Just a few days ago, Google released a suite of new features for Android developers. The three key features released are designed to help developers and marketers alike reach a more specific audience of app buyers and users. Here is a quick rundown of the features and how real estate tech app developers can benefit:
1. Tripling the amount of exposure you can get through Google advertising.
Right now, the most typical way for an Android app developer to advertise their app would be to use Google’s built-in “AdMob” system. That network reaches some 650,000 installed apps. This update allows a developer to advertise across the entire Google Display Network that reaches over 2 million publisher websites (especially mobile sites!). This means big things for the mobile-first movement in marketing. Top agents and brokerages understand that having a mobile-optimized site is quickly becoming par for the course. This update makes it much easier for real estate tech apps to be broadcast to those mobile sites, as well as the existing network of installed apps.
2. The ability to play a video inside of in-app ads.
This feature is pretty self-explanatory; it’s simply the ability to replace a screenshot of your app with an actual video describing it in your ads. The results that Google published from their beta users were very promising, with a 40 percent reduction in cost-per-download for some of the test companies. This is a pretty cool update for app marketers, but it’s very specific, and unless your app company lives and dies by installs, this won’t have a huge benefit for you. A great example of how this feature could be leveraged in real estate tech would be an ad for the AgentPair app that pops up and plays a short video describing what it is right away. I think that in real estate tech especially, there seem to be dozens of apps that do the “same thing” (home search), and leveraging a quick video in an ad would be a great way to stand out.
3. A “conversion optimizer” for in-app purchases.
The ugly truth of the mobile app industry is that 80 percent of mobile apps are deleted after they get used just once. At Dizzle, this is something that we combat by focusing on user experience. If you can make your app easy to use and provide some real value to those who download it, your app gets opened more frequently.
The conversion optimizer works on a slightly different principle, helping developers that live on “in-app purchases” get the most bang for their marketing dollar. It measures data from a user’s previous in-app purchases to optimize the automated bidding system for in-app purchases in the future, thus allowing in-app marketers to target high-converting users and make sure they aren’t wasting their marketing efforts on users who aren’t likely to purchase. This feature will play a big part in your marketing strategy if your app is free, and it is all about getting users to pay once they are inside of the app.
The biggest takeaway from these updates by Google is an emphasis on intelligent marketing. Getting your app in front of the right people at the right time and in the right way will make all the difference when you’re trying to get as many downloads as possible. App marketing will continue to evolve as marketers slowly adapt to mobile-heavy consumer behavior.
Real estate is already going mobile, and the future has never been brighter for mobile-first technology.
Kevin Hopp is the vice president of customer success at Dizzle.
