What is re-engagement?

Re-engagement is the practice of serving ads to users who have already shown intent to convert via a previous engagement (e.g., by clicking on an ad). They appear across the web and in-app, keeping brands in front of bounced visitors to bring them back (and ultimately convert).

Dynamic product ads (DPAs) are a great example of retargeting and re-engagement. For e-commerce, if a user adds various items to their cart but hasn’t made the purchase within a set timeframe, DPAs can be used to re-engage them. This encourages the user to convert by displaying an ad that reminds them to complete their purchase. This re-engagement strategy should, therefore, minimize the app’s cart abandonment and consequently boost ROAS.

Re-engagement can also be the practice of retaining users who have either uninstalled or stopped engaging with your app. For example, by identifying users who have your app installed but haven’t opened it within a set timeframe, you can target those users for re-engagement to bring them back to your app and extend their lifetime value (LTV). You can learn more about the difference between re-engagement, retargeting and reattribution by reading this resource from our blog.

Re-engagement is an important marketing method for all verticals. It is an effective practice that prioritizes advertising spend on users who – based on previous intent – have been identified as more likely to convert. This is why most marketers who use their ad spend to re-engage users tend to see a higher ROI compared to most other digital channels.

Re-engagement is a powerful branding and conversion optimization tool that works best as part of a broader digital strategy, including ads across all digital channels – web, email, mobile web, and in-app.

Companies such as Google have tools specifically for re-engagement. Google’s App Campaigns for Engagement helps marketers engage existing app users with relevant ads in order to get them to return to that app. To learn more about the tool, take a look at our guide for how to get started with Google’s App Campaigns for Engagement.

Applovin is a global tech platform for mobile developers. The company’s solutions allow developers to rapidly monetize their apps by leveraging machine learning and predictive algorithms. One important software feature offered is AppLovin’s deep, user-level analytics. These analytics provide insights into engagement levels by users’ locations and can be utilized to improve re-engagement. To learn more about this powerful re-engagement feature as well as others offered, read The Best Software Features to Monetize your Apps.