When Berlin-based dating app ODXCLUB broke onto the scene in 2022, they needed help defining the best possible user acquisition strategy so that they could scale their service and stand out from the crowd.
Award-winning 360° app marketing consulting agency REPLUG shot ODXCLUB’s female user registration rate up by 213% and cut total cost-per-action (CPA) by 62%.
In this interview, REPLUG’s co-founder Lorenzo Rossi reveals the strategies his team uses to boost mobile app revenue and power impactful marketing campaigns for brands like ODXCLUB.
Who Is Lorenzo Rossi?
With over a decade of experience in mobile marketing and app growth, Lorenzo is committed to delivering measurable results and tangible value by boosting downloads and revenue. He also co-founded Mobile Marketing Italia, a platform dedicated to sharing valuable content on mobile marketing in Italian.
These days, understanding how effective your mobile app marketing strategies are can be tricky.
But before traditional companies make the move to the mobile app space, Lorenzo says it is important to remember that from a user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) point of view, mobile apps work differently than mobile web.
“Many traditional companies believe that having an app means just creating a mobile version of their website, and everything will come. This is far from true.
Users interact with apps differently than a website,” he explains.
This also translates to different marketing strategies. He points out that, from a product and a marketing perspective, you need mobile-first analytics tools to track mobile marketing activities.
“Forget Google Analytics or Firebase to track results; you need a mobile measurement partner (MMP),” he says.
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This also means that promoting a mobile app is done differently as compared to marketing a website or an offline store. To this end, there are different channels, tactics, metrics, and optimization methods.
“Different communication strategies can make a difference when spending your budget efficiently. Don’t forget that the competition in app promotion is fierce, and every slight difference makes a difference.
So, if you really want to transition from traditional to mobile, you need to think mobile first,” he adds.
To make the most of a mobile-first approach, focus on mobile-first web design too. This will ensure that your app or website is easy to use and looks great on smaller screens.
Watch our video to learn the difference between mobile-first and responsive web design:
Lorenzo adds that brands also typically struggle with data and trackability of mobile app marketing activities.
“With iOS14 and SKAN limitations, there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty that can be solved with the right technical setup and good analytics skills.”
He emphasizes that being able to track your results and attribute the revenues to the right traffic channels is highly important.
“Nowadays, it’s become more and more difficult to understand how effective your app marketing campaigns are; hence, [businesses need to] allocate the budgets efficiently to the best channels.
Use the right tools to track results. Attention to detail is crucial in 2025,” he adds.
Understanding Mobile Marketing Dynamics
REPLUG started its marketing activities for ODXCLUB on different levels, varying from brand positioning to performance campaigns.
For example, the campaign started on Apple Search Ads, Facebook, TikTok, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, and Reddit.
“TikTok, in particular, allowed us to decrease global CPA and focus on women, thanks to a UGC strategy focused on micro-influencers,” says Lorenzo.
Then, using an extensive report on Google Data Studio, the agency analyzed the results and made decisions based on the data.
Lorenzo says one of the biggest challenges during the process was acquiring enough female users for ODXCLUB’s app, adding that obstacles like these are common for niche apps.
To resolve this, the team focused on identifying the most cost-effective channel through rigorous testing on targeting, platforms, messages, and creatives.
REPLUG typically does this via its unique framework, which identifies other growth levers in app store optimization, user onboarding, CRM, and retention.
It tested over 200 creative concepts, UGC, and classic banners, carousels, and animations, as well as different age groups, interests, audiences, etc., for ODXCLUB.
“It’s important to adopt channel differentiation when it comes to targeting specific niches and also when promoting an app in a limited geographic area. As usual, testing is the basis of success,” he points out.
Phillip Schacht, ODXCLUB’s head of digital marketing, says these methods boosted the app’s user base from zero to 20,000 in a short time.
“While constantly increasing the female share of our user acquisition efforts and reducing the CPA for females, REPLUG decreased the total CPA by over 62%.
By pushing towards a UGC approach on TikTok, they managed to reduce our CPA with UGC in one month by almost 50%. They gave us very good recommendations and optimized our creative strategy accordingly, resulting in an impressive 213% increase in our registration rate,” he adds.
Judging by these results, it's no wonder that Replug is ranked as one of the top marketing agencies in Europe.
Leveraging Data for Strategic Decisions
Because mobile marketing strategies require different approaches, it is important to remember that no one approach is a clear-cut solution.
Enhancing user retention and monetization also requires engagement, and according to Lorenzo, paid user acquisition is not enough.
“User engagement is an aspect of app marketing that cannot be ignored anymore.
We need to be sure to engage with the users who download the app, both organically and through paid campaigns so that we ‘help’ the users take the first steps into our app and convert them to the action we want them to take,” he shares.
App developers also need to keep a closer eye on data privacy. According to Zimperium, 82% of phishing sites now target mobile devices.
Trust is a key factor when a user chooses to download an app.
“Transparency is paramount. When the user downloads the app, we must explain to them what type of personal information we will access and for which reasons.
The most important thing is consent. If users give you consent, you can collect more data and use it for targeting, engagement, and re-targeting purposes,” Lorenzo emphasizes.
This is where user onboarding comes to the forefront when requesting privacy and permissions.
“But you need to be ‘good’ at convincing them to give you consent.
Be transparent and give them a reason, and don’t forget that there are still various ways to track user activity anonymously,” he points out.
The same goes for artificial intelligence (AI). Although REPLUG is trying to integrate AI and machine learning across its creative production, learning, and analysis activities, Lorenzo believes the human touch plays a relevant role in campaign optimization and creative ideas.
“We need to teach AI to help us produce assets and analyze what we want to see. Otherwise, we will end up using all the same banners, ad copies, etc.
At the end of the day, AI will make us more productive if we’re smart enough to use it properly,” he says.
Success hinges on a strategic, data-driven approach tailored for mobile platforms.
By prioritizing the mobile experience across various channels, brands will be better positioned to reshape and boost their app revenue in 2025 while remaining agile.
