As a digital marketer, I’ve been through the ups and downs of the economy. In 2023, I was invited to speak on a panel at the annual Kochava Summit to speak over just this topic. Along with two Kochava employees, I was able to answer questions and speak over ways that you can help your marketing efforts (specifically in mobile user acquisition, as Kochava is an MMP – but these tactics are relevant across the board) even with decreased budgets and an unstable economy.
Read on for an overview of the points I touch on during the panel. Or head over to the Kochava website to watch the full panel discussion here. To view the video, enter access code: WATCH-2023-SUMMIT
Set up your tracking.
Make sure that your tracking is properly set up – and then double check it. Especially with iOS and the SkAD network, it’s easy to miss small details like putting an App ID from Snapchat into a particular field within your MMP. If you miss these details, you’re likely missing out on a lot of data. Once your campaigns are up and running, if the performance is nowhere close to what you expected, work with your reps at your MMP and the advertising channel to figure out what’s going on. Most of the time it’s a simple fix.
Get enough conversions.
A lot of platforms (Meta being the primary offender here) require campaigns to reach a certain number of conversions in order to show you the data. Why? Privacy regulations. If you don’t have the budget to reach these conversion minimums, your data will be inaccurate.
Reevaluate your media mix.
The digital world is constantly changing and what might have worked years ago isn’t going to be the same as what works now or what works in a few months. Reevaluate often and be open to changing your strategy. I never would have predicted that I could convince Western Union to advertise on TikTok and use Influencers…but I did, and successfully so. Point being: be open to bringing new platforms into your media mix.
Look into different placements.
It would make sense that if you’re trying to drive mobile user acquisition, you would use primarily mobile app campaigns. But, web campaigns with Smartlinks (from Kochava) or OneLinks (from Appsflyer) can drive app downloads and still let you see the conversion data you want. So while it may seem counterintuitive to send potential customers to your website when you’re an app first product…don’t judge it until you try it. I’ve seen great performance in mobile web campaigns that are meant to drive app downloads. And I’m willing to bet you would too.
Review your optimization tactics.
If you’re trying to drive app downloads but you’re running an awareness campaign, results will be weak. As a starting point, optimize towards your KPI. You need to keep your KPI in mind always, but that doesn’t mean you can’t test outside of optimizing towards that one event. I’ve seen going just one level up or down the funnel provide strong results (though at a lower budget than the main optimization event).
Exclusion lists are important.
While it may be mean to exclude other kids on the playground, excluding people from your marketing campaign is actually a good thing. Use your first party data to make sure you aren’t wasting money on advertising to people who are already your customers. (You may need some retargeting to retain customers, but that’s a different story.) Simply upload customer e-mails or phone numbers to Meta, TikTok, etc and you can exclude those customers. But static lists have to be updated often. To take your targeting to the next level, I recommend using something like mParticle or LiveRamp. Using these products you can keep your exclusions up to date through API connections to your customer data and your marketing channels.
Speaking of targeting…
Exclusions are important, but your targeting needs to be up to snuff too. I could write 20 blogs just on the importance of targeting and exclusions, but the main thing I’ll give you now is actually more about creative: match your creative to your targeting. Broad targeting works well, but if you need to target specifically because you want to acquire customers who complete money transfers to Jamaica, you should have creative that sparks Jamaicans’ interests.
How do you use these principals in your own marketing?
Constantly adapt and change. Experiment with new strategies. Be agile and flexible. There is no cheat code for marketing, but you can make the most of lower budgets by making sure that your campaigns are as efficient as possible. If you need an expert help to boost your marketing strategy, contact me. Let’s drive your business forward together!
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