In-app messaging vs push notifications for mobile publishers

By Peter Bordes for Kubient Audience Insights

The differences in the context of app marketing “Should I use push notifications or in-app messaging? 

We all have gone through that a dozen times. Enthusiastically, we download apps to our mobiles, turn them on and for a moment excitedly explore all the functions and then… Well, then we put our mobiles away, and the apps drift off into oblivion… Is there a way for consumers to reach for the apps downloaded on their mobiles more eagerly and more often? Yes, but that option should be chosen very carefully. Push notifications and in-app messaging can do as much good as bad.

In Google Play and iTunes stores, there are over 2 million available apps (and approx.. 2.8. million on the Android market. According to the research conducted by App Annie company, we download approx. 30 apps per month on average, on a global scale, and depending on our operating system we use approx. 9 -10 of them daily. How many of those apps will remain with us longer? Very few. Statistics show that 30 days from installing a program, not even 3% of users are likely to return to it. Push notifications and in-app messaging can effectively encourage the user to interact and extend the time of using the program. What is the difference between those two? You will find out below.

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

The push notifications system works like reminders about an incoming text message or e-mail. It is short, usually verbal information displayed on a device screen, even if the user is not using the app. Obviously, in accordance with the settings configured by the user, they may relate to e.g.

• The acceptance of incoming messages and/or the format of displayed information;
• Applications from which we receive messages

Who needs push notifications?
As the name suggests, this kind of marketing activities is used to evoke a certain reaction in users or encourage them to use the app again, if it hasn’t been used for a long time. Such messages are used in marketing to:

• Encourage the user to immediate and required response;
• Inform about specific actions and events;
• Notify about promotions and campaigns.

How to use this tool properly?
Well-planned and ‘non-pushy’ push notifications can generate large traffic in the app and effectively support marketing activities. Why? Because users who accepted such notifications are usually more involved in using the app and they themselves seek an excuse to spend a little more time on their app again.

Well-planned notifications are like an e-mail from a friend that we are subconsciously waiting for. However, we should bear in mind that it isn’t recommended to overdo the frequency of notifications. So, we should carefully choose the contents and send the information at an appropriate time of day, and our message should be adjusted to the context of the application. Thus, if we are woken up at 3 a.m. by a sound of beeping mobile inviting us to avail of a recently launched promotion, we may cease to enjoy the app and soon start to hate it, instead.

Among various mistakes often made by marketers are also:

• Lack of message personalization
• Lack of parameter identification of the app and device.
• Trivial message (content for the content’s sake).
• Lack of specific location, (where the app notification should direct us).

Drawbacks? 

Unquestionably, such solutions are not free from drawbacks. They don’t allow for extensive message personalization (usually we only know the user’s gender or address). Also, it is difficult to feel the moment when the notifications become annoying, thus ineffective. Managing such notifications is true art, therefore it is so important to monitor consumers’ behavior, and based on that draw appropriate conclusions. There is always a real risk of users uninstalling the app.

IN-APP MESSAGES >>> READ MORE