Leadership, Diversity, and Optimism: April Tayson from Adjust #BreaksTheBias
Leadership, Diversity, and Optimism: April Tayson from Adjust #BreaksTheBias
In this article of #BreakTheBias series, AVOW interviews April Tayson – Regional Vice President, Adjust - India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Based in Singapore, April leads Adjust’s sales and revenue operations in the INSEA region. She is responsible for the go-to-market strategy, growing the company's market share, and helping marketers grow their mobile apps with solutions for measuring and optimizing campaigns and protecting user data.
With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, April is passionate about promoting INSEA’s vibrant and fast-growing mobile app ecosystem, while bringing more transparency and trust to the industry.
Why is gender balance and having a more diverse workforce important, especially in senior management teams?
I am a firm believer that without equal inclusion of women in business, education, health and politics, we will not be able to solve the world’s most pressing problems and achieve a prosperous, vibrant future. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg rightly said, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made”. It shouldn't be that women are an exception.
Senior management teams that complement gender balance with a diverse workforce are able to accelerate the successful execution of the company's vision and mission. Working in an industry with a global presence, having diverse viewpoints, local perspectives and cultural diversity on the decision table fuels growth for any company that aims to create impact and value for their customers.
Having a diverse leadership team that supports and champions female leaders is key to connecting with your teams, customers and markets, and fostering innovation. In fact, according to BCG Research, “companies, where women account for more than 20% of the management team, have approximately 10% higher innovation revenues than companies with male-dominated leadership.”
I am encouraged by the gender diversity in Southeast Asia, where the proportion of women in technology is higher than the global average (32% vs. 28%). Yet women’s representation in tech still lags behind other industries in the region. More work needs to be done.
Could you name a woman who’s inspired you the most and why?
My mother remains my spiritual guide, friend, and a mentor in my career and otherwise. Her unlimited optimism and unique ability to listen and share positive vibes has never failed to inspire me.
At Adjust, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a diverse spectrum of women leaders — from Product to Customer Success, from Inside Sales to Technical Account Management teams. Closer to home, my own team is full of talented young women who inspire me with the zeal and passion I can resonate with.
What are the common biases or assumptions you see women face at the workplace?
Implicit or explicit bias in the workplace or outside is unavoidable. What matters is how you deal with it.
The most interesting bias I frequently see towards women is from experienced professionals who are rigid and dismissive to changing the status quo when things need to be fixed. Add to that equation their own gender bias, which leads to the assumption that they know better. The classic “if you think you can do better, why don’t you show us how to do it” is a common bias I see — something male peers will rarely be asked.
What are your tips for women who'd like to make it in tech?
The MarTech industry in particular sits at an intersection between technical and social management skills. It provides a great avenue for women to fully utilize both their IQ and EQ to excel at the job.
My simple advice for women looking to get into MarTech would be to learn as much as they can about technology and where it’s heading - whether that’s networking within the industry, reading relevant publications to stay up to date, or even looking at company blogs to understand how they work and market themselves.
Do you have a specific book, podcast, publication, quote by a female / or not female or else you could recommend that we women in mobile & tech could learn from?
I would recommend seeking a diverse source of information, regularly reading up on the latest news and trends in the tech space - Tech In Asia is a great resource to understand the latest in tech in our region. Some go-to destinations are TechCrunch, Digiday, The Drum, BusinessInsider, AdExchanger, PocketGamer in addition to Adjust blog and other Martech partner blogs or reports. Staying informed on the latest trends and news in your area of expertise keeps you ahead of the curve many times.
Conclusion
Gender diversity and inclusivity run the backbone of a successful organization. While many of us have realized the importance of women in leadership roles, there’s a lot more that needs to be done on the grassroot level than just speaking about what we can do collectively to #breakthebias. As April suggests to women who are wanting to pursue a career in technology to read as much as you can and find your passion by never stopping to learn new things. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Gender parity, Innovation, and Technology: How Orietta Mendez is helping #BreakTheBias
Gender parity, Innovation, and Technology: How Orietta Mendez is helping #BreakTheBias
Every year, we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. This year, AVOW took a slightly different approach to celebrate this year’s motto #BreakTheBias by highlighting the stories of women in the mobile tech space who are leading from the front to BREAK THE BIAS!
