Top Mobile App Retargeting Companies (2023)

Updated: March 15, 2023

Developing an app with an epic design and receiving initial traction is one thing, but what happens when users’ attention drifts to other relevant apps, forgetting all about yours?

That’s when you want to use app retargeting to win users back again.

So don’t think it’s a closed chapter when a user leaves. There are always effective methods you can use to re-engage them with your app.

In this guide we will walk you through the many layers of the mobile app retargeting realm and how the best remarketing companies can help you revamp your app, making you the center of attraction in the app market once again. 

What is app retargeting?

Mobile app retargeting essentially describes ad campaigns that are designed to reach people who have already engaged with, visited or installed your app before.

This concept aims to implement bespoke retargeting and remarketing techniques to try and encourage users to re-engage and, this time, fully complete the user journey of your app.

Retargeting previous customers can go a long way, as you already have an idea of what features peaked their interest in the first place.

You just need to figure out what features made them seek similar services elsewhere. Therefore, remarketing for mobile apps involves tailored campaigns and efforts based on previous performance and user behavior data.

But more on this later on.

It’s important to specify though that your need to retarget your previous users does not mean that your app services were inadequate or not valuable as much as other apps.

People abandon apps for so many reasons, showing a consistent pattern in the app world of users visiting an app, installing it, engaging with it on the surface just to then leave it be.

Most of the time, all that these users really needed was a bit more seasoning to stay committed to your app.

We know how much effort goes into developing an app, from brainstorming a golden idea to writing the application, so we don’t want that to go to waste for you.

And if you are facing some greater numbers of inactivity than usual, app retargeting can get you back in the game in no time.

Why do I need mobile ad retargeting?

Did you know that 25% of users abandon apps after only one use? Despite apps being users’ mainstay to effectively engage with a variety of services, developers still struggle to improve long-term user retention.

To hit you with some more valid facts, apps running retargeting campaigns between 2018 and 2019 saw a higher increase in revenue (63%), when compared to apps that did not implement retargeting campaigns (43%).

This means that your focus when developing your app should be to give your users compelling reasons to stay in order to avoid getting canceled, missing out on all that revenue.

The % of users that abandon apps after one use

Source: Localytics

The best app strategies mostly depend on one thing and one thing only: getting people to actually use them.

When a user loses interest in your app in the early stages of downloading it, getting them to come back can be a huge challenge.

This is where mobile app retargeting can help you.

Benefits of retargeting app users

App retargeting comes with a range of advantages and goes beyond simply engaging users and motivating them to an initial download.

Because re-engaging users can be a more complex thing, remarketing companies can provide bespoke strategies to ensure you get the best result from implementing the app retargeting concept.

Top Mobile App Retargeting Companies

  • RevX - Made for Growth, Built for App Marketers
  • Adikteev - Data-driven app marketing platform
  • Remerge - Your partner for real app growth
  • Persona.ly - A Value First Company
  • Bidease - #1 DSP for mobile app marketers
  • Kevel - Build a custom ad server in just weeks.

As you have probably already spent countless hours and money on acquiring users, now is the time to focus on retaining these users.

But what other benefits can you achieve by implementing mobile app retargeting?

Track user interactions

App remarketing allows you to install retargeting events, which enables you to track your users’ behavior and how they interact within your app. Such interactions include, for example, what travel dates they select or what category filters they apply.

When these events are triggered you can categorize users based on their previous actions. This will allow you to customize messages across your app inventory.

So when a user clicks on your retargeted ads, it will direct them to now more relevant content in the app, such as a flight scheduled on the travel dates they selected earlier.

Increase engagement

You can also be sure to drive more engagement when implementing app retargeting measures.

This includes increasing app visits, session durations, impressions as well as other valuable in-app activities that will turn these interactions into profitable actions and conversions.

Boost user retention

App retargeting also means upping your app user retention instantly, which can ultimately lead to increased app visit frequency and a decrease in churn.

Knowing all this, you can now be sure that app retargeting is a must-have concept for developers in order to attract and retain customers for long-term success, and to keep that cash flowing.

As the market becomes more and more populated with apps, focusing on keeping your users proves to be most profitable, which is the core purpose of mobile app retargeting and therefore a function that will benefit you and your app massively.

How do mobile retargeting ads work?

The mobile advertising system can be very complicated, especially when you try to read informative blogs online that throw a bunch of technical terms at you.

So let’s put things very simply.

