Category: General

Apple News: Xcode Cloud

Apple yesterday announced Xcode Cloud, an innovative and helpful technology for developers. 

Briefly, Xcode Cloud combines many systems and technologies for developers. Developers can build, test, and distribute apps by utilizing powerful cloud services. At the same time, it allows individual developers and teams to be more productive and provide outstanding apps to their consumers. 

In other words, Xcode Cloud is a new cloud service for DevOps for Apple developers. Xcode Cloud, which is included in Xcode 13, provides a quick and easy solution for developers and teams of all sizes to build, test, and deploy high-quality apps even more effectively. Xcode Cloud can build apps on the cloud automatically, freeing up developers’ Macs for other activities.

Swift 

Apple’s rich and user-friendly programming language now has built-in concurrency support. This supports developers in building code that does many tasks simultaneously. This is critical for creating apps that respond to user input while also conducting additional work in the background. In addition, SwiftUI has revolutionized user interface development by making it as easy as possible to create attractive apps with the least amount of code.

Beginning on the 8th of June, the beta version will be accessible to developers. Apple says it will expand access to its free beta program over the summer and fall and release the final version in late 2021. Pricing and availability information were not provided during Monday’s WWDC presentation, but Apple promised that additional information will be shared with developers this autumn.

Apple points out that by using Xcode Cloud, teams would be able to detect and address errors more quickly. Developers may make changes to their code, and because it is saved and compiled in the cloud, the changes will be visible to everyone in the team.

We explained the two important features, Swift and Object Capture, for you:

Object Capture

With the Object Capture API, developers will easily and professionally create high-quality, photo-realistic 3D models of real-world objects. The feature will be available on iPhone, iPad, or DSLRs with 3D models optimized for AR. 

The retailers can provide better service, the designers will save time, and the developers will be relieved of working on an AR API for the app. 

To watch the Apple announcement video, check out the video below: 

Apple News: Xcode Cloud

Apple yesterday announced Xcode Cloud, an innovative and helpful technology for developers. 

Briefly, Xcode Cloud combines many systems and technologies for developers. Developers can build, test, and distribute apps by utilizing powerful cloud services. At the same time, it allows individual developers and teams to be more productive and provide outstanding apps to their consumers. 

In other words, Xcode Cloud is a new cloud service for DevOps for Apple developers. Xcode Cloud, which is included in Xcode 13, provides a quick and easy solution for developers and teams of all sizes to build, test, and deploy high-quality apps even more effectively. Xcode Cloud can build apps on the cloud automatically, freeing up developers’ Macs for other activities.

Swift 

Apple’s rich and user-friendly programming language now has built-in concurrency support. This supports developers in building code that does many tasks simultaneously. This is critical for creating apps that respond to user input while also conducting additional work in the background. In addition, SwiftUI has revolutionized user interface development by making it as easy as possible to create attractive apps with the least amount of code.

Beginning on the 8th of June, the beta version will be accessible to developers. Apple says it will expand access to its free beta program over the summer and fall and release the final version in late 2021. Pricing and availability information were not provided during Monday’s WWDC presentation, but Apple promised that additional information will be shared with developers this autumn.

Apple points out that by using Xcode Cloud, teams would be able to detect and address errors more quickly. Developers may make changes to their code, and because it is saved and compiled in the cloud, the changes will be visible to everyone in the team.

We explained the two important features, Swift and Object Capture, for you:

Object Capture

With the Object Capture API, developers will easily and professionally create high-quality, photo-realistic 3D models of real-world objects. The feature will be available on iPhone, iPad, or DSLRs with 3D models optimized for AR. 

The retailers can provide better service, the designers will save time, and the developers will be relieved of working on an AR API for the app. 

To watch the Apple announcement video, check out the video below: 

Google will remove Android Advertising ID from the users who have limited ad tracking.

Google stated that starting with Android 12, the Android Advertising ID will be canceled out for all customers who have disabled ad personalization in their device settings.

