Q&A with Alessandra

Alessandra Miuccio is a Performance Marketing Lead at Glovo, responsible for optimizing campaign performance and developing user acquisition strategies. Before Glovo, Alessandra managed lead generation, install and conversion campaigns at JustEat, BurgerKing and CornerJob. Fascinated in understanding mobile device usage and the thrilling challenge of acquiring new app users, Alessandra currently steers user growth at the fast-growing delivery app in Europe.

Read Alessandra's latest article: "Testing and Optimizing Ad Creatives in Google UACs"

In your own words, tell us about the app(s) that you manage?

Glovo is a delivery app that brings your city’s best products to you in a few minutes. You can order food, groceries, items from your favorite stores or pharmacy… really, anything you fancy. Our app was born to transform the way users acquire what they need, making cities more accessible. Thanks to our disruptive approach, Glovo is the fastest-growing delivery player in Europe, Western Asia and Africa.

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

I was very keen on gaining experience in Digital Marketing after graduating from college, so I enrolled at EAE Business School for a Master’s Degree and actively looked for internships to put my skills to the test. I started working at an email and mobile marketing agency where I learned the ins and outs of acquisition and performance marketing: attribution, important measurement KPIs, best-performing networks, and best marketing platforms for app businesses. Now I continue my curiosity in mobile advertising at Glovo.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

I am fascinated by the nature of mobile devices: smartphones have become an extension of ourselves. We don’t go anywhere without them, and we use them from the morning to the late night for almost everything: video calling, taking pictures, checking tomorrow’s weather, reading emails.

Mobile marketing is a unique frame to showcase your product or service, and the challenge is delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right user—all in a constantly and rapidly changing industry.

I enjoy creating strategies for different stages of the funnel, thinking of the best channels to reach the right audience, and determining which creatives are the most effective for impacting users.

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What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

As long as you feel comfortable working in a fast-changing environment, success in mobile marketing will come. Always be willing to learn and stay updated about the latest industry news. You must also have a hands-on attitude and, most importantly: don’t fear failure or testing. Put yourself in the user's shoes and design marketing campaigns based on insights from your customers.

What strategies work best to convert installs into engaged app users?

Your ads should look for user retention, not just “the click.” Achieve this by closely collaborating and aligning with other teams such as Sales, Product, and Operations.

  • Sales: As you work on increasing demand in marketplaces, check if the offer is available before getting users to your app. For example, in the real estate sector, make sure there is a fair amount of apartment listings; in food delivery, make sure you have a good number of restaurants.
  • Product: Communicate the best or new features your app currently offers. Make sure these features smoothly function without any bugs before promoting.
  • Operations: If you want to highlight, for instance, how fast you are on delivery times, make sure you can accomplish that. The message conveyed in your ads must be true to what your app can offer. Be sincere, not disingenuous.

In the past year, what is one tip you can share which made the biggest performance difference for your UA strategy?

Adapt fast to the moment you are living in.

Glovo offers different categories from which users can make orders: restaurants, groceries, snacks, para pharmacy. When the pandemic started, we saw a rapid change in the share of new users per ad category. So, we shifted our focus towards creating content that followed our insights.

In one case, we created a single ad promoting Glovo’s courier service - to test the category within our campaigns. After several weeks of this ad category growing, we refreshed it by including the top three use cases our users have. Soon after, both ads ranked in our top 10 best performing ads during the first lockdown in Europe.

What advice can you offer marketers to successfully re-engage mobile app users?

I always go back to this: customize ads based on the user’s experience.

First, analyze and understand the app’s user journey: why they came, what they visited, and why they left. This gives you hints on how best to approach users again with the right message.

Second, work with the CRM team to align audience communications and the moment in which a team impacts users.

Try following an up-sell strategy to users who had a great first experience, then cross-selling to those who showed interest in different products or categories, or promoting new features or special discounts to the users who haven’t come back in a while.

What’s your top tip when it comes to mobile ad creative?

Go straight to the action you want a user to make, or the message you want a user to remember. Be catchy and convey the value proposition in the first 3 seconds—especially if it is a video.

Customizing your ad placements and making the most of data-driven user insights will also help curate content relevant to your core audience.

What advice can you offer to help marketers combat mobile ad fraud?

  1. Look carefully at the pre and post-install data.
  2. Establish user behavior patterns.
  3. Set up a notification process when something odd is detected.

Nowadays, there are outstanding ad fraud detection companies. Most of the tracking platforms include an anti-ad fraud solution, or businesses rely on their BI/Data team to build this analysis and alarm configuration in-house.

What are your top 3 go-to resources for keeping up with the mobile ad tech industry?

  • For business updates - MMA SmartBriefs newsletters.
  • For case studies - platforms and channels communications.
  • For best practices and tricks - nothing better than conversations and debates with the channel’s accountants and mobile marketing peers!

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