Imagine this: A user searches your app for flights that depart around Christmas. Your app therefore starts to track their interactions and journey as they navigate through your app.

But then they get distracted by a video and abandon your app. Their purchasing intent is recorded, the impression is purchased and a product recommendation is therefore selected.

If the app on which they are watching the video belongs to a retargeting publisher’s ad network you partner with, the retargeting process will be carried out, displaying the relevant ad of flights the users browsed, plus new suggestions, such as pricing and exclusive offers.

This ad will include a so-called ‘deep link’ technology, which is a link that directs not only to a mobile app, but to a particular window in the app. So it can link to the app’s homepage or another page.

An example of a mobile app retargeting ad:

Source: Mobile App Retargeting

Make sure that your app has a URL scheme installed properly for these direct links. For example, if you have an Instagram profile link in a post that deals with a particular feature of your app, you want the user to get to the relevant page of your app, and not just the home screen.

Same thing goes for users who do not have your app installed on their device yet. So you want to make sure they are redirected to the App Store or Google Play Store to then get to the right page once installed.

Back to our scenario, the user will then (preferably) click on the ad which will, via the direct link, direct them back to your app to complete the purchase.

And there you go, you have re-engaged a user and remarketed your services successfully.

What are the best app retargeting strategies?

Now that you are more familiar with the actual process of app retargeting, let’s discuss some of the best app retargeting strategies as well as the top tips to successfully implement the best practices.

Retargeting like user acquisition

It is no secret that user acquisition needs a lot of love and that you surely have dedicated a lot of time and resources to it, especially in UX design and marketing distribution strategies.

But as we have explored the depths and layers of app retargeting, why not give your retargeting campaigns the same kind of attention?

Regardless of where your campaigns fall within the marketing funnel, implementing dedicated retargeting efforts, as much as you did with your paid user acquisition campaigns, will have a major impact on the highly potential success in re-engaging lapsed users.

Focus not only on lapsed users

While retargeting is as essential as user acquisition, we don’t want to focus solely on lapsed users, but also on making strong efforts to prevent them from abandoning your app in the first place.

So make sure to direct your retargeting strategies towards winning back customers who forgot about your app after first installing it as well as towards optimizing its designs and overall UX to allow users to recognize the valuable services your app has to offer that they may not find elsewhere.

Know your audience

Knowing your audience and what kind of users you are trying to retarget with your campaign is crucial to successfully re-engage customers. And in order to know your audience you need to prioritize performance data, which you should track on a regular basis.

Take advantage of analytics tools and platforms to get a better picture of the entire consumer journey. Then, implement effective retargeting measures across web and app platforms, as your users browse cross-channel as well.

Customization is key

Once you know your audience, you can look to personalize your ads to really match the tastes of your customers, eventually making a direct impact on conversion rates when they find exactly what they are looking for.

Make use of the variety of resources that are available thanks to today’s technology, and determine user behavior and search intent as well as popular categories, products and services.

This way you can customize retargeting ads to, for example, remind a user of the interest they expressed earlier when they put an item into their shopping cart before forgetting about it.

Always have a plan

App retargeting, let alone mobile ad networks, can be rather pricey. So you want to make sure to keep track of your campaigns to quickly understand how much exactly you should be spending to expand just the right amount to maximize ROI.

We therefore highly suggest choosing a retargeting company that helps optimize your campaigns’ performance and allows you to fully track your ROI, making a complexity of data available and accessible to you.

What are the challenges of mobile ad retargeting?

Mobile marketers invest a lot of time and money in their apps. Big budgets are often set aside to drive app downloads, because you know that apps can attract and build relationships with high-value users.

However, app usage frequently dwindles after the install.

Without a strategy to actively engage your app downloaders, installed base usage can quickly decrease. Apps that fail to engage users and sit unused are eventually getting deleted, and the opportunity to engage high value users is lost.

The churn of unengaged users happens rapidly after app install, sometimes with just about 1 in 10 users remaining after seven days.

Your app can be amazing. But if your users forget about it, all of that effort goes to waste.

This is why you should invest in getting onboard with app retargeting technology.

Get started with mobile app retargeting companies

Now that we know the value of mobile app retargeting across channels, let’s look at some of the best companies in the market that can help you maximize the ROI of your retargeting campaigns.

Obviously, the platform you choose has to suit your business. So while it’s not as simple as picking a platform out of a hat, we hope that this information will help you in making the right decision.

List of mobile app retargeting companies

Remerge

Your partner for real app growth

10
(2 votes)
(2) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
2014101 - 200
Remerge pioneered mobile app retargeting back in 2014.

