How France’s antitrust ruling could give a boost to app retargeting

Jenny Lin is the Director of Business Development EMEA at Mintegral.

Retargeting, a powerful instrument in the app marketers toolkit, is emerging as an increasingly valuable strategy for game advertisers. 

With fewer new titles launching, game developers turn to retargeting as a way of retaining users’ loyalty to popular, evergreen games.

Since the introduction of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework in 2021, however, retargeting’s effectiveness has been dramatically reduced, as retargeting ads can only reach those iOS users who agree to track across other apps and websites. 

However, that could be set to change following a ruling by the French regulator against Apple. On 31 March, the French Competition Authority fined Apple €150m for abusing its dominant position in mobile app advertising through its use of the ATT framework.

Though the regulator did not specify what Apple needs to do in order to comply with its rules, Apple may end up changing how ATT works. Further investigations into ATT are also being undertaken by regulators in Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania. 

These regulatory actions signal a potential shift in the mobile advertising landscape which could revitalise retargeting strategies for advertisers looking to reach Apple users.

This is particularly significant when you consider that iOS users tend to be more sought-after than their Android equivalents, with studies suggesting that they earn more and spend more time engaging with apps than Android users. 

The opportunity for advertisers

While the dust settles on the French regulator’s actions, smart advertisers should prepare. What do you need to do to be ready to take advantage of the situation?

Strengthen first-party data collection

If tracking is permitted once more, advertisers should focus on growing first-party data collection strategies.

Collecting user data directly through app sign-ups, in-app behaviour, and user interactions will provide insights for better targeting without breaching current privacy regulations.

Consider cross-promotion

Multi-title game publishers might be in for a boon, with the possibility of cross-marketing titles between each different game.

This means that they can target players of their games with ads for other games that the user has not yet downloaded. It costs far less to retain an existing customer than it does to acquire a new one and even less to get an install of a similar game.

If a gamer is already loyal to one or more games in your portfolio, they should be receptive to the idea of downloading others. 

Create more granular segmentation of audiences

Users respond best to advertising that speaks to them as an individual, rather than just one of a crowd.

The key to personalising messaging is to create smaller segments of your game’s user base, segmenting based on the type of game they play, the amount of money they spend on in-app purchases, or the amount of time they spend engaging with the game.

Segmenting your audience in this way will help you identify the higher-value cohorts so you can focus your attention and your marketing dollars on them.

Get ready for increased competition

If retargeting on iOS returns in full force, there will be a clamour to start targeting Apple users with retargeting ads. To stay ahead of the competition, put even more focus on advanced marketing and creative strategies that will help you stand out from the crowd.

For example, start frequency capping and work on optimising the timing of your ads to ensure you only run campaigns at the best times possible. Another tip is to internally benchmark your lowest CTR. Once your ads reach it (which they likely will over time), end the campaign and refresh your creative.

When it comes to creative generation, AI now enables far greater experimentation, iteration, and the ability to scale once you find that winning formula. You can take creatives a step further with dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) alongside behavioural targeting. This gives you the ability to present more personalised creatives for different user scenarios. 

Just be ready to make many iterations of interactive ads that target a specific group of users, offers, or promotions of a game.

Look at ways to increase customer loyalty and diversify your game’s revenue stream. To increase loyalty, consider offering incentives to keep users playing, such as bonuses when they clock up a certain amount of time in the game.

On the revenue front, consider offering in-app purchases such as power-ups, boosters, virtual currencies, avatar accessories, and premium features such as access to exclusive levels of the game, or an ad-free experience.

You could also make these premium features available exclusively to users who pay a recurring subscription for access to them.

Tread carefully

Navigating this evolving landscape of privacy regulations continues to be a challenge for many marketers. This development may complicate the issue further, given that it has been taken by a single European country instead of by the European Union as a whole.

Though this might lead to a step change in Europe, ATT could still apply in its present form across global markets out of step with European standards.

Prepare to succeed

The exact fallout of the French regulator’s ruling against Apple is not yet known, but a canny app marketer will want to prepare now. If retargeting on iOS devices becomes a viable option, you should be ready to act quickly and gain a first-mover advantage.