In-app event testing with SplitMetrics Optimize
Ekaterina Nelidova
Ekaterina Nelidova 
In October 2021, Apple announced the release of a new highly anticipated App Store section – in-app events. The section allows the app publishers to showcase and promote the events on both app product page, in search results where the event card appears along with your app, and the event tab which provides new advertising opportunities on the App Store. In addition, in-app events are also demonstrated in editorially curated and personalized recommendations on the Today, Games, and Apps tabs. The showcased events can be dedicated to live-streamed experiences, game competitions, movie premieres, and the release of new major features.
The app marketing teams have noticed and reported the numerous benefits of this update. Now, as in-app events are adopted and integrated into the app growth team routine and the first results are received, a new question pops up. Besides just improving ASO and acquiring more users, are there some strategic app growth opportunities for the data-driven teams of PMM, app marketing, UA, and ASO managers?
The in-app events have a hidden potential for comprehensive app growth, which can be unlocked with the brand new solution – in-app events testing by SplitMetrics Optimize. In this article, we provide the how-to along with the use cases and best practices for getting the most out of in-app events from the SplitMetrics expert team.
Using the in-app event section provides more opportunities to engage (and re-engage) users, grow LTV, increase the app’s visibility, grow conversion and install rates. With SplitMetrics Optimize, you have a unique opportunity to test the fundamentals of your app growth strategy (which are usually the most costly elements), including overall app concept, types of activities for the in-app event, app or game feature updates, go-to-market strategy, ICP, and audiences – before going live!
Upload the minimal asset of the in-app event name, description, picture, or video, run tests and see the detailed analytics on each variation performance in the SplitMetrics Optimize dashboard. The tests are run in an isolated environment with all the essential metrics tracked and gathered in the SplitMetrics Optimize dashboard and only visible to you. This way, you can eliminate the risk of churning users, reputational risks, and budget leaks while getting ready-to-use insights with quantitative metrics of real users’ behavior.
At the moment, up to 5 events can be published per app at the same time for a span of over 31 days. This limitation makes to choose and decide carefully which event will go live. A good event is monetizable, and the best event is the one with some regular frequency. This event can make part of unit economy making a direct profit. With SplitMetrics Optimize in-app event testing, you can create a new recurring process of ongoing idea generation and validation before going live, gathering insights, improving your go-to-market strategy and growing ROI.
Product marketing managers usually strive to identify the strategic positioning. Their main goal is to investigate and identify the best go-to-market strategy. This decision-making process is normally time-consuming and can be risky and costly as the idea validation is made in live mode. PMMs require early insights and best practices that are hard to get.
SplitMetrics Optimize allows testing go-to-market strategies to identify the best ones even before going live. This can include testing new app concepts or crucial updates like a new app feature or game character and validating the ideas before investing in development. With the in-app event testing solution, you can also test different ideas for promos and special offers to gather insights for improving the app monetization strategy.
The biggest question for a UA manager is how to expand the app’s reach and exposure and reduce user acquisition costs. SplitMetrics Optimize solution allows testing different audiences for any locals. Before investing in an audience that may result in little conversion, run small tests for different audiences and locals to identify your most profitable segment. With a series of tests, you can find the most converting combinations of audiences and creatives and cut overall acquisition costs while also getting the early estimates for conversion rate and CAC.
The biggest questions for an app store optimization manager are – how to increase app visibility in App Store? Will my message and creatives motivate users to install? Do I deliver a proper message to my target audience? Which option should I go with from all the hypotheses I have?
With SplitMetrics Optimize, you have a unique opportunity to test all the elements of the in-app event section before publishing on your live app store page. Create a set test to validate ideas for the event images or video, title, and description. See in-depth metrics on how different in-app event variations affect your overall app conversion and install rates.
In-app events provide unprecedented opportunities for both paid and organic app growth teams. With in-app event testing, you can unlock more of the hidden opportunities of this App Store section while running ongoing experiments to define the best market positioning, increase app visibility and significantly optimize acquisition costs. Book a call with our expert to discuss your strategic needs and plans and see how in-app event testing can help you hit your app marketing and business goals.