Amid ongoing tensions in Europe and Russia, we speak to women who, apart from being significant voices in peace-keeping, are breaking grounds in the mobile industry, creating spaces for women to advocate gender parity in technology and empowering innovation.
In this article, we interview AVOW’s COO & Managing Partner, about her experiences towards forging gender parity in a workforce environment and how it has helped her scale both professionally, and personally.
What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in the tech industry today?
I believe there has never been a better time to come into the tech industry than now – there is an abundance of opportunities, companies are becoming more and more employee-centric and there is an ever-growing need for new dedicated talent to become experts.
My advice for women considering a career in tech would be not to get intimidated. Some women may feel reluctant to enter technology careers because they’re afraid as they don’t have enough technical knowledge. However, having curiosity, not technological background, is the top reason one will succeed in careers involving product sales, product marketing, data science, etc. Curiosity can inspire you to identify the problems and dig out the root causes as well as spot new ways of doing things.
In addition, careers in tech are not just about acquiring technical knowledge, but about demonstrating leadership and mentorship. Since women are generally good at handling interpersonal relationships, they often contribute to the overall harmony and quality of work environments.
What’s the greatest risk you’ve taken as a professional and how did it go?
During the economic recession of 2008 I found myself job hunting throughout a time when there were not many opportunities out there (specially as a foreign female without German skills). At one point I had decided it would probably be best to pursue a second Master’s Program in Amsterdam and even got a scholarship for it. Just as I was about to join this Master’s program, I received an offer from a small online marketing agency in Berlin to join their Trainee program in Affiliate Marketing. It didn’t make much logical sense to take such a step back career wise, as I had already been in the work space for a few years, but the fact that I had been chosen among what I considered several strong candidates and that the company looked very diverse, made me go for the Trainee program. In time, this became my first step into the ad tech industry, and looking back at how fast phased and full of opportunities this road became, it was probably the best professional decision I have ever made.
Do you have a female role model? And if yes - what makes her a role model? Anyone in our space?
I look up to Lubomila Jordanova, founder and CEO of PlanA.Earth, is a Berlin-based startup developing an end-to-end platform that enables companies to measure, monitor and reduce their environmental footprint.
In a world with so much self-centered and money-driven leadership, it is refreshing to see someone in the tech field, working towards a goal of green sustainability for companies, and also the effort she makes to continuously broadcast her activities and involve the community.
Do you have a specific book, podcast, publication, quote or else you could recommend that we women in mobile & tech could learn from?
Last year, I became a mom for the first time, and I am listening to a couple of “working moms” related podcasts. My favorite one is Harvard Business Review - Women at Work. This whole podcast series is great because it breaks down what typically holds women back in their careers and gives solid strategies to overcome these obstacles.
Here is my favorite episode: HBR Women at Work, All the Help We Can Get.
Conclusion
While the journey may never be easy, it is absolutely important to keep moving & leading. When it comes to the tech industry, gender bias is, unfortunately, alive and well. But, as the clocks keep ticking, there has been a steady increase in the number of women leading the tech industry. It doesn't matter if you're going into the tech industry or not. You, as an individual, can help #BreakTheBias and create not just an equal but an equitable world for all of us.
If you’re looking out for an opportunity that helps you diversify your skillset and professional growth, AVOW is the right place for you to be. Check out open positions here and become part of our global A-Team.
Best In-App Advertising Tools and Platforms in 2022
Best In-App Advertising Tools and Platforms in 2022
What is in-app advertising?
In-app advertising is a revenue stream for mobile app publishers and app developers where they offer a mobile advertising space by serving adverts (ads) within their app display as an offering to brands looking at promoting and advertising their products and services. It helps app publishers save their money on content while enabling app downloads and ensuring scalable revenue growth.
143.6 billion apps and games were downloaded in 2021, out of which 55 billion were games and 88 billion were apps. As users spend more time with apps every day, these numbers are only expected to grow further, and mobile marketers should make the best out of them.
