How to
Seasonal Strategies for Mobile Apps 🎄
5 min read
Seasonal Strategies for Mobile Apps 🎄
As the holiday season approaches, mobile app marketers have a unique opportunity to drive engagement, downloads, and conversions. Users are actively looking for festive experiences and are more likely to engage with apps that reflect the holiday spirit.
To capture this seasonal opportunity, here are key strategies designed in partnership with our friends at Appvertiser to make the most of the holiday peak and ensure your app stands out.
How to celebrate your app on CTV
1. Leverage First-Party and Third-Party Data for Precise Targeting
- Advanced User Segmentation: Use first-party app usage data to create highly granular audience segments. For example, target users based on in-app behaviors like purchases, session length, or specific actions, such as completing a tutorial.
- Third-Party Enrichment: Enhance these segments with Vibe’s third-party CTV audience data (demographic, interest, location, etc.) to increase the reach and accuracy of targeting.Â
- Dynamic Retargeting: Retarget users who have downloaded your app but are dormant or have uninstalled. Use CTV’s immersive format to re-engage them with personalized offers or updates about new app features.
2. Optimize Creatives for Immersive CTV Experiences
- High-Quality Visuals: Design visually captivating and cinematic-quality ads tailored for larger screens, as CTV viewing experiences emphasize aesthetics more than mobile.
- Interactive Features: Include call-to-action overlays like QR codes leading to app downloads or in-app offers. This reduces friction in the user acquisition journey by enabling immediate action.
- Adaptive Messaging: Personalize creatives based on time-of-day or user location, leveraging the interactivity of CTV platforms for maximum resonance.
3. Track and Optimize Campaign Performance with Attribution Tools
- CTV-Specific Attribution: Implement tools designed for cross-device attribution, such as household-level attribution models. These help measure the impact of CTV ads on app downloads, usage, or conversions.
- Incrementality Testing: Run controlled experiments (e.g., geo-based lift studies) to isolate the incremental impact of your CTV campaigns.
- Unified Dashboards: Consolidate performance data from your self-serve CTV ad platform, app analytics tools, and MMPs (Mobile Measurement Partners) to make real-time, data-driven optimizations.
4. Integrate CTV Advertising into a Multi-Channel Strategy
- Sequential Messaging: Begin with a compelling CTV ad to build awareness, followed by retargeting users with personalized in-app or social ads to drive action.
- Synergy with Mobile Ads: Use app install campaigns on CTV in combination with user acquisition campaigns on mobile platforms, ensuring consistent branding and messaging.
- Complementary Campaigns: Align CTV ads with search and display campaigns to create a cohesive customer journey. For instance, after a user views a CTV ad, ensure they encounter related content when browsing or on YouTube.
Keep the party going down the funnel
1. Full-Funnel Strategy
What to Test/Improve: Align ad visuals with Custom Product Pages (CPPs) and in-app onboarding.
Why it Works: Consistency across the user journey—starting from ads, through app store visuals, and into in-app experiences—builds trust and keeps users engaged. When users see a cohesive message and design from their first touchpoint to their onboarding experience, they’re more likely to download the app and stick around, which improves retention.
Extra Tip! Use holiday-themed visuals (icons, videos, screenshots) to make your app feel timely and relevant. Simple tweaks to incorporate festive elements can grab users’ attention and drive installs during high-traffic holiday periods.
2. Seasonal Themes
What to Test/Improve: Experiment with A/B testing of holiday-specific icons, screenshots, and color schemes.
Why it Works: Users respond more positively to content that feels timely and relevant. Adding seasonal themes, like holiday icons or festive color schemes, can increase click-through rates (CTR) and installs. A/B testing various visual themes helps identify which elements resonate best with your audience during the holiday season.
Extra Tip! Incorporate limited-time offers in your visuals to create urgency. A well-timed “Holiday Sale” or “New Year’s Special” can be the push users need to download or engage with your app.
3. Seasonal Features and Gifts
What to Test/Improve: Add special holiday offers, gifting features, and holiday-themed content.
Why it Works: Users are more likely to engage deeply with apps that offer unique, holiday-related features. By adding gifting options or holiday-specific content, you can keep users returning throughout the season, boosting retention and monetization. Holiday-themed content also gives users something to look forward to, encouraging repeat visits and in-app spending.
Extra Tip! Offer limited-time holiday events or promotions to encourage users to spend more during the festive period. For example, exclusive holiday rewards or items can boost in-app purchases (IAP) and improve lifetime value (LTV).
4. Lower CPIs with Product Search Keywords
What to Test/Improve: Take advantage of holiday-specific keywords in product search to reduce CPIs.
Why it Works: During the holiday season, product-related searches peak, but not all categories see the same level of competition. By targeting seasonal and gift-related keywords, you can reduce CPI and increase visibility. Optimizing for relevant seasonal keywords ensures your app appears in front of high-intent users actively looking for holiday-related content.
Extra Tip! Include holiday-themed keywords like “Gifts,” “Discounts,” or “Christmas Promos” in your app store listing to improve organic rankings and reduce costs on paid campaigns.
5. New Ad Networks Scale
What to Test/Improve: Expand to networks like Unity, Applovin, and Ironsource during seasonal peaks.
Why it Works: The holiday season is a time when users are engaging more with mobile apps, especially in gaming. Expanding to new ad networks allows you to reach fresh audiences and experiment with different types of creatives. By scaling across multiple networks, you increase visibility, reach new user segments, and can even optimize budget by balancing costs across platforms.
Extra Tip! Monitor your bids and budgets closely on new networks to avoid overspending. Adjust bids as needed to maintain competitive positioning without exhausting resources prematurely.
Wrapping It Up: Make the Most of the Holidays
Implementing these seasonal strategies can help your app stand out in a crowded market, attract new users, and boost engagement and revenue. From creating a seamless full-funnel experience to targeting specific holiday keywords, each strategy is designed to meet users where they are and provide a relevant, engaging experience.
By planning and testing in advance, your app can leverage the holiday season’s high traffic to drive long-term growth and retention. So get ready to engage, optimize, and celebrate a successful season!
