With 10% of respondents declaring that they check their phone 300 times a day during vacation, compared to 80 times a day when not on vacation, it’s obvious that the potential for new revenue and long-term users for your app is high during the holiday season. While brick and mortar shops see a shopping frenzy before the holidays, the break in typical routine for holiday vacation means users have more time to download apps and play games before, during, and after Christmas day.
Though eCommerce is king before December 25th rolls around, holiday app install campaigns are not restricted to retail and shopping apps. With 3x more phones activated on Christmas day than on an average day, and more than 60% of apps downloaded on new devices 48 hours after December 25th, it’s clear that the holiday season has more to offer than just high retail spending, as users are more engaged than ever during this time of year.
Why OEM and Carrier traffic is a must for your holiday campaign
It’s time to start thinking about optimizing your UA campaign towards users who enjoy taking a break from everyday life, but not necessarily their phones. Learn more about why OEM and carrier campaigns during the holidays are valuable to your UA strategy below:
Holiday campaigns on OEM and carrier traffic are vital for long term growth
With the number of Christmas gifts bought on phones up 11% in the last two years, the holiday season represents a peak in on-device engagement for a range of purposes. By running UA campaigns directly on devices through OEM and carrier traffic throughout the entire holiday season, you make sure your app will be at the forefront of users' minds all the way into 2021.
What this means is, the users you acquire during the holiday season will be your users for the rest of the year, especially considering OEM and carrier traffic has a higher LTV over the long term than traditional UA channels. In fact, in previous years, while some of Aura’s partners have noted that the Day 7 and Day 14 engagement metrics were slightly higher during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year, one advertiser found that the D60 value on the LTV curve was a whopping 2.5x higher.
On top of that, the mobile home screen is the most valuable piece of real estate, especially on Christmas morning. With Americans checking their phones 96 times a day and this number increasing during the holiday season, advertising directly on the device, such as ironSource’s Aura setup wizard and push notifications, offers a valuable opportunity for long-term growth. As long as you have a sustained plan to nurture these new users into the new year, the holiday season represents an opportunity to put your app in a valuable place to see long term growth, as well as new audiences.
You’ll attract new audiences beyond your traditional sources
There are more than 34 million users planning to upgrade their phones this holiday season, which means there will also be an influx of new audiences. The holiday season is a valuable time to run targeting campaigns to attract engaged users who are turning on their brand new phones on Christmas morning, beyond what you could get with traditional advertising. Fortunately, OEM and carrier campaigns are completely customizable, which makes it possible to cater to your granular audiences and attract new ones. Many user segments can be hard to reach, such as Gen Z users who are often on their phones or baby boomers who are less confident with technology. Luckily, platforms like ironSource’s Aura offer personalized targeting on parameters, such as age, gender and location, which makes it easier to reach these difficult but valuable audiences.
New device owners download far more apps than the average web surfer. Platforms, such as ironSource Aura, use data driven metrics and targeting parameters to unlock audiences that are often unreachable by other advertising channels. Combining this immense capability with the increase in device sales over the holiday season, offers an immeasurable opportunity to reach valuable users.
How to run an OEM and carrier campaign for Christmas
With the benefits fleshed out, here are some tips that will help you ride the wave into 2021 with the users bought before, during, and after Christmas day.
Tip 1. Christmas-ify your creatives
In 2017, New Years Day was the busiest day in the history of the App Store with users spending $240 million. This is good enough reason to put aside other tasks, and engage in app store optimization. App store optimization can boost growth and UA this holiday season, but how?
One way to position your app in the best place possible for this holiday season is to festify your app icon. You can also add Christmas words to your app title or description, promote special creatives, create holiday themed UA videos, and prepare a holiday themed icon, which saw a 47% conversion uplift. Ultimately, it comes down to giving yourself enough time to do A/B testing on your creatives to increase app conversion. It also comes down to putting yourself in the best position to reach users at valuable times.
Tip 2. Launch notifications with Aura
You don’t want to miss out on the peak of the year by reaching users too late. ironSource’s Aura gives your app pride of place in front of millions of new device owners on Christmas morning and into 2021. If you get started with Aura before the holidays hit, you’ll be able to activate smart launch notifications on December 25th, when users are already highly engaged.
Aura uses a proprietary AI algorithm and a unique set of parameters, such as age, gender, and device, to send customized notifications to relevant users when they are most likely to engage - both to users who installed the app but haven’t opened yet, and to device owners who meet your campaign’s targeting criteria. This touchpoint is especially relevant during the holiday season, when people are actively Instagramming their holiday festivities or texting their long lost friends.