One cannot ignore the engagement and conversions that brands can leverage using the power of in-app advertising. Many in-app mobile advertising platforms offer mobile marketers to ease the processes and give them more clarity on conversions and engagements while doing in-app advertising, which we'll dive into later.
What are the benefits of in-app advertising?
Better quality of ads: In-app advertising helps marketers deliver a better user experience than other modes of display advertising on the mobile web. Ads that are displayed on the mobile web are usually compressed in quality and visually not-so-appealing to the viewer.
Demographics: Location plays a crucial role in delivering the most relevant ads to users interested in similar offerings as your brand with the best in-app advertising tools at the right time and the right place. Specific Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) specialize in determining the user's exact location and offer those ads which provide a real-time value for users.
Accessibility: Most (if not all) users carry their smartphones wherever they go. It means mobile marketers have access to a captive audience because of the similar apps on their mobile phones. Therefore, it becomes highly significant to do in-app advertising since users are already interested in similar apps on their mobile devices with the help of the best in-app advertising tools.
Learn more about how to do in-app advertising.
Best practices for in-app advertising
- Be familiar with where ads are appearing and engaging users. The programmatic supply chain can help you realize the role of each party.
- Check the app's quality before looking out for the best in-app advertising tools out there to reach out to users. Mobile marketers need to be mindful of where the ads appear and on what devices.
- Programmatic media buying has also changed the industry by enabling advertisers and publishers to complete real-time bidding. In addition, it automates the buying process based on predefined rules to increase the efficiency of in-app advertising in several ways.
- There are many ad formats to select when doing in-app advertising, like interstitial ads, banner ads, video ads, rewarded video ads, and native ads. These ad formats create high-impact engagements, and mobile marketers can expect high-quality conversions.
- For freemium apps, they can be used as a monetization model to enable users to download the app for free, ensuring that an app can compete against other apps that are installed without any costs.
Best in-app advertising tools
There are various programmatic deals for buying advertising inventory to create a direct channel between advertisers and publishers. It enables transparency, so advertisers get a clearer perspective on who views the ad and how users engage with it. Let's take a look at the best in-app advertising tools.
Preferred deals: A preferred deal is a 1:1 agreement between the publisher and advertiser to get premium access to the media inventory before it is auctioned in the open marketplace. The premium access is provided in exchange for a fixed CPM. These deals use real-time bidding (RTB) infrastructure and programmatic platforms.
Open deals: This is when advertisers purchase inventories from multiple publishers, which is established with their targeting goals and the ability to customize their inventory with specific advertising placements and apps. It begins at the base RTB ecosystem, where anyone can participate in the bidding, and the most increased bid wins. Open deals also occur at the open auction level, where publishers can either set the base price for bidding or have no fixed prices.
Private marketplace(PMP): It offers a real-time bidding environment where selected advertisers are invited to bid on specific advertising placements. The demand for more transparency, the better quality of ads displayed, and brand-safe aspects keep growing for mobile marketers, which has given more attention to private marketplaces (PMPs) to keep solving problems for mobile apps.
Programmatic deals are the best in-app advertising tools to offer advertisers exceptional control and transparency for making big wins for their in-app advertising campaigns. In addition, they are also an effective tool for optimizing inventory, campaigns, and costs.
Types of in-app ad formats
There are many ways mobile marketers can leverage the in-app advertising tools with the right ad placements and types. Here are a few ad types that should help mobile marketers to determine which ad format fits the best for their growing demands.
Interstitial ads: These ads appear to cover the entire screen of a mobile phone when a user completes a specific action within the app. For example, when you finish one level of a particular game, an ad appears on full-screen promoting another app.
Rewarded video ads: They are an integral part of apps specifically for gaming products and services, which enables users to earn virtual possessions or points that progress the game in exchange for watching a video ad. For example, users can receive a discount or in-app currency for watching a video ad.
Native ads: This is advertising content that matches the look and feel of the mobile app in which it is advertised
Learn more about why in-app advertising should be an important part of your marketing mix.
How to advertise my game?
How to advertise my game?
