10 Stats on the Effectiveness of Smart Banners

This blog post was originally published in 2016. You can read one of our newer posts on web-to-app conversions.

By now, you’re likely aware of Smart Banners – the banner that floats on your mobile website and allows your users to easily convert into native app users. They are used to drive new app installs and re-engage existing users. These banners have been around for quite some time and have been proven to helped brands increase installs by 3X – but what we didn’t know, was how do these users coming from Smart Banner compare to users who find your app through all other channels?

The Smart Banner Experiment 

How do users coming from your Smart Banner compare against General App Users? Do they purchase more? Are they more likely to install an app and re-open it? We analyzed the results from an eCommerce company over a 10 day period to find the answers to these questions. 

The Smart Banner Test Results 

Purchase Rate:

• 70% higher in-app purchase rate for users entering the app directly from banner compared to general app users

• 2.6x higher in-app purchase rate for users originally installing the app from banner compared to general app install users

Device:

• Android users from banner are more likely to increase conversion (217% higher in-app purchase rate for android users entering the app from banner vs. iOS users entering app from banner)

• 38% of banner installs were Android

• 50% of banner reopens were Android

• 60% of banner purchases were Android

Web vs App:

• 5.65x higher purchase rate for users originally installing the app from banner compared to users on mobile web

• 19% higher mean purchase amount for users purchasing in the app compared to users purchasing on mobile web

• 30% higher mean purchase amount for users originally referred from banner purchasing in the app compared to users purchasing on mobile web

Revenue:

• Banner referred app user sessions drove 8% of app sessions but generated 20% of app purchase revenue

Users from Smart Banners convert with higher intent, which leads to an overall higher conversion across the board. The most successful brands leverage the Smart Banner by creating a contextual experience, driving mobile web users to the same content post-install. Given how important your first app session is for churn (~60% of users dropping off within 24 hours), optimizing this first experience and making it contextual could nearly double your activation, retention, and engagement rates across the board.

Want to test this for yourself? Try our 14-day free trial of Branch Journeys.