User Acquisition and Retention Strategies for Mobile-Only Companies in Competitive Markets

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Marcel Baltes International Marketing at HotelTonight

What is HotelTonight?

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HotelTonight – value proposition & opportunity

Hand-selected hotels at great prices on your mobile device up to 7 days in advance

SAW MOBILE OPPORTUNITY EARLY

Growth in mobile hotel bookings

Spark

Build

Launch

Growth in Mobile Hotel Bookings

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First Line of Code:

Sept 25, 2010

Launch: a sprint to the starting line

Live:

Dec 18, 2010

§  3 cities

§  15 hotels

§  no extranet

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§  Changing booking behavior to mobile looking for quality hotels at affordable prices

§  We help users book easily,

great hotels at great prices on demand

HotelTonight creates a win-win situation

HOTELS USERS

§  Average annual hotel occupancy rate is 60%

§  We help Russian hotels sell

otherwise unsold rooms

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Offline Web Mobile

Carlson Wagonlit

Travel

Vision: to build the dominant mobile travel co

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All hotels

Curation is key to mobile

The best hotels

The best values,

right now,

for you

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A Superior Product: 3 taps & a swipe to book!

We make booking simple and seriously easy.

1 Browse 2 Book 3 Stay

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HotelTonight Today

San Francisco

Paris

London

Berlin

Sydney

Toronto

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13 million downloads worldwide

500 destinations

15.000 hotels

Highest-rated booking app

HotelTonight in numbers

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 •  70.000 downloads before launch

•  80 curated hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg

•  Coming soon: Sochi, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Suzdal

 

HotelTonight in Russia

User Acquisition and Retention at HotelTonight

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User Acquisition: channels

Awareness

Acquisition

Booking

Retention

PR/Brand/Local Performance Partnerships

CRM

§  PR

§  TV/Radio

§  Offline campaigns

§  Viral Marketing

§  Influencer marketing

§  Online/offline app reviews

§  Local promos/stunts (online and offline)

§  Contests (photo/video, blog posts, etc.)

§  SMM

§  SEM

§  Ad networks

§  Direct CPI deals

§  ASO

§  SEO

§  App burst

§  Display

§  Referral program

§  Coupons

§  Retargeting

§  E-Mail

§  Push

§  Push notifications

§  In-app messages

§  Partnerships with:

-  Airline companies

-  Car rental companies

-  Car sharing companies

-  Taxi companies

-  Dating apps

-  Payment systems

-  etc.

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User Acquisition: model

Other Marketing KPIs

Acquisition – CPI Acquisition – Installs Retargeting – CPC Retargeting – Room Nights Sessions WAU / MAU NPS App Store Rating App Store Ranking Open rate (Email) Awareness & Affinity ROI

ROAS =GBV ×Mar×ROIgoalXdays

Adspend7 days: XX%* 14 days: XX%* 30 days: XX%*

*ROIgoal set to meet 100% ROAS after X months

RNs

Bookers

Registrants

Installs

LOS

First time bookers Repeat bookers

Ratio

CR

CR

CR

Sessions MAU

Referred Installs K-factor Organic Installs J-factor

Performance Marketing

CPI

CR

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User acquisition: challenges for mobile-only

Challenges

§  High competition: -  In app stores

-  High CPIs on ad networks (especially in Travel segment)

§  Reaching high intent users: -  Difficult to acquire users on transactional basis

-  Cannot shift loyal users from web to app

-  Search indexing is still in the early days

-  Cannot leverage acquisition cost with SEO traffic

-  Difficult to compete with mobile web/desktop competitors on SEM

Approach

§  Non-Marketing: -  Product, Sales, Customer Service = ASO +

Virality

§  Test all existing channels: -  Finding niches throughout all channels that

are ROI positive

§  Optimizing conversion funnel: -  Deferred deep-linking

-  Referral program & promo-codes

§  In-house Performance Marketing: -  Continuous testing & optimization

-  In-house creative design

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User acquisition: test all existing channels

Performance (trackable channels) Organic (non-trackable channels)

Total installs / bookings

§  Ad networks

§  Direct CPI deals

§  SMM

§  PR

§  TV / Radio

§  Offline campaign

-  Use of targeted coupons to track installs / bookings

-  Isolated campaigns in test markets (TV in France, Radio in Italy) to reattribute organic installs

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User acquisition: optimizing conversion funnel I

Problem

Mobile WEB

Clicks

Sessions

Purchases

Mobile APP

Clicks

App installs

Sessions

Purchases

Approach: deferred deep-linking

Difficult to compete on SEM with other players that have mobile web / desktop, because of longer

conversion funnel

…to shorten conversion funnel!

§  SEM with deep-links: Example Keyword: “hotel app for Paris” Deeplink: /marketid=559

-> opens app in Paris after install

§  Facebook with deep-links: Example Post with promo-code Deeplink: /code=MBLT15

-> open app with promo-code pre-populated in app

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User acquisition: optimizing conversion funnel II

Approach: referral program Approach: promo-codes

§  Key to success:

-  Incentivize both referrer and referred (win-win)

-  Prominent place in the app (own tab!)

-  “Gamification” of referrals

§  Goal: increase K-Factor:

-  K-factor = invites x CR

-  Decrease effective cost per booker on performance channels

-  Important to account for it

§  Key to success:

-  Advanced targeting possibilities to avoid leakage (by city/region, user country, currency, redemption/booking/check-in period, number of nights, etc.)

§  Goal: drive top of funnel without cannibalization:

-  Target opportunities that drive incremental transactions

-  Measure effect on channel conversion rate

CR w/ code x AOV >= CR w/o code x AOV

-  Make sure no deal hunters are acquired (adverse selection)

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User acquisition: in-house performance marketing

§  Front-load: -  Launch as many publishers and ad

networks as possible

-  Result: publishers can be cut off to increase ROI by still increasing volume

§  Find early indicators of performance: -  7/14/30 days ROAS cohorts - project

LTV based on historical data

-  Install to session conversion

Approach: continuous testing Ad network A Ad network B Ad network X ...

Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ... Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ... Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ...

Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ... Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ... Pub 1 Pub 2 Pub X ...

Pub 1 NEW NEW ... NEW NEW NEW ... NEW Pub 2 NEW ...

Cutoff at X installs and pause to see 7 day ROAS

Pub 1 NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW Pub 2 NEW

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Retention: challenges for mobile-only

Challenges

§  Low frequency of usage: -  Hotels are not booked every day (not

fitness app) -  High seasonality (not UBER)

§  Identify right moment: -  Difficult to understand right situation

for engagement -  Limited knowledge about identity

(do not collect a lot of information of user – to keep process lean)

§  Limited retargeting possibilities: -  Limited to mobile web and in-app

Approach

§  Targeted CRM communications: -  Segment as much as possible to

engage the right people -  Goal: Aligning external with internal

triggers -  Event, lifecycle and ad-hoc

campaigns

§  Opt-in push notifications: -  Working well: push notifications that

are requested

§  Search & display retargeting: -  Deep-linking from ads, also SEM

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User retention: opt-in push notifications

§  Alert features: -  Price alert

-  Hotel alert

-  etc.

§  Result – high relevance -  Low uninstall rate

-  Low opt-out rate

-  High engagement

Approach: users request push

Plan Less. Live More.

Do you want to try?

Promo-Code: MBLT15

15% off your first booking*

*Valid until 31.12.2015, minimum spend: 75$