The mobile gaming industry is expecting massive growth in the number of users, which is projected at 2,309.4 million by 2026. Such growth in user penetration gives advertisers solid visibility on how to strategize and advertise game apps. Furthermore, with the recent advent of COVID-19, in 2020, the total number of gaming video content (GVC) viewers reached a record 1.2 billion.
Over the recent years, we have witnessed an increased volume of mobile gaming apps break records concerning user downloads and revenue earned. Therefore, mobile game advertisers must galvanize their current advertising approaches and strategize for user acquisition, in-app marketing, and retention goals to stand out from the whole lot. Below are a few ways to advertise your game.
Research where you belong - The community
Have you heard of Indie DB or Product Hunt? If you know these platforms already, it's high time you leverage these forums correctly to create a community around your mobile game and elevate your branding efforts. People want to know more about your product, its features, and how it should excite them. You can also gain access to relevant people who are early adopters, game testers, gaming influencers, etc.
Advertisers need to know what else is in the market - similar games in the app stores, audience segments, trending topics around your app, social media interactions in this particular category, etc.
Tap into Alternative App Stores
As per the latest data, Google Play Store has 2.59 million apps as of March 2022. In the first quarter of 2021, Apple App Store had 2.22 million mobile apps available. Now is the time to diversify your app distribution to alternative app stores such as Xiaomi's Mi Store App, Oppo App Market Store, and Huawei App Gallery, among others, which lead the Indian market penetration with a dominance of 76% share of the total market. With alternative app stores, you can:
- Save hours of toil and hard work in building an effective strategy.
- Help yourself build the right channel mix.
- Get a personalized target audience and reach.
- Enable ROI at scale on the ad spends.
- Customize ads with multiple ad formats such as native ads, banner ads, interstitial ads, and paid ads.
If your research analysis from the beginning has been robust, it is evident that you'll have a clearer vision of how to leverage alternative app stores to optimize your advertising efforts.
Read more about alternative app stores and how they benefit advertisers.
Study what your competitors are doing
Even when you A/B test and are confident with your product's performance and features, don't forget to stay on top of your competitors by learning and examining what they are doing to advertise game apps. To start:
- Learn what their visuals look like
- Their tone of communication with the community
- How they've designed the text around titles
- Descriptions, keywords, highlights features
- Their review and feedback section
- How users are talking about their experience, etc.
As you keep digging in, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of making your app unique to users and preparing every decision to advertise your game with a result-oriented mindset.
Test and soft launch before going big
Mobile app marketers need to ensure that their performance and quality are up to industry standards. If the game reports bugs or performance issues, getting it tested will help you make improvements to its overall development. Developing an app costs your hard work, time, and money. To ensure everything in your app from the tech perspective is seamless, you may want to:
- Alpha test your game to quality check its development efforts
- Beta test when the game is ready to launch in the app stores
- Measure and change things to enable a smooth user experience before launching
- Provide open beta testing that is open for the public to test
These stages will give you a confident heads-up for your launch strategy. In addition, incorporating the feedback and test analysis results from the initial users helps you increase the app's exposure to the larger audience and gives you time to plan for further user acquisition goals.
Reach out and pitch to publishers
Reaching out to the masses can be a daunting task. You may consider identifying and partnering with significant publishers who can help you speed up the promotional steps to advertise your game. Elevating your promotional efforts with mobile game publishers will undoubtedly enable better visibility and traffic to your app, but be rest assured that they'll taste a piece of cake from your app's revenue earned.
Depending on the category, you can reach out to top game publishers such as EA Mobile and Activision, among others in this list. Even when certain game publishers sometimes deny publishing the app, they always have quick and real-time feedback to help you improve the app's performance from a marketing standpoint.
Advertise game by cross-promotion
It is one of the easiest ways to promote and advertise your game for free. You'll be able to identify and reach out to similar audiences while enabling you to fully utilize in-app advertising to display your game to interested users. In addition, partnering with other games similar to yours increases your brand value and trust among users in this portfolio segment. It will help you to:
- Understand the user behavior better
- Leverage users who play games with similar intents
- Cut costs from going too big on advertising your game
When you and the agreed party cross-promote each other's app, it introduces users to another app similar to the one they are using, which they're likely to download as it falls in their intent and usage.
