For mobile marketers, acquiring new users via your marketing strategies is only half the battle; it is important to conduct tests and measurements to assess the success of your campaigns. This is where incrementality tests come into the picture.
What are Incrementality Tests?
Incrementality tests, also known as lift tests, are an essential measurement tool for marketers to gain insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns. By measuring the additional performance of a specific campaign or tactic, marketers can understand which channels and tactics are driving the most conversions and revenue.
How Do Incrementality Tests Differ from Other Tests?
Measuring additional impacts
Incrementality tests differ from other types of marketing tests in that they measure the incremental impact of a particular campaign or tactic, rather than focusing on the overall performance of a campaign; rather than just looking at overall sales or revenue, incrementality tests measure the marginal performance of a specific campaign or tactic. This allows marketers to isolate the effect of a particular campaign or tactic and understand how much of a contribution it makes to overall performance.
For example, an incrementality test might measure how much additional revenue a paid search campaign generates compared to email marketing. This can help marketers understand whether their paid search campaign is effective or not in driving sales and revenue more than other media channels.
Understanding your audience
Incrementality tests also differ from other tests in that they can help marketers better understand their customer base. By comparing the performance of different campaigns or tactics, marketers can gain insights into which customer segments are most likely to convert and which channels are driving the most conversions to these particular user segments.
Analyzing Loyalty-driving Tactics
Incrementality tests can also help marketers identify which tactics are most effective in driving customer loyalty. By measuring the incremental performance of a particular campaign or tactic, marketers can identify which campaigns are most effective in driving repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
Incrementality tests are an essential tool for marketers to gain insights into their campaigns and tactics. By measuring the incremental performance of a particular campaign or tactic, marketers can understand which campaigns and tactics are driving the most conversions, revenue and engagements; additionally, it allows advertisers to determine which customer segments are most likely to convert. This can help marketers optimize their campaigns and strategies for maximum performance.
Designing an Incrementality Test
Defining your Goals
The first step in designing an incrementality test is to define the goals of the test. This should include determining what the desired outcomes are for the test and how the test results will be used. For instance, if your goal is to measure the impact of an ad campaign on app downloads, then the test should measure the additional number of downloads that were achieved within a given period of time. Set up KPIs according to your goals and measure them during the campaign period to assess the rate of change towards your key metrics; you can reallocate your marketing budget accordingly. Read below to find out which key metrics you should focus on.
Selecting a Sample Size and Test Duration
Once the goals of the test have been defined, the next step is to determine the sample size and duration of the test. When selecting the sample size and duration of the test, it is important to consider the size and complexity of the app, the target audience, and the goals of the test. For example, if the goal is, once again, to measure the impact of an ad campaign on app downloads, then the test should include a large enough sample size to accurately measure the impact of the ads. Additionally, the duration of the test should be long enough to capture the full effect of the ad campaign. Remember, incrementality tests aren’t for measuring overall performances, but it is still wise to maintain a set duration, especially if you are comparing multiple ad channels’ performances.
Using the Right Incrementality Test Tools
Finally, there are a variety of tools and platforms available for conducting incrementality tests. These include both free and paid services such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Apptimize, and Optimizely to name a few. Each of these services offers different features and capabilities, so it is important to select the one that best meets the needs of your test. If you would like to run incrementality tests while running campaigns with AppSamurai, your dedicated account manager can perform them for you as a complimentary service.
Key Metrics to Assess in an Incrementality Test
This list provides key metrics to measure in a mobile marketing incrementality test. It includes the number of users exposed to the mobile marketing message, the conversion rate, the cost per acquisition, the return on investment, the lifetime value, the engagement rate, the reach and frequency of mobile messages, and the retention rate. All of these metrics are important in evaluating the success of a mobile marketing campaign.
Number of Users Reached
Measure the number of users who are exposed to your mobile marketing messages, as well as the number of users who convert.
Conversion Rate
Measure the rate at which users convert after being exposed to the mobile marketing message. It is worth measuring whether the rate of conversion has increased or decreased through incremental testing; this will help you understand whether your marketing efforts are paying off or not. Learn more about conversion rate optimization here.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Measure the cost of acquiring a new customer or user through the mobile marketing campaign. Meshed with customer lifetime value, you can assess whether you are overspending your budget on less valuable users or vice versa.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
Measure the lifetime value of customers acquired through the mobile marketing campaign. This is a predictive model that will inform you of the total revenue you can achieve from a single user throughout their experience with your app.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
The bread and butter of any app advertiser, in terms of incremental testing, ROAS is a key metric that divides additional revenue gained from a campaign by the additional cost of the campaign. This is worth keeping a check on as it will inform you if your marketing strategies are profitable or losing their traction. If you are interested in increasing your ROAS, check out AppSamurai’s official guide to ROAS.
Engagement Rate
Through incremental testing, you can measure the engagement rate of newly gained users who are exposed to the mobile marketing message and compare it with the original engagement rate metric of your app. This will let you know if your ad campaigns are luring in loyal users or not.
Reach and Frequency of Marketing
This metric has more to do with the marketing efforts themselves rather than their effects. You can determine how many more or less marketing campaigns you activated during a certain time period and also their individual performances in terms of reach.
Retention Rate
Measuring the marginal rate at which users remain engaged with the mobile marketing message over time and comparing them with the app’s average retention rate will grant you insights to, both, your marketing targeting capabilities and your app’s engagement and retention capacity.
Conclusion
Mobile marketing certainly is a hectic chore for anyone to undertake; launching and optimizing mobile marketing campaigns, and running overall and incremental performance tests to measure campaign viability. In order to unlock the full potential of your mobile app marketing efforts, you need to ensure that you are partnering with the right platforms that can help you hit your marketing goals. AppSamurai is an award-winning mobile marketing platform that can help you achieve your user acquisition and engagement goals. Sign up now to boost your app’s growth journey.
