How to build a campaign for app install lookalikes

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The desired outcome for building a campaign for app install lookalikes is to achieve a significant increase in the number of high-quality app installations by effectively targeting audiences that resemble the profile of successful app installers. This includes:

• Enhanced Audience Reach: Expand the reach of the campaign to include a broader audience that is likely to be interested in the app based on the characteristics and behaviors of the existing successful installers.
• Improved Conversion Rates: Increase the conversion rates of the campaign by focusing on lookalike audiences that have a higher propensity to install the app, thus maximizing the return on investment (ROI) for paid media efforts.

• Optimized Ad Spend: Efficiently allocate the advertising budget by targeting lookalike audiences, reducing wasted spend on less relevant audiences, and ensuring that the campaign delivers a higher cost-efficiency.

Step 1: Add the required Sources:

To begin building your campaign, you'll need to add a new source for both your mobile and server environments in your Segment workspace. These sources will track app events and capture the app installation process, collecting the necessary Track Events and sending them to Segment.

Sign Up or Log In to Segment

First, access the Segment platform by signing up or logging into your existing account.

Create a Source for Your Mobile and Server

A source in Segment acts as the origin of data you collect, such as user interactions on your mobile app.

1. Navigate to the Sources Section

   • In your Segment workspace, go to the Sources section.

2. Add a Mobile Source

   • Click the Add Source button.

   • From the catalog of sources, select React Native.

   • Click Add Source.

   • Provide a name for your source, e.g., "Mobile - dev" or "Mobile - prod".

   • Optionally, add labels for better organization.

   • Click the Create Source button.

3. Add a Server Source

   • Repeat the above steps to add a server source, selecting an appropriate server-side library (e.g., Node.js, Python).

   • Provide a name for your source, e.g., "Server - dev" or "Server - prod".

   • Optionally, add labels for better organization.

   • Click the Create Source button.

Step 2: Install the Segment Library for React Native

1. Install the Library

   • Follow the Segment React Native library installation guide to install the Segment library in your React Native app.

2. Initialize the Segment Library

   • Initialize the Segment library in your React Native app with your write key, which you can find in the Segment dashboard under your newly created mobile source settings.

3. Set Up Tracking in Your App

   • Use the Segment SDK to start tracking events. For example:
     
     

import analytics from '@segment/analytics-react-native';

analytics.track('Application Installed', {

  property: 'value'

});

• Repeat this setup for tracking other relevant events such as 'Application Opened' and 'Install Attributed'.

Once you have added and configured your sources, you can proceed to the next steps to track events, add destinations, and analyze your data to optimize your campaign.

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Step 3: Track your events 

In order to build this campaign, you'll need to track three key events from your mobile and server sources: 'Application Installed’, ‘Application Opened’, and ‘Install Attributed’.

• Application Installed: This event is automatically collected once the Segment code is installed on your mobile application. 

• Application Opened:  This event is automatically collected once the Segment code is installed on your mobile application. 

• Install Attributed:  This event is automatically collected once the Segment code is installed on your mobile application. 

In this example, we're not only tracking events , but also sending additional properties like ‘screen_id’ and ‘referring_application’. These properties provide important context about the event and can be extremely valuable in your analysis. Learn more about properties.

One of the core components of the Segment Spec is the Track method. It records any event that the user has triggered. For Mobile tracking, in addition to Screen calls, you’ll want to send specific event names that Segment recognizes semantically. That way, Segment can transform them correctly before sending them off to downstream destinations.

By standardizing the events that comprise the core mobile application lifecycle and associated mobile campaign and referral events, Segment and its partners can, wherever possible, forward these events on your behalf and build downstream destinations that take full advantage of the semantic meaning associated with these events and their properties.

Step 4: Add Destinations

Choose where you want to send the collected data—for this use case we recommend using in-app messaging or connecting to a paid media destination like Facebook Ads or Google Ads. 

1. In your Segment workspace, add a new destination.

Select your preferred tool from the catalog. This destination will receive the data collected by your source and use it according to your needs.

Step 5: Test your setup

Finally, test your setup to ensure data is being collected and sent correctly. You can do this by performing the actions you're tracking on your dev website and checking if the corresponding events appear in your Segment debugger and analytics tool.
 

The Source Debugger is a tool that helps you confirm that API calls made from your website, mobile app, or servers arrive to your Segment Source, so you can troubleshoot your Segment setup even quicker. 

Your data may not show up instantaneously and there may be a delay, but once the data is flowing you are ready to move to the next step. 

Step 6: Analyze and activate

With accurate setup and data flow:

1. Analyze the data to understand user behavior throughout the app install process.

2. Identify users who look like other users that have installed your app.

3. Create personalized ad campaigns to encourage these users to complete the app installation process. 

4. If you need inspiration, look to this guide with nearly 70 examples of ad templates that are designed to convert.

If you choose to activate this campaign with Facebook Ads, this guide provides an overview of building a lookalike audience.

Final Thoughts 

Successfully targeting lookalike audiences can significantly enhance your engagement campaigns by focusing efforts on users who are more likely to convert based on the behaviors of your existing customers. Utilizing Twilio Segment's CDP to collect, analyze, and activate data ensures that your campaigns are data-driven and optimized for maximum efficiency. This approach not only improves conversion rates but also helps in understanding customer behavior, enabling more personalized and effective marketing strategies in the future.