Build tie-ups with the press
Search for media publications you can pitch to, such as VentureBeat and Pocket Gamer. Identify and create a list of journalists and gaming media publications and articulate a press release to draw their interest and motivate them to write about your product and its unique features.
If you are a developer who likes to go budget-friendly, creating press kits for digital gaming media portals like photos, videos, banners, etc., will help you visually pivot your app’s offerings to the interested audience and increase your brand value.
Conclusion
Due to increased mobile penetration rates, smartphone games accounted for nearly 50% of video gaming revenue globally. To identify and execute your game advertising efforts in all the right ways, you must build a marketing strategy that caters to the practices mentioned above. From creating press releases to working out the forums for building your app's community, you need to make a collaborative effort to get the maximum results from advertising your game.
Read more about how you can leverage alternative app stores to monetize your mobile game.
Meet the A-Team: Monica Todor, Director of Finance
Meet the A-Team: Monica Todor, Director of Finance
Are you curious to learn more about the people behind AVOW? Here you can catch a glance of what it’s like to work with us, and insights into our team’s biggest achievements.
Today we will introduce to you our Director of Finances, Monica Todor.
Learn more about what motivates her on her daily tasks and her journey with AVOW.
What do you like most about your job?
I really enjoy the fact that it never gets boring. The business is always evolving and there are always new challenges, but also opportunities to try something new, to develop the existing processes. Secondly, see the answer to the question below ?
How is it to work with the A-team?
That is the best ever! We have such a great team and despite the distance and different time zones, it feels like we are one family spread around the globe.
What has convinced you to start at AVOW and how has your journey been for the past 3 years with us?
I have worked with the AVOW founders in a previous company. When they approached me and told me about their plans to found AVOW and that they were looking for someone to set up the finance department, I was all in.
3 years later, I realized that was a very good decision. The last 3 years have been fun and it has been very nice to see how the company grew from scratch to where we are now.
What does one need to be a good Finance Manager?
One needs some technical skills, such as a finance and accounting background, but on top of that I believe that attention to detail is important, while still keeping the big picture in mind. Good organizational skills and an analytical mindset would round up the picture.
You have recently returned from your maternity leave. Any recommendations for new mums ? ?
Get yourself a good coffee machine and spend some time with other parents with kids of the same age. PEKiP classes, Montessori classes or Baby-Swimming classes provide some time out of the house and are a good opportunity to share experiences with other parents while the little ones get to see some other babies too.
What are your favorite spots in Berlin?
Before having a baby I used to spend a lot of time in Templehofer Feld - it’s a great place to meet friends or go for a longboarding ride. Otherwise drinks at Holzmarkt by the river on a summer evening are also something I enjoy(ed). Now that the little one is here, I am happy to hear suggestions from others about where the good playgrounds are!
Want to become part of the A-Team? Check the current opening here.
How do I advertise mobile app?
How do I advertise mobile app?
Mobile apps are growing at a rapid pace, with more than 3000 apps being installed every day on the Google Play Store alone, due to which apps are attracting an increasing amount of attention from the users. Building the right marketing strategy mix on the right channels with the right advertising partner to advertise mobile apps is the key to achieving your app's overall user acquisition goals in such a competitive industry.
According to the latest data, mobile advertising spending will amount to nearly 413 billion by 2024. Considering the vast opportunities emerging with mobile OEMs, mobile app marketers can advertise mobile apps by leveraging an untapped global inventory of more than 1.5 billion daily active users from alternative app stores offered by mobile OEMs such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung, Huawei, Realme, and OnePlus.
Things mobile app advertisers need to consider to advertise mobile apps in the pre-launch stage:
Research who your users are
The first step to creating your mobile marketing strategy is to understand who your users are - an audience profile of people you think will use your app frequently. Creating user profiles with multiple personas and their problems will help you define unique value prepositions to reach a targeted user group, and as app marketers, you should use this information and simplify it to find your ideal users. Remember that these are the people who will be the end customers and users of your app.
