“Getting new users on your application is just step one. A successful mobile strategy is three-pronged with acquisition, in-app engagement, and retention.” 

Phil Golas, VP Technology and Activation, Spark Foundry 

In today’s competitive digital landscape, user retention is key to brand success. With mobile as an always-on touchpoint, brands can go beyond transactions to build lasting relationships through personalized engagement, in-app experiences, and app-driven loyalty programs. 

Loyalty programs have strongly demonstrated their impact for brands like Starbucks, with their rewards members driving 60% of the brand’s sales, demonstrating the program's impact on retention and spending. Similarly, American Airlines, for example, earned almost $1 billion in loyalty reward revenues in Q3 2024.

Why Loyalty and Personalization Matters 

Loyalty programs are no longer just perks; they are essential for sustained brand success. With competition intensifying across industries, brands must ensure that they continuously engage users at key moments during discovery, purchase, and post-purchase. A well-structured and executed loyalty strategy increases customer lifetime value, enhances brand advocacy, and creates deeper customer relationships. A survey by Bizrate Insights found that 61% of US adults value loyalty programs tailored to their shopping preferences, which not only speaks to why having a loyalty program is important but also about value of personalization. 

Amazon Prime is a powerful example of how personalization fuels loyalty and drives business success. With over 60% of U.S. households holding a Prime membership, Amazon leverages AI-driven personalization to enhance customer experiences and encourage repeat engagement. Features like tailored product recommendations, exclusive discounts, and early access to sales create a seamless, customized shopping journey. This deep personalization directly impacts spending habits – Prime members spend more than twice annually compared to non-members, with an average of $1,400 compared to $600. By continuously refining its recommendation engine and loyalty perks, Amazon strengthens its relationship with customers, proving that personalization is the cornerstone of long-term loyalty and increased revenue.

As loyalty becomes essential, building and executing omnichannel strategies has become the key to building long-term retention. Media agencies play a pivotal role as strategic partners for advertisers in orchestrating digital transformation that includes comprehensive loyalty strategies. A bespoke loyalty approach integrates paid media, organic engagement, and proprietary platforms to ensure seamless engagement across touchpoints.  

Recognizing the challenges of reaching consumers across fragmented digital landscapes, Gap Inc. leverages expertise of media agencies to deploy tailored marketing strategies that bridge the physical and digital customer experience, ensuring seamless engagement across multiple touchpoints and consumer segments. This move highlights how agencies play a critical role in helping brands navigate the complexity of modern digital engagement. 

Role of Media Agencies in Loyalty Strategy 

Agencies have the unique perspective of getting a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of mobile app-driven loyalty programs for a variety of organizations with a range of goals and levels of sophistication. This unique perspective enables them to serve as a consultative resource, streamlining optimization of the channel mix, budget allocation, and campaign execution. 

1. Channel Mix: Agencies help advertisers balance mobile-first and web-first approaches, maximizing in-app engagement, push notifications, and gamification for mobile users while leveraging SEO, content marketing, and retargeting for web users. Also helping identify the right platform.  
2. Budget Allocation: Agencies optimize media spending across digital channels to maximize ROI. They strategically allocate budgets toward high-impact platforms, ensuring cost-efficient customer acquisition, re-engagement, and retention.  
3. Personalized Messaging: A strong brand narrative builds trust and long-term engagement. Agencies craft messaging strategies that integrate brand and performance media, balancing storytelling with measurable outcomes. In-app engagement to help advertisers identify and capitalize on key mobile moments, delivering contextually relevant messaging that enhances engagement. 
4. Campaign Execution: Agencies lead execution across paid media, re-engagement campaigns, and retention strategies, ensuring that messaging remains relevant and timely. With support from partners (like a full-service DSP), they use AI-driven insights and personalize outreach efforts to reduce churn and maximize conversions. They ensure brands connect with users across third-party apps and owned platforms, amplifying reach and interaction. 

With users spending more time than ever on mobile while at the same time downloading and using fewer apps as they become loyal to favorites, evolved agencies have a great focus on partners with sizable reach across mobile devices. Hence, it is critical to select the right ad tech partners for execution of a successful loyalty campaign. With agencies having visibility and experience across the full ad tech landscape, they are well-positioned to help advertisers assess the factors most important to their unique objectives, including prioritization of platforms that offer AI-led creative optimization, ML-driven data utilization, data accessibility, sophisticated bidders, and transparency in reporting, to maximize their ad performance. 