What is Android Advertising ID? 

It’s a feature that has been available since 2013. The Android Advertising ID is a device-specific ID that may be reset by each device and is the primary identifier used by advertising networks to offer retargeted advertisements. It is also used to generate audiences or suppression lists when launching a new campaign with a new media partner.

When Android users choose not to personalize their advertising, their Android Advertising ID cannot be used for ad targeting or retargeting. 

After Android 12, opted-out users’ Android Advertising IDs will be shown as a string of zeros. It’s expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2021. 

After Apple’s first move with ATT, digital marketing is shifting into more privacy-oriented times. As we mentioned in our previous newsletter, Google took a first step with the launch of the security section. Again, this news ensures that the future will be a security-driven era for mobile marketers. 

Apple released 14.5.1 to fix the ATT bugs.

Apple announced 14.5.1 to fix some bugs in the devices that enable app tracking. According to Apple’s explanation, an app tracking transparency feature affected a small group of users. This problem, which impacted certain users who turned off the option to enable applications to request monitoring, has been resolved in iOS 14.5.1 and iPadOS 14.5.1. Users will also benefit from several security enhancements with this release.

According to Apple’s update notes, some of the security upgrades are highly essential, security flaws have been resolved, and some of these vulnerabilities have been exploited. As a result, Apple advises customers to do the iOS 14.5.1 upgrade as soon as possible, citing the importance of the update.

Also, it is important to inform you that iOS 14.5.1 does not fix some users’ grayed-out App Tracking Transparency option appearing in the Settings screen. After upgrading to iOS 14.5.1, the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” button in the Settings app is still grayed out for certain users. 

You can check the video below to learn more about the Apple 14.5.1 Update:

We will focus on the latest update of Apple, iOS 15, and more next week. Scroll down to subscribe to our newsletter.

APPLE INTRODUCED SEARCH TABS ADS: 

Apple has introduced a new way for developers to advertise their apps:

 

Before Apple Search Ads, developers could still target certain topics to advertise their apps when customers searched on the App Store. 

If you put in “flight ticket,” for example, you get a Skyscanner or another flight sticker-selling app’s ad in the top space above the search results. 

The new feature will help apps reach consumers before they search. This will help the app reach a larger audience.

A new feature called “Search Tap Campaigns” will be placed on the App Store’s Search tab, which receives millions of visits every month. On the search tab, there are two sections below the search box: Discover and Suggested.

The discover section will show current App Store trends, while the suggested section gives recommendations on which apps to use. The ad will be placed at the top of the list of suggested apps. 

To watch an explainer video on how to use Google Search Console for better SEO, check out our recommendations. : 

After restricting most of the apps’ data tracking flexibility with the last update to iOS 14.5 (ATT), the new feature can be described as helping developers increase their revenue and ad flexibility. For further explanation, visit TechCrunch’s blog and Apple’s Search Ads page explaining search tab campaigns.

How to make a good ATT prompt

After the launch of iOS 14.5, a new privacy feature of Apple ATT has started to ask users if they allow the app to access their data. 

At this point, explaining the value and reason for apps at the ATT prompt became crucial.
Its importance comes from its intention to reach a better understanding of the users via those data. 

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How do I write a good and to-the-point ATT prompt? What are the common mistakes, how the prompt should be designed, and what to mention?   We have a blog recommendation for you. We wanted to make the important points into bullet points. To reach the content, visit AppFigures’ blog.

• Fight with the common understanding that you are the bad actor instead of giving you a better-personalized experience. 
• Avoid confusion, and briefly explain why you are showing this prompt and what you want. 
• Give a reason (not a hook or prize) for people to allow tracking. It might be related to the free service you’re offering because of the ads or to trying to give more personalized service. 
• Be positive, but not overly so.
• Don’t frighten the users with the possibility of extra pricing.
• Keep it short.
• Don’t forget to mention the main benefit.