Research who your competitors are
App marketers can use platforms like App Annie or Appotopia to understand their app verticals and see which apps are performing in a similar vertical and how they are doing it. To start with, advertisers can keenly understand their competitive landscape by considering several factors such as age, location, gender, and demographics. You can then find how these apps are reviewed and how users talk and rate them on the app stores. It will give you a reasonably sound idea of how to lay a solid mobile marketing strategy to stand out from the competition.
Let's deep dive into how marketers can advertise mobile apps to enable growth for the business in the acquisition stage:
Develop a website and landing page
To start with, app developers can create a catchy landing page that compliments the app's overall look and feel. It is a crucial part of a marketer's mobile marketing strategy that increases awareness of the mobile app and its features. It also serves as an added advantage for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by improving your presence on the search engines. Your website should also act as your storyteller giving visitors an idea of
- what you do
- why they should choose you
- why you are important to them
In addition, it should also talk about the specifics of your app's offerings like features, benefits, and what makes you stand out from others with a similar interest.
Create a social media strategy
Social media enables you to target users specifically by demographics and interests. In 2022, internet users' average daily social media usage globally rose to 147 minutes per day. Framing and implementing a social media strategy can encourage your app's reputation to grow significantly among targeted users. Social media is a great medium to convert users into community members. As mobile marketers, you need to engage with the audience visiting your app's social profile and engaging with your posts. With social media ads, marketers can also leverage social channels for app brand awareness.
Optimize App Store
Many marketers misperceive this as a practice similar to SEO – where marketers make changes to their online content with keywords and content-driven efforts to achieve a higher ranking on search engines. App Store Optimization (ASO) on the other hand, exclusively applies to your presence in the app store where marketers can significantly cut user acquisition costs by optimizing an app and its listing to increase visibility and enable higher conversion rates.
As mobile marketers, you need to ensure that all the descriptions, keywords, product images, etc., meet users' expectations. Apart from helping to advertise mobile apps, ASO is also vital in increasing organic installs when the right keywords are deployed, which helps rank better in the app store free of cost.
Leverage Alternative App Stores
Consumers downloaded 230 billion mobile apps in 2021 to their connected devices, up by more than 63 percent in five years. Mobile OEMs such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung, and Huawei offer media inventories to advertisers, helping them build the most crucial part of the app marketing funnel - the app downloads. By leveraging these OEMs, marketers can advertise mobile apps which come with customized pricing models and ad placements within the app store, depending on the advertisers' budgets and goals.
Reach out to influencers
Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and effective forms of digital marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Influencer Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $16.4 Billion in 2022, and 62% of advertisers intend to increase their influencer marketing budget over the next 12 months.
With millions of internet users browsing social media platforms for entertainment, inspiration, and product recommendations every day, it comes as no surprise that marketers are harnessing the power of social media's most recognizable faces for promotion. Furthermore, marketers can choose to amplify their brand presence by simply making brand advocates out of people who are famous across social platforms, meaning they have thousands of followers who love to keep a check on these influencers and their day-to-day activities.
Tap into paid campaigns
As the name suggests, paid ads are the type of advertisement mobile advertisers pay for distributing in different platforms and formats. Paid user acquisition allows advertisers to set up advertising campaigns and create ads depending on the bids they have placed for specific keywords, which will result in appearing on top of the results of a particular keyword search.
While advertisers tend to modify their ad spending for better results, they need to ensure that those changes only increase their app downloads and actively check the performance metrics. Mobile marketers can do this with various Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) such as Adjust, AppsFlyer, and Singular.
Mobile marketers can advertise mobile apps by choosing the right agency partner to help them create and execute their campaigns seamlessly to drive growth for the app's success.
If you found this article relevant, you may also check out How to advertise my game
Meet the A-Team: Derek Lim, Director of Operations
Meet the A-Team: Derek Lim, Director of Operations
Curious to learn more about the people behind all the best solutions AVOW has? In this series we give you a glimpse of what it’s like to work here, and insights into our team’s biggest achievements.
