How Insights-led Engagement and App Store Optimization Can Boost Discoverability and Demand

By Raviteja Dodda, CEO & Co-Founder, MoEngage

The holiday spending momentum has picked up the pace, and marketers have to catch it before it hurtles past them. Besides retailers, the banks and credit lending companies also have to cash in on the uptick in consumer spending; along with splurging comes a demand for funding options.

In India, credit lending companies (including banks) see a significant rise in app installs and usage during the holiday season, starting with Dussehra until the new year. There is a massive spike during Diwali when consumers either upgrade their homes with gadgets or furniture, send money home, or go on vacations.

As with retailers, banks and fintech have to stand out in the crowd with their consumer engagement strategies. Banks can communicate with their customers at the most basic level by sending out real-time updates via SMS or email. But most of them are leaning heavily on insights-led engagement and App Store Optimization (ASO), powerful tools for boosting app discoverability and app store conversions.

When banks and fintech companies go in for top-of-the-funnel strategies like picking up insights on consumer history, preferences, and an ideal channel mix, it’s just the first half of the battle won. They have to reach the other half at the bottom of the funnel, thus successfully winning customers.

In banking terms, one should ensure that the app shows up when consumers start searching for loans and ensure that the credit is available when the demand is there. With so many elements at play, it is indeed a challenging marketing exercise. Finance companies and banks have additional pressure when demand for credit spikes. They have to control the risk quality even as they make the most of the opportunity.

Apps should ensure higher visibility
Of course, there is a method to this madness. The right time to optimize for the app store is a month before the holiday period kicks off. Data analysts can also check how the app performed the previous year and take some cues. Seasonal keyword optimization or adding core terms specific to the season helps in realizing successful searches.
Most companies use unique app store creatives and messaging that fit the “season” to cater to these changing preferences. The app can be more easily found just by changing the keyword strategy to fit changing search queries. Marketers also have to adapt to the context of the holiday season and play on specific marketing tools that Apple and Google are putting up. They have to surmise how much time it will take to update the app.

Some steps to successfully optimize app conversion rates
● Create a calendar or embed the events in the existing marketing calendar. For instance, banks and fintechs in India will mark October to December in their calendars.

● Coordinate with the development team and prepare test ideas in advance because if the test is not run in time, it is challenging to expect results.

● Make the app relevant to the season and put it in an easily understandable context. For example, when FREO, India’s first credit-led neo bank, crossed 15 million-plus installs, the company added a small ribbon on the app. It enhanced the trust factor, and the conversions improved significantly. If one can do a similar thing for the holiday season, the app will be prominent on the play store.

Research has shown that apps enjoy a 15-20% increase in the app store conversion rates by getting the seasonality right. With season-appropriate creatives, browsing becomes easier, catches the customers’ attention, and motivates visitors to click through to the product page and view the holiday-related in-app feature.

However, this high engagement will be short-lived if the remaining creatives aren’t consistent with the season’s theme and there’s no unique seasonal addition to the app. If, for instance, a banking app talks about interest-free credit and does not give any details on its product pages, chances are it will get a negative rating.

● Testing is vital as it involves looking at changes made by competitors and how one can do better. This includes strategizing and planning which segment of the traffic sources to test and minimize spending.

● From the marketing side, personalizing the experience is very important. Communication, especially, plays a significant role. FREO says although it does not push its customers to take a loan straight away, it is constantly looking at the customers’ spending. Based on that understanding, they segment customers into different cohorts and risk profiles. It also helps in analyzing the type of push required to convert each customer.

FREO, for instance, realized that a lot of its customers were comfortable reading their messages in vernacular languages, after which it translated its app into seven languages. They translated all campaigns and updates on the play store in those selected languages. This kind of coherence helps communicate directly to consumers about the exact amount available to them or alert them about the EMI due date.

All the steps mentioned above can be realized only through an in-depth analysis of customer data.

Data plays the lead role
To achieve data-driven marketing and engagement for the holiday season, marketers should analyze raw data and segment the base. They can use various filters, and look at the same problems using different lenses. That is when insights emerge that can help build a successful campaign.

Several data analysts have spent time with raw data and studied consumer behavior by calling customers on a zoom call, which helped unlock some insights to catch the customer’s ‘aha’ moment. The data team also has to do propensity modeling and focus on higher-propensity versus lower propensity segments.

Getting onto Google or Apple app stores for eyeballs
Featuring on the Google app store or Apple store is the ultimate booster for sales, but there is a lack of clarity about the framework for getting featured on these platforms due to privacy reasons. Nonetheless, there are some essential guidelines for featuring on these leading platforms, not just for the holiday season but for any time of the year. Also, what is vital is having excellent reviews and ratings.

Key trends of the upcoming festive season 2021
This year will be more challenging than 2020 because Covid is more worrying in some places and less in some, whereas in 2020, it was a kind of level playing field. Based on the region targeting, marketers have to localize their campaigns, building on seasonality and expectations. So different countries have different expectations when it comes to search volumes, reviews, and ratings.

The second challenge is that the app store and the play store have been very active in using new tools to help sellers better engage with their audiences. Depending on the markets, they have to investigate which tool suits them best. For example, with Apple coming out with the new iOS 15, marketers may need to change their communication strategy for an Apple dominant market. For Google Play, one needs to invest in custom store listings and monitor the metadata policy, prohibiting keywords that imply store performance and promotion through the icon, title, or developer name.

This year is more challenging for the finance sector as the demand has suddenly gone up for bite-sized credit. Insights suggest consumers are looking at spending on small credit sizes, with work-from-home becoming the norm. So, as they say, you have to be in it to win it, and it couldn’t be more accurate for banks and fintech vying for customer attention this festive season.