Alexandra Lopez, CMO at Ad4Screen, hosted a panel discussion on reaching both opt-in and opt-out users, joined by Patrick Mareuil, EMEA Managing Director at Airship; Vincent Ducorney, Commercial Director at Decathlon Coach; François Lescuyer, Operations Director at BackInApp; and Antoine Blanchard, Deputy Director at Relatia.
Why Are Mobile Push Notifications So Effective?
When it comes to mobile customer engagement, push notifications are often the first channel that comes to mind. They are a key driver of mobile retention: users who receive push notifications are 2.5× more likely to remain engaged than those who do not. The channel combines the immediacy of SMS with the cost efficiency of email.
Retention is a critical challenge in mobile. Half of users never return to an app after their first visit, and only 15% come back after one week. Focusing solely on acquisition and installs therefore means leaving significant opportunities on the table.
Push notifications are particularly effective. According to Airship, average click-through rates are 3.4% on iOS and 4.6% on Android, compared with 0.5% and 1.3% respectively for email.
Today, increasingly sophisticated and precise engagement solutions enable brands to build a deeper understanding of their customers. It is therefore essential to combine programs, surveys, gamification, and notifications to enrich the customer relationship and create more relevant experiences.
Contact the Relatia experts about your mobile CRM campaigns
How Can You Retarget Opt-Out Users?
On iOS, the average Push opt-in rate is 51%, meaning that nearly half of iOS users cannot be reached through Push notifications. On Android, the opt-in rate is higher at 81%, yet 19% of users still remain unreachable through Push. This is where retargeting becomes particularly valuable.
Retargeting complements push by reaching opt-out users within the apps and environments they use most, through personalized advertising. Push platforms can also be connected to retargeting solutions to retrieve users’ opt-in or opt-out status and build dedicated audience segments.
Contact the BackInApp experts about your retargeting campaigns
Push is a highly direct channel, but sending too many notifications can damage the customer relationship. Timing is also critical: 75% of clicks occur within five minutes of a Push being sent, and 90% within 15 minutes.
Retargeting, by contrast, allows for greater control over exposure frequency and can reach users at different points throughout their daily browsing journey.
While Push notifications are primarily text-based, retargeting can create stronger emotional impact through richer and more engaging ad formats.
The two channels are therefore complementary, each serving a distinct role in the customer journey.
What Are the Key App Challenges for Decathlon Coach?
Decathlon Coach is a sports coaching app. During the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in this type of app increased significantly, making 2020 a particularly intense period for the brand.
Contact the Ad4Screen experts about your mobile acquisition campaigns
Downloads increased tremendously, making retention and long-term engagement the next priority. The goal was to ensure that users who had downloaded the app during this period would continue using it over time.
To achieve this, the brand activated several channels:
- Email to maintain ongoing engagement.
- Social media to build and engage its user community.
- Retargeting to bring inactive users back into the app, with the ability to build specific segments and personalize targeting.
- Push notifications, introduced more recently and already delivering promising results.
What Are the Keys to a High-Performing Strategy?
Deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time, through the right channel.
- Push notifications
- Test different messages to improve effectiveness. The impact on click-through rates can be significant.
- Personalize messages: simply adding a first name can increase performance by 40%.
- Build an effective in-app onboarding journey.
- Set the context for opt-in at first launch, clearly explaining the value and benefits of enabling notifications.
- Retarget opt-out users and use in-app messaging to encourage them to enable notifications, potentially generating an additional 15–30% opt-ins.
- Take a dual perspective: understand what happens at first launch and throughout the rest of the user journey.
- Integrate engagement and measurement solutions from the outset, rather than retrofitting them later.
- Use data to maximize efficiency and personalization: retargeting campaigns can automate ad delivery based on each user’s behavior and journey.
Watch the replay of the 360 Measurement session: App and Site — how to manage both?
