90% of Americans and 80% of the global population own a smartphone. In the United States, that’s slightly more than those who graduate high school or have a driver’s license, emphasizing that smartphones have transcended luxury status to become a necessity of life; a tool for managing both professional and personal responsibilities. In this article, we’ll explore how your brand can utilize this ubiquity of mobile phone usage in partnership marketing.
Mobile Partnership Marketing 101
How smart brands capitalize on smartphone usage
Mobile partnerships are a powerful approach to marketing in which brands collaborate to leverage each other’s strengths and reach a broader audience via mobile platforms. By tapping into the universality of smartphone usage, smart marketers can create campaigns that boost visibility, enhance customer engagement, and drive revenue growth.
Table of Contents
- What is mobile partnership marketing?
- What are the benefits of mobile partnership marketing?
- Why do brands partner with mobile affiliates?
- Why is mobile partnership marketing so effective?
- Tips and strategies for mobile partnership marketing success
- What does a partnership marketing agency do?
- How AP enhances mobile partnership marketing
Usage Beyond Basic Communication
It’s not just their usefulness as a means of communication that has made smartphone adoption so widespread. If it were just the texting and calling functions that people were utilizing, then the average user wouldn’t have 20 or so different apps downloaded on the device. Nor would they be spending 3-5 hours per day looking at them, checking for notifications 144 times throughout the day, and eating up 59% of all internet usage, regardless of how popular they are.
The truth is, calling a smartphone a “phone” in the context of what they can do and how people use them would be like calling your laptop your “email machine.” A precise and comprehensive breakdown of usage statistics, habits, and screen time allocation need not delay us much longer here, but suffice it say that people are using their smartphones to do more than simply FaceTime family members. They play a pivotal role in how we entertain ourselves and – most importantly for us – make purchasing decisions.
Smartphone’s Growing Role in Commerce
More than 75% of people who own a smartphone have used it to buy something. Between 2021 and 2024, the amount spent annually on mobile online shopping (m-commerce) jumped from $360 billion to over $500 billion. This already staggering figure is projected to hit $710 billion by 2025.
That’s big business.Top of FormBottom of Form And savvy brands have long since recognized the wealth of opportunity that lies in the pockets of nearly every person on the planet. An entire industry has emerged in finding new, creative, and effective ways to market to people on their mobile devices and influence their purchasing behavior and get a piece of that $600-ish billion.
Enter Mobile Partnership Marketing
Among these strategies, mobile partnership marketing has emerged as a signally dynamic and direct avenue for brands to reach on-the-go consumers and tap into the vast potential of marketing on smartphones. By leveraging strategic partnerships and collaborations via mobile platforms, brands can create personalized, engaging, and contextually relevant experiences that resonate deeply with consumers.
In this guide, we’ll explore the essentials of mobile partnership marketing, offering insights and strategies that can help brands capitalize on the immense potential of smartphone interactions. We’ll explain why these partnerships are a critical component in any modern marketing mix, and how they help businesses harness the full power of the one device that never leaves their target audience’s side.
What is Mobile Partnership Marketing?
Mobile partnership marketing is a digital strategy that brings together a brand and a partner to bolster marketing efforts on mobile platforms. This collaborative approach enables businesses to leverage their partners’ strengths and audiences to enhance engagement, reach, and conversions, primarily using mobile as the main channel.
At its core, this strategy involves multiple parties collaborating to create campaigns that tap into the mobile usage habits of their target demographics. These partnerships can vary widely and often include collaborations between brands and mobile apps, content creators, or other online platforms.
Types of Mobile Partnerships
Affiliate partnerships: These include partnerships between a brand and a mobile influencers or content creators who promote products through channels such as social media apps, earning a commission for each sale or conversion they drive.
Content partnerships: Here, brands might collaborate with mobile platforms or another business to create and share content that is mutually beneficial. For instance, a fitness app might partner with a health food brand to offer exclusive content to users of both platforms.
Technology partnerships: These occur when companies come together to integrate or merge their technological assets. An example might be an online shopping app like Amazon, Etsy, Temu, or eBay that integrates with various mobile payment services to streamline the purchasing process. Touch Tunes and PayPal is another clear albeit niche illustration of this.
What are the benefits of mobile partnership marketing?
Extended Reach: By partnering with other mobile-oriented brands or influencers, companies can access new audiences that were previously beyond their individual reach.
Enhanced Credibility: Collaborating with established mobile brands or popular mobile influencers can lend credibility and trust to your offerings.
Cost-Effectiveness: Sharing resources and marketing budgets makes mobile partnership marketing a cost-effective strategy for many companies, especially startups and smaller brands.
Innovation: Partnerships often lead to innovative marketing strategies as different teams bring unique ideas and perspectives to the table.
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Why do brands partner with mobile affiliates?
