Black Friday and Cyber Monday drive an enormous spike in exercise for cellular apps and video games. Installs surge, advert spend climbs, and conversion intent is larger than virtually every other second within the 12 months. However the actual query isn’t simply buying customers, it’s holding them.
BFCM customers typically come for a deal or a seasonal supply. And not using a technique to have interaction them afterward, many will churn. Turning this short-term spike into long-term worth requires consideration to retention, engagement, and customized follow-up; and that is the place retargeting efforts turn out to be useful.
Why the Publish-BFCM Window Deserves Its Personal Technique
Most apps give attention to acquisition throughout BFCM, which is sensible. However focusing solely on installs means lacking the larger alternative: changing vacation customers into long-term loyal customers.
Knowledge exhibits that customers acquired throughout peak BFCM weeks can have as much as 18% decrease weekly retention by week 3 in comparison with pre-holiday customers. One other evaluation discovered that BFCM customers have a ~30% decrease repeat fee over six months than non-holiday customers.
Massive volumes of recent installs can pressure onboarding and engagement flows, whereas customers anticipate follow-up; content material, rewards, or reminders. Retargeting post-BFCM is usually extra environment friendly, permitting apps to succeed in new customers with customized messages that information them from a one-time deal to ongoing engagement. CPMs typically normalize after the occasion, making these campaigns much more cost-effective.
Briefly, BFCM customers aren’t typical installs. A targeted post-event technique that emphasizes segmentation, follow-up, and retargeting is essential to turning the vacation spike into lasting progress.
1. Understanding the Psychology of the Vacation Person
BFCM customers are sometimes transactional fairly than relational. They downloaded your app or sport due to a deal, low cost, or reward; not due to prior loyalty.
The problem: As soon as the low cost ends, customers should understand worth within the app itself. If post-BFCM messaging focuses solely on reductions, you prepare customers to attend for the following sale. The speedy purpose after the vacation weekend is to shift the person’s focus from value to worth.
A profitable retention technique strikes customers by way of three phases:
- The Transaction Section (BFCM): Customers convert on account of a deal.
- The Onboarding Section (Week 1–2): Customers learn to use the app or play the sport successfully.
- The Behavior Section (Month 1+): Customers combine the app into day by day or weekly routines.
2. Prioritize Behavioral Segmentation
Treating your BFCM cohort as a single group is inefficient. Section customers primarily based on actions throughout the vacation window to ship related messaging that addresses their relationship along with your app.
4 core segments:
- Installer (Zero Conversions): Downloaded however didn’t buy or register. Excessive intent, however friction prevented activation.
- One-Time Purchaser: Bought a single deal; at excessive threat of churn.
- Whale / Energy Person: Excessive spenders or heavy engagers; want recognition and exclusivity, not reductions.
- Window Shopper: Browsed a number of objects or ranges however didn’t commit; price-sensitive and want reassurance of worth.
Actionable tip: Tag customers instantly so your DSP retargeting campaigns can ship customized adverts to the precise person on the proper time.
3. Retarget Customers to Flip Patrons into Loyal, Engaged Customers
Customers acquired throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday typically convert due to a deal, not loyalty. Many haven’t absolutely explored your app or sport, and with out follow-up, they could churn shortly as soon as the promotion ends.
Retargeting helps transfer these customers from one-time consumers to engaged, returning customers. Programmatic retargeting platforms can ship customized, behavior-driven adverts at scale, making it simpler to focus on underused options, encourage extra purchases, and reinforce the app’s worth past the preliminary transaction.
- Spotlight key options: Many customers don’t instantly perceive the total advantages of the product. Focused campaigns can present them what issues most.
- Encourage repeat purchases with out reductions: Information customers towards complementary content material or upgrades that make the preliminary buy extra useful.
- Improve engagement and retention: Retargeting permits exact viewers choice and frequency management, holding customers lively, lowering early churn, and boosting lifetime worth.
Platforms like AppSamurai DSP can simplify this course of by serving to entrepreneurs attain the precise customers with related, well timed content material; with out overloading them.
Briefly, retargeting is not only about driving a second sale, it’s about reworking deal-driven customers into loyal, ordinary customers.
4. Leveraging Owned Channels (Push & E-mail)
Owned channels defend margins and complement DSP retargeting.
Finest practices:
- Personalization over frequency: Set off messages primarily based on conduct, not a generic schedule.
- Dangerous: “Verify our new arrivals!” e-mail to all customers.
- Good: “The jacket you seen is again in inventory” e-mail to customers who browsed that merchandise.
- Present-focused messaging: Body engagement as rewards fairly than gross sales.
- Instance: “Thanks for becoming a member of Cyber Week, right here’s a 24-hour XP enhance.”
- Gamified progress indicators: Present incomplete duties (e.g., profile setup at 50%) to encourage completion.
5. The “Q5” Alternative: Late December → January
Between late December and mid-January (Q5), advert prices drop as main retailers pull again, whereas client engagement stays excessive.
Technique: Solidify BFCM customers with contextual, goal-oriented messaging:
- Well being apps: “Begin your 2025 streak at this time.”
- Finance apps: “Prep your funds for January.”
- Video games: “New season begins now — get forward on the leaderboard.”
DSP campaigns can retarget BFCM customers with dynamic, behavior-driven creatives aligned with these targets, growing relevance and response charges.
6. Measuring Success: KPIs for Publish-BFCM Customers
Retention is the actual measure of post-BFCM efficiency. Give attention to cohort-specific KPIs fairly than acquisition metrics:
Retention Metrics
- D7 and D30 Retention: Evaluate BFCM cohorts to pre-holiday or non-seasonal customers. A drop in D7 alerts onboarding points, whereas a low D30 signifies that early engagement didn’t translate into ordinary use.
- Churn Fee by Section: Monitor every behavioral section individually. For instance, “One-Time Patrons” typically have the very best early churn; DSP retargeting and owned-channel nudges can cut back this.
Income Metrics
- Time to Second Buy: Measure how lengthy it takes “One-Time Patrons” to make one other buy. Optimize retargeting timing to encourage cross-sells with out cannibalizing income.
- LTV / CAC Ratio: Consider profitability over 90 days. Even when CAC is low throughout BFCM, low LTV signifies a necessity for engagement campaigns or product enhancements.
- Incremental ROAS for Retargeting Campaigns: Evaluate DSP-driven retargeting versus non-retargeted customers to quantify ROI.
Longer-Time period Indicators
- Repeat Buy / Subscription Charges: What number of BFCM customers proceed spending or subscribe post-event?
- Behavioral Elevate from DSP Retargeting: Measure how a lot retargeting elevated engagement or purchases for every section.
Ultimate Ideas
BFCM drives spectacular spikes in installs and conversions, however with no deliberate post-holiday technique, these numbers typically quantity to little greater than self-importance metrics. True ROI emerges weeks later, as you see which customers stay lively, engaged, and delivering actual worth.
To transform momentary vacation visitors into loyal, high-value customers, give attention to understanding your viewers by way of behavioral segmentation, guiding them with academic and customized DSP retargeting campaigns. Again each effort with data-driven measurement to trace retention, function adoption, and long-term worth.
The acquisition window could shut with the final BFCM flash sale, however the retention alternative is simply starting.
