App Growth Week 2023: Day 1 — Mobile Growth
Anastasiya Starovoytova
Anastasiya Starovoytova 
Nowadays, getting an honest answer to the questions above is hard. There’s excitement and skepticism in equal measure. But do not fret: we’ve got you covered by inviting an expert who’ll provide you with valuable insights into the matter — Peggy Anne Salz!
In her presentation, Peggy explains the difference between the First Wave of AI and the Second and what new technologies mean for mobile marketers. The results you got with the First Wave tools could have been disappointing or mediocre, but we’re moving to a new age — marked by collaboration between bots and humans. This co-creation will be much more impactful:
It’s going to be bigger, it’s going to be more impactful because it’s going to be about co-creation with AI, and, more importantly, bringing marketers one step closer to that Nirvana — one big step towards one-to-one marketing.
There are several AI-driven activities that can be beneficial for app marketers. Peggy believes one of the most significant results will be seen if you implement AI into:
Watch the full video to learn more about the impact of AI on our future:
Recognizing the diversity of app categories, the second session emphasized the importance of tailoring user acquisition approaches. A one-size-fits-all strategy is no longer effective.
The best way to understand what works and what doesn’t is to have an open discussion about different user acquisition strategies. Seasoned experts joined forces during App Growth Week to share their insights into new UA approaches and respond to the questions of the audience.
Here are some gems from the panel.
The recession is on everyone’s mind, but it seems that things are getting back to normal, says Mariusz Gąsiewski, and revenue streams in mobile gaming are gaining force:
Let’s look at the data in October 2023: we had like 12-20% revenue growth year-over-year. It was the second month in a row with such growth. September 2023 was with 12% revenue growth as well. This is a really big change because at the beginning of the year we had a mostly negative growth rate.
Another observation by Thomas Petit marks the shift from typical ad campaigns to something entirely new:
One thing that really was interesting this year is how we move from normal ad campaigns into what TikTok calls Sparks or Instagram or Meta would call it boosting. Instead of posting it to your account, you’d put money to push content on other people’s accounts.
The travel category sees a resurgence and explores new unorthodox UA channels to engage new audiences, says Daniel Lupu:
Travel business wanted to tap into new audiences, and that was platforms like TikTok, even if the platforms themselves weren’t really new. Business wanted to tap into the power of influencer campaigns and user generated content to create a sense of trust and authenticity.
The experts, specifically Paul Davey, also shed light on growing apps with a longer buying cycle using the example of the AutoTrader app and which channels work best for them:
We have had to rely a little bit more on historical data, and that has driven us to Apple Search Ads, Facebook, Google Ads campaigns which historically worked so well for us.
Here’s good advice from Thomas Tierney. While aiming to grow, keep in mind that getting into every user acquisition channel out there isn’t a sound tactic:
Throughout the year, from what I’ve seen, a lot of people wanted to be on every single platform. They want to have their fingers in all of the pies, and that’s not the best tactic to have. I feel like the best strategy is to have your bread and butter. I would always resort to UAC and Apple Search Ads as your bread and butter.
This is only a small fraction of the experts’ wisdom shared during the panel. Soak in all the info by watching the video below:
The introduction of SKAN 4 left a huge mark on the industry, with mobile marketers eagerly seeking guidance on navigating this new landscape.
The third session provided a comprehensive overview of SKAN 4, offering valuable insights into the tools and strategies marketers need to succeed in a post-ATT world. How to adapt and thrive in the evolving attribution ecosystem? Listen to Mike Gadd, EMEA Customer Success Director at Singular to get the answer!
From his presentation, you learn about:
Prepare when you’re going to switch because you’re going to have different conversion models for your old SKAN 3 — and then it’s going to change when you move to SKAN 4. There are some key things that happen when you make that change.
Watch the App Growth Week video to get a full picture:
In a specialized section dedicated to the Web2App funnel, App Growth Week delved into the dynamics of user intent and advanced strategies.
An app growth expert Sergey Golovko unfolded the role user intent plays in optimizing the conversion journey from web browsers to active app users.
