In-App Events 101: The Complete Guide to Driving User Loyalty

ASO Mobile Marketing

Sarai Oppenheimer 27 April 2023

In a world with millions of apps available, users are constantly looking for exciting experiences that offer them something valuable. As the mobile app market continues to grow at a rapid pace, it’s more important than ever for businesses to find ways to differentiate themselves and keep users engaged on their journey. One powerful tool for driving engagement and fostering user loyalty is in-app events. 

This comprehensive guide will explore everything you need to know about in-app events and how to create them effectively to keep your users coming back for more.

What Are In-App Events?

In-app events are timely special activities such as challenges or live events that can last up to 31 days and be promoted on the App Store. In simple terms, they are a way to create a more interactive and engaging experience within your app. 

• By offering users rewards or bonuses for completing certain actions or reaching certain milestones, you can incentivize them to stay engaged with your app for longer periods of time. 

This results in increased user retention and a boost in user acquisition through word-of-mouth promotion.

In-app events can take different forms, ranging from simple actions like logging in daily or sharing the app with friends to more complex tasks that require users to reach certain milestones or complete a specific sequence of actions within the app. What all in-app events have in common is that they provide users with milestones, rewards, goals, or checkpoints that make their app experience more engaging and enjoyable.

Types of In-App Events

Apple advises only promoting exceptional events and activities. The event itself should focus on a related limited-time moment or experience. Remember, you want to create a buzz!

Examples of event types:

• Challenges – Activities encouraging the user to achieve a goal before the event ends (for ex., a fitness challenge in a workout app or beating a certain number of levels in a game).
• Competitions – Activities in which users compete against one another for the highest ranking or to win rewards (for ex., tournaments where players battle to win the most matches).
• Live events – Activities that occur in real-time that all users can experience simultaneously (for ex., a sports match or a live-streamed concert).
• Major updates – Introducing significant new features, content, or experiences (for ex., the launch of new game modes or levels).
• New Season – Introducing new content, storylines, or media libraries (for ex., a new season of a television show or a new battle pass in a game).
• Premiers – First-time availability of content or media (such as newly released movies or audio).
• Special events –  Limited-time events that are not captured by another event badge, possibly spanning multiple activities or experiences (such as an event featuring a collaboration).

Benefits of In-App Events

• Allow targeting different types of audiences: new, existing, or lapsed.
• Increases app visibility & engagement across the app stores
• Allow the use of specific localizations
• Tracks and impact Browse traffic
• Potentially improve keyword rankings 
• Can positively affect long tail, down funnel metrics such as Sales and Sessions
• Allow leveraging marketing awareness by promoting In-App Events using email, advertising, social media, and more to create additional awareness and engagement
• Increase the chances of getting highlighted and featured in the app stores
• Can boost installs
• Event card information (name & short description) is indexable

By using In-App Events, we can analyze & determine: 

• Which events are best for our audience
• Learn where users discover your events
• Analyse user engagement data (impressions, event page views, and the number of opens) 
• Monitor users’ interest by tracking the number of notified users for an event starting

Planning and Creating In-App Events

The success of in-app events lies in their appeal to the natural human desires for progress, achievement, and recognition. Users who complete tasks or meet milestones receive feedback that reinforces their behavior and gives them a sense of accomplishment. This keeps them engaged, loyal and committed to using your app.

Technical Guidelines for Creating In-App Events: 

Here’s what you’ll need to set up an in-app event:

• Event name (30 char.) 
• Short description (50 char.)
• Long description (120 char.)
• Event image
• Video – up to 30 sec. (videos autoplay and repeat, so creating a seamless loop is important)
• Deep link to the app’s content
• Event badge
• Event regional availability
• Event cost/subscription/ in-app purchase

Remember that you can create up to a max of 10 approved events and up to 5 published events. These events can only last up to 31 days, so choose which ones you’d like to promote carefully.

• Effective planning and execution of in-app events can mean the difference between success and failure. 

Steps For Crafting Successful In-App Events:

Identify Your Audience

Consider what motivates your users to engage with your app, what challenges they might face, or what they may find valuable. 

• Use this information to create events that align with their interests, goals, and preferences. By creating events tailored to your user’s needs, you can ensure they’ll be more engaged and incentivized to take part.