This time, we sat down with Derek Lim, Director of Operations, who has been with us from the beginning, to learn more about his day to day tasks and motivations to keep improving our systems.
Could you tell us a little bit about your career journey to date?
I started out as a client developer for mobile games and worked on some of the more prominent titles like “Big Hero 6 - Bot Fight” and “Chain chronicles”. There, I have witnessed and contributed to the life cycle from game development to the actual launch of the title. Afterwards, I was given the opportunity to pick up product management in the mobile advertising industry where I have experienced another kind of application development in the mobile advertising world. With all the knowledge and skill sets I have gained over the years I found myself in a great position to contribute to AVOW in terms of technology and processes to ensure the optimal efficiency on day to day operations.
You are responsible for AVOW’s BI, Ad ops and info tech security. What keeps you motivated and pushing forward?
The reason I joined AVOW in the beginning was due to the fact that I have worked with the team in my previous job and I believed strongly in their vision and work ethics. I understood clearly the importance of my role and the absolute trust the team has in me to bring the company to the next level.
Tell us about the most exciting day to day challenges as a Director of Operations at AVOW
Like any other operation managers, one of the keys to success is to eliminate any admin work that is killing the efficiency of the company. To do this, I need to constantly seek out the optimal processes for all teams. Be it - using automation, project management or even creating our own Business intelligence tool, we need to make sure that it brings value to the team and makes their lives easier.
The current challenge is to centralise all reports and that those reports are accurately stored in our BI tool so that we can monitor any shortfalls or even predict what are key problems we will face in the near future.
What should someone bring to the table when pursuing a career in Business Intelligence (BI) and Operations (Ops)?
Depending on the actual role itself, there are different specific skill sets but in general, one should possess good analytical skills, pragmatic problem solving skills and inquisitive mind in order to excel in either operations or BI.
It is very important to know the mechanics of the business in detail but more importantly, he or she should be an independent thinker and have the desire to seek out ways to improve the current operations and should not shy away from providing ideas and suggestions to the team.
What are you doing in your free time? :)
When I feel like doing something productive, I will read up on some articles related to the latest technologies in order to keep myself up to date. Other than that, I am still a typical gamer who likes to try new games on the mobile phone. On the side, I love to cook and I enjoy experimenting with new recipes such that I can enrich the options of meal choices to the typical question of “What should we eat today?”
Any tips on what to do around Berlin when you are new in town (best Chinese:)?
For food, there are a couple of favourites when it comes to Chinese cuisines. Dan’s Dim Sum and Shan Shan on the streets of Gleimstraße. On Sundays, flea markets are a thing in Berlin. From awesome street food to creative handcraft work.
Where can I advertise apps?
Where can I advertise apps?
Your app is ready. What's next? This is a question you need to ask yourself while your app is still in the development stage. As soon as your app is ready to launch in the app stores, it would be best if you got those user acquisition numbers moving ahead. Looking at the rate at which spending on mobile advertising is growing, you may need to start immediately.
In 2021, mobile advertising spending reached a record 288 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. This figure marked an increase of 26.6 percent compared to the previous year, and according to the latest data, spending will amount to nearly 413 billion by 2024. While keeping these numbers in mind, you can imagine how the mobile advertising industry creates endless possibilities to advertise apps in competitive markets. Simultaneously, it is challenging to rank among millions of apps available for downloads as brands continue to devote higher budgets than ever to advertise apps.
As the smartphone adoption rate reaches an all-time high, mobile apps leave no stone unturned to get and acquire new users first before anyone else. Therefore, as app developers and mobile marketers, you need to advertise apps while being updated with the latest trends in your category of apps and what's best working for you to stay ahead of others.
Why advertising mobile apps are need of the hour
The smartphone subscription rate will continue to grow in the foreseeable future as the number of smartphone users in 2022 is projected to cross 6.5 billion users. While China, India, and the U.S. dominate the smartphone market penetration as the top 3, it is also paramount to consider that these countries rank in the top 3 for the global population index covering almost 40 percent of the total population worldwide.
There is an incredible opportunity for advertisers to tap into these markets to advertise apps and reach closer to their acquisition goals.
