RevX: Improve OTT app stickiness with programmatic advertising

How many streaming services are you currently subscribed to? Chances are that you have more than one over-the-top (OTT) app installed on your mobile device. Offering a service to viewers online across multiple platforms and devices, bypassing cable, broadcast and satellite television programs, the OTT market has grown fiercely to meet the needs and wants of audiences looking for easy access and more video content on their devices.

Here's what we know about the OTT ecosystem:

• In 2020, approximately 2.13 billion people used OTT video worldwide. This number is expected to increase to 2.71 billion people by 2025.
• There was immense growth in the time spent on streaming services between March 2020 to February 2021, gaining over 35% per month year-over-year.
• OTT is worth $121 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to over 96.5 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2025.
• 80% of US users prefer to subscribe to a paid streaming video service. Similarly, in the UK, online streaming services have a 65% penetration.

The potential for growth in OTT is immense, but with more and more entertainment apps in the space, the battle to earn the users' attention and loyalty is real. While watching content on OTT apps is a daily habit for many users, a concept known as subscription fatigue, where users become fed up with subscribing to multiple apps, is a serious thing to take into consideration.

So, how do you make sure your OTT app remains top of mind?

OTT apps often run on subscription models and are big on monetization via ads. One of the key challenges OTT apps face is "stickiness," and how they can become engaging enough to stay top-of-mind while ensuring that users will want to keep coming back for more. Not only do app users need to be enticed to download and subscribe to the app, but they also need to enjoy and watch the content long enough for the ads that support their monetization strategy to be served.

From the multitude of channels and strategies that OTT apps rely on to drive demand and ensure they maintain an engaged audience, programmatic stands out as one of the most reliable investments. Programmatic allows app marketers to use quality supply to target specific segments of users at scale and in real-time, which creates a more personalized experience for users.

Programmatic advertising is an excellent mechanism to drive users to an OTT app while encouraging them to engage, discover its content, subscribe, and increase stickiness, all in a streamlined and targeted manner.

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How convenient is it to have our favorite video content available directly on our mobile devices? OTT apps can gather sizable audiences because, simply, they're available where users prefer to consume content. But bringing top viewers to your app repeatedly and consistently is a feat that requires a structured approach.

Here are some guiding principles to start building your programmatic advertising strategy to grow your OTT app further.

Know where to focus your ad strategy

To set up an action course, it pays to think about your entire user lifecycle. Acquiring new users is only the beginning. Reengaging those users to improve stickiness in your app is far more critical, and retargeting campaigns can make all the difference in bringing high-value users back to the app and converting them into paying subscribers.

Targeting the right users

Over-the-top content consumption is evolving rapidly, and so is the audience using streaming video apps. It is imperative to know your users in order to keep up with the changes: who installs your app? Who are your high-value active users? What are their habits and preferences?

The biggest segment of users is made up of young, mobile-first adults who are already actively engaged with multiple apps.

Identifying their mobile usage patterns will guide your targeting approach, and defining how to reach them and entice them is the first step to building successful ad campaigns. Using app intelligence to run specific ad campaigns on quality inventory exclusive for OTT platforms enables targeting high-intent and active users to drive better retention and increase subscriptions.

Relying on a programmatic partner that can offer you better audience segmentation and targeting will help you build a higher-quality audience.

Support organic user acquisition with programmatic advertising

Programmatic user acquisition campaigns can act as a catalyst for your organic efforts. Understanding what advertising levers to pull to find and attract users will lead to a bigger in-app user base.

Programmatic ad campaigns act as a lever for growth. They can effectively and efficiently reach targeted users who are more likely to install and subscribe with free trial offers.

Reengagement to ensure OTT success

The trick to increasing stickiness in your OTT app is reengagement. Using retargeting campaigns to bring back your existing app users results in less user churn, more time spent in-app, and higher ARPU.

Don't approach retargeting as an after-thought in your mobile growth strategy. App retargeting campaigns that run early on the users' lifecycle yield better results. So, plan your campaign strategy to reengage your users right after install and during free trial periods to ensure they have a complete and enriching first experience in the app, which will help prevent churn. Doing so will increase the chances of a viewer subscribing and becoming a loyal user of your app.

The OTT ecosystem will continue to grow. As more and more streaming apps enter the market, how are you preparing to make your app as sticky as possible? Prepare now and reap the rewards.