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 Appgain Mobile Marketing Weekly News Digest – Issue 3

This week, we will talk about Google’s future changing step about privacy issues & some tips for the marketers from Apple’s side. Since the rollout of the Apple ATT policy, many changes are happening from all users – apps and competitors’ side.  

As we mentioned the previous week, ATT prompts are still in the adoption process for the users. Also, the number of people who allow apps to track increases. At the same time, the number of people who opt-in to the ATT increases. Apps are complaining about the dominance & restriction that Apple has created, but inevitably, most of the apps integrate the ATT and give updates. Meanwhile, some apps have decided to take Apple’s action to court with the accusation of dominating & monopolizing the field. When there’s news on the legal side, we will be informing you. 

SURPRISING ACTION FROM GOOGLE: SAFETY SECTION FOR ALL APPS ON GOOGLE PLAY. 

The safety issue was both in the wonder of users and the marketers. Apple’s last update was critical on this situation because it wasn’t sure if this would be the new future or a clumsy attempt. If we accept that the ATT is just the first step and IDFA is gone, it means that a new way of marketing has just begun. 

Google’s latest announcement made the future more clearer:

“Android apps will be required to inform the users about the data until Q2 2022.” 

Which type of personal data an app collects and shares, also gives access to additional details that impact privacy and security.

Chronology Of The Feature: 

The policy requirements are told to be announced this summer. Here are the things we know for now in bullet points: 

• The Safety Section will include if the App is following a Family Policy, especially about child safety.
• It’s expected from the apps to provide accurate information. If Google Play discovers that the data usage is conflicting with the policy, it will be warned. When the app does not take action, policy enforcement will be applied.
  
• The apps will be expected to share which data is being collected.
  

It seems that it is different from the ATT in terms of the flexibility of the users to change the permissions but a way for apps to share & explain the data policies to the user in a better way. Still, informing the user about the data and all the policies will give us a clue that data collecting and processing will be regulated by digital distribution platforms for apps, with legal codes (we will see after Apple’s lawsuit). The next topic will explain how to adopt the change. 

APPLE SEARCH ADS INSTALL ATTRIBUTION FROM APPGAIN

Apple Search Ads is getting more value after the last update of Apple: ATT. So as Appgain, we have just added Apple Search Attribution to enable you to identify which users are acquired from Apple search ads campaigns. Update your Apple apps with Appgain SDK with no extra code or purchase needed, let Appgain show you the Apple search ads acquisition.

WEBINAR RECOMMENDATION FROM APPGAIN FAMILY: 

To help you to have the best Apple Search Ads strategy, we recommend you: Essential Apple Search Ads Strategies to Optimize Your Ads by Mobile Action.

Next week,  we will discuss how to make a good ATT prompt and introduce you to newly launched Apple Search Tabs Ads. In addition, we know how important it is to scale and optimize the Apple Search Ads to compensate for the flexibility that IDFA gave.

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Acquiring new users & turning them into active-loyal customers is every company’s aim. As we mentioned in our previous blog, understanding the user journey is the key to reach that aim, especially for mobile apps. In this blog, you’ll find the main points of the importance of conversion rate & how to increase the “order”, in other words, activation, the conversion rate for your company.

• What is conversion rate & why is it important? 
• The ways to increase the order conversion rate (OCR)?

What is conversion rate & why is it important? 

Conversion rate is the percentage of the users who made purchases from the ones that visited your website/ app.

There can be lots of desired action. Let’s remember the user journey: Awareness – Interest – Consideration – Action – Loyalty – Referral. For example, you want your users to refer you to their friends. It means you need to increase your referral conversion. Another example, you want to increase the number of orders. And this is the main topic of this blog. You can see the most basic calculation above, on the visual. The importance of this rate is that you can set & measure your metrics easily. 

The ways to increase the order conversion rate (OCR)?

First of all, remember that you’re not the only one who’s trying to increase their OCR. 

