Optimizing for Seasonality with New Performance-Based Channels: Boost Your User Acquisition Strategy

Change is inevitable for performance marketers, especially as seasonal trends reshape consumer behavior and traffic surges during peak periods. To stay ahead, it’s crucial to ensure user acquisition campaigns run across diverse channels, using AI to identify the most qualified customers, and capturing the increased engagement as it’s happening. No single channel guarantees success; instead, marketers must implement unique performance-based strategies that engage users at every stage of their journey throughout peak seasonality.    

Early Assessment and Planning For Optimized Diversification

If you’re finding your existing channels have plateaued or aren’t meeting user acquisition benchmarks, testing new or underutilized channels can reveal untapped opportunities for incremental growth and drive more impactful results.

Start by reviewing your current channel performance. Are there gaps where users might be falling out of the funnel? Are your campaigns optimized to deliver the right message at the right time? Engaging customers through multiple user acquisition channels, such as CTV, display, and in-app reward, can amplify reach and retention efforts. Equally important is refining targeting strategies across all channels to engage qualified prospects, ensuring spend is tied to direct outcomes.

Advanced planning allows you to identify underutilized opportunities and begin testing new placements before the holiday rush. Even a slight shift in channel mix can significantly enhance ROI, especially during high-stakes periods.   

Channel Diversification Strategies to Maximize ROI

Adding in new channels doesn’t have to be intimidating – with the Perform^[cb] Outcome Engine, you can supplement channels between what is working and find solutions that work alongside the campaigns you already have running successfully. 

Utilizing a diverse set of performance marketing channels helps you reach potential users throughout the marketing funnel, from those first hearing about your brand, to the users ready to download and use your app. As you overcome increased competition during your peak season, it’s crucial that your branding is widespread and effective.

• Display Campaigns – Display ads remain a cornerstone of CPI campaigns, offering one of the most direct paths from ad to app download and significantly reducing the chances of leads dropping out of the funnel before completing an install. Beyond their standalone benefits – greater brand awareness, improved visibility, and advanced data tracking – display campaigns can complement other mobile channels. For example, combining display ads with in-app retargeting or loyalty program promotions can extend campaign reach while maintaining cost efficiency. 

• Re-Engagement Campaigns – Successful app marketing extends beyond the install. Re-engagement campaigns target users who may have become inactive, reintroducing them to your app at critical times, such as peak season. Personalized, seasonally themed notifications can drive immediate action while working alongside other strategies like social ads or email campaigns to deepen user engagement. This multi-channel alignment ensures your app remains top of mind for your audience.

• Reward – Multi-event rewarded campaigns not only boost user engagement and retention but also seamlessly complement your existing marketing channels. By layering rewards into your broader strategy – such as pairing them with display ads or in-app retargeting – you can create an integrated, immersive experience for users. This approach fosters deeper brand interaction, provides richer data insights on user behavior, and ensures each touchpoint contributes to long-term loyalty. With customizable rewards tailored to your audience and user acquisition goals, these campaigns enhance ROI while amplifying the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts. 

• CTV Advertising – More marketers are turning to connected TV (CTV) advertising to engage audiences as it seamlessly integrates with existing channels for a performance-based user acquisition strategy. With the ability to track installs and user engagement driven by CTV ads, brands can measure their performance alongside other marketing efforts, uncovering incremental growth opportunities and maximizing ROAS. By combining CTV’s advanced targeting capabilities with insights from other channels, marketers can deliver highly engaging campaigns that drive meaningful actions to increase scale to new heights.

Testing to Uncover Incrementality and Drive Quality 

A comprehensive test strategy is key to identifying engaged audiences, uncovering new profitable channels, and determining the most effective creative and messaging. 

By approaching this methodically, you can establish a clear testing plan that includes timelines, A/B testing schedules, and a balanced budget allocation across channels. Testing multiple channels alongside your existing ones provides a clearer picture of how each contributes to your KPIs.

During the testing phase, track traffic quality, scalability, spend efficiency, app retention, and brand recall. These insights will help you identify which channels work best to drive incrementality and where they complement each other. For example, display campaigns might drive initial awareness, while retargeting on social platforms nurtures conversions. By integrating these results, you can allocate your peak season media spend more effectively and amplify the impact of your campaign. 

Amplify Your Strategy with Expert Insights and Channel Diversification

By combining the learnings from testing with the scalability of multiple channels, you can create a user acquisition strategy that delivers more results, even during the busiest times of the year.Connect with our Outcome Engine team today and learn how we can help you access new performance-based channels to amplify your user acquisition every season.