Guide: Acquiring new customers for your mobile app

30/11/2019

Summary: This guide will help you learn how to acquire new customers using the Mobile App Installs ad objective. If you don't have a mobile app, this guide may not be right for you.

Take a look at our other advertiser guides for more help on how to advertise successfully on Facebook and Instagram.

When you get potential customers to take actions you care about (e.g. signing up for your newsletter), you're getting what are called acquisitions. Acquisitions allow advertisers to understand the purchase intent of potential customers. Intent may come in the form of a person installing your app or simply subscribing to your newsletter or business.

Acquisitions are an important part of growing a mobile app because they help you pinpoint likely customers. When you know who those potential customers are, you can reach them using a mobile app installs ad and track installs and actions they take using tools such as the Facebook SDK. You can even optimise your ads for the actions you want people to take in your app and have your ads delivered to the people who are most likely to take the specific actions at least once and at the lowest cost.

Now that you know what acquisitions are, let's look at some ways to help you set up your advertising campaigns to drive more acquisitions.






Choose the right ad objective

For this guide, we'll look at how you can drive acquisitions using the Mobile App Installs objective. To use this objective, you'll need to have a mobile app.

Use Mobile App Installs

To acquire new customers for your app, choose the Mobile App Installs objective. You'll know that you have the right objective if you've selected Get installs of your app in ad creation. The Mobile App Installs objective was created to help you drive installs of your app by directing people to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. And with this ad objective, you can go beyond just getting people to install your app. A key advantage of Mobile App Installs is that you can deliver your ads to people who are most likely to take action (e.g. make a purchase) after installing your app, so you can track what matters most to your business goals.

In order to use Mobile App Installs effectively, you'll want to implement app events in your mobile app, which will allow you to:

  • Track mobile app installs.
  • Re-engage with people who are already using your app to drive revenue and grow engagement in your app(s).
  • Grow your app by helping you reach people who are similar to those who've already installed your app, made in-app purchases or demonstrated interest in or loyalty to your app in other ways.

To use app events, you'll need to implement the Facebook SDK. Learn more about why you should use app events.






Pick the right buying type

There are two buying types you can choose from: Auction and Reach & Frequency. If your goal is to drive new acquisitions using the Mobile App Installs ad objective, it's recommended that you choose Auction as your buying type. The Auction buying type gives you control, allowing you to choose your target audience as well as the duration and budget of your ad. You can make edits to your ads at any time.






Choose the right audience for your ads

For acquisitions, remember that your main goal is to reach people who aren't already using your app but are likely to be interested in it.

I have customer lists or Facebook pixel data that show who my most valuable customers are.

Use an existing customer list to create a Custom Audience:

You can leverage your customer list to reach your most valued customers on Facebook by using Custom Audiences from your customer list. A customer list Custom Audience uses hashed customer data to match the people who are valuable to your business to people on Facebook. Read our list of best practices for getting the highest match rate from your data.

Use your pixel to reach people who've shown interest in your other assets (e.g. your website):

If you've implemented the Facebook pixel on your website, you can create Custom Audiences that are made up of people who have taken actions on your website and may therefore be more likely to engage with or install your mobile app. You can customise your audiences based on the URLs they've visited, the length and frequency of their visits and the devices they use to get to your site. People who meet any of your criteria can be included or excluded from a Custom Audience. For example, you can include people who visited a page selling paper towels on a mobile device, and exclude those who have purchased those paper towels in the last 30 days.

Tip: When creating a website Custom Audience, click the "Website traffic" drop-down and select Custom combination to mix and match customisation options.

I want to reach people who've engaged with my videos.

If you've run ads to drive awareness of your app using video as your creative, you can leverage your videos for retargeting using Engagement Custom Audiences. This is a great way to reach potential customers who've shown interest in your app and may be likely to install it. With Engagement Custom Audiences, you can choose the type of engagement and the window for engagement (how far back we'll go to find people who engaged) for people in your audience. Try various combinations to see what works. You can even target ad sets to different audiences, and bid more or less depending on the value of reaching people in that audience.

Tip: Run an ad to drive awareness of your app using the Video Views objective. When the ad has ended, create a mobile app install ad to re-engage people who viewed your video.

I want to reach people similar to my most valuable customers.

You can use your Custom Audiences, pixel or SDK data or people who like your Page to create a Lookalike Audience, which is made up of people who "look like" customers you already know. We find people who share characteristics with people who have shown interest in discovering your products, services and/or promotions, and who are therefore more likely to be interested in doing that, too. For example, if you already have a Custom Audience that is made up of customers who engage most with your app, you can use that audience to create a Lookalike Audience to reach people who look similar.

Tip: You can create Lookalike Audiences based on current customers who've made in-app transactions, spend a lot of time engaging with your app or visit your app frequently.

I want to target ads to people based on demographic and behavioural information.

While we recommend using our more advanced targeting options above, you can always use Facebook's core ad targeting features, either alone or in combination with the advanced options. You can target people based on their interests in things related to your mobile app and/or behaviour consistent with people who take actions that advance your goals. If you're looking to reach a broad audience, consider creating multiple ads using different demographic-based ad targeting and test different creative with each audience. Finally, it's important that you reach people who are able to download and use your app. Consider using device and mobile connections ad targeting (e.g. targeting people with a 2G, 3G or 4G connection speed).

Tip: You can also use Audience Insights to see what your existing customers have in common. You can leverage that information when choosing your core ad targeting.






Show your ads across all ad placements

When creating your mobile app install ad, it's recommended that you select every available ad placement. Selecting every ad placement will allow Facebook's delivery system to allocate your ad set's budget based on performance across the placements. If one placement begins to perform better (e.g. you can reach more of your audience for less in this placement), then the delivery system will automatically allocate more of the budget to this placement to help you reach more people.






Capture your audience's attention with great creative

Now that you have the tools to create the right audience for your mobile app installs ad, let's look at some creative best practices to ensure that your ads drive more acquisitions for your app.

Choose compelling text, images and calls to action

Use these tips to develop creative for your ad that shows the value of your app and drives people to take action (e.g. install your mobile app).

  • In your image or video, try to use creative that shows your app on a mobile device and showcases what your app is all about. For example, if your app helps people keep track of their daily fitness, show some of the different tools on the app and share why it's important to track these things using the app.
  • In your creative, make sure that you demonstrate the value of your app. If you have powerful numbers or stats related to your app, share those. For example, you could showcase the number of songs available in your music app.
  • Use promotional ad creative that helps drive the action you care about. If you're looking to drive people from your ad to the app store, use the carousel format or single images in your ads. Remember to add a URL to your ad or a call-to-action button such as Install Now.

Create a great post-click experience for potential customers

Send people who click on your ad's link or call-to-action button to the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.

Tip: Remember to implement the Facebook SDK so that you can track installs of your app, view your ad's performance metrics and find people who look similar to your current app users.






Measure your results

Make sure that you measure the results of your campaigns after you've set them up. Doing so allows you to see the effectiveness of your ads, which in turn allows you to identify successes and build on them and make intelligent adjustments when you're not getting the results you want.

Take a look at our guides for reporting in Ads Manager. Not sure what you can track? Take a look at this list of app events available in Ads Manager.

* Nguồn: Facebook