Developing an app with an epic design and receiving initial traction is one thing, but what happens when users’ attention drifts to other relevant apps, causing them to forget all about yours?
That’s when you want to use app retargeting to win users back again.
So don’t think it’s a closed chapter when a user leaves. There are always effective methods you can use to re-engage them with your app.
In this guide, we walk you through the many layers of the mobile app retargeting realm and how the best remarketing companies can help you revamp your app, making you the centre of attraction in the app market once again.Â
What is app retargeting?
Mobile app retargeting refers to ad campaigns designed to reach individuals who have already engaged with, visited, or installed your app.
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Grow in-app revenue and build user loyalty with custom retargeting and churn prediction campaigns from Adikteev.
Get startedThis concept aims to implement bespoke retargeting and remarketing techniques to try and encourage users to re-engage and, this time, fully complete the user journey of your app.
Retargeting previous customers can go a long way, as you already have an idea of what features initially piqued their interest.
You need to determine what features led them to seek similar services elsewhere. Therefore, remarketing for mobile apps involves tailored campaigns and efforts based on previous performance and user behaviour data.
But more on this later.
It’s important to specify, though, that your need to retarget your previous users does not mean that your app services were inadequate or not valuable as much as other apps.
People abandon apps for various reasons, revealing a consistent pattern in the app world: users visit an app, install it, engage with it briefly, and then leave it.
Most of the time, all that these users needed was a bit more seasoning to stay committed to your app.
We understand the significant effort that goes into developing an app, from brainstorming a great idea to writing the application, so we don’t want that to go to waste for you.
And if you are facing a greater number of inactivity than usual, app retargeting can get you back in the game in no time.
The best mobile app retargeting companies
Mobile app retargeting companies specialise in helping businesses re-engage users who have already installed their app but haven’t completed key actions, such as making a purchase, subscribing, or returning after a period of inactivity.
These companies utilise tech such as in-app tracking, behavioural segmentation, and dynamic ad placements to display personalised ads to users across other apps, mobile websites, and social platforms. The goal is to encourage users to return to the app and complete the desired action, thereby boosting retention, engagement, and revenue.
Retargeting is a crucial strategy for enhancing user lifetime value and optimising return on ad spend in a hyper-competitive mobile landscape.
We’ve listed the best mobile app retargeting companies below.
1. Adikteev
Adikteev is a marketing platform that helps mobile apps re-engage users who have become inactive. Through app retargeting, Adikteev delivers personalised ads to individuals who have already installed an app but haven’t completed a key action, such as making a purchase or returning after a period of inactivity.
These ads appear across other apps and mobile websites to bring users back to the original app, thereby increasing overall engagement and retention.
What sets Adikteev apart is its combination of smart audience targeting and creative ad production. Using data and machine learning, the platform identifies high-value users and predicts who’s likely to churn. Their in-house creative team then builds tailored ad formats—such as interactive or video ads—to make the message more effective.
Overview
Adikteev was founded in 2012 in Paris by Xavier Mariani, Emilien Eychenne, and Frédéric Leroy. Xavier Mariani serves as the CEO, Emilien Eychenne is the Chief Revenue Officer, and Frédéric Leroy played a key role in the company’s early development.
Since its launch, Adikteev has grown from a local startup into an international company, expanding its presence with offices in Europe and the United States. It has become a recognised leader in mobile app retargeting, known for its focus on user retention, creative ad production, and measurable campaign impact.
Services
Adikteev provides its customers with the following services:
- Helps drive conversions by targeting existing users with ads inside other mobile apps
- They design and test performance-driven ad creatives (banners, videos, playables) tailored to different user segments
- Provides tools to measure the actual value of re-engagement
2. Remerge
Remerge is a mobile ad platform that specialises in app retargeting. Its main goal is to help app developers and marketers re-engage users. What sets Remerge apart is its focus on scale, speed, and measurable results. It processes a high volume of user data every second to ensure timely and relevant ad delivery.
The platform also emphasises transparency and performance tracking by measuring the actual impact of its campaigns, so app owners can see how much of their success is directly linked to retargeting.
Overview
Remerge was founded in 2014 by a team led by Pan Katsukis, with co-founders including Martin Karlsch, Ben Beivers, Bene, and Christian Liesegang.
Remerge has grown into a global player in programmatic app advertising. Headquartered in Berlin, they’ve expanded with offices in New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul, supporting large-scale in-app retargeting worldwide.
Services
Remerge provides its customers with the following services:
- Targets inactive users with personalised ads across other apps
- Delivers banners, videos, and interactive ads tailored to user behaviour
- Measures campaign impact using uplift testing and real-time analytics
3. Jampp
Jampp is a mobile-focused marketing platform that uses programmatic advertising to help app teams grow and retain users.
It combines user acquisition and re-engagement strategies within a single system, leveraging machine learning to analyse in-app behaviour and bid automatically.
The result: marketers can optimise campaigns in real time, serve personalised ads, and efficiently reach people likely to install or return to the app.
Overview
Founded in 2013 by Diego Meller, Martin Añazco, and Gabriel Oyarzabal, Jampp has expanded globally, with offices in San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Singapore.
In 2021, it became part of Affle, a larger consumer intelligence company. Despite the acquisition, Jampp continues to operate under its own brand and tech, focusing on helping mobile brands increase engagement, conversions, and lifetime value.
Services
Jampp provides its customers with the following services:
- Acquires high-quality users through programmatic ad campaigns
- Re-engages inactive users with personalised in-app ads
- Optimises performance using real-time data and machine learning
4. ASTRAD
ASTRAD is an advertising platform that helps brands run targeted ad campaigns across mobile, desktop, connected TV, and digital out-of-home channels.