[masterslider alias=\"ms-remerge-1\"] Remerge is an independent demand-side-platform (DSP) that helps performance marketers drive revenue and retention from high-value app users with programmatic in-app ads.

Learn more about Remerge
Employees
10-50
...bidder and machine-learning algorithms, we offer transparent, performance-driven, highly-targeted UA and retargeting solutions at scale with access to over 1.

Persona.ly is a mobile-first DSP operating worldwide. Using our proprietary bidder and machine-learning algorithms, we offer transparent, performance-driven, highly-targeted UA and retargeting solutions at scale with access to over 1.5 Million ad auctions per second. We are trusted by Ubisoft, Waitr, Tilting Point, Ilyon, Papaya Gaming, CoinSwitch, Animoca Brands, Kefir!, CoinDCX and many others.

Persona.ly strives to be more than just a vendor for its partners, but a partner that helps generate actual value, growth, and broad marketing insights that can be used across channels.

Learn more about Persona.ly

Adikteev

Data-driven app marketing platform

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
201292
...Turner, Blizzard, Twitch and Mattel increase retention and drive incremental revenue through smart app retargeting and cross-promotion.

Adikteev is the leading app re-engagement platform for performance-driven marketers.

We help the world’s top-spending app publishers increase retention, reacquire churned users and drive incremental revenue. App publishers in gaming, eCommerce, on-demand, services and entertainment rely on us to deliver made-to-measure strategies, creatives and algorithms.

By combining science and creativity, we deliver best-in-class playable and interactive ads paired with top retargeting tech. We believe in creating a unique strategy for each client based on data to provide measurable and transparent results that increase user LTV and fuel business growth.

Adikteev is #10 among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 fastest growing companies and ranked in the top retargeting partners of the world for two consecutive years by AppsFlyer Performance Index

Learn more about Adikteev

RevX

Made for Growth, Built for App Marketers

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
201451 - 100
Key Features Retargeting, User acquisition and Performance branding campaigns.

Made for growth, built for app marketers. At RevX, we help app businesses acquire and re-engage users via programmatic advertising to retain and accelerate revenue. We\'re all about taking your app business to the next growth level! We help you build sound mobile strategies, combining programmatic UA, app re-engagement, and performance branding to drive the results you need to scale your business: with real users, high retention, and incremental revenue.

Learn more about RevX

Bidease

#1 DSP for mobile app marketers

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployeesRevenuesSocialTraffic
201650-100 -3k+-

 

Bidease is a mobile DSP platform for mobile marketers. Its built on a foundation of proprietary programmatic advertising technology, Machine Learning, and first party data. Bidease team optimizes campaigns across all major mobile formats for desired post-install behaviors at no risk to its clients’ bottom line.

  • Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
  • Campaign types: CPI, CPA, CPM
  • Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Video
  • Targeting: Carrier, Device, Gender, Geo, Interests, IP, OS
  • Key Markets: global
Learn more about Bidease

Kevel

Build a custom ad server in just weeks.

10
(2 votes)
(2) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployeesRevenuesSocialTraffic
201010-50---

Kevel (previously Adzerk) is helping brands everywhere drive more online revenue through sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads, and more. They do this by providing engineers and product managers the APIs needed to quickly build fully-customized ad servers. Their award-winning platform handles over three billion API requests each day, and it’s helped industry leaders like Yelp and Ticketmaster shorten their build times by more than 90%.

 

Learn more about Kevel
...publisher set Wide range of targeting options including Geo+hyper location and support for mobile retargeting Range of formats supported including banners, interstitials, rich media & video.

 

Splicky is the new Demand Side Platform (DSP) for the mobile channel using proprietary Real-Time Advertising (RTA) technology.  Their technology makes it simple to buy mobile ad impressions and clicks within mobile sites and apps – in real-time. Using just one platform, you have immediate access to all global mobile inventory which uses Real-Time Bidding (RTB) technology. Within a matter of minutes, your mobile ad campaigns can be displayed on a Cost Per Impression (CPM) and Cost Per Click (CPC) basis. Our platform allows you to target on individual Mobile Sites and Apps, giving you total control at campaign management-level.   Our detailed analysis gives you full insights on campaign performance enabling you to maximize your ROI.

