West Coast-based alcohol delivery mobile application Saucey prompted higher in-app sales following its use of a conversion tracking tool and a targeted email campaign featuring a promotional code.

The delivery app teamed up with app marketing automation firm Appboy to track the effectiveness of a user engagement campaign which sent an email with a promotional code to users that had recently made a purchase within the app. The campaign resulted in the targeted consumers making purchases 25 percent faster than consumers who did not receive the advertisement.

“Conversion tracking tools are critical to determine the success of a campaign,” said Mark Ghermezian, CEO and co-founder of Appboy, New York. “It’s not enough to only know the number of people who read a message or opened the app after receiving a notification.

“Tracking the actions that lead to a conversion will help the marketer fully understand its user and tailor campaigns to better reach them in the future.”

Tracking metrics
Marketers that use conversion tracking can set campaign goals more easily and monitor user engagement after receiving a message. This also helps develop relevant calls-to-action that are sure to resonate with the brand’s customers.

Saucey, which delivers alcohol in Los Angeles and San Francisco, took note of Appboy’s conversion tracking to determine the amount of users revisiting its app and making purchases. The email campaign experienced a 42.32 percent open rate, with conversions of 9.54 percent occurring within the week that users received the promotional email.

“The campaign ultimately had two objectives, to encourage new users to complete multiple purchases and to do so within a specified timeframe,” said Daniel Leeb, chief product officer of Saucey, Los Angeles.

“Similarly to Facebook’s infamous rule of ‘7 friends within 10 days’ we had identified indications of a highly engaged user. With that data we developed the campaign to influence users to take the actions that historically converted new customers to highly engaged users.

“The promo code value seemed to be secondary on this particular campaign being that we targeted existing purchasers. We wanted the email to be a pleasant surprise for the customer and still provide value,” he said.

Saucey was then able to pinpoint the exact amount of revenue that the campaign brought in, and increase total revenue generated by its newer users.

The app enables its customers to choose the liquor of their choice, pay in-app with a credit card on file and have the items delivered in a timely manner by a Saucey driver. Wine, beer or spirits can be purchased and received within minutes, and Saucey claims that it is the only service boasting its own drivers.

Each driver is trained and certified by the company.

Saucey also partakes in corporate social responsibility by donating a percentage of its sales to Charity Water.

Understanding the campaign
Appboy stresses that marketers must not only be in control of their promotional campaigns, but must also understand its success to connect with consumers and drive commerce higher.

Previously, advertisers could only view open rates for emails, push notifications and in-app messages, conversion tracking tools now allow them to follow users’ customized actions, such as sending a message or making an in-app purchase.

After receiving a promoted message or email, the user’s next actions are collected and inputted into the user profile, which enables marketers to understand their path to conversion. This also helps in deciding how to retarget users in the future.

“It’s incredibly important to track each potential fall off point and overall conversions to ensure your campaigns are optimized and effective,” Mr. Leeb said. “You may find that adjusting copy, eliminating a step or even changing the placement of a button can increase overall conversions significantly.

“Without those insights you are essentially flying blind. Intuition is always the best place to start but oftentimes a key component to a strong campaign isn’t obvious,” he said.

“Without the conversion data to monitor the end-to-end success of your campaigns, it’s hard to identify where the strong and weak points are in order to address them.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York