The 2020 guide to mobile marketing: How to make smart and tough decisions about your mobile strategy

In 2019, the time users spent on mobile overshot all other media types. Among many other things, what this points out is that today mobile is the primary (and easiest) channel for businesses to reach out to customers.

According to an industry research released in January this year, the mobile marketing market size is expected to grow to USD 25.0 billion by 2024, at a compound annual growth rate of 18.9 percent during the forecast period.

“With each passing day, it becomes clearer that mobile is not just a way to the market, but the market itself. The mobile industry is among the fastest-growing in the world and has created the most frictionless market the world has ever seen. For brands, it has never been easier to reach billions of people all over the world,” shares Shubham Jha, Sales Manager India at Adjust, the mobile measurement company that works with over 2000 advertising partners and 30,000 customers.

What mobile marketing signals for brands and marketers in 2020

According to Adjust, 2020 will see mobile marketing automation doing the heavy lifting. It predicts that the industry will see highly intelligent marketing automation that will provide increased visibility into data and possible outcomes. It says that automation will make it possible to create and map hundreds of churn segments based on different conditions - and rather than fight churn, marketers will begin to explore approaches that allow them to stop it before it even starts. In addition, marketing automation solutions will also empower smaller teams to drive positive results.

Automation will enable marketers to iterate and implement an astronomical number of campaigns at the speed of change. The ability to track results at every stage of the journey will also allow them to adapt campaigns on the go. “With this, the mobile industry will also become more competitive than ever before,” shares Shubham. He adds, ”Keeping app users loyal will remain a challenge for mobile marketers. Churn will continue to be an unavoidable part of a user’s lifecycle and user acquisition costs will continue to rise. This also means it will be important for all marketing decisions to be based on data - be it changing the creative, testing out a new ad network or even deciding which cohort of users to target.”

Making smart, sometimes tough, decisions

This essentially means marketers and brands will need to master skills and capabilities to segment, target and retarget audiences. They will also need hands-on negotiation with all kinds of people, from agencies to app publishers, analytics to attribution, SSPs, DSPs and ad networks. They need to have a thorough understanding of not just how marketing works but also how the ecosystem works, which is essentially who does what, why and how. And, making these smart, sometimes tough decisions about marketing strategies is anything but easy, especially for marketers and brands who are just getting started on their mobile journey.

“If anything, marketers need to cut through the noise, speed up and get a grip with mobile marketing, But, the mountain of knowledge and information that is out there can make catching up even more daunting than it already is,” shares Shubham.

Why it's time to get ‘Back to Basics’

To address this challenge, Adjust recently launched the Back to Basics e-book. The e-book has been designed as a comprehensive introduction to the industry. It’s perfect for those just starting out in the mobile space. It covers everything from what goes into tracking and measurement, to how to construct your marketing stack. From CPI to churn rates, agencies to app publishers, SSPs, DSPs and ad networks - it's all there.

The e-book also feeds into Adjust’s larger goal of sharing knowledge across the industry.

Shubham explains, “As a company, we place a huge focus on education and play a key role in the healthy development of the mobile sector. Our resources are an important way to share knowledge with marketers around the world, and ultimately make marketing simpler, smarter and more secure.”

Download the Back to Basics e-book here.

The explosive growth of mobile in India

Shifting the lens closer home, Shubham explains that mobile penetration data shows there is still plenty of room for growth and points to a joint study from ASSOCHAM and PwC that states that the number of smartphone users in India is expected to touch 859 million by 2022.

“The Indian mobile scene has seen explosive growth recently, and we’ve seen huge success stories such as PlaySimple, BankBazaar, FreshToHome and Pocket Aces come out of the region. Adjust’s data shows that gaming, utilities and e-commerce apps are the fastest-growing app verticals in India, likely facilitated by rising salaries and an increase in purchasing power,” says Shubham.

Reflecting on the evolution of mobile marketing as the market continues to increasingly become the primary touchpoint to connect with customers, Shubham shares, “Until a few years ago, mobile marketers had no idea where their users were coming from, how they discovered an app or how they were using it. Today, Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like Adjust have been instrumental in solving that problem. The data from an MMP provides the necessary insight into a user’s entire journey: how they arrived at the app, how they interact with it, and how those behaviours and patterns compare and differ across cohorts.”

He believes that leveraging this data will help to drive a better experience for all stakeholders. Marketers will benefit from increased conversion and retention rates, and tech teams will be able to use these insights to improve their product and consumers will get the experience they are looking for.

He says, “It goes without saying that we’ll see Indian brands place an ever-increasing focus on mobile. As the most personal and omnipresent channel, mobile gives marketers the easiest way to reach and understand consumers.”

That’s why it has never been critical as it is today for brands and marketers to get ‘Back to Basics.’ Download the free e-book today.