More than 80% of the basket (the percentage changes according to the industry) stays unpurchased.

Don’t get so pessimistic either, this blog will help you to start working on increasing your order conversion rate. Here are some actions you can take:

• Analyze where you lost most of your users. The payment process can be long, the product page can be complicated… If you think about it,  all of the reasons for the churn rate can be a valid answer to your question. To go deeper, you can check our whitepaper for churn rate. One of the tools to identify where you are losing your users, is to use Funnel Analytics
• Use remarketing pixels. Don’t just lose the users who come & leave without an order. On average, a purchase is being made after the user sees you or your product 7 times. Create remarketing links & build campaigns for those who clicked those links. To see more information, check our link remarketing blog.
• Make them subscribe: Keep your mailing list & community active. Inform your subscribers consistently if you want to be the first one to consider when they need a product from your service area. 
• Understand the user behavior & segmentate. Know their interests & prepare your campaign accordingly. 

 

• Use 360 Marketing: Communicate your user via different platforms. With this, you’ll understand which platform they prefer and you’ll remind yourself in more than one way. 

To check the use cases & strategies to optimize your order conversion rate, you can check the video below:

We will be writing for you to make your guide for increasing the conversion rate optimization with more details & more tips for action.

To be updated about the upcoming OCR whitepaper, scroll down to subscribe our newsletter.

Game-Changing Action From Apple: ATT

Apple is disrupting mobile marketing with its updates. Now there’s one feature that has been on the developers’ & marketer’s table for more than a year: Apple’s App Tracking Transparency policy. aka, permission-based IDFA tracking. And why does Apple create that kind of impact? Here’s the answer from one of our previous blog.

• What exactly is App Tracking Transparency?
• Pros & Cons From Different Sides
• How to Act Upon & After It Gets Live?

On the 28th of January, the international privacy day, they announced that ATT policies will be available with an IOS 14 update in the early springtimes. You can check the details from our relevant previous blog: 

ATT actually was expected to be launched in the IOS 14.4 update because, in the beta version, the policy was mentioned. But since there were already 3 important security issues, Apple didn’t give more information, they preferred to fix those leaks first. For further explanation, you can check the link at the begging of the paragraph. 

What exactly is App Tracking Transparency? 

So let’s start with the obvious question: What exactly App Tracking Transparency or ATT?

Shortly,  when users use an app, it’s possible to track the user’s actions at the other apps or at the website.

Currently, there is IDFA which protects the users’ personal information and at the same time enables you to show your relevant ads for the users after getting the user consent to be able to track their data. 

Now, Apple points that ATT is for adding transparency to the process of tracking which means users can see & decide which apps are tracking their actions or not. Here’s the “how” part: Users’ permission will be asked before tracking their data from other apps or websites.

At the Settings section, users will be able to see which app requested permission to view users’ actions outside their app. Also, users will be able to change the permissions as they want. 

 

The Discussions – Wrapped Up-

Dark Side Of The Coin

Some companies, including Facebook, Unity Software Inc, Snap Inc., Tekno Games, whose business model is based on ads got worried about the new change. After the announcement, they foresee a downsizing in the revenues generated by the App Store. Furthermore, the opposition even stands for the re-invention of the marketing is required after the change & it will take back the mobile marketing industry 10 years back.

Bright Side Of the Coin 

As an answer to the opposition argument, Apple stands for giving the user the flexibility & transparency to choose which data is being collected and how it’s used. They stated that the developers & advertisers will still be able to track and use the data. The only difference will be an extra step of getting the users’ permission at first and then making them able to control the permissions from the settings page. 

Separately from the discussions, the privacy & transparency issue seems to stay on the table for a long time. To see what needs to be done and what are the red lines for making the best use of your customer engagement campaigns, subscribe to our newsletter & we’ll let you know with the following blogs. 

