It makes no sense to do something manually if it can be automated. Especially if the end result will be the same, or automation can make it even better.
For these reasons, automation has become an integral part of modern user acquisition (UA) and mobile marketing. Many say that automation is the future of UA and that it will change a lot for mobile marketers.
Inevitably, this brings up some questions. For example: Does this mean that automation tools will replace UA managers? Are their jobs in danger? Which UA actions can be automated?
In this article, we’ll answer all of these questions and more.
Just a heads-up – UA managers don’t have to fear for their jobs.
What is UA automation?
Before getting into details, let’s explain what UA automation is all about.
User acquisition automation allows UA managers to perform repetitive work at scale by using automation technology. The basic purpose of automation technology in UA is to minimize the time marketers spend on manual, time-consuming tasks.
As an ultimate result, UA automation should simplify performance marketing efforts and make UA teams more efficient.
Even while the team members aren’t sitting at their desks and staring at numbers!
Which UA actions can be automated?
A typical UA manager’s job description says that this job includes planning, optimizing, and analyzing UA campaigns across different marketing channels. This is true, this job is as complex as it sounds.
The good news is – automation can make it much easier.
Automation can help UA managers with plenty of tasks that come as a part of their job description. Some of these tasks can be 100% automated, while others can be automated, but only partially.
Here’s a list of UA actions that can be completely automated:
- Growth and revenue reporting and forecasting
- Creating and optimizing LTV models for long term ROAS
- Campaign performance analysis
- Bid & budget optimization
- Creative analysis and monitoring
- Event analysis and optimization
The actions that can be partially automated include:
- Funnel analytics
- A/B testing for App Store Optimization
- Campaign ideation
- Campaign experimentation (testing audiences, GEOs, and creatives)
As can be seen, UA automation can be beneficial for tasks from a lot of different categories.
To be fair, it is the least helpful for the strategic part of the job. No automation tool can replace the good old human input behind a marketing strategy.
However, automation can assist with almost all analytical and data science tasks a UA team needs to deal with.
How UA automation helps with LTV optimization
One of the most impressive things automation can do for UA is to optimize toward the desired lifetime value.
To make this happen, automation tools use algorithmic LTV and market models to optimize campaigns for predicted long-term ROAS.
These sophisticated algorithms understand how different metrics (CPI, CPM, etc.) and their relationships affect campaign performance. Based on all this, these models can forecast the future ROAS for a specific campaign and act upon it.
How UA automation helps with bid adjustment
Sure, the concept of bid automation is nothing new and spectacular.
Some ad networks have the capability to automatically adjust campaign bids. However, these features can help UA managers on that particular ad network only.
On the other hand, third-party automation tools make bid adjustments across all the ad networks the advertiser is using, big or small.
If done correctly, bidding automation should increase conversions and keep the UA process cost-effective.
How UA automation helps with creative optimization
Right now, automation tools can help with creative monitoring and analysis. They help with A/B testing ad creatives, picking out the best ones, and removing those that don’t perform well.
In the future, it is expected automation tools will be much more useful for this part of the job.
Specifically, it is expected they will be able to analyze how different aspects of a creative influence its performance. For example, background color or a CTA in a video ad. Not only that, but they should be able to make recommendations on what to include for the best results.
How UA automation helps with A/B testing
While A/B testing is not on the list of things that can be fully automated, it is still important to clarify how automation can improve testing.
It’s actually pretty straightforward – automation makes it easier for marketers to manage their numerous campaigns. As a result, A/B testing also becomes simpler and less time-consuming.
The main role of automation in A/B testing lies in segmenting users into groups.
For example, if a UA manager wants to A/B test two video ad creatives, these tools will automatically create cohorts that will be used for these tests. This allows marketers to find out how different groups of users react to their creatives.
Implementing user acquisition Automation
Impressed by how many UA tasks can be automated?
A lot of people share the same reaction upon finding this out.
Now, let’s cover the question that usually comes along – how to start with UA automation?
Option 1: Going from broad to granular
Before implementing UA automation, it is essential to identify everyday repetitive tasks that are critical to the business but can be performed by artificial intelligence. In other words, each part of the UA funnel in which the human input isn’t highly valuable should be automated.
The next step in implementing UA automation is deciding which UA aspects should be prioritized for automation.
Every app has different priorities. These priorities largely depend on the app’s growth and marketing goals. Either way, it is recommended to start broad and go more granular over time.
For instance, some of the basic, broadest automation features include setting up system alarms and cross-channel budget distribution.
After the starter moves, it's time for some fine-tuning. This usually means a higher financial investment as well. For example, investing in automated traffic and source analysis. This is extremely important for campaign performance because it involves ongoing, detailed data analyses.
Option 2: Choosing a versatile tool
Not every UA team needs to go through this much thought on how to start with automation.
