AppsFlyer is making marketing free for new startups

For businesses that want to grow, marketing has always played a key role in helping them stand out from the rest of the crowd and draw the attention of users and investors alike to succeed.

But what happens when startups don’t have the resources for this crucial aspect in running a business?

In this sink-or-swim economy, having marketing problems was cited as the second-most common reason for a startup going under. A Failory report revealed that 22% of failed startups attributed their closures to a lack of marketing capabilities.

But putting marketing at the top of the priority list could be costly for small businesses. It’s been recommended that startups spend roughly 20% to 25% of their revenue on marketing, a figure that’s sure to elicit groans from new founders.

Empathizing with new startups

This problem inspired mobile app marketing platform AppsFlyer to develop Zero – a free-of-charge, diverse set of tools to help startups on a budget with their marketing campaigns.

It provides important marketing resources such as measurement tools, real-time analytics, banners for website conversions, referral code generation, QR code generation, social media landing pages, email service provider integrations, and deep linking tools.

As a startup itself, AppsFlyer understands the challenges that come with trying to build a viable business from the ground up.

Karen Cohen, associate vice president of product marketing at AppsFlyer / Photo credit: AppsFlyer

“Being where we are now, we realized that we could do more to educate and help businesses grow their platforms without having to invest precious capital,” says Karen Cohen, associate vice president of product marketing at AppsFlyer.

“We understand that it isn’t easy to balance both business growth and marketing on a tight budget. Challenges from the global pandemic made this even harder for businesses just starting out,” she adds. With Zero, the company wanted to dispel the illusion that brands need to spend “a fortune” on marketing.

A win-win situation

Apart from helping startups grow for free, Zero serves an additional purpose: to help drive product-led growth for AppsFlyer. This means letting Zero’s effectiveness speak for itself to grow the firm’s client base with minimal touchpoints.

Cohen explains: “The only person who decides what they want to do [with Zero] is the user.”

As part of this strategy, AppsFlyer needed to identify how effective Zero was for each client. The firm made several changes to its existing tools and tech stacks so that it could accommodate the marketing flows and communication channels present in the package.

Photo credit: kasto / 123RF

This allowed the company to identify what Cohen calls the “golden metric” or the key indicator for Zero’s effectiveness: how quickly AppsFlyer’s clients could convert new users for their respective apps.

Eventually, AppsFlyer hopes to turn Zero into a freemium model that could encourage clients to use the company’s paid plans. These plans come with enhanced capabilities such as custom dashboard creation, fraud protection and analysis, audience segmentation and attribution, and reports for advertising spend.

The way this model works, Cohen explains, is by giving clients insights into the capabilities afforded by premium features.

She highlights a fraud protection add-on known as Protect360. For customers using Zero, AppsFlyer included a dashboard showing how they were being protected and how much money they were saving while using the basic protection plan.

“It’s a mix between giving a lot of the basic capabilities that we have at AppsFlyer for free [while] showing them a lot of the things that are invisible,” she says. “This helps them to understand if it is something they want to focus on and pay for with a premium plan.”

With these paid plans, clients would have access to tools geared toward more sustainable, long-term growth instead of only focusing on gaining new users.

Low cost, high returns.

In the meantime with Zero, the company’s clients have been able to see several benefits, with improvements in reach and distribution after being able to push content out more effectively.

According to AppsFlyer, Zero’s users have gained an average of at least 12,000 successful installs and re-engagement conversions each for their apps. This has also driven an average increase of 2.7x in the number of in-app purchases for these businesses, according to the firm.

Photo credit: sorrapongs / 123RF

At the same time, businesses can also reap long-term benefits by building positive user experiences. According to AppsFlyer, Zero has helped its clients increase user retention by an average of 2.1x.

“The feedback has been amazing,” says Cohen. “Smaller customers who had always heard about AppsFlyer but could never use it were thrilled with this decision.”

According to her, the company has even received many requests and wishlists from clients indicating what they would like to see developed and added to Zero.

She adds: “We love this because it means that we’re on the right track and that people are using the product and want to use it more.”

AppsFlyer for everyone

In the coming years, AppsFlyer’s Zero could prove invaluable in a market that is “booming” with more new apps being launched, says Cohen.

“Covid-19 has changed the way people consume things and there’s a significant growth within the industry,” she adds.

By continually acting on feedback from clients to improve Zero’s goal of product-led growth, AppsFlyer is looking to let smaller app companies all over the world try its solutions and services for free.

Cohen says: “We want to take AppsFlyer to the people and make it the default solution for marketers out there.”

AppsFlyer is an app marketing platform that provides tools for marketing measurement, analytics, and engagement. As part of its Zero package, AppsFlyer provides marketers with a suite of tools that is free to use for life.

To find out more about Zero, visit AppsFlyer’s website.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.