Businesses are increasingly turning to mobile affiliates to supplement their marketing efforts. This move is driven by several key benefits and outcomes that directly impact their reach, customer engagement, and overall sales metrics. These include:
Increase downloads or traffic to their app and website
One of the primary reasons brands partner with mobile affiliates is to boost the number of downloads for their mobile apps and visitors to their websites. In short, mobile affiliates have the proven tools and established audience to effectively promote and grow apps and websites. By leveraging this engaged network or followers and the affiliate’s influence with them, brands can reach more users quickly and efficiently. This is especially crucial in markets that are highly saturated or competitive, where getting noticed on SERPs or social media feeds without substantial promotional effort can be challenging.
Enabling convenient shopping experiences
Modern consumers demand convenience. They’ve been conditioned to shop whenever and wherever they want. Mobile affiliates help brands meet this demand by creating more touchpoints for consumers in a variety of mobile-first environments. Whether it’s through an engaging social media post or a well-placed advertisement within an app, mobile affiliates make shopping opportunities seamless and immediate. This convenience is a significant draw for consumers who value efficiency and flexibility.
Flexibility in compensation and collaboration
Flexibility is another significant advantage of working with mobile affiliates. Brands can choose from several compensation models to suit their marketing budgets and goals. For instance, a cost-per-install (CPI) model is popular for apps, where affiliates are paid a fixed amount for each installation. Alternatively, brands might opt for linked payments, where compensation is tied to specific actions taken by the user. These conversions can include filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase.
Additionally, this flexibility can extend to the nature of the campaign itself. Mobile affiliates are typically adept at tailoring their strategies to the needs of the brand with whom they’ve partnered, whether that means targeting specific demographics, utilizing particular platforms, or focusing on certain geographical areas. This customization ensures that marketing efforts are not only wide reaching but can also be highly targeted when needed to maximize ROI.
Why is mobile partnership marketing so effective?
Ultimately, mobile partnership marketing is able to have such a profound impact for businesses because it meets consumers on the devices, they use the most.
With the average person checking their phone as much as 100 times a day, mobile strategies have unmatched potential when it comes to yielding high engagement rates, especially when they are personalized and contextually relevant.
Additionally, mobile devices provide a unique opportunity to connect with users in real-time, making this medium indispensable for timely and compelling marketing communications
Tips and strategies for mobile partnership marketing success
Launching a new program: Launching a mobile partnership marketing program requires clear objectives, understanding the mobile landscape, and selecting the right partners who can deliver content that appeals to mobile users. It involves setting up tracking systems, defining success metrics, and ensuring all promotional materials are mobile-optimized.
Creating engaging mobile content: The content for mobile must be concise, visually appealing, and easy to interact with on small screens. Video content, interactive ads, and personalized offers tend to perform well, capturing attention and encouraging user interaction.
Utilizing mobile user data for better targeting and personalization: Mobile devices offer a wealth of data about user behavior, location, and preferences. Effective mobile partnership marketing harnesses this data to tailor campaigns that are not only relevant but also highly personalized, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Fitting mobile into your larger partnership marketing strategy: Mobile should not stand alone but fit seamlessly into the broader partnership marketing strategy. It should complement other channels and initiatives, providing a cohesive user experience that bridges online and offline touchpoints.
Measuring and analyzing mobile partnership marketing performance: To understand the impact of mobile campaigns, brands need to measure a variety of KPIs, such as engagement rates and conversion rates. Finding the right tools and platforms that offer real-time analytics will help brands adjust their strategies on the fly to improve outcomes.
On a related note…
Selecting relevant goals (KPIs) to measure mobile campaign success: Key performance indicators for mobile campaigns might include app downloads, user engagement metrics, lead generation, and sales conversion rates. These metrics help brands evaluate the effectiveness of their mobile strategies and optimize future campaigns.
Mobile partnership budget allocation and measurement: Allocating budget for mobile partnership marketing involves forecasting potential returns and distributing resources across various mobile channels. Measurement, then, involves assessing how well these investments meet expected outcomes, adjusting allocation as needed to reflect these results.
Accurately assessing mobile partnership campaign impact: As the program grows and data becomes available, brands must take the time to analyze and understand the full impact of mobile campaigns. Agencies like ours can help with this, but it requires stakeholders to take a comprehensive view of user interactions across all channels. Attribution models that track the user’s journey from the first touchpoint to conversion are critical in assessing the true value of mobile partnership marketing.
What does a partnership marketing agency do?
Capitalizing on the full potential of a mobile partnership marketing program requires expert guidance and strategic execution. This is where partnership marketing agencies come into play.
A partnership marketing agency specializes in facilitating and managing collaborations between businesses aiming to enhance their marketing efforts. These agencies play a pivotal role in:
Facilitating collaborations and overseeing campaigns: Agencies manage all aspects of partnership campaigns, from initiation to execution. This includes selecting the right platforms and tools, crafting campaign messages, and ensuring that the partnerships align with the brand’s overall marketing strategy. By expertly handling these campaigns, agencies help drive conversions and revenue.
Identifying ideal mobile partnerships: Finding the right partners is essential but can be complex. Agencies have the expertise and resources to identify potential partners who align with a brand’s values, audience, and marketing goals. This strategic alignment is crucial for the success of mobile partnership marketing.
