3 Things About Discovery-Based Advertising

Our friends at Branch recently released their 2021 Mobile Growth Handbook. We were excited to be asked to write a section on “Discovery-Based Advertising” - an emerging type of advertising that our on-device solutions fall into.  

While other paid advertising methods (the handbook mentions targeting, intent-based, and search engine) tend to happen during moments when consumers are engaged in other activities - at a pause in a game, reading content, browsing a feed - consumers are increasingly discovering new apps outside those moments. These app discovery moments - for example during phone set-up, changing screens, or organizing apps - are what we call Discovery-Based Advertising.

Discovery-based methods are thriving because they don't distract people from an activity they are already engaged in.

Here are 3 things to remember about Discovery-based advertising:

1. It’s all About Removing Consumer Friction - The ad-to-store framework has bogged down the install process. Discovery-based allows the app to take a more natural, organic route to the customer. One form of this is our SingleTap™ technology which allows a user to confirm interest in the app and then install it in the background. Another example is our Games Folders which organize a consumer’s games into one place and then will suggest new games they may like within that space.

2. Evaluation is Based on Different Metrics - Since the process is more organic, the typical conversion process is different. Consider, for example, a travel app. While someone may be looking to immediately book a vacation, it’s more likely that the urge to use the app will come weeks or months later. But when they do get that urge, the app is there waiting to be used. As we discussed in our Anatomy of Discovery Series, a good metric to use is the “Days to 25” metric which talks about how fast an app category will get to a 25% conversion rate (uses/preloads). 

3. Best Solution to Target New Devices - People install 3x more devices during the first 3 months of phone ownership than they do later. Discovery-based advertising is the only solution that has specific ways to target this high-install moment through solutions like our setup wizards and preloads.

Want to know more about what’s in Branch’s 2021 Mobile Growth Handbook? Download it today. Or contact us to learn more about Discovery-Based Advertising!