to run those campaigns. This presentation includes results from Amazon's campaigns, results from partner campaigns, and a review of what rewards campaign practices worked well (and which didn't). The practices section is structured to give you insight when building your own rewards campaign or drafting requirements for a partner supplied solution.

1. KEYNOTE
Mike Hines
HEAD OF PARTNER SUCCESS
AMAZON
LONDON, UK ~ SEPTEMBER 4 - 5, 2019
DIGIMARCONUK.CO.UK | #DigiMarConUK
DIGIMARCONIRELAND.IE | #DigiMarConIreland
What Amazon Learned
About Creating Rewards
Campaigns

2. What Amazon Learned
About Creating
Rewards Campaigns
Mike Hines | Amazon.com

3. Part 1:
The Amazon Appstore
Rewards Journey

4. What Is
Amazon Appstore
Similar to Google Play or
Apple Appstore
How customers can get
apps for Amazon and
Android devices

5. What are Rewards
Campaigns
Offering your customer a
reward for taking a valuable
action.

6. Amazon Appstore’s
Goal
Increase paid subscriptions
to premium FireTV content

7. Why a
Rewards Campaign?
Rewards Campaigns…
…don’t train users to wait for
sales
…can be targeted
…can be used for much more
than selling

8. Specific Goals
• Generate more first time subscribers
• Recover lapsed subscribers
• Increase email open rate

9. What Appstore Did
Wrote a service to run a
Rewards Campaign
Offer real world prizes sold and
shipped by Amazon for completing
actions

10. Based Rewards on CPA
• Cost per Action is a smart way to
think about rewards.
• Makes sure the qualifying action is
worth the cost of the rewards
program.

11. What Appstore Did
• Offered a $10 Amazon Credit to net
new subscribers
• Offered a $10 Amazon Credit to re-
subscribers
• Notified eligible customers
• Sent out mail with the reward
mentioned in the subject line

12. Amazon Appstore
Results
Generate more first time subscribers
5x
more likely with offer than without

13. Amazon Appstore
Results
Recover lapsed subscribers
2x
more likely with offer than without

14. Amazon Appstore
Results
Increase Open Rate on Mail
2x
more likely when offer mentioned
in subject line

15. These Results Got Attention
Other groups at Amazon
expressed interest

16. Part 2:
The Epiphany

17. “I’ll bet this strategy
works everywhere.”
We made the service
available to a select group of
our partners

18. Partner Results
+500% email click through
+97% day 30 retention
+291% registrations
+117% increase in first time buyers
+27% ARPPU

19. Partner Results
Behind the numbers

20. In-App Purchase Rewards
Zero COGS is a beautiful thing
Increase In-App Revenue
• Offer new customers a $24 reward
on $50 package
• Offer $24 reward to $50 customers
if they buy $100 package

21. Duration of Results
Increase Retention: Event Participation
2x increase in daily revenue
for 30 days after rewards
campaign ended

22. Interesting Observation:
Rewards of Physical Goods
creates a halo effect that lasts
beyond the end of the
campaign

23. Interesting Observation:
Rewards get people to take
key actions
If key actions are sub-optimal,
you don’t get benefits

24. Interesting Observation:
Rewards can deliver great
results
Rewards rarely perform
miracles

25. Part 3:
What We Learned

26. “I’ll bet this strategy
works everywhere.”
Well….. Almost.

27. “I’ll bet this strategy works everywhere.”
Well…almost
Well suited
Airlines, Banks, Coffee Shops, Restaurants
Video Game Publishers
Specialty shops, Seasonal Goods
Charitable or Issue Organizations
Lifestyle media
Advertising Agencies
Somewhat less spectacular
Single up-front transaction, no repeat
business expectation
Sales work better here
Mandatory transactions
Paying taxes
Required textbooks

28. Behavior to Reward
Actions that Matter
One Time Actions
Sign up for a newsletter
Make a reservation online
Check your account on the mobile app
Build Habits
Reward repeated tasks
Check luggage status on mobile for 3 flights
Check your in-app mail every day for a
week

29. Reward Economics
Actions that Matter
Pays for Itself each time
Value of Action > Cost Per Action
$50 Gem pack ($0 COGS, $50 revenue)
Reward of $24 speaker ($24 CPA)
Net Gain $26 per action.
Pays for itself on average
Aggregate Value of Actions > Total Campaign Cost
Customers who get newsletter spend on average
$50 more
Reward $24 speaker
Average gain over time: $26 per action

30. How to Announce Reward
Actions that Matter
Do X, Get Y
Do X, Get Y.
Explicitly announce the reward,
either a one time reward or a
habit building reward to the
eligible cohort
Delightful Surprise
Unannounced reward
• When a customer is doing
the right thing
• During high-abandon rate
tasks

31. Reward Selection
Cost per Action:
Less Expensive (or exclusive)
• One Time Actions
• Simple
More Expensive (or really exclusive)
• Multiple actions over time
• Complicated / hard / personal
These are guidelines!
You must do test campaigns to find the sweet spot.

32. Cohort Selection
Pay for Itself
• Everyone you can reach
Easy / Immediate rewards
• Pre-existing customers
Delightful surprises
• Paying customers doing good things
These are guidelines!
You must do test campaigns to find the sweet spot.

33. Good things to remember about Rewards
Drive Actions that Matter
Flexible
• One time actions
• Habits and Behaviors
Retain Customers
• Drive completion of high-
abandon tasks
• Reward good behavior
Target Specific Cohorts
• Target a specific group of
high-value customers
• Target new customers
Effects of Real World Rewards
• Sticky
• Memorable

34. Reading List
Chip and Dan Heath
• Switch
• The Power of Moments

35. Thank you!
Mike Hines
@MikeFHines
facebook.com/MobileDevMikeHines
mihines@amazon.com
http://developer.amazon.com/moments