A whopping 75 percent of Zillow Group members are mobile users — and Zillow’s VP of marketing says their UA strategy is the primary driver. Register now for the first in our Masters of Mobile series to find out how Zillow is killing quality user acquisition. Gilt’s Digital Marketing Director will also be on hand.
“Over three-fourths of our users are using our mobile app,” says Ashley Blackmon, VP of marketing at Zillow Group, the real estate network with over 83 million users and 64 percent of the online real estate market share. “It’s something that we’ve very invested in.”
To drive quality user acquisition, Blackmon says, it’s vital to nail down exactly what success looks like for your company. “You could go out into the advertising/user acquisition space and acquire a bunch of users,” she says, “but if they’re not taking the actions you want, it’s not worthwhile.”
When you know what you’re trying to achieve, she adds, you can set up the tools internally to measure success just beyond an install, helping you allocate your marketing spend in the most ruthlessly effective and efficient ways.
That’s what propels their total UA strategy, she says. “We’re very metrics-driven,” she explains. “We not only think about acquiring users, but we think about acquiring users who take action deeper in the funnel when they’re using our products, so that we understand the value and make sure we’re using sources to acquire those users.”
Their paid acquisition strategy is so laser focused on creating a solid, engaged base of fans that they don’t see much, if any, difference in quality from the organic users they attract and paid sources, Blackmon says.
“We’ve made sacrifices sometimes on volume, to make sure we’re getting the right users when we’re paying and making sure that they’re at least as good as, if not better, than the ones that we’re getting for free,” she explains.
Larger social networks have been great platforms for Zillow’s quality user acquisition strategy, particularly when they’re able to target precisely, Blackmon says, while incentivized platforms — where users are required to download an app to continue to play a game, for instance — have been far less successful.
“We’ve been able to drive very inexpensive installs, but we don’t see the in-app actions that we want,” she says, “so we find that actually very expensive in the long run.” But, she emphasizes, if your brand needs an audience or has other, wider goals, you might find a tremendous amount of success in similar strategies.
How will you know?
“One of the tenets of the Zillow Group is ‘fail fast,’” Blackmon says. “We have a healthy appetite for testing.”
“The best way is to actually decide from the start that you might not know what works,” she continues. “You might have assumptions and you might research the best tools or the best places to acquire users, but you’re going to have to set up small tests to basically prove that out so that you can iterate and then basically decide where to spend your time or money on what’s successful.”
But the critical thing, she says, is that they’re measuring results in real time. “I have a marketing team that’s evaluating our results on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and making sure that the platforms we’re using are working well,” she says.
“We’re always looking for the next thing,” Blackmon adds. “I never want us to rest, because as soon as you rest and rely on a platform, within a blink of an eye it’s old news and something else is there. You don’t want to be the last one to reach that network or that source.”
Learn more about how Zillow tests, tracks and hangs on to valuable users alongside valuable lessons from Gilt’s Digital Marketing Director. A power-packed hour!
Don’t miss out!
In this VB Live event, you’ll:
- Find out what app publishers are currently paying for quality users
- Review the top user acquisition platforms and why they work
- Understand the role of timing in UA
- Learn how to maximize organic installs of your mobile application
Speakers:
- Ashley Blackmon, VP Marketing, Zillow Group
- Alexandra Press Maguire, Digital Marketing Director, Gilt Group
- John Koetsier, Mobile Economist, TUNE
- Dave Myers, COO and Co-Founder, mParticle
Moderator:
- Rachael Brownell, VentureBeat
This VB Live event is sponsored by mParticle.