Alarmy is a widely acclaimed alarm app boasting an impressive user base of 75M+ global downloads. The app helps 2.2M+ users wake up every day, fully and completely, and is striving to accelerate its growth by using a balanced mix of organic and paid user acquisition strategies.

Introduced by Delight Room in 2012, Alarmy stands as one of the world’s most beloved alarm apps. With its unique mechanism of requiring users to complete tasks like taking photos or solving math problems to turn off the alarm, the app successfully helps its users wake up at the time they need to. The team uses a hybrid monetization model encompassing in-app ads and subscriptions, and invests the revenue generated in going the extra mile for user well-being.

Finding a needle in a haystack: The mission to spot high-value users

Despite generating significant profits from in-app ads, the Alarmy team was aware that converting free users into paying subscribers would substantially improve ROAS over time. This presented the intricate task of maintaining a constant flow of free users for the ad revenue while effectively driving their shift from freemium to premium.

Even though it was the monetization team that was mainly responsible, the situation was also relevant for the marketing team as their primary goal revolved around ROAS optimization. This meant that user acquisition took on an additional layer of complexity; it was necessary to identify whether the new users from various campaigns and channels held the potential to pay.

The organic-paid dilemma in user acquisition

Search cannibalization on Google Play and the App Store was another challenge. Having established itself as a market-leading app for over a decade, Alarmy enjoyed a robust influx of users through organic search – an advantageous factor that minimized spending typically associated with paid acquisition efforts. However, paid campaigns inadvertently encroached upon the organic search traffic, and the team had to offset the negative effect for marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

From acquisition to conversion: Adding context to funnel analysis

To achieve the foremost goal of improving ROAS, the Alarmy team devised a strategy to track the in-app conversion funnel. In addition to leveraging third-party product analytics tools and the expertise of their in-house data analytics team, they incorporated supplementary insights from Airbridge to reinforce their analysis.

The premise was that different marketing campaigns and channels often attract distinct user demographics with varying user behavior, and thus, users from a specific campaign or channel might have had their unique reasons for deciding to install and subscribe. However, product analytics alone could not demystify these reasons behind, offering a less complete picture.

Airbridge’s Funnel Report, on the other hand, enabled the Alarmy team to segment users at the campaign and channel levels. This cohort-based funnel analysis facilitated a clearer assessment of whether particular campaigns or channels had attracted more users who transitioned from free to paid plans. In other words, they could connect the dots from the awareness, consideration, and installation stages, which were driven by user acquisition campaigns, all the way to the engagement and retention stages, represented by in-app events such as signing up for a free trial or paying for an annual plan. The fact that Airbridge, as a mobile measurement partner (MMP), provided data from self-attributing networks (SANs) also helped with getting a holistic view of the user journey.

By using product analytics tools and Airbridge together, the Alarmy team could refine user experience and allocate resources more effectively. Ultimately, these efforts enhanced conversion rates and ROAS within the competitive landscape of alarm apps.

Pushing granular insights for higher marketing effectiveness

To tackle search cannibalization and optimize marketing activities without diminishing the organic user base, Alarmy took on two approaches. The first was to quantify the extent to which paid campaigns impacted organic search traffic so that the team could calculate ROAS more accurately. The second, which involved the use of Airbridge, was to analyze marketing performance even down to the keyword level.

The Alarmy team wished to understand the performance of their target keywords to invest more in the lower-performing ones with less organic traffic and minimize spending on the higher-performing ones. Fortunately, Airbridge provided performance measurement of each search keyword, eliminating the need for the marketing team to laboriously export and map data from Apple Search Ads.

As Airbridge streamlined and accelerated the analysis process, the Alarmy team could pivot their focus from manual data manipulation to strategic decision-making. This not only saved valuable time but also fostered a more tailored approach to paid acquisition strategies.

Alarmy believes that with a great product, business success follows, and this belief is in line with the team’s unique mission to wake people up, fully and completely. It is now striving to go beyond the boundaries of an alarm app, evolving into a wellness app that makes mornings delightful.

Sean Lee, Director of Business Development at Delight Room, draws parallels between Alarmy and Airbridge. He said, “Airbridge understands the essence of what it has to offer as an MMP. Its objective, transparent, and accurate performance analysis allows marketers to realize the true impact of their efforts.”

As Alarmy continues to move forward, Airbridge remains committed to empowering the team and all other mobile marketers around the world, helping them discover their true sources of growth.