 

Clubhouse Has Introduced Its Payments

Clubhouse, the latest audio-based social media app has received 10 million users’ attention. As in the latest social media actors feature race, some features such as story sections (LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube) or short videos (TikTok, Instagram Reels) are being generated from one to another. 

The discussions started to rise about the audio-chat rooms after the big rise of Clubhouse. Twitter was already testing the feature, I recently launched it. Now, the tech world is wondering which platforms will add the feature. 

On the other hand, a payment system for influencers was another wonder, especially about Clubhouse. The expected announcement has arrived on the 5th of April, 2021. It’s now in a test phase with a small group but later on, all the members will be able to send money to the content creators at Clubhouse. 

The best part of the feature for the influencers is Clubhouse will not make any cuts on the money sent but there will be a small card processing fee taken by the senders. 

Fully aware of the influencer market’s value & growth, we will be following the marketing opportunities that Clubhouse brings to the sector. 

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Phones or laptops are opened with fingerprints, face ID. Everyone has saved passwords and usernames. The concept of “login” is changing too. 

“Make your users use your app directly, and make their first purchase with smart link login”

What is a smart link login?  

Login with smart links is made for users to enter your mobile app within a less amount of time.  

 

Why smart link login? 

Making users’ journey easy is important to increase active and loyal customer numbers. Login, the first page every user faces, is the door of you. When they decide to open your mobile app, you shouldn’t give them a reason to give up. To decrease the time spent on login, a smart link solution is found. 

“In the traditional way, the average time spent to create an account is 1 minute 30 seconds, with smart link login, it takes 10 seconds!”

 

How does it work?

So-called magic links, enables users to sign in with one link. In the process, email or telephone number information is enough. After the user enters her email address, (for example) she receives an email with a magic link that will lead her to the page. 

“Make the user become a customer”

Still not sure? You still might think why it matters for all the work to integrate it to your login page, here is a fact: 

“Acquiring a new user is 7 times more costly than retaining the existing one.”

As much as we seek growth at the acquisition level, we should work on keeping the current users satisfied with the whole process. With also called password-less authentication, a short/easy login to your mobile app will increase the time spent inside. 

Don’t lose your customers, make your mobile app more user friendly. 

Over the past two years (2018 to 2020), desktop internet usage dropped from 54.86% to 46.5%, while mobile internet usage increased from 37.38% to 50.5%. That’s a significant growth rate. 

But here is the interesting part. Although general online consumption is mostly from mobile and it is still growing, we find that  55.9% of the time spent on websites is from desktop! This is because apps are the native language of mobile and websites are more convenient on desktop as they require large screen space.

Mobile Apps are your most effective conversion channel.

Another proof that customers prefer apps over websites is Apps drive 66% of all the mobile transactions and drive 3x more sales than mobile web.

Let’s build a scenario, you are an e-commerce business, you know that your customers are most likely to search your products through their phone and that they are 2-3x more likely to purchase if they ordered through a native app, what should you do? 

Exactly, convert every website visits into an app install, the user will have a better overall experience & a seamless checkout and you will have a higher conversion rate. Win-win!

If an imaginative Scenario isn’t convincing for you, you can check an actual case study here, using appgain products & this strategy, ikhair was able to increase user acquisition by 42% and revenues by 28%

 

So Why should you use a web-to-app strategy instead of driving app installs directly?

It’s simple economics, Supply & Demand, right now the costs of direct app install ads whether on stores or social media are continuously increasing due to increased demand, so now Web Ads can cost 82% less than direct app install ads. So this strategy will drastically decrease your user acquisition cost

How can you convert website visits or web ads into direct installs?

Now you think the web-to-app strategy will help you grow your app downloads & sales base at a lower cost, how exactly can you implement it? 

There are several best practices to do so, we will go through 3, but the main keywords that you will need in all of them are Deep Links and Mobile Attribution. 

What is a deep link?

