Dive Brief:
- After spending time in beta following this year’s F8 conference, Facebook has now opened push campaigns for all marketers, according to a company blog post.
- Push campaigns as well as in-app notifications are available at no cost and can be tailored to specific segments of a marketer's app users.
- Facebook reported 180% higher retention for apps when users opt-in to push notifications.
Dive Insight:
Facebook continues to build out its app marketing services for brands as its competition with Google expands beyond advertising. Push notifications have become an important tactic for brands with apps, making them a must-have service for Facebook Analytics for Apps, which was originally launched in the spring of 2015.
For marketers with a branded app, push campaigns are an effective way to stay in front of an engaged user who has already opted-in to receiving the messages.
Target’s Cartwheel team is one brand that has already taken advantage of the mobile tactic.
“Push campaigns make it easy to notify our customers about our best deals and deep link into the relevant offers section in our app,” said Sarah Peterson Post, Senior Director at Target, in the post. “This capability can make a huge difference to our team as we approach the important holiday season.”
The in-app notifications are rich media cards that are customizable with photos, emojis, animated GIFs, buttons and other rich media. The Facebook blog post pointed out several ways marketers can take advantage of in-app notifications, including highlighting new app features, providing users with limited-time offers, and retargeting for in-app cart abandonment.
