Jade Worobec

Jade leads performance marketing for The Meet Group’s portfolio of social apps, focusing on driving global new user growth for MeetMe, Skout, and Tagged. She began her career as a jack-of-all-trades marketer, managing brand, social media, event, and content marketing in the Bay Area startup world. Jade then pivoted to mobile marketing for Skout, and subsequently joined The Meet Group through company acquisition.

In your own words, tell us about the apps that you manage?

MeetMe, Skout, and Tagged help people meet, date, and form friendships through live streaming and chatting. Through our apps, millions of users connect every day within these online communities.

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

My first job in mobile was running influencer marketing campaigns for the Skout app and expanding the program worldwide. What I enjoyed most from this experience was digging into data to measure campaign success by country, which made for a natural transition into user acquisition for Skout. I hit the ground running and quickly grew from being a UA newbie to managing multiple paid channels and vendor relationships for our global campaigns.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

Performance marketing is all about measurable results. I love working in a space where both my data-driven and creative sides can shine, and it never gets boring because the industry is always changing.

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

This industry is fast-paced and constantly evolving, so there are always opportunities to learn more and avoid your strategy growing stale. Be willing to adapt, take risks, and learn from your mistakes, as not everything you try will work out – which is okay!

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

Determine what constitutes a valuable post-install action in your app and set your campaigns to optimize on a CPA. By shifting your strategy away from buying installs and optimizing towards a more valuable action, such as a “first livestream”, you will acquire higher quality and more engaged users.

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

User-generated content is powerful, and it’s worth jumping through hoops to get it. After cultivating relationships with our top live streamers and building mutual trust, we were granted permission to use real user content in our ads. It took time, but it has become an effective way to create a steady flow of content that translates to high performing ads and resonates with our target audience.

COVID-19 has had an uneven impact on the mobile industry, with many companies benefitting from the increased time at home. How has the pandemic impacted your business? And what changes did you make to your marketing strategy as a result?

Our apps have played a role during this difficult time by helping people find support through online communities. With an emphasis on health and safety, we shifted our focus toward promoting live video and in-app chat rather than encouraging meetings in person. We’re also reminding our users that there are ways to date virtually, including our Live section, playing the speed dating game NextDate, or via 1:1 video.

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

The strongest re-engagement tool for our apps has always been when a user takes an action on another user, like sending a message. These types of actions are effective for pulling a user back into the app because it reminds them why they joined the app in the first place — to meet new people. Having a product that can send compelling push notifications will go a long way in maximizing user retention and re-engagement.

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

Get to the point. Think about your own attention span when using your phone – how long do your eyes linger on ads? Communicate your app’s value proposition so that it’s understandable at a glance and will resonate with the right audience.

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

1. Select an MMP that offers a fraud solution. This should serve as your first line of defense.
2. Work with trusted partners. Establish baseline metrics for normal behavior based on dependable channels, then set hard KPIs for new test campaigns.
3. Approach each new test with a healthy amount of skepticism. Note that anything that looks too good to be true probably is, and your team should dig deeper to find out why.
4. Pay attention to other downstream metrics that may not have been included in your hard KPIs. You may see a source that meets KPIs like install to registration conversion rate, but chat activity (or another relevant post-install event) is non-existent.
5. Remember that fraudsters are constantly evolving, so it helps to reach out to industry peers to learn more about their experiences.

What is your go-to resource for keeping up with the mobile ad tech industry?

My go-to resources include attending mobile conferences, diving into good reads of industry newsletters, and watching mobile ad tech-related webinars.