The platform is designed for flexibility, offering service models that range from fully self-serve to white-label solutions.
ASTRAD also includes creative tools for building ads in various formats—such as video, banners, native, and audio—along with real-time reporting and analytics. Its focus on transparency and performance makes it a strong option for both user acquisition and retargeting at scale.
Overview
ASTRAD was founded in 2015 by Daniel Macia, who launched the company to offer a flexible, performance-driven programmatic advertising platform.
Headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, and later expanding to London and Barcelona, ASTRAD offers a comprehensive, full-stack DSP solution tailored for both brand-focused and performance-focused marketers.
Under Macia’s leadership, the platform has become known for combining real-time bidding across multiple channels.
Services
ASTRAD provides its customers with the following services:
- Real-time programmatic ad campaigns across mobile, desktop, and connected TV
- Audience targeting with data management and geolocation options
- In-platform creative tools and analytics for optimised performance
Why do I need mobile ad retargeting?
Did you know that 25% of users abandon apps after only one use? Despite apps being users’ mainstay to effectively engage with a variety of services, developers still struggle to improve long-term user retention.
To provide some additional valid facts, apps running retargeting campaigns between 2018 and 2019 saw a higher increase in revenue (63%) compared to apps that did not implement retargeting campaigns (43%).
This means that your focus when developing your app should be on giving your users compelling reasons to stay, thereby avoiding cancellation and missing out on all that revenue.
The best app strategies mostly depend on one thing and one thing only: getting people to actually use them.
When a user loses interest in your app during the early stages of downloading, getting them to come back can be a significant challenge.
This is where mobile app retargeting can help you.
Benefits of retargeting app users
App retargeting offers a range of advantages and extends beyond simply engaging users and motivating them to make an initial download.
Because re-engaging users can be a more complex task, remarketing companies can provide bespoke strategies to ensure you achieve the best results from implementing the app retargeting concept.
As you have likely already invested considerable time and resources in acquiring users, now is the time to focus on retaining them.
But what other benefits can you achieve by implementing mobile app retargeting?
Track user interactions
App remarketing allows you to install retargeting events, which enable you to track your users’ behaviour and how they interact within your app. Such interactions include, for example, what travel dates they select or what category filters they apply.
When these events are triggered, you can categorise users based on their previous actions. This will allow you to customise messages across your app inventory.
So when a user clicks on your retargeted ads, it will direct them to now more relevant content in the app, such as a flight scheduled on the travel dates they selected earlier.
Increase engagement
You can also be sure to drive more engagement when implementing app retargeting measures.
This includes increasing app visits, session durations, impressions as well as other valuable in-app activities that will turn these interactions into profitable actions and conversions.
Boost user retention
App retargeting also means upping your app user retention instantly, which can ultimately lead to increased app visit frequency and a decrease in churn.
Knowing all this, you can now be confident that app retargeting is a must-have concept for developers to attract and retain customers for long-term success and to keep that revenue flowing.
As the market becomes increasingly populated with apps, focusing on keeping your users proves to be the most profitable approach, which is the core purpose of mobile app retargeting and, therefore, a function that will significantly benefit you and your app.
How do mobile retargeting ads work?
The mobile advertising system can be very complicated, especially when you try to read informative blogs online that throw a bunch of technical terms at you.
So let’s put things very simply.
Imagine this: A user searches your app for flights that depart around Christmas. Your app, therefore, starts to track their interactions and journey as they navigate through your app.
But then they get distracted by a video and abandon your app. Their purchasing intent is recorded, the impression is purchased, and a product recommendation is selected.
If the app on which they are watching the video belongs to a retargeting publisher’s ad network that you partner with, the retargeting process will be carried out, displaying relevant ads for flights the users have browsed, along with new suggestions, such as pricing and exclusive offers.
This ad will include a so-called ‘deep link’ technology, which is a link that directs not only to a mobile app, but to a particular window in the app. So it can link to the app’s homepage or another page.
An example of a mobile app retargeting ad:
Source: Mobile App Retargeting
Ensure that your app has a properly installed URL scheme for these direct links. For example, if you have an Instagram profile link in a post that focuses on a particular feature of your app, you want the user to navigate to the relevant page of your app, not just the home screen.
The same applies to users who do not have your app installed on their device yet. So, you want to ensure they are redirected to the App Store or Google Play Store, and then directed to the right page once installed.
Back to our scenario, the user will then (preferably) click on the ad, which will, via the direct link, direct them back to your app to complete the purchase.
And there you go, you have re-engaged a user and remarketed your services successfully.
What are the challenges of mobile ad retargeting?
Mobile marketers invest a lot of time and money in their apps. Big budgets are often set aside to drive app downloads, because you know that apps can attract and build relationships with high-value users.
However, app usage often declines after installation.
Without a strategy to actively engage your app downloaders, installed base usage can quickly decrease. Apps that fail to engage users and sit unused are eventually getting deleted, and the opportunity to engage high-value users is lost.
The churn of unengaged users occurs rapidly after app installation, with only about 1 in 10 users remaining after seven days.
Your app can be amazing. But if your users forget about it, all of that effort goes to waste.
This is why you should invest in getting onboard with app retargeting technology.
Get started with mobile app retargeting companies
Now that we know the value of mobile app retargeting across channels, let’s look at some of the best companies in the market that can help you maximise the ROI of your retargeting campaigns.
Obviously, the platform you choose has to suit your business. While it’s not as simple as picking a platform out of a hat, we hope this information will help you make the right decision.