Maria Fossarello, based in Paris, is head of paid channels at BlaBlaCar, a leading long-distance carpooling app with over 18 million users in 23 countries. 

Questions Maria Answered in this Episode:

• What do you attribute BlaBlaCar’s success in marketing to?
• What were the first things you were looking to automate?
• How do your core KPIs translate from one platform to another? Do you apply the same acquisition metrics to search and Facebook, or do they have different KPIs associated with each? And if so, does an automated budget allocation tool take that into account?
• When weighing the potential value of automation, do you consider the reduced workload and need to hire fewer people? 

Timestamp:

• 9:01 Agility and innovation in marketing
• 10:17 Innovation at BlaBlaCar
• 12:40 Automating search engine advertising campaigns
• 15:14 Automating budget allocation
• 18:45 An incremental attribution approach of KPIs across channels
• 20:45 The effect of automation on employee workloads

Quotes:

(9:09-9:22) “I learn everything on the ground because the online marketing framework and practice actually evolves so quickly that there’s not even much to learn in school because everything is going to be updated and outdated in a month’s time.” 

(18:45-19:05) “What is really the move that we want to make, which we think is the move that will be more significant, is to actually move to an incrementality type of attribution where you’re able actually to consider what is the incremental contribution of each channel; and that way, you would be able to consider all the channels the same way.”

(20:53-20:59) “Using automation allows you to unleash a huge amount of new strategic tasks.” 

Mentioned In This Episode:

BlaBlaCar

Scott Tomkins is the sales vice president and general manager for U.S. Digital Turbine, a company that pre-installs apps on newly activated Androids. Digital Turbine claims to deliver more apps to phones in a day than any other company and that there is no other inventory in the world that is as fraud-free.

Questions Scott Answered in this Episode:

• Do you deliver more apps to phones than Google or Facebook?
• Is it challenging to determine the KPIs for the advertisers that work with you?
• Are performance marketers too numbers-driven?
• Do you think performance marketers will shift toward brand advertising in 2020?

Timestamp:

• 7:50 What stands Digital Turbine apart from any company
• 11:34 An argument for a more holistic view of user acquisition 
• 16:11 Branding 101 and multi-touch attribution
• 18:00 The change Scott sees in performance marketing
• 24:43 Why we need a brand approach to app marketing

Quotes:

(12:23-12:26) “I think all ad units can be effective and ultimately perform differently.”

(14:43-15:00) “Would you rather for a small fee get your app on that device so you’re there in front of their eyes when they want to book a trip? Or would you rather take the risk of them going to the Play Store where there are 20 of your competitors who all do the same thing and be lucky that you’re the one of 20 that they pick?” 

(24:45-24:52) “I think you’re going to see the bigger brands come in and open the eyes of performance marketers that there is a ‘k factor’ that needs to be looked into.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

Digital Turbine

Krishnan Menon is the vice president of growth marketing at Fetch Rewards, Inc., a grocery rewards app that prides itself on being the easiest way to save on groceries. 

Questions Krishnan Answered in this Episode:

• How much of your growth do you attribute to paid marketing?
• Over time, does it become harder to diversify channels? Or does the need to diversify grow more?
• Are you willing to be more lenient and take fewer efficiencies with new vendors in order to diversify?
• What do you look for in a sales pitch from a new vendor?
• Have you had success with the vendors you’ve found in Appsflyer and Singular reports?

Timestamp:

• 6:40 Fetch Rewards’s growth trajectory and inflection point
• 9:04 Paid marketing aside, a product still needs to be quality
• 12:15 Thinking about how you will spend the next million 
• 15:24 Testing the waters with a new channel and the goals that matter
• 21:57 What I look for in a sales pitch
• 24:50 Sourcing new vendors from key articles 
• 31:11 The challenge Krishnan gives himself to be successful

Quotes:

“For me, at the end of the day, it’s about how many of these users are going to be active 30 days from now? I keep track of the quality of the user that is brought in.”

“It’s a case of what else can we do outside of the comfort zone of digital?”

“This is a tough industry. You have to be on it and really continue to be hungry in order for successes to be ongoing.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

Fetch Rewards, Inc.
Appsflyer
Singular

Meet Nadav Shalit, retargeting department lead, and Dani Magid, retargeting manager, at Playtika. Playtika has a portfolio of 15 large-scale gales that are run from more than 16 global sites by over 3,000 employees. Previous to Playtika, both Nadav and Shalit worked in marketing for agencies. 

Questions Farhan Answered in this Episode:

• What is your strategy for launching retargeting campaigns? 
• How do you source data for segmenting users? 
• How closely do you have to work with other departments to run retargeting initiatives/treatments? 
• What else do you focus on when launching retargeting efforts?
• Was there a shift that motivated Playtika to start retargeting? 

Timestamp:

• 6:27 Launching retargeting efforts begins with the user experience
• 7:36 Segmenting users with an internal BI system
• 12:10 The internal process of offering segments treatments (or incentives)
• 15:17 Measuring for retargeting 
• 18:04 Playtika’s catalyst to beginning retargeting

Quotes:

“We are literally learning every day. And I think that’s part of the magic in retargeting.”

