With more people than ever turning to the ease of e-commerce, shopping apps are seeing massive growth. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) predicts the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to $200 billion by 2026, up from $38.5 billion in 2017 - and mobile commerce apps that want to win this game need to be ready to fend off fierce competition and make the most of every customer.

 As consumer spend increases and users become more likely to use apps to shop, there’s never been a better time to invest in paid advertising. Marketers should not only constantly fill the funnel with new users, but keep their existing users engaged too.

 Why retargeting matters

Mobile retargeting is the key to keeping your best, most valuable customers interested and retained. By showing acquired users targeted ads, marketers can re-engage and bring them back to the app after they’ve bounced or entice them with specific incentives and offers.

 This is especially relevant given the current circumstances. Although the app economy has been largely resilient in the face of COVID-19, e-commerce apps fared poorly by comparison. As reported in Adjust’s recently released App Trends report, e-commerce app installs trended down 12% week-on-week through March 2020 as companies pulled advertising, with a decrease in paid installs of 35% from March to April.

 But companies have already stepped up their game by focusing on re-engaging users. Comparing the last week of March to the last week of April, users returning to their favoured e-commerce platforms have increased by 43%, thanks to a combination of paid campaigning and users finally ready to purchase again.

Which KPIs are most important for retargeting campaigns?

As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to understand your goals and how you’ll measure success before setting out to retarget users. Common KPIs for retargeting campaigns focus on revenue and profit, such as cost per order and cost per sale. When developing your retargeting KPIs, you should be asking yourself questions like these:

●     How much did a user spend when they came back into the app?

●     Did the user just buy one particular product or did they buy multiple products?

●     What was the overall cart or basket value?

With all of this information, you’re able to put together a much better profile of high-value versus low-value users. Return on ad spend, or ROAS, is another key retargeting KPI. How much are you spending versus how much are you profiting as a marketer? Re-engagement KPIs tend to focus less on immediate sales and more on lifetime value, which incorporates not only revenue but churn rate as well.

The key to delivering on your KPIs and delivering impactful retargeting is knowing and effectively segmenting your audience. It can be challenging to gather all the necessary data required for partners to carry out retargeting campaigns, but the right tools can help. For instance, tools such as Adjust’s Audience Builder can define audiences using your data and act immediately upon them.

 When you get the details right, retargeting is an engine for growth that builds loyal users and helps marketers make better use of their budgets. It’s a strategy that has gone underutilized for far too long and savvy marketers will master the art to set themselves apart from the competition.