How to monetize lost app traffic and revenue

This is a guest blog post by Liron Graziani from global app distribution platform AppThis.

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During the course of any given month, a certain percentage of traffic doesn’t hit target and monetize. End users click on a link expecting to be directed to the app store, but instead are greeted with a white screen or error message that prevents them from making an installation.

The term “lost traffic” broadly describes several scenarios that result in a loss of potential revenue. This could refer to traffic which is misdirected — either towards the wrong geo-locations, to offers that have reached their caps, to broken links, or several other scenarios where the user clicks on a link and doesn’t arrive at the intended destination: the app store.

The mobile performance industry is moving towards more automated solutions using application programming interface (API) and programmatic optimization, which allows for a much larger scale of growth than previously achievable. Simply put, it means more ads, reaching more users, more often than ever before. While this is a great advancement, it also means that we have more lost traffic than ever before, and therefore, lost revenue.

Capturing lost app traffic with a redirect solution

One of the more common approaches used in dealing with this scenario is to redirect all mis-targeted traffic towards a single low-paying global campaign, in the hope of saving otherwise lost conversions and revenue. The approach works, albeit not as effectively as it could. It’s like taking a children’s fishing rod out into the open sea in the hope of catching millions of fish — you can certainly catch fish, but there are clear limitations.

How do you choose the best redirect solution? The good news is that within the mobile adtech world, there aren’t that many solutions to choose from, so the guidelines for choosing a solution that best fits your business are fairly easy to follow.

1. Ensure a clean user experience
   Redirect solutions should avoid sending the user through multiple behind the scenes redirects before the user eventually lands within an app store.
2. Avoid unwanted offers
   These include campaigns marked as “adult,” or non-COPPA compliant.
3. Take advantage of programmatic
   Redirects that use machine learning algorithms will always outperform those that don’t. The machine learning capabilities of programmatic solutions boost the chances of successful conversion exponentially higher, while remaining just as easy to implement and without costing anything more than regular solutions.

A case study in programmatic solutions: SuperLink

One example of a programmatic solution is SuperLink, an intelligent redirect tool developed by AppThis that doesn’t require integration, and catches far more lost traffic than any other solution on the market.

SuperLink directs users away from broken links and towards the app store by predicting the most suited app for users. In most cases the actual app that the end user was looking for is in fact available via another advertiser but in some cases where it isn’t available, the machine learning algorithm directs the user towards a similar app with a proven history of successful conversion. This is based on geo-location, device type, operating system (OS), and various other parameters that allow the SuperLink to provide look-alike solutions or suggestions that guide the user towards conversion.

Comparing SuperLink to fishing scenarios, it’s like going back into the open sea with a fishing trawler and a massive fishing net, as opposed to a small fishing pole. There’s far more fish to catch and you don’t need to work hard to do so either.

Here are the steps for using the AppThis Superlink:

The AppThis SuperLink supports more than 50,000 individual apps and covers every geo-location. It never results in any capped or paused offers and provides a clean and effective solution for monetizing lost traffic.

Finding a solution that works for you

For most companies that are in the business of mobile apps distribution, there is a certain amount of traffic that goes to waste every day. It’s relatively simple to catch the lost traffic and to make sure it’s monetized as well. Doing this correctly will result in a new revenue stream and a better user experience.

Let us know in the comments — how do you manage lost traffic?

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