Versatile automation tools like the one from Tempr. allow marketers to quickly set up their UA automation process. With tools like this, marketers can rapidly create their own rules based on the goals they want to achieve. For example, based on the KPIs they select.
From that moment on, the tool will recommend the best actions to reach these goals. For instance, bid, budget, and creative optimizations to reach the lowest CPI or highest ROAS.
Benefits of UA automation
Even though machines will never be able to think as tactically and creatively as humans, they do some things better and faster than us.
Considering that, our list of benefits that UA automation brings to the table is quite lengthy.
Here are just some of the main advantages of automating user acquisition.
Saving time
This one is quite obvious, we know.
Perhaps the best way to understand how much time UA automation really saves is to put it into numbers.
Algolift’s research has shown that automation can save up to 500 hours per month for a UA team of five full-time workers. This calculation is based on the list of tasks that can be automated, to which level they can be automated, and how much time is spent on them each month.
A lot of marketers aren’t even aware of how much time they spend on repetitive tasks that can be automated. It’s only once they start using an automation tool that they come to this realization.
More time to focus on the important
With some extra time on their hands, UA team members can focus on some other parts of their jobs. These are the tasks in which machines can’t compete with humans.
Here are just some of them:
- Strategy brainstorming
- Campaign ideation and implementation
- Media Planning
- Exploring new markets
- Creative experimenting
- Education (researching new UA trends, best practices, etc.)
- Troubleshooting
- Building relationships
It is crucial that UA team members have enough time to focus on these tasks.
Why?
Here’s an example to gain a better understanding.
A game publisher wants to choose between two UA companies. Therefore, they give them identical budgets and creatives to see who will do a better job.
It’s the human factor that will make a major difference here. For instance, choosing a better campaign strategy, the ability to pick out winning markets, etc.
Fewer risks related to manual processes
People make mistakes. We’re all aware of it and there is nothing shameful about that.
The problem is, when it comes to user acquisition, these mistakes can be very costly. UA managers are usually trusted with big advertising budgets. In just one moment of negligence, they can make errors that can drain these budgets.
It doesn’t even have to be a mistake. Since UA managers are humans only, they need some well-deserved rest. It is it’s impossible for them to monitor campaigns 24/7. Since a lot can happen while they are not working, it’s good to have machines on the lookout.
UA automation tools simply don’t make such mistakes. They run on sophisticated algorithms and strict rules that greatly reduce the risks of losing money by mistake.
More efficient scaling
When marketing budgets increase, this traditionally results in an increased workload for UA managers. The bigger the ad spend, the more time needs to be spent on analyzing and optimizing campaigns.
To be able to keep up with bigger budgets, companies tend to hire new people. Or even make UA managers work overtime.
None of this is necessary.
Automation helps effectively scale campaigns regardless of the size of the ad budgets that are involved. There is no need to increase the time or resources spent on repetitive campaign management tasks.
Improved conversion rates
As we mentioned before, one of the most important aspects of UA automation is bidding automation.
Automation tools usually adjust bids based on conversions and CPA (cost per action). This is done to achieve the highest number of conversions at the lowest possible price.
Managing multiple ad networks from one place
It is generally recommended to advertise apps on multiple channels. After all, users on different ad networks have different preferences.
The only way to find out what those preferences are and how much each channel pays off is to place ads on them.
Again, this can be a lot of work for UA managers. Without automation, they would need to switch from dashboard to dashboard, and manually make optimizations on all of them. This can be overwhelming. It can result in a loss of focus and consequently – mistakes.
With an automation tool, it is possible to access data from different ad networks from a single interface. Moreover, the optimizations can usually be done in just a couple of clicks.
These few clicks can make hundreds of modifications at once, and save marketers a ton of time.
Increased ROAS
Every marketer dreams of a better ROAS for their campaigns. Good news – this is another thing a quality UA automation tool can help them achieve.
According to Algolift, using automation for optimizing more than $100 million of ad spend can boost predicted ROAS by 45% during five months.
Automation: The present and future of UA
Many times, it’s been said that automation is the future of UA. While this is true, this doesn’t mean marketers should wait for the distant future to invest in an automation tool.
Technology has already advanced so far that there are some really impressive automation tools on the market. However, since there are a lot of them, it can be challenging to pick out the right one.
When choosing a tool to work with, marketers should make sure it:
- combines data streams from different sources
- minimizes the risk of human errors due to real-time optimization
- brings good value for money
Bid and Budget automation on the campaign level is applied by Tempr.’s platform in a few clicks. [Source: Tempr. Platform]
It’s time to automate
If you’re impressed by everything UA automation brings to the table, you’re probably going to look for a great tool.
How does this sound to you?
Tempr.’s automation tool allows you to automate changes of your bid, budget, and pause any creative across all channels – all from a single dashboard.
To find out more on UA automation and other essential user acquisition tools, check out our product or reach out to us!