“The very first thing we look at when we set up a retargeting activity is the user experience. I think that’s the main purpose and that’s the main goal. And that is what the connection between you and the user is all about.”

“For certain activities, we might even show an ad even the say after the install saying, “Hey, did you check out this feature? Did you get a chance to look at this?” So it kind of builds up the connection from day one, literally.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Playtika

Farhan Haq is the head of performance marketing and mobile growth for SYBO Games where he works on the fully organic, most downloaded title on Android of all time, Subway Surfers. 

Questions Farhan Answered in this Episode:

• How challenging was it for you to work during the era of Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, and Game of War but not working at one those gaming studios?
• How did you stay creative in order to drive downloads in a saturated and competitive market? 
• Have you had success using Snapchat or Tik Tok for acquisition? What was your strategy?
• At Subway Surfers, do you focus on getting more users or engaging current users to drive monetization? 
• Is Subway Surfers a casual or hyper-casual game? 
• Where do you see the future of the gaming industry going? 

Timestamp:

• 8:50 Growing game titles in competition with big players
• 12:47 Creativity in targeting
• 14:04 Fake ads -- it’s about the feeling
• 16:17 Testing Snapchat
• 20:40 Monetizing the user base
• 22:15 Casual, hyper-casual games, and the future

Quotes:

“The cloning model and doing something a little different from a clone still hugely impactful then; actually can still be now but I guess you have to get a bit more lucky, you’ve got to get something right now because people have cloned things a million times over now.”

“So, a lot of the older developers kind of struggle to be creative enough and adapt, and they just kept thinking, well look, we’re going to do things the old way. And then that’s why all these new players just keep coming out of nowhere because I guess they’re more hungry and more agile. And then that’s why there’s always been this opportunity to, across the last 5 years, to be like, hang on, we can make an impact in this space as long as we try something a bit newer and back ourselves on it.”

“What worked for these narrative games was a combination of three elements that I found, particularly for these story-based games. My trifecta was: 1) pregnancy, 2) cheating, and 3) timelapse.” 

Mentioned In This Episode:

Social Point, acquired by Take-Two Interactive
Nanobit
SYBO Games

Lorenzo Rossi is the co-founder of Mobile Marketing Italia, a digital magazine and forum with the mission of educating Italians about mobile marketing and growing its culture in Italy. Lorenzo has worked in mobile marketing for 6 years with companies spanning dating, shopping, and ridesharing.

Questions Lorenzo Answered in this Episode:

• What are some of the experiences that have made you an effective marketer?
• Is it better to market less expensive or expensive products?
• As a mobile marketer, did you have the authority to offer discounts on products?
• Were you always testing no matter what the goals were?
• What is Mobile Marketing Italia?

Timestamp:

• 8:13 Building experience through a mix of industries
• 8:48 Experience focusing on scaling
• 10:17 Lorenzo’s best moment for learning performance marketing
• 10:37 Experience focusing on ad ROI and targeting consumers
• 13:30 Benefits of working closely with a product team
• 17:13 Stepping into a management role
• 21:00 OOH campaigns
• 22:22 Mobile Marketing Italia’s mission

Quotes:

“I was very amazed by this performance marketing world because it’s a mix, I believe, of creativity but also data because you see the results immediately. You can measure your requests, actually. You can measure if the text that you propose is better than the other one.”

“I believe that the testing shouldn’t depend on the goal because whatever is your goal you can find a better way of achieving it.”

“I cross off all of them [channels] to see which were the common points to see which were the strong point of one point rather than the other one.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

LOVOO
Zalando
Free2Move
Mobile Marketing Italia
ApperiMobile - Italian meetup for mobile marketing (contact Lorenzo)

Thiago is currently the Director of Growth team at Peak Labs, and is responsible for acquiring and retaining more than half a million subscribers every month whilst reaching ambitious financial goals.

Questions Thiago Answered In This Episode:

• “Going from a booking appointment apps to brain training, did you find that shift kinda daunting and challenging? Was there a lot to learn?”
• “What are some of the biggest differences and challenges you found in bringing Quixel Logic and Rise to the market?”
• “You guys chose the strategy of high volume low cost, why choose that strategy as opposed to lower volume high cost?”
• “How do you go about educating your consumers or your perspective consumers in order to raise a probability that the download would be quality?”
• “Do you guys have any process in which you are kinda automating the development of the creatives or automating the deployment, how does that overall process look?”
• “When you launch a new title, how long does it take you and how do you go about determining what your KPI should look like?”

Timestamp:

01:10 Introduction of the different products at Peak

02:30 Thiago’s background at a beauty market place (Booking appointment apps)

03:53 Big difference of Thiago’s previous job and current job at Peak

04:47 Basic marketing principles

06:30 Differences and challenges in bringing Quixel Logic and Rise to the market.

07:06 Reason for using the high volume low cost strategy as opposed to lower volume high cost strategy?