It is a smart hyperlink that automatically leads the user to a specific page in your application, even if the user doesn’t have the app installed, the link will route him to the google or apple app store (depending on the device & OS), then after installation, the user will open the specific location.  Also, you can use web push notifications to convert your users to your app. To see how Appgain solution for web push works, check here. Now let’s go to the techniques.

First: Leverage Mobile Search terms

People spend on average 5 hours on their phone, they search everything, they search you before they buy from your brand, they search for the (cheapest or best or easiest) solution to their problems. Leverage that, identify the keywords mobile users type in google to visit your website, and what are the most visited pages they visit? Optimize these web pages SEO using the keywords you identified and add smart deep links in those pages that will directly route the visitor to a specific location in the app.

Second: Exclusive Promos & Offers

Add promos, offers, discounts, free trials, or App Sneak Peaks on your website and make accessing them exclusive to only those who have the app installed and as the first case, if they don’t have the app, the deep link will route them to the app store, then they can access the promo, free trial, etc. 

Third: Loyalty Programs

A loyalty program rewards loyal users/customers for doing or repeating certain actions over a period of time. One common method is the points system, that rewards users after achieving 

For example, you can give your users 20 points if they downloaded & opened the app, 30 points if they made a purchase, 50 points if their purchase reached a certain amount & 100 points if they referred your app to 10 friends and after reaching 300 points, they can get free gifts or large discount offers.

You can optimize your web-to-app conversion by building and launching exclusive loyalty programs for those who have the app installed and announce them on the most visited pages on your website. 

Fourth: Display Ads 

When designing & launching Display Ads campaigns, instead of adding a standard URL that directs to your website, add a smart deep link that will route mobile ad viewers to your app.

Or you can do some A/B testing yourself and try both methods (Standard URL & smart deep links), the click-through rate would be the same as the users won’t distinguish but we bet the conversion rate & revenue generated would differ by a wide margin. 

You can also make another A/B testing between deep links powered Display Ads and direct app installs Ads and checks the Customer acquisition cost in each case, we also bet that the web ads will be much lower than the direct install ads.

There are many other use cases for the deep linking technology that will help you to boost user acquisition and user engagement at a lower cost, you can find 10 of them here.

 

How can you measure the efficiency & ROI of this strategy?

So you have launched 2 or 3 campaigns to execute your web-to-app conversion strategy and you want to measure the efficiency of each campaign and its ROI, how will you do that?
Time for a new keyword: “Mobile Attribution”.

What is Mobile Attribution?

Mobile Attribution is the night-vision goggles for mobile developers and marketers that allow them to track every click, install & purchase process. 

Through mobile attribution, you can track the app installs and know what channel each user came from and track the revenues, and know where each dollar came from.

So you use any mobile attribution product to track the deep links in your campaign and know how many installs came from the display ads campaign and the loyalty program campaign and know how much revenue was generated from each channel through those installs then you can compare them and see which is the best channel to acquire more customers at a lower cost. 

Our Mobile Attribution Product will help you track key metrics through all the user journey, so you can identify

• Who clicked on the deep links.
• Where the app installs came from
• What are the user behaviors inside the app?

This will help you to know not only which campaign drove the most installs, but also which ones drove the highest conversion/purchases. 

To summarize, your prospective customers are on their phone on average for 5 hours daily. You want them to be on your app instead of your website because it’s more convenient and they are more likely to make a purchase through the app.

Knowing that web ads are less expensive than direct app installs ads. You will use the deep linking technology to auto-direct your website visitors to your app even if they don’t have it installed. You can measure the ROI & efficiency of this strategy using Mobile Attribution technology that will tell you how many clicks, downloads, installs & purchases were made through each channel.

But How Could We Help?

Finally, we offer you a 14-day Free trial, all-inclusive access to our platform to help you take the first steps along the way. Got any questions? Do not hesitate to reach out and Request a Demo.

Our customized free demo will help you to:

• Build smart deep links that auto-direct to your app
• Track installs & campaign revenue through Mobile Attribution
• Re-target users who didn’t convert from your campaigns