Singapore – Global SaaS analytics platform AppsFlyer has announced the launch of its new predictive analytics feature, PredictSK, a new solution that will be a part of its SKAdNetwork suite, SK360

SKAdNetwork is about to become a major part of campaign measurement and optimization on iOS, following Apple’s latest privacy changes. This deterministic attribution framework provides advertisers with some data on their iOS campaigns, and while Apple has been continuously making updates to improve its offering to advertisers and app developers, it also introduces critical limitations.

Through the new solutions suite, brands are able to configure and optimize their conversion value, validate their data and keep it fraud-free. They will also be able to integrate with their choice of partners, all through a dedicated, centralized analytics dashboard. 

PredictSK is made in response to the current limitation of SKAdNetwork where advertisers rely on short window time in measuring campaign performance. With only 24 hours of user activity to work with, optimization is nearly impossible. With PredictSK, advertisers will be able to leverage early signals of engagement, which is usually in the first 24-72 hours, to predict long-term campaign performance. 

Furthermore, PredictSK puts mobile attribution in SKAdNetwork on ‘auto-pilot’, removing the measurement and timing barriers and allowing advertisers to maintain and strengthen their competitive edge in this new reality.

According to Barak Witowski, vice president for core product at AppsFlyer, the company’s developed solutions have always been at best for the benefit of advertisers, adding that PredictSK will help brands be empowered against limited data availability.

“AppsFlyer’s SK360 suite will empower brands to eliminate the uncertainty brought on by limited data availability and limited measurement capabilities, while maintaining end user privacy, by combining multiple solutions for maximum coverage,” Witowski stated.

He added, “Moreover, PredictSK will enable measurement across all user events to quickly and accurately predict user loan-to-value (LTV), helping advertisers save precious time and money. With SK360, Advertisers can stay in the driver’s seat while complying with the strictest privacy requirements,”

Meanwhile, Liwei Chen, staff product manager at Twitter, stated that they were working closely with AppsFlyer in delivering a fully operational plug-and-play SKAdNetwork solution.

“The solution was designed together to validate all advertisers’ needs from SKAdNetwork are met: data trust, granularity, optimization, and measurement. This is another exciting step for advertisers, delivering upon our promise of helping drive business success while maximizing end-user privacy,” said Chen.

The new product will be available after Apple starts enforcing its AppTrackingTransparency framework in early spring. The SK360 suite will continue to support the ecosystem throughout Apple’s upcoming privacy updates.

Singapore — AppsFlyer has released its first retargeting report; The State of App Retargeting 2020 Edition. The report showed that Asia Pacific’s marketers have utilized retargeting most effectively, with the region having the highest rate of retargeting conversions across all verticals, compared with all other regions. 

Commenting on the report, Beverly Chen, Marketing Director, APAC, AppsFlyer, said, “As app stores become increasingly crowded and app marketers find it more difficult to gain the attention of users and drive conversions, retargeting has proven to be a reliable engagement tactic, surpassing even user-acquisition in growth. APAC is leading the way to this adoption with a 36.4% average share in the global pie of retargeting conversions, followed closely by the Middle East & Africa’s 35.3% and North America trailing last with 29.5%.”

Without a doubt, retargeting has proven to be an effective tool for marketers that enjoy the benefits of further driving retention, while taking advantage of the opportunity for sustained growth.

Beverly Chen, Marketing Director, APAC, AppsFlyer

In Asia Pacific, over 1.6 billion retargeting conversions were analyzed alongside 2.5 billion non-organic app installs across 22,000 apps from 2018 to 2020. 

Lifestyle verticals utilizing retargeting

The report highlighted that shopping is not only the vertical with the highest share of retargeting, it has also rapidly grown by 27% in Asia Pacific, followed by hardcore gaming (strategy and role-playing games), which has grown by 32%. Asia Pacific’s mobile market is very focused on shopping, and a large investment in that vertical is undertaken because of it being a less expensive option of owned media. 

Appsflyer Average Retargeting Share

In Indonesia itself, Shopping vertical grew from 39.8% in 2018 to 66.1% in 2020. The reason for this is retargeting is a natural fit for this vertical; direct response campaigns encourage action, which drives purchases of products users expressed interest in. Vietnam also saw a large growth in the shopping vertical, from 61.4% in 2018 to 73.9% in 2020.

In Indonesia, Entertainment apps showed the largest growth amongst other retargeting led the way with a nearly 40% increase in retargeting adoption between 2019 (25.6%) and 2020 (35.5%). Adoption of retargeting in APAC among non-gaming apps is widespread. The rate in Shopping and Food & Drink is so high that there is not much room for additional growth. In Asia Pacific, entertainment apps grew from 24% in 2018 to 30% in 2020. However, Thailand’s retargeting adoption rate in Entertainment outranks that in Indonesia, however, with an increase in the same period of time of 140% from 21.6% in 2019 to 51.7% in 2020. 

The Coronavirus Effect

In order to account for the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the State of App Retargeting: 2020 report looked at two different time frames: a year-over-year comparison of January and February 2018-2020 prior to the outbreak and lockdown, and pre-COVID-19 data from the end of February through April 2020. As lockdowns took place in many countries, marketers in the Finance and Gaming verticals used it as an opportunity for growth. 

Appsfyler Indonesia

Finance apps showed to grow by 30% year on year, reflecting the increasing popularity of this vertical in Asia Pacific by both entrepreneurs and developers. In Indonesia itself, retargeting conversions increased 400% in two weeks (from the week of February 24th 2020 to the week of March 3rd 2020) and then plunged in the following weeks. 

In Indonesia, the finance vertical is known for the diversity of solutions and high adoption rate by users. Marketers turned to owned media to ramp up their marketing with paid media to increase their emphasis on retargeting through owned channels like email, push notifications and SMS. 

With more people spending time at home, the high volume of activity in the mobile gaming industry was reflected. Marketers in the gaming industry also preferred using owned channels, with the report highlighting an increase from 8.9% retargeting conversion in the end of February to 14% in Week 9, a 67% increase. This is a significant increase from paid media figures of 2%-4% during the same period. 

The State of App Retargeting: 2020 Report is available here