Zhi Wei Neo

Q&A with Zhi Wei

This Q&A reflects Zhi Wei's time as Senior Manager, Growth & Analytics at Tinder. Currently, Zhi Wei is Growth Marketing Manager, APAC at Google.

Zhi Wei Neo is Senior Manager, Growth & Analytics at Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. With diverse experience working and living in Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore, Zhi Wei is a mobile champion of understanding APAC marketing dynamics. Zhi Wei’s firm grasp of cultural norms helps him scale and grow global apps in divided regional markets. At Tinder, Zhi Wei leads performance marketing in Korea and Southeast Asia.

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

I started my career as mobile apps were rising in popularity and usage. Many companies were beginning to shift their marketing budget towards mobile and ad platforms were rolling out new mobile-focused ad products. With the excitement surrounding apps, clients placed more emphasis on mobile. I swiftly pivoted to learning more about mobile marketing and launched my first mobile-only campaign. The rest is history.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

Millions of users go online daily, and the majority of them do so through a mobile device. Working in the mobile space gives me a rewarding ability to connect with the next generation of users and play a part in shaping the future of the internet.

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

First and foremost, be comfortable with handling a large volume of data to uncover trends and insights. In bigger teams, you might have members to support data analyses. But in smaller team settings, you must possess the analytical skills to identify data-driven insights.

Secondly, keep up to date on the latest industry changes. Ad tech, media channels, and user preferences are constantly evolving. It is helpful to have a group of close peers across verticals to share ideas with and discuss the latest industry news (like the Mobile Heroes Slack Community).

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

You need to have strong alignment among creatives, app store pages, onboarding process, UX/UI and CRM. Consistent messages and visuals throughout the user journey will help deliver a seamless experience for the user. The first impression counts, especially in a crowded marketplace. Inconsistency and confusion in the process will lead to increased user drop-offs.

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

I allocate a small test budget for local ad networks and partners in each market. Usually there will be a couple local partners outperforming regular UA channels, especially in non-English speaking markets. The testing process may take a while, but I find this a crucial and necessary step to scale internationally.

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

Craft a new message to emphasize why users should return to the app. The new message should ideally be different from what is running in regular UA campaigns. From my experience, promoting a new feature usually helps. When a new feature or update is released, it may be worth running a re-engagement campaign to bring back lapsed users.

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

Include the app's interface in the creative. The interface gives potential users a preview of what they can expect, which helps to overcome the mental barrier of figuring out a new product. If possible, highlight the ease of getting started with the product through the creative.

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

Most MMPs have controls in place to combat mobile ad fraud. Ensure you opt-in to these services. Another tip is maintaining regular communication with your media partners. By speaking frequently with one another, you can be more proactive in turning off placements that are flagged.

Moreover, marketers must work closely with internal teams (e.g product, engineering, analytics). Take a deeper look into databases and identify users with activities deviating from the norm. From here, trace the media channels used to acquire these users and further investigate.

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

• Medium, Reddit, Quora - tech professionals share extensively about their experiences in these online communities.
• Blogs from ad networks and MMPs - I like to learn about the latest innovations and ideas from companies shaping the industry.
• Digital marketing news sites (e.g AdExchanger, Mobile Dev Memo)