Brocard Case Study: How We Increased App Revenue Sixfold in Seven Months

The client

Brocard is the largest premium cosmetics retailer in Ukraine. The company currently operates 66 stores in 22 cities, as well as an online store.

The challenge

The client launched a mobile app to improve the customer experience and facilitate closer interaction with customers. However, the app needed to be promoted. 

In the first months of operation, the partner set the following KPIs for the number of app downloads:

• 52,521 downloads in the first six months (pessimistic forecast)

• 84,217 downloads (realistic forecast)

We set up analytics to track sales and shifted our focus to increasing sales once we reached a critical number of installations. 

The strategy

Based on our previous experience promoting e-commerce applications, we divided our strategy into several stages.

Generating app downloads 

Our primary goal was to attract as many target users as possible and achieve the lowest possible download cost.

In February, the first month of the campaign, we aimed to increase installs for the Android app and received over 5,000 downloads at an average price of 8 UAH per download.

The following month, we launched a campaign intending to boost installs of the iOS app. The total number of downloads per month increased to 13,500, with an average cost per download of 11 UAH.

Adding campaigns optimized for sales

To scale the effectiveness of mobile campaigns in Google Ads, we introduced a new approach: campaigns optimized for in-app events, specifically purchases.

Rather than focusing solely on the number of installs, we tested a campaign format with the goal of app installs combined with an in-app action. In March, we launched a campaign optimized for the purchase event. This allowed us to immediately target a more relevant audience, albeit a conditionally cold one.

As a result, the cost of installation increased compared to a standard campaign. However, the conversion value of users turned out to be significantly higher.

Launching a retention campaign 

Once the app reached its target number of installs and a stable user base was established, we moved on to the next stage: launching retention campaigns. This is a logical part of the mobile app promotion cycle, which ranges from attracting new users to engaging with existing ones.

Meanwhile, all other campaigns — for installations, purchases, and traffic acquisition — continued to run, and we added three retention directions to our advertising strategy.

1. Abandoned cart campaign

Goal: Action in the app (purchase).
Audience: Users who added a product to their cart but did not complete the purchase.
This audience is the warmest because they have already shown an intention to buy. Using targeted reminders, we encouraged users to complete their purchases and reduced the percentage of abandoned carts.

2. Dormant users campaign

Goal: Action in the app (purchase).
Audience: Visitors who have not made a purchase in the last 90 days.
We created a special reminder for users who have not been active for a long time. This helped to renew interest in the app, refresh loyalty, and encourage users to make another purchase.

3. tROAS campaign with purchase value optimization

Goal: In-app action value (purchase value).
Audience: Users with the highest potential for large purchases.
This is a strategy for optimizing revenue maximization, not just the number of purchases. As a result, we were able to significantly increase the average check and overall ROAS within the app.

4. Installation campaign

Despite our focus on retention, we kept the basic installation campaign active to maintain momentum in growing our audience and support the top of the funnel.

Optimization

By conducting campaigns focused on app installs and direct purchases, we ensured high download volumes and stable average revenue. Retention campaigns aimed at bringing back users and encouraging repeat purchases generated higher value per user, and this helped offset the cost of initial acquisition. 

We improved existing campaigns by conducting A/B tests on creatives, regularly updating ad texts, and testing different approaches to target audiences.

Two types of campaigns were launched every month:

• A promotional campaign, which supported special offers to stimulate purchases.

• The general campaign, which was designed for stable coverage and brand reminders.

This approach enabled us to maintain high CPI/ROAS rates, gradually reduce the cost of conversion, and increase the effectiveness of all advertising activities.

Promotion results

In August, we achieved an average monthly installation cost of 24.14 UAH. Over seven months, we received 126,000 downloads.

There was a sixfold increase in app revenue during the promotion period.

Dmytro Samoilov, Project Manager at Neatpeak Ukraine

Yulia Levchenko, Chief Marketing & Ecom Officer at Brocard

Conclusions

1. The partner's goal was to achieve the maximum number of downloads for a new mobile app.

2. We launched an Android campaign with the lowest installation price to quickly gain a critical mass of users.

3. Then, we added a campaign for iOS and scaled up our activities to cover users of both operating systems.

4. To improve the quality of traffic, we implemented analytics and purchase optimization campaigns.

5. Over seven months, we achieved 126,000 downloads at an average cost of $24.14, resulting in a sixfold increase in revenue.