• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, Yesterday

A European travel app increased conversions 25.8% by running ads programmatically on the open web, despite reports that Google and Meta Platforms seemingly receive more than half of performance marketing budgets.

Even after a year of running the campaign through Zoomd Technologies, new active users were generated monthly.

Some 27% of the users per month who downloaded and installed the app made a purchase, compared with only 18% of organic users who found the app by going directly into either iOS and Android app stores

The average revenue purchase per user of new users acquired through the DSP was approximately $8.25 or €7.09 versus only approximately $4.33 or €3.72 for organic users.

When asked about the substantial gap between new users acquired through the app and organically, the Zoomd Technologies team pointed to intent data.

The prospective users were targeted via intent or interest in the app, and that behavioral intent data could be based by downloading other types of complementary apps, location, and other potentially relevant criteria.

It reaffirms that consumers who are legitimately in the market for a service or product will become more profitable for the brand than those who happen to just query something. 

U.S. local advertising (excluding political advertising) is expected to reach $171 billion in 2025 -- a 6.1% increase from 2024 -- driven predominantly through increases in digital ad spending, according advertising consultancy BIA Advisory Services.

The programmatic user acquisition campaign ran through Zoomd Technologies' demand-side platform (DSP) across 150 European cities in nine countries and eight languages. 

Supply-side platforms got involved (SSPs) to hyper-localize targeting supported by a city and language-specific creative to reach the 150 cities and markets being targeted by DSPs. 

The DSP analyzed performance across different segmentation targets -- including operating system, manufacturer, device, language, ad creative, and dayparts to achieve campaign KPIs.

Zoomd Technologies analyzed results and optimized the performance of revenue-generating post-install events, such as first purchases. This gave it the ability to measure KPIs through the user journey, from initial ad engagement to download, install and uninstall.