How Media Agencies Choose the Right Mobile Ad Tech Partners 

Agencies assess the following capabilities of potential ad tech partners: 

1. AI-Driven Targeting and DSP Integration: Agencies seek partners with robust machine learning capabilities to analyze first-party and third-party data for precise audience segmentation. This enables efficient customer acquisition by targeting high-value users at the right time and frequency. Full-service Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) act as an extension of agency teams, streamlining ad delivery, optimizing supply paths, and improving ROI. 
2. Access to Premium Inventories: Ensuring access to high-quality ad placements across multiple surfaces, including in-app, mobile web, and lock screens, is crucial for campaign reach. Agencies prioritize partners with direct inventory access and premium ad exchanges, maximizing engagement opportunities across diverse mobile environments. 
3. Creative Optimization and Innovation: Personalization remains key to engagement. Agencies look for AdTech partners with AI/ML-driven creative selection capabilities which optimizes deliveries on best performing creatives. Further, partners which offer a first-principal approach and custom creative solutions like playables, innovative engagement units, and other interactive formats help ensure differentiation in a competitive digital space. 
4. Advanced Bidding and User Whitelisting: Machine learning-powered bidders help agencies whitelist high-intent users, ensuring that ad spends are allocated toward audiences most likely to convert. This optimizes budget efficiency and increases retention rates. 
5. Advanced Remarketing and Cross-OS Targeting Capabilities: Agencies prioritize AdTech solutions that enable seamless remarketing across operating systems while adapting to evolving privacy constraints. With deterministic tracking limitations, a combination of privacy-compliant technologies like SKAN and probabilistic attribution models helps infer user journeys, optimize re-engagement, and assess post-install actions effectively. By leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics, agencies empower advertisers to reconnect with high-value users while ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations. 
   InMobi Performance Solutions have helped marquee advertisers across the globe for remarketing campaigns, like Homeplus in South Korea and Swiggy in India, that have become huge success stories. 
6. Reporting and Transparency: Measurability is key in loyalty marketing, and agencies prioritize AdTech partners that provide comprehensive, transparent reporting. By working with Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs), brands gain clear visibility into campaign performance, allowing for data-driven optimizations. InMobi Performance Solutions work in close collaboration with leading Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) to support advertisers' mobile growth strategies and maintain transparent reporting.
    

Best Practices for Loyalty Campaigns 

Maintaining user engagement in loyalty marketing requires strategic execution, especially in the modern mobile landscape: 

1. Optimize Mobile Notifications: Avoid over-communication through push notifications to prevent user fatigue. 
2. Segmented Mobile Campaigns: Tailor messaging based on user behaviors and demographics to deliver personalized content. 
3. Data-Driven Mobile Loyalty Structures: Utilize analytics to personalize experiences, strengthening customer relationships. 

Sephora's Beauty Insider program exemplifies effective mobile engagement with balanced engagement and communication fostering customer loyalty. The program offers a mobile app that provides personalized product recommendations, access to the Beauty Insider Community, and exclusive promotions. This approach fosters a sense of community and keeps members engaged beyond purchases. Additionally, Sephora introduced Beauty Insider Challenges – gamified experiences accessible via their mobile app, allowing members to earn points by completing tasks such as using in-store services or engaging with digital features. This strategy not only increases purchases through rewards but also encourages exploration of Sephora's offerings, enhancing customer loyalty through interactive mobile experiences.

The Future of Omnichannel Loyalty 

As omnichannel loyalty strategies become essential to long-term retention, media agencies play a pivotal role in orchestrating comprehensive engagement initiatives that span multiple channels. By expertly marrying brand storytelling with performance-driven tactics, agencies ensure that loyalty strategies drive both immediate conversions and long-term brand equity. 

Media agencies have the expertise to bridge the gap between web and mobile experiences, ensuring a seamless journey for customers across platforms. Their strategic approach to integrating creative innovation, AI-driven targeting, and transparent measurement practices makes them invaluable partners in maximizing user retention and brand loyalty. 

"In today’s competitive digital landscape, media agencies unite omnichannel strategies, personalized loyalty programs, and data-driven AdTech to boost user retention and build enduring brand relationships." 

Dharak Desai, Regional VP – Performance Sales NA & EMEA, InMobi

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