  • Easy to use interface with a self-serve platform and real-time analytics
  • Worldwide reach across a transparent publisher set
  • Wide range of targeting options including Geo+hyper location and support for mobile retargeting
  • Range of formats supported including banners, interstitials, rich media & video
Learn more about Splicky

Digital Turbine

Right App. Right Person. Right Time

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
...pre-install inventory In addition to user acquisition, we offer user engagement campaigns, or mobile retargeting, designed to guide existing or churned users to specific in-app actions.

 

Digital Turbine is a mobile app advertising platform for app delivery and discovery. The company is double down on a mobile native format to allow advertisers cut through the noice and reach out their target audience. Digital Turbine bypasses app stores and partners with major global telecom companies to introduce apps to mobile users with sponsored recommendations and native preloads.

  • Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
  • Campaign types: CPC, CPI
  • Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Offer Wall
  • Targeting: Geo, OS
  • Key Markets: Asia, Europe, USA
Learn more about Digital Turbine

Aarki

Elevate Your Mobile Marketing

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
2010101 - 200
...of users in the audience list found in bid stream) High touch rate (% of users found that see the retargeting creative) Aarki is reactivating 25K+ users daily for our largest customers Acquiring....

SmartyAds

Grow Revenues and Maximize Yields in Full-Stack Ad Ecosystem

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS

 

SmartyAds DSP is a programmatic-buying platform for advertisers who search for safe, supreme-quality push traffic that converts in higher ROI, instant user engagement and retention.

Pricing & Features:

  • Push traffic for all screen types & sizes that translates in 200-400% higher ROI & conversions.
  • Easy to segment and personalize push creatives.
  • The broadest network of premium push traffic publishers and SSP partners (MoPub, MobFox, PubNative) with tested and localized landings across all geos and verticals.
  • In-app traffic from more than 1000 top-rated apps with push traffic for iOS & Android.
  • 30+ targeting options for geomarketing push campaigns Including geo-targeting, GPS, language, etc.)
  • Frequency capping, dayparting and sparring to fine-tune push advertising experience.
  • Comprehensive, easy-to-grasp statistics with an in-deep performance overview.
  • Third-party impression analytics tags support, API.
  • Rapid and easy campaign set up and creative approval.
  • Flexible CPM pricing model.
Learn more about SmartyAds

Remerge

Your partner for real app growth

10
(2 votes)
(2) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
2014101 - 200
Remerge pioneered mobile app retargeting back in 2014.

[masterslider alias=\"ms-remerge-1\"] Remerge is an independent demand-side-platform (DSP) that helps performance marketers drive revenue and retention from high-value app users with programmatic in-app ads.

Learn more about Remerge
Employees
10-50
...bidder and machine-learning algorithms, we offer transparent, performance-driven, highly-targeted UA and retargeting solutions at scale with access to over 1.

Persona.ly is a mobile-first DSP operating worldwide. Using our proprietary bidder and machine-learning algorithms, we offer transparent, performance-driven, highly-targeted UA and retargeting solutions at scale with access to over 1.5 Million ad auctions per second. We are trusted by Ubisoft, Waitr, Tilting Point, Ilyon, Papaya Gaming, CoinSwitch, Animoca Brands, Kefir!, CoinDCX and many others.

Persona.ly strives to be more than just a vendor for its partners, but a partner that helps generate actual value, growth, and broad marketing insights that can be used across channels.

Learn more about Persona.ly

Adikteev

Data-driven app marketing platform

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
201292
...Turner, Blizzard, Twitch and Mattel increase retention and drive incremental revenue through smart app retargeting and cross-promotion.

Adikteev is the leading app re-engagement platform for performance-driven marketers.

We help the world’s top-spending app publishers increase retention, reacquire churned users and drive incremental revenue. App publishers in gaming, eCommerce, on-demand, services and entertainment rely on us to deliver made-to-measure strategies, creatives and algorithms.

By combining science and creativity, we deliver best-in-class playable and interactive ads paired with top retargeting tech. We believe in creating a unique strategy for each client based on data to provide measurable and transparent results that increase user LTV and fuel business growth.

Adikteev is #10 among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 fastest growing companies and ranked in the top retargeting partners of the world for two consecutive years by AppsFlyer Performance Index

Learn more about Adikteev

RevX

Made for Growth, Built for App Marketers

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
201451 - 100
Key Features Retargeting, User acquisition and Performance branding campaigns.

Made for growth, built for app marketers. At RevX, we help app businesses acquire and re-engage users via programmatic advertising to retain and accelerate revenue. We\'re all about taking your app business to the next growth level! We help you build sound mobile strategies, combining programmatic UA, app re-engagement, and performance branding to drive the results you need to scale your business: with real users, high retention, and incremental revenue.

