Calm: user acquisition strategy
Calm is a meditation product and a well-known brand for those who work with mobile apps. In 2019 it became The First Mental Health Unicorn.
At the end of 2019, the product had 2 million paid subscribers and 40 million downloads in total. On average, the app gets 800 000 — 1 000 000 downloads monthly [Source]. Just imagine, it’s like acquire San-Francisco every month.
Let’s discover how they do it.
The main driving force of its user acquisition is paid advertising.
I can say it, based on external signs:
- Facebook Ads Library listed approximately 1900 ads. Moreover, they launched new ads almost every day
- One can also find short promo videos on their YouTube channel, made special for Google Ads campaigns
- Apple Search Ads while surfing App Store
I have checked Mobile Actions app intelligence tool and find more info about Calm paid advertising: what paid channels they use and distribution of creatives and impressions among them.
Here we get the first insight: 80% of creatives have been promoted on Facebook Ads (Facebook, Instagram, FB Native).
In terms of impression division, we see another situation. Facebook Ads provide approximately 55% of impressions, followed by Ironsource with 33%.
Taking into account channel distribution, Calm uses the entire arsenal of existing creatives formats — video, static and interactive ads.
I’ve analyzed Calm ads on a different platform and find out following distinctive characteristics of Calm paid ads:
1. Video first ads
Preparing this article, I find myself thinking about video creatives only. I checked Facebook Ads Library one more time and didn’t find any static banner. Nevertheless, I found one in Google Ads campaign. I can assume that it can be an ad from Universal App Campaign.
2. Brand-savvy
All ads are made in one style: nature, abstractions, blue, white, and violet colors, white or black text, logo — that’s all about Calm ads. The brand is the main selling point. The only exception is playable ads (we’ll talk about them later).
3. Long video ads
The average length of the ad is 30–40 seconds. At the same time, Facebook recommends making videos around 15 seconds long or less [Source].
4. Adaptations
Calm marketers adapt creatives for different placement on different platforms: Facebook (Feed Stories), Google Ads (YouTube), Tapjoy. They even made up a special ad concept for playable ads. You can find them later in the article.
5. Localizations
In addition to size and platform adaptations, Calm marketing team pays attention to ad localizations. I found German, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish ads.
6. Basic variations testing
Among 1900 Facebook ads one can find similar videos that differ in text. Guys are constantly looking for the new button to push and trigger the prospects.
7. Simple ideas & visual consistency
To summarize, I must admit that the ads have simple ideas and relatively simple and understandable implementation. Designers use very similar visuals, ad composition, and footages for a very long period. As I understand, they rely on the brand and ads must also be consistent with brand guidelines.
Creative concepts
After examining Facebook ad library and Mobile Action Ad Intelligence tool I highlighted 6 most common Calm creative concepts.
- Reviews
- Instant Meditation
- Sleep Story with famous people
- Question/statement referring to the problem
- Success story
- Mix of above-mentioned concepts
Reviews
The ad idea is simple — calming video footage, inspiring review, and 5 stars. I scrolled down all the ads and noticed that they use the same review for at least half of the year.
Instant Meditation
The app promotes short meditations and also try them in the ads. One of the most commonly used scenarios: stop scrolling, do nothing for several seconds, breathing, thoughts about different things.
Sleep Story with famous people
To promote the Sleep Stories feature, they cannot but use stories with celebrities in the ads. Here we can meet Matthew McConaughey, Cillian Murphy, Stephen Fry, Eva Green, Jerome Flynn.
By the way, sleep story with Matthew McConaughey was used more than 11 million times since its release in 2018 [Source].
Question/statement referring to the problem
The main technique here is to stress the problems you might have: anxiety, social media addiction, troubles falling asleep, troubles waking up, and propose the solution in the form of Calm app.
As for me, this creative concept violates Facebook policy that is related to Personal Attributes.
Nevertheless, Facebook allows Calm to use such ads.
Success story
The app helps me to become a better person. Who’s next? ;)
Mix of above-mentioned concepts
For example, one part is a problem statement, the second one is reviews or meditations followed by reviews.
What else?
Interactive ads
Calm also uses playable formats that sometimes are far from those concepts on other platforms: interactive bubbles, slimes, games. At the first sight, I didn’t understand that it was a Calm ad. Such ads are looking more native and interesting within in-app placements.
Apple Search Ads
In addition to 11 ad networks, Calm uses Apple Search Ads. According to Mobile Action Search Ads Intelligence, at the end of October, it bids on 2255 keywords in 44 countries.
I filtered the list of keywords by the popularity score (Popularity Score is the number of times a keyword is searched for in the Apple App Store) to find out the impression share the Calm receives from those keywords. No surprise, №1 keyword is “calm” followed by meditation, peloton, sleep sounds, the bible free app (interesting), and headspace.
That’s all :) Thank you for your interest and hope you find something interesting.