What I want to talk about today is how we can use Web2App in classic marketing to adapt and make our user acquisition or retention strategy more efficient. The thing I want to focus on is product-oriented stuff — when we unify user experience with websites and apps.
In his session, Sergey thoroughly explained the following topics:
Here’s the full video of Sergey’s presentation about the Web2App funnel:
The synergy between App Store Optimization (ASO), user acquisition (UA), and design is not to be underestimated. The interconnected nature of these activities can lead you to true success — as soon as you realize the importance of their integration.
Our very own experts from SplitMetrics Agency shared success stories and practical tips on creating a winning formula for app growth that’s built on this synergy. Each of the speakers will cover their area of expertise.
Eugene Ilnytskiy was talking about the importance of ASO:
ASO is a continuous and complex process of optimizing your app to improve its visibility in the App Store and Google Play and maximize the conversion rate from page views to installs for all types of traffic sources.
Evgenia Davydkina elaborates on how design creatives can step up your ASO game in 2024 by explaining what works and what doesn’t:
Basically, there are four major elements and trends that captivate users and have a significant impact on downloads. Those are: easy-to-read captions, panoramic view screenshots, social proofs and, of course, personalization.
And Maksim Kasyanik will share UA hacks by seasoned SplitMetrics pros that will make your life simpler:
As an agency, we help our customers grow their business through well-developed multi-channel UA strategies among many other things — because, you know, you try to interact with your brand across multiple channels. And we work with all main paid UA channels like Apple Search Ads, Meta, TikTok, Unity, etc.
Tune in to the video to get all the recommendations from SplitMetrics Agency:
Closing out the day, the last panel explored the importance of a future-ready MarTech stack.
Our brilliant panelists shared their insights into the latest use-cases and best practices for 2024, ensuring you have a roadmap to navigate the evolving marketing tools.
The first speaker, Silvio Peruci, told the audience how to improve organic growth with App Radar, especially in the ASO area:
App Radar has many different use cases. For example, one of the most dominant ones is keyword intelligence use case where it’s all about finding the right keywords for your app to really stand out in the app stores. And then we’re also very proud of our ASO workflow tools that enable you really to not only identify keywords but also implement those keywords.
Then the session moved towards paid UA solutions. James Haslam recommended using Mintegral for cross-regional user acquisition, monetization and creative solutions.
We offer a range of different solutions for marketers and monetization folks who’re looking to maximize user acquisition — or app growth, if you’re on the monetization side. For the former, we’ve always prioritized providing advertisers with versatile bidding options. Aside from the traditional methods like CPM, CPC, CPI, we now offer Target ROAS for in-app advertising campaigns.
What about automating Apple Search Ads? Alexandra Subach elaborated on how SplitMetrics can help you achieve your growth goals in 2024:
At SplitMetrics, we do have two products and an agency. The first one is our flagship product SplitMetrics Acquire. This is an Apple Search Ads automation platform where you can optimize and scale your Apple Search Ads campaigns. The second product is called SplitMetrics Optimize. This is our A/B testing platform where you can test any element of your product page in any environment, both iOS and Google Play. And the last, but not the least, is our SplitMetrics Agency. This is a full-cycle marketing agency that can support you both in your user acquisition and app store optimization.
Our next speaker, Nancy Roberts took the stage to talk about creative MarTech that’s disrupting the industry and what challenges companies like Craftsman+ help overcome:
Let’s think about the challenges of creatives. Think fast because you only have three seconds — that’s as much time as you have before you get a user scroll right past your ad and not click on it.
And, of course, we couldn’t forget the very foundation of any app growth cycle — visibility, engagement, and attribution. Reed Kuhn explains how to get all three on the highest level via Branch linked marketing.
We should be driving app adoption from all channels, not just paid channels, but owned organic traffic. And then, once we have those users with the app, we want to deeplink them into the app, no matter where they are engaging from. So, we’re going to talk about these two big buckets separately.
Eager to learn more? Watch the session on our YouTube channel:
Day 1 of App Growth Week 2023 was a captivating journey into the future of mobile marketing. From AI revolutions to category-specific strategies, the event provided a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for mobile marketers.
Want to get more app marketing tips and tricks? Go and explore the rest of the App Growth Week sessions!
