As a mobile app marketer, you know that improving click-through rates (CTR) is a challenge. With so many push notifications that users receive daily, it takes work to stand out and grab their attention. What can help? Sending push notifications at a time when users are more likely to engage with them (=optimal time).
Pushwoosh understands the challenge and has come up with a solution: the Optimal time feature calculates the best time to send push notifications to each user individually based on their previous behavior.
Keep reading to learn more about what marketing results you can achieve by sending your pushes at the Optimal time prompted by Pushwoosh.
What is the best time to send push notifications?
If you are wondering what the best time to send push notifications is, you will find a variety of answers online. Some recommend sending them in the morning when people wake up, while others suggest evenings when they have free time to engage with your app.
But the truth is, these recommendations are not one-size-fits-all and what works for one app may not work for another. Therefore, it's more effective to calculate the optimal time for the audience of your particular app and ideally, even personalize it for each user.
What are the possible methods to estimate the best time for your audience?
If you want to calculate the optimal time for your app audience, it all comes back to analyzing customer behavior and relying on automation. If you use a customer engagement platform for mobile messaging, there are a few possible strategies you can leverage:
1. Experimenting with A/B tests. By comparing the results of the groups involved in testing, you can determine which timing works best for your audience.
❌ The limitations of this method are that it’s effort-consuming and that it doesn’t take into account individual behavior patterns.
2. Sending push notifications in response to events triggered in the app. When you send a push notification in response to a user’s in-app activity (e.g., a user has viewed a particular app page), you increase your chances of making this message timely and relevant.
❌ What if a user hasn’t performed an action? You will still have to figure out the best time to send your message.
3. Using Pushwoosh's Optimal time feature. It will benefit those marketers who seek to fully automate the process of estimating the best time to send, as well as make it individual for each user. The tool is available out of the box, reducing time costs and load on the marketing function.
Surefire solution – Optimal time estimated by Pushwoosh
With the Optimal time feature, you can send push notifications when users are most likely to interact with them.
How does Pushwoosh determine the optimal time?
The optimal time is calculated automatically based on previous user behavior: =the time they open the app most often and tend to open pushes you send. The calculation is updated every two hours, providing higher accuracy and personalization.
The Optimal time feature is available in Pushwoosh Customer Journey Builder. You can schedule your messaging for a period starting the following day to one month later. You just need to pick the date, while the rest will be done by Pushwoosh!
What happens if there is a lack of data for a specific user?
In this case, a user will receive a message at a default time that you set for them.
Try out all the features for effective scheduled messaging in Pushwoosh:
What types of apps will benefit from the feature?
The Optimal time feature is particularly useful for the apps that run user engagement and promotional campaigns:
- E-commerce apps;
- Gaming apps;
- Subscription-based apps (fitness, health, education, etc.).
The Optimal time is not effective for media apps when they report breaking news or delivery apps when they inform users about their orders – obviously, these cases imply swift, time-sensitive messaging.
However, media apps can still benefit from the feature when sending periodic news digests to their users.
What results to expect
By enabling the Optimal time feature, mobile marketers may expect an up to 30–40% increase in campaign CTRs (according to Pushwoosh's internal study).
Moreover, you can expect an improvement in the metrics that are most relevant for your industry:
- E-commerce apps: conversion to purchase, revenue;
- Gaming apps: conversion to purchase, engagement, retention;
- Subscription-based apps: conversion to paid subscribers, ARPU, engagement, retention;
- Media apps: website traffic.
Drive your CTR with Pushwoosh's Optimal time feature
With Pushwoosh’s Optimal time feature, you can send push notifications at the time that is the most favorable for each individual user, leveling up the personalization of your campaigns and driving CTRs as well as other marketing metrics. Try out the Optimal time feature to see how it can benefit your mobile app. Sign up to Pushwoosh today to get started.