Learn more about RevX

Bidease

#1 DSP for mobile app marketers

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployeesRevenuesSocialTraffic
201650-100 -3k+-

 

Bidease is a mobile DSP platform for mobile marketers. Its built on a foundation of proprietary programmatic advertising technology, Machine Learning, and first party data. Bidease team optimizes campaigns across all major mobile formats for desired post-install behaviors at no risk to its clients’ bottom line.

  • Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
  • Campaign types: CPI, CPA, CPM
  • Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Video
  • Targeting: Carrier, Device, Gender, Geo, Interests, IP, OS
  • Key Markets: global
Learn more about Bidease

Kevel

Build a custom ad server in just weeks.

10
(2 votes)
(2) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployeesRevenuesSocialTraffic
201010-50---

Kevel (previously Adzerk) is helping brands everywhere drive more online revenue through sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads, and more. They do this by providing engineers and product managers the APIs needed to quickly build fully-customized ad servers. Their award-winning platform handles over three billion API requests each day, and it’s helped industry leaders like Yelp and Ticketmaster shorten their build times by more than 90%.

 

Learn more about Kevel
...publisher set Wide range of targeting options including Geo+hyper location and support for mobile retargeting Range of formats supported including banners, interstitials, rich media & video.

 

Splicky is the new Demand Side Platform (DSP) for the mobile channel using proprietary Real-Time Advertising (RTA) technology.  Their technology makes it simple to buy mobile ad impressions and clicks within mobile sites and apps – in real-time. Using just one platform, you have immediate access to all global mobile inventory which uses Real-Time Bidding (RTB) technology. Within a matter of minutes, your mobile ad campaigns can be displayed on a Cost Per Impression (CPM) and Cost Per Click (CPC) basis. Our platform allows you to target on individual Mobile Sites and Apps, giving you total control at campaign management-level.   Our detailed analysis gives you full insights on campaign performance enabling you to maximize your ROI.

  • Easy to use interface with a self-serve platform and real-time analytics
  • Worldwide reach across a transparent publisher set
  • Wide range of targeting options including Geo+hyper location and support for mobile retargeting
  • Range of formats supported including banners, interstitials, rich media & video
Learn more about Splicky

Digital Turbine

Right App. Right Person. Right Time

10
(3 votes)
(3) REVIEWS
...pre-install inventory In addition to user acquisition, we offer user engagement campaigns, or mobile retargeting, designed to guide existing or churned users to specific in-app actions.

 

Digital Turbine is a mobile app advertising platform for app delivery and discovery. The company is double down on a mobile native format to allow advertisers cut through the noice and reach out their target audience. Digital Turbine bypasses app stores and partners with major global telecom companies to introduce apps to mobile users with sponsored recommendations and native preloads.

  • Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
  • Campaign types: CPC, CPI
  • Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Offer Wall
  • Targeting: Geo, OS
  • Key Markets: Asia, Europe, USA
Learn more about Digital Turbine

Aarki

Elevate Your Mobile Marketing

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS
FoundedEmployees
2010101 - 200
...of users in the audience list found in bid stream) High touch rate (% of users found that see the retargeting creative) Aarki is reactivating 25K+ users daily for our largest customers Acquiring....

SmartyAds

Grow Revenues and Maximize Yields in Full-Stack Ad Ecosystem

10
(1 vote)
(1) REVIEWS

 

SmartyAds DSP is a programmatic-buying platform for advertisers who search for safe, supreme-quality push traffic that converts in higher ROI, instant user engagement and retention.

Pricing & Features:

  • Push traffic for all screen types & sizes that translates in 200-400% higher ROI & conversions.
  • Easy to segment and personalize push creatives.
  • The broadest network of premium push traffic publishers and SSP partners (MoPub, MobFox, PubNative) with tested and localized landings across all geos and verticals.
  • In-app traffic from more than 1000 top-rated apps with push traffic for iOS & Android.
  • 30+ targeting options for geomarketing push campaigns Including geo-targeting, GPS, language, etc.)
  • Frequency capping, dayparting and sparring to fine-tune push advertising experience.
  • Comprehensive, easy-to-grasp statistics with an in-deep performance overview.
  • Third-party impression analytics tags support, API.
  • Rapid and easy campaign set up and creative approval.
  • Flexible CPM pricing model.
Learn more about SmartyAds

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