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Acquisition Channel Opportunities: Twitter, App Stores, Ads

Last week I analyzed over 3,400 tech/marketing articles and discovered 3 important news/analyses that can help you get more paying users. Here they are:

1. Need more newsletter subscribers? Twitter has an update for you

One of the best ways to gain subscribers to your newsletter is by publishing awesome content and asking people "Do you want more?"

Here's how it works: You publish something useful and then, somewhere in the middle (or at the end) you say something like: "Enjoying this? Subscribe here for more awesome stuff."

Twitter released a Revue update last week to enable this in your tweets (btw, Twitter acquired Revue at the beginning of this year and integrated it in Twitter's platform).

What's the update about: With this feature, you can embed a "subscribe" button within any tweet. People can see the tweet and subscribe using their Twitter email address.

The opportunity: This can be great if you're creating useful Twitter threads. At the end of the thread, you can now do what many people do at the end of a blog post: Ask people directly to subscribe for more.

2. Have a mobile app? You can now avoid Apple's fees (and pay less fees to Google)

The first update: Apple updated their App Store Guidelines to allow alternative payment methods:

Deleted from 3.1.3. “Developers cannot use information obtained within the app to target individual users outside of the app to use purchasing methods other than in-app purchase (such as sending an individual user an email about other purchasing methods after that individual signs up for an account within the app).”

What this means: You can now contact customers about other payment methods - but not within the app itself. This decision stems from a lawsuit that Apple lost which was brought by ~67,000 developers 2 years ago.

The second update: Google will reduce in-app i.e. "digital subscription" fees from 30% to 15%.

Luckily, Google's announcement wasn't as subtle as Apple's:

To help support the specific needs of developers offering subscriptions, starting on January 1, 2022, we're decreasing the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play from 30% to 15%, starting from day one.

The opportunity: Less fees = more money for growth. If you have an app on Apple's App Store, explore some ways to take advantage of this update. You don't need to do anything for the Google update other than wait two months.

Btw, if you want cool opportunities like these delivered to your inbox every week, feel free to subscribe below:

3. Research: Create efficient, not clever ads

What are 'efficient' ads: Ads that get your point across as fast as possible. Six-second trailer > 30-second linear ad.

The evidence this works: The Internet Advertising Bureau surveyed 20 industry leaders about their ad performance and obtained data from their IAB Research, Tech and Brands labs to strengthen their experiment. The IAB also collaborated with PwC, a multi-billion dollar Big 4 accounting firm, on the report.

The conclusion they reached: Prioritize utility over cleverness. People have "impatience with ads", especially digital videos, that don't deliver value upfront, so you need to get your point across as fast as possible:

Four times as many consumers prefer efficiency in ads (60%) compared to those who value messages that are "fun" or focused on brand image (15%), per the research.

The opportunity: If you lack inspiration for creating efficient ads, take a look at popular short TikTok videos and how they get their point across so quickly. Can you use any of their concepts for your ads as well?

Hope you found this post to be useful!

  1. 3

    Interesting research. I remember the IAB (and similar organizations) were all about "clever, funny ads" in the past. Interesting how they changed their stance. There must have been overwhelming evidence for this.

    1. 2

      I found this IAB report on 'creative best practices' and this concept wasn't mentioned. Seems the IAB is sick of people doing this "fun vs. effective" mistake so they had to say something about it.

  2. 2

    Create efficient, not clever ads.

    Love this.

  3. 2

    Anyone here had any success "avoiding" Apple fees after the change of their TOS?

  4. 2

    The Twitter update is an exciting one. Looking forward to seeing peoples' results with it.

    1. 3

      Already seeing people starting to use them. Here's an example of how it looks in action.

  5. 1

    Keep posting, Darko. Love these type of articles. 😃

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