How Acceleration Partners enhances mobile partnership marketing
A partnership marketing agency, like Acceleration Partners, specializes in creating productive and profitable relationships between brands and their partners. We facilitate collaborations that amplify brand recognition, bolster reputations, and drive sales. Our team handles everything from partner selection and relationship management to campaign planning and performance analysis, all to ensure that each partnership aligns with the brand’s goals and resonates with mobile consumers. Here’s how:
Comprehensive campaign management: AP assists brands in launching, tracking, assessing, and optimizing their mobile partnership marketing endeavors. We ensure that every aspect of the campaign is tuned to meet the predefined goals and adjust strategies in real-time based on performance analytics.
Implementing payment models: Understanding and setting up the best payment models for mobile campaigns is critical for budget control and profitability. AP helps clients set up various payment models such as pay-per-install, pay-per-click, or linked payment models, which are crucial for tracking the efficiency and effectiveness of the partnership.
Providing tools and insights: Partnering with our agency gives brands access to advanced tools and detailed insights into mobile partnership marketing. These tools help in crafting strategies that are not only effective but also scalable and informed by data. Our insights help brands gain an understanding of market trends, consumer behavior, and the competitive landscape, which are essential for refining strategies.
Real case studies illustrating successful mobile partnership marketing
Acceleration Partners has consistently delivered outstanding results through innovative mobile partnership marketing strategies. Below, we explore three case studies that showcase AP’s strategic expertise in driving significant client success across different industries.
Case Study 1: Millennial-Focused Rewards App
Overview: A rewards app aimed at millennials partnered with AP to boost its membership base. The primary goal was to increase app downloads and user engagement through strategic affiliate marketing.
Results:
- Membership growth: The campaign successfully grew the app’s membership by an impressive 1,430% within just six months.
- Conversion success: There was a 10% increase over the initial conversion goal, indicating that not only were more users downloading the app, but they were also engaging with it at higher rates than anticipated.
- Cost efficiency: The cost per acquisition (CPA) exceeded the set goal by 17%, demonstrating the campaign’s efficiency in acquiring new members at a cost lower than planned.
Read more about this case study here.
Case Study 2: FinTech App
Overview: A FinTech app looking to expand its user base engaged AP for a unique campaign involving a Facebook Live event. This collaboration was designed to increase app downloads and credit card linkages.
Results:
- New user acquisition: The event helped the app gain 388 new users who linked their credit cards to the app.
- Engagement incentives: During the event, 10,000 winners received 100,000 points total, enhancing user engagement with the app.
- Referral boost: New users were enticed to join via an invite code, which awarded them 5,000 points, encouraging further app adoption and use.
Explore more about this partnership here.
Case Study 3: F.Hinds, a British Jewelry Retailer
Overview: F.Hinds, a well-established British jewelry retailer, collaborated with AP to increase its sales and maximize the efficiency of its marketing spend through the Airtime Rewards program.
Results:
- Revenue growth: The campaign led to a 198% increase in total program revenue, significantly boosting the retailer’s profitability.
- In-Store engagement: A notable 90% of transactions from the Card-Linked Offers (CLO) partner occurred as in-store purchases, enhancing offline engagement.
- Return on ad spend: The return on ad spend (ROAS) was 140% of the initial goal, demonstrating the financial effectiveness of the campaign.
Learn more about this successful collaboration here.
You can’t ignore mobile partnership marketing. AP can help.
In today’s ever evolving digital world, the significance of mobile in partnership marketing cannot be overstated. With consumers increasingly turning to their smartphones for shopping, information, and entertainment, businesses are finding that a substantial portion of their revenue now hinges upon mobile engagement.
Our phones are now permanently ingrained in our everyday lives. For marketers, this mobile-centric landscape means there is a pressing need to optimize all campaigns, websites, and content for mobile devices. Ensuring that these elements are mobile-friendly can dramatically improve user experience, engagement, and ultimately, conversion rates.
Tapping into this lucrative approach to partnership marketing effectively requires expert management and strategic finesse. Acceleration Partners can guide brands in this endeavor, managing programs effectively and positioning brands to excel.
The right strategy can transform casual mobile users into loyal customers. This transformation is driven by targeted and personalized marketing efforts that resonate with the mobile consumer’s preferences and behaviors. With extensive experience, a broad perspective, and deep insights into successful mobile partnership marketing, Acceleration Partners helps brands craft and execute effective strategies.
To stay ahead of the competition and maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, implementing the strategies outlined in this resource is essential. By leveraging these insights and seeking strategic guidance, your brand can thrive in this field and turn mobile engagement into a substantial advantage in your market.
LET’s CHAT
You have the tools to thrive with effective mobile partnership strategies
Contact our team today to discuss how mobile partnership marketing can empower your brand to not only keep pace with industry trends but lead the charge, ensuring your brand’s future success in the increasingly mobile-first world.
