A guest post from Global Savings Group. From time to time, our partners and clients submit posts to our site for publication. We are pleased to publish a range of these opinions, which reflect the POVs of the author(s).
As we start 2020, optimization for tracking mobile app conversions has become an essential piece of the affiliate marketing mix. Research shows consumers are viewing 4.2x more items in apps compared to mobile web and people are 3x more likely to convert within the app than via a mobile site. The experience of shopping in-app has reduced shopping cart abandonment, as apps save users’ selections to facilitate quick checkouts. In addition, users who downloaded a mobile app were 40.4% more likely to buy more of a brand’s goods.
Here are five ways in-app tracking can transform your affiliate program:
1. Boost your affiliate performance by 30-40%
Every marketing department operates with KPIs. Performance marketing, in particular, is all about driving sales and being able to measure them. With the growth of mobile, which is already over 50% of all online traffic, and the popularity of native commerce apps, our estimate is that 30-40% of your affiliate performance is not being attributed. If your salary is based on performance KPIs of the affiliate channel, you are most likely being cheated for a hefty commission or bonus.
2. Elevate your brand with publishers
As with everything, your spending influences your importance with publishers. Every merchant is treated with importance, but a lot of shops are missing the opportunity to get VIP status. With VIP status you get access to the top placements, free social media exposure, better deals and prices on whitelabel content pieces, an assigned senior account manager, first priority editorial support, etc. This kind of VIP treatment is only offered to a publisher’s biggest advertisers. A significant number of merchants have the size to qualify for VIP status, but because they have not adopted in-app tracking, they are not seen as such.
3. Visibility and insights
Many would say that data has become the new gold. Operating a successful business in today’s modern business landscape is unthinkable without complete visibility and insight into performance, i.e. what is driving sales? Are we investing our money in the right channels? Can we spend our money better? Business leaders must understand the data of their business to be able to make the right decisions.
Despite still being a small channel in the total marketing budget, performance marketing is gaining ground and rapidly increasing in importance. Because performance marketing primarily is financed as a CPA model, it is a powerful low-risk channel for marketers to drive sales and acquire customers.
With this in mind, most merchants are operating their affiliate marketing efforts with a massive blind-spot. Without in-app affiliate tracking, merchants are missing out on valuable data about who, when and where their sales are coming from. Merchants still see sales, but without in-app tracking, they are unable to attribute the sales to the right sales channel. Without the correct data and insights, you might be burning your marketing budget on low return activities and the opportunity cost is most likely higher than the cost of paying for in-app transactions.
4. Empower your affiliate publisher to drive app downloads
Any merchant will tell you that their most valuable e-commerce customers shop in their app. The numbers speak for themselves. According to research from mobile commerce and measurement provider Button, AOV for app users are 1.5 times higher than mobile web and conversion rate is 3 times higher than mobile web. Users see four times as many products in app than on mobile web. A merchant’s commerce app equals loyalty, retention and higher spend. There is only one problem: acquiring app customers is challenging and 65% of mobile users do not download any new apps in a given month.
Luckily for merchants, adopting in-app affiliate tracking represents a golden opportunity to invite publishers to drive app downloads and in-app transactions.
At Global Savings Group we can run mobile targeted content on our platforms that give customers an incentive to download and transact in a merchants app. An example would be a 10% offer displayed only to mobile users, that can only be used in the app.
Enabling in-app affiliate tracking is the key to activate your publishers to drive successful app adoption.
5. Win, Win, and Trust – treat your publishers fair.
The foundation of business is trust. For a business to be sustainable, both parties must win. Those doing business should trust one another and provide mutual benefit. Your partners should be your best friends and if you value the customers and transactions generated through the affiliate channel, it is only fair that you pay for them.
By not adopting in-app tracking, the foundation for merchants and publishers to do sustainable and trustful business together is eroding. As in-app shopping becomes increasingly more popular, publishers are losing commissions, as they are not being fairly paid for transactions generated. Eventually, this will lead to a loss of service and the inability of merchants that have not adopted in-app affiliate tracking to do business with the best and biggest affiliate publishers.