07:55 Strategy structure for Peak

08:30 Strategy structure for Rise

09:41 Grabbing the attention of the consumers and then pass the necessary information

12:19 Transformative contents

14:00 Testing approach on the different Peak apps

15:45 Thiago on trying different concepts for the Peak apps

18:28 Peak’s creative cycle

21:32 Two sources of ideas for Peak’s creative team

26:15 Building a product concept and determining its main KPI

28:14 Determining revenue for subscription products

32:00 Thiago’s future expectations

-----------------------------------------

“I’m a big believer that, if you go to the core of marketing like the principles, the funnel of the users, etc. - it applies to any product in the world. In general if you follow the basic principles of marketing, you should be ok.”

Mentioned:

Peak - Brain Training
Rise - Sleep Better
Quixel - Logic Puzzles
Facebook
Google UAC
Voodoo
Aquapark.io

Matthew Sadofsky is the chief growth officer and chief marketing officer at Studio, a fitness app providing instructor-led video classes. His experience in the mobile app marketing industry runs the gambit, from dating and gaming to music and fitness.

Questions Matthew Sadofsky Answered In This Episode:

• What are some things that mobile marketers are doing wrong or overlooking?
• What does your ideal team look like?
• Where does over-bloating occur the most in regard to job function?
• Is paid media becoming more or less effective for marketers?
• How are you measuring incrementality in new user acquisition?

Timestamp:

• 6:30 Don’t over bloat the size of your marketing team
• 7:30 The ideal size and makeup for marketing teams
• 9:28 UA is overstaffed, retention marketing is underserved.
• 10:38 Usability tests and surveys at Studio for retention
• 13:00 Today’s value of paid media
• 16:33 Indicators within incrementality analysis in new user acquisition
• 17:18 The similarity method
• 21:51 The importance and barriers to iterating on creative

Quotes:

“Don’t over bloat. You can create a lean marketing machine using technology nowadays.”

“There are ways that you can build these really robust pipelines and even tools that’ll do automation management for you where you don’t need the size of teams that some companies still have in their marketing departments.”

“I think we all strive to balance creativity and analytics, but I think we all skew more slightly toward the analytic side. And very few companies, unless you’re a very large company, have an in-house creative director for their user acquisition program.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

Studio
Paltalk
PeerStream (formerly Snap Interactive)
Tilting Point
TIDAL
Her
ClearBrain
Uber
TryMyUI

Berlin-based marketing tech expert, Christian Eckhardt, is the co-founder and CEO of Customlytics. Customlytics provides app marketing, analytics, and technology infrastructure consulting and hands-on help. 

Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:

• Why do you think Berlin has seen the growth it has in the tech ecosystem compared to other European cities?
• What are some lessons you’ve learned about tech infrastructure?
• What’s the first piece of technology marketers should plan for?
• How do you go about vetting tech decks? 
• Do you have to educate your customers? 
• What changes are you excited about or expecting to come to mobile marketing?

Timestamp:

• 2:53 Berlin’s exceptional tech growth
• 10:29 Start thinking about it - marketing infrastructure is a must
• 12:25 Marketing tech recommendations
• 12:53 Tech deck: start thinking about it early
• 15:04 Methodology for matching tech with client needs
• 18:30 Education and centralized documentation for knowledge transfer
• 24:08 How campaign bid automation will change the job of the marketer

Quotes:

“The entire topic of marketing technology or even the realization of, ‘I need something in place to enable proper marketing,’ is something that is not a nice-to-have feature or a nice-to-have situation. It’s rather that if you don’t have it then you’re basically completely lost for all things marketing.”

“The earlier you start thinking about your marketing tech deck the better. So ideally, as I said before, definitely before you start any paid advertising, but ideally even before the ad launches.”

“As it stands right now, with the kind of huge standing in the market with that those bigger advertising platforms have, it feels a bit like they can pretty much do whatever they want. And it’s hard to kind of get away from it if you don’t want to lose their inventory.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

Customlytics
Mobile Developer Guide to the Galaxy (Free copy)

Today’s guest, Ariel Cohen, is the head of mobile UA for the cybersecurity startup Kape, a one-stop-shop for services like data encryption, anonymity, VPNs, and anti-virus products. Previously, Ariel was a marketing manager in the mobile casino game space for Playtika and Aditor.

Questions Ariel Answered in this Episode:

• How important is it to understand your audience of users and how do you go about learning the composition of your audience within an app?
• What do you mean by profiling users?
• What are some techniques you use to find and convert users?
• How you’ve found that sponsored content works? Or how do you bring nuanced messages to your users in order to get them to engage with your product?
• Do you have to educate consumers about your services after they begin to engage with your product?

Timestamp:

• 4:33 Profiling users for new startups
• 6:39 Defining profiling and its application to content strategy
• 7:30 Browsing where your competitors are marketing
• 8:56 Using your network to source insights
• 11:20 Using segmentation for messaging
• 12:43 Surprising insight on continuing to educate users

Quotes:

“We don’t market with simple messaging as you would to an open audience. We try and come up with much more specific to the points that are crucial in the decision making.”

“What we saw is that when we bring that information or different capabilities that we have up to their awareness from time to time, we see that it substantially increases traction.”

“We figured if the users went through all that process and compared and eventually chose us, they know everything that we bring to the table. But, it turns out, it was just not the case.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

Kape
Aditor
Playtika