What’s inside
The last few years have seen the explosive rise of mobile, but one app category has enjoyed exceptional growth worldwide: Entertainment and Music & Video, specifically streaming services.
The rise of 4G (and soon also 5G) network capabilities has made it possible for more and more video content services to move from desktop to mobile apps, where they became the driving force of the subscription economy.
Giants such as Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and many others have made tremendous progress capitalizing on this adoption. Their impressive growth within the lucrative world of OTT (over-the-top) television shows their ability to create, distribute, and stream highly consumable content that attracts masses of people who are willing to pay a recurring fee for on-going value.
App Annie’s State of Mobile 2020 report highlights the vertical’s extended reach around the world. In both developed and developing markets alike, growth is healthy (a 20% rise in the US in 2019) if not outright dominant (as in India, which became the worldwide leader enjoying 80% uptake).
In general, users had 50% more sessions in 2019 than in 2017, worldwide, with that growth trajectory expected to surge even more, especially given the effects of COVID-19 on user behavior.
So, it’s clear the opportunity is there, but what are some of the key challenges app marketers in this vertical also face?
- Securing loyalty to drive downloads, trial, and paid subscriptions. With literally hundreds of options in the app store, brands must focus on bringing users who engage with their content elsewhere into mobile.
- Personalizing content. Usually based on viewing history, apps must balance between user privacy under international privacy regulations and meeting (or exceeding) user expectations.
- First-time onboarding. It is easily possible to use attribution data to power deep links and ensure a smooth onboarding, but many entertainment apps have yet to capitalize on this potential.
What’s the solution to these challenges and others?
If there is one golden rule of mobile marketing, it’s that granular measurement is the foundation for everything.
Simply put, without the deep measurement and ongoing optimization of metrics along every stage of the conversion funnel, user acquisition and re-engagement strategies cannot succeed.
While many KPIs comprise a good measurement strategy, here’s a partial list of important metrics to measure:
| Install-related
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| Engagement-related
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Subscription-related
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To help you navigate all the risks and rewards of your entertainment/media app’s potential, we’ve put together our comprehensive Mobile Attribution and Marketing Analytics for Media/Entertainment Apps.
Included is a deep dive into:
- Granular in-app event mapping from selection to setup
- Deep linking for flawless onboarding and personalization
- Choosing and testing your media sources
- Vertical-specific audience segmentation