How to advertise apps
Mobile marketers can consider advertising apps by breaking them down into these simple steps -
- Study your users: Your app will engage a specific group of users with similar intent in your app's category. Using platforms like Apptopia and App Annie will help you identify and narrow down your audience profile.
- Research your competitors: This will help you know what other app developers are doing in defining KPIs, app functionalities, app rating through reviews, and user feedback on app stores.
- Choosing the suitable advertising payment model for in-app advertising: There are various cost models to consider when launching your campaigns like CPM (Cost Per Mille), CPC (Cost Per Click), CPI (Cost Per Install), and CPA (Cost Per Action).
- Choosing the right type of ad format: Ads can be placed at multiple touchpoints when the user interacts with the device. Some of the most considered ad formats are Banner Ads, Interstitial Ads, Rewarded Ads, and Native ads.
- Choosing the right platforms to advertise apps on social platforms like Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube, etc.
- Chose and implement an MMP such as Adjust, AppsFlyer, Koshava, and Singular to be able to track where your users are coming from and how they interact with your app.
Learn more about how mobile advertising works
Where to advertise apps
Here are some effective ways to advertise apps that can support advertisers in growing their app's users and bringing them close to achieving the ROI.
App Store Optimization (ASO): Optimizing mobile apps in app stores to rank better within their search results is called App Store Optimization or ASO. Once your app is launched in the app stores, you can consider ASO as your final stage to complete the app marketing funnel.
When you advertise apps, all the effort goes into marketing activities using various channels, and the focus on optimizing your app pages on the app store gets neglected. As advertisers, you need to optimize your app store page with the most relevant and updated content. It enables your app's increased visibility, which gets more traffic to your app store page and increases app downloads which mean lower acquisition costs.
Alternative App Stores: With known mainstream platforms like Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram offering media to buy and advertise heavily, the advertising market is overcrowded as the number of apps getting launched every day on Google Play Store alone is 2,640, and significantly increasing.
Hence, mobile OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung, and Huawei offer an on-device inventory of their app stores called alternative app stores to advertisers, which allow advertisers to get access to untapped audiences covering a huge chunk of smartphone users globally. By accessing new markets which have more than 1.5 billion daily active users, you can achieve your KPI goals and grow your app's overall engagement hassle-free.
Alternative app stores by OEMs offer marketers opportunities to push toward their goals by targeting billions of users globally. Consumers downloaded 230 billion mobile apps in 2021 to their connected devices, up by more than 63 percent in five years. As a result, these app stores are an increasingly valuable user acquisition channel for advertisers' marketing mix. Alternative app stores can help apps reach their target audiences, boost sales and educate consumers on their products and services.
Learn everything you need to know about alternative app stores
Media Coverage: Reach out to the press to raise awareness and create buzz around your app. Having connections in the media will advance your brand visibility and attract fresh attention to your brand. Likewise, you can also publish press releases, become your product's voice, and let the users know what's coming and how it should excite them. For this, you'll always need a press kit ready to share with these media houses whenever you'd like them to share and showcase your app's offerings.
Social Media Marketing: Social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora, and others, are channels that can drive impactful results to encourage your user base to grow. You can build and engage your followers by sharing your brand story while giving them relevant information about your product offerings to achieve your app goals.
Social media platforms act as your brand channel as well as a user acquisition channel. Brand advertising campaigns via the social channel are measured by Cost Per Mille (CPM) whereas it is measured by Cost Per Install (CPI) for user acquisition.
Influencer Marketing: Connect with influencers who people know and follow. They can be highly advantageous by being your brand's advocates while talking about your app and promoting it on channels where people interact with them, for example, YouTube. This way, mobile marketers can learn what kind of users would best suit their app's needs, users' intentions, and experience of using apps in a similar category.
User demands are increasing as advertisers look for newer ways to reach out to advertise apps to suitable prospects. Therefore, engaging with your audiences by indulging in marketing activities will always play a crucial role in determining your competitive advantage over other apps in the market with similar offerings.
Want to know more about how to advertise your app on Mobile OEMs? Let’s have a chat