Set Clear Goals and Objectives

Before creating any in-app events; it’s important to define your app marketing goals and objectives. What do you hope to achieve through these events? Is it to increase user engagement and retention or to acquire new users? Be specific about your objective to ensure that the event will be valuable and engaging to the user.

Provide Meaningful Rewards

The rewards you’ll be offering users should be aligned with their interests and goals, and they should be provided promptly. A reward can take many forms, including virtual currency, extra features, exclusive content, or even real-world prizes.

• Gamifying your app using rewards can incentivize users to spend more time browsing it and even encourage them to make in-app purchases. 
• For example, if you own a mobile gaming app, you would reward users for logging in daily, playing your game for a certain amount of time, or sharing their achievements with their friends. 

Create a Fun and Engaging Experience

To build a real sense of engagement, your users must find your events both fun and rewarding. Consider the user’s journey from start to finish, including the challenge, reward, and feedback provided. The goal here is to encourage users to come back for more.

Test and Optimize

One of the best ways to ensure the success of your in-app events is to test and iterate them regularly. This feedback loop will enable you to identify any areas of weakness in your events, so check to see how many users are regularly engaging with your in-app events and make necessary improvements based on what they say.

The Do’s and Don’ts

The Do’s

• Consider using a video to demonstrate a more dynamic preview to users
• Use similar colors/illustration styles to create a visual continuity for the event card and details
• Ensure the metadata includes original or licensed content
• Use proper capitalization and punctuation 

The Don’ts

• Make claims that can’t be verified, such as “the best,” “#1”, and more. 
• Include specific prices in the metadata, as pricing and currencies can vary across regions
• Use text/logos as media
• Add borders/gradients to the media. Crops and gradients are automatically applied in the App Store.

Promoting In-App Events

Even the most successful in-app event can underperform if users are not aware that it exists. Promoting your in-app events through various channels, such as push notifications, in-app messaging, and social media, is important to ensure maximum participation. 

• Focus on creating compelling messages and visuals to grab your users’ attention and encourage them to participate.

Luckily, both Apple and Google have recently included features that allow users to discover your in-app events right on the App Store and through promotional content on the Google Play Store.

Analyzing and Improving In-App Events

Analyzing in-app events goes beyond just tracking user behavior – it’s about understanding the journey your users take within the app. Measuring the performance of your in-app events should be done regularly to identify areas for improvement. 

Metrics such as engagement, retention, and conversion should be monitored closely. Based on this data, you can make data-driven decisions on improving future events and engaging users further.

• One way to optimize in-app events is by identifying which events are most crucial to track. Not all events are equal, and tracking too many can lead to overwhelming data and a lack of valuable insights. 
• However, tracking too few can lead to an incomplete picture of user behavior. 
• By understanding your app’s key performance indicators (KPIs), you can identify which events are most important to measure. 

These events should align with your app’s goals and focus on user actions that indicate success, like making a purchase, completing a level, or achieving a certain milestone.

• Another way to improve in-app events is by using data to make data-driven decisions. 
• Tracking in-app events provides developers with valuable data to help them make informed decisions about their app’s design and functionality. 

For example, if users frequently drop off at a particular point in the app, tracking this event can help developers identify why and make the necessary changes to improve user retention. 

By monitoring in-app events, developers can make informed decisions, resulting in a better user experience and a more successful app.

Key Takeaways For Driving User Loyalty Through In-App Events

In conclusion, incorporating in-app events that align with your app’s goals is crucial for driving user engagement and loyalty. Remember to set clear objectives, analyze the success of your events, and continuously make improvements for better user experiences. 

If you need help with developing and implementing an effective mobile marketing strategy, consider hiring a mobile marketing agency. With their expertise, you can take your in-app events to the next level and achieve better results by setting clear goals and objectives, creating events that align with your audience’s interests, promoting them aggressively, analyzing their success, and making continuous improvements.

FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions)

Sarai Oppenheimer

Sarai is an ASO & CRO analyst at Moburst, specializing in optimizing visibility and enhancing performance to increase downloads, conversions, and engagement. When she's not working, you can find her outdoors exploring nature and capturing beautiful memories with her camera.

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