Marta Fogel

Q&A with Marta

This Q&A reflects Marta's time as Head of Performance Marketing at 7Mind. Currently, Marta is Head of Marketing at NeuroNation.

Marta Fogel heads up Performance Marketing at 7Mind, one of the global leaders in mindfulness and meditation. After completing a MA in Media and Communications, Marta moved to Berlin to begin her journey in the start-up world. Since then, she has established a track record of scaling mobile user acquisition globally at early-stage companies. As an active ambassador for mental well-being, Marta is on a mission to demystify meditation and mindfulness and make them accessible to people worldwide.

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

7Mind is a mindfulness app that helps users transform their mind into a powerful tool. We have more than 800 meditations available, regardless if you're just starting the journey with meditation or already a seasoned expert. Our courses cater to dealing with stressful and challenging situations but also towards well-being improvement. Topics range from everyday stress, crisis and anxiety management courses to more tailored ones, such as for yogis, parents-to-be, or those who tend to procrastinate or struggle to focus. We even offer courses for entire families.

7Mind’s unique meditations are the best way to practice self-care, learn techniques to reduce moments of stress, anxiety and frustration, and silence your inner critic. Find calm in the hustle and bustle of daily life and become a happier, more confident, you!

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

After my MA graduation, I got a traineeship at a fast-growing company in the lifestyle vertical. Back then, my boss believed in a holistic user approach, so our team managed different acquisition and retention functions. I was lucky enough to gain hands-on experience in performance marketing and CRM, which gave me a chance to understand that there is no monetization without an optimized user journey, coherent messaging, personalization, and user segmentation. After two years in this role, I chose to pursue my interests in performance marketing.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

It’s an incredibly dynamic industry, so you don’t have time to get into a comfort zone. I could be working on understanding target users, iterating creatives, strategizing on UA game plans, or staying vigilant on competitors’ strategy and business intelligence—it never gets boring, and that’s what I love!

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

In a nutshell: persistence, curiosity, and a never-give-up attitude. You also need to love engaging with numbers and not be afraid to ask questions.

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

It really starts with a great product. And while an optimized user journey with a personalized and segmented user base can do some magic for acquiring engaged users, I genuinely believe nothing can increase app stickiness more than a smoothly functioning app that makes a difference in your user's life.

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

Tailor to specific customer groups. When we collaborated with different players in the healthcare ecosystem, we adapted our UA strategy to the different types of users, based on their varying demographics and product interests. By tailoring messaging and targeting across both mobile and web applications, we created various user journeys and found the best-performing channels and assets. It took a lot of A/B testing of both networks and creatives, but diversifying our subscription modeling helped create unique and competitive offers and a resilient acquisition pipeline.

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

Marketers need to be methodical for re-engagement. Start by using segmentation as a baseline and working closely with your BI team to define user segments. Afterward, it’s crucial to develop a personalization game-plan, test hypotheses, and introduce the re-engagement channel mix (in-app, push notifications and e-mail marketing). Magic happens when this setup is done effectively. Devising promotion at the right moment (seasonality plays a large role here) has also helped us to further scale retention efforts.

The overall strategy varies depending on your business model and whether the campaign is more activation-oriented or win-back oriented. In any case, a user-centric approach with tailored messaging is always highly effective in lifting up engagement metrics.

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

Don't be afraid to experiment with the new concepts, even if your branding team isn't a fan of them.

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

Work closely with your MMP and stay well versed with the numbers. If something's off, recognize it, address it and protect your marketing budget.

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

I stay up to date with industry news by subscribing to many newsletters. I find these incredibly insightful: the Mobile Heroes newsletter from Liftoff Marketing, Thomas Petit's MADV, Mobile Marketing Magazine and a bunch of podcasts (e.g., Mobile Growth Nightmares, Growth Masterminds).