Revolutionizing childcare matching on mobile

Overview

• KindiCare, a two-sided childcare search platform developed in Australia, launched its app in May 2021 and was starting to articulate its mobile user acquisition campaigns.
• Without actionable campaign performance data, the company struggled to optimize its user acquisition efforts and allocate marketing budget efficiently.
• Using AppsFlyer’s Measurement Suite, KindiCare gained real-time insights into campaign performance and subsequent desired user behavior. This enabled them to make data-driven decisions and achieve an optimal media mix, maximizing mobile as the growth channel for a high-intent audience.

Background 

Founded by Benjamin Balk, based on his own experience of sourcing childcare for his young family, KindiCare is revolutionizing the search for childcare in Australia through its mobile app-based marketplace. Simplifying the journey for both parents and childcare providers, it seamlessly connects the two sides in a highly engaging experience. KindiCare’s objective is to guide parents efficiently through the early learning journey, with relevant services from searching to enrollment and ongoing parenting support.

Challenge 

In the dynamic Australian market, KindiCare recognised the need to optimize its growth strategy by capitalizing on the potential of mobile platforms. However, given that Australia’s market predominantly leaned towards desktop usage, KindiCare faced the challenge of directly converting website visitors into app users. Within this context, KindiCare was confronted with crucial questions that demanded answers:

• Which media sources were proving more effective in generating both app installs and high-quality, high-intent users? 
• Given the multiple media channels’ performance, how should they distribute digital marketing budgets to acquire consumers?
• How could they maximize app installs from their existing web visitors as organic traffic scaled?

In the Australian digital landscape, AppsFlyer showed us that mobile apps do pack a punch. Thanks to AppsFlyer, our organic and direct referral traffic to the KindiCare platform surged by 92%. This partnership redefined the game, highlighting how mobile beats web in reaching and engaging the right customers and driving business growth.

Benjamin Balk, Founder and CEO, KindiCare

As a newcomer without a built-in user base, the fundamental challenge was two-fold – catching the attention of unfamiliar audiences and bringing them into the marketing funnel, as well as keeping them engaged over time.

KindiCare’s approach involved Google Ads and Facebook as the primary ad channels for their Australia launch. Google Ads reached parents actively seeking childcare solutions, while Facebook engaged a passive audience as it interacted with related content. 

However, the initial push for app installs was tainted due to the absence of data on which channels were driving valuable, sticky users. KindiCare couldn’t understand the characteristics and actions of users coming through these channels. What’s more, with some users engaging only partially, it was becoming increasingly important to look beyond mere app installs.  

For example, some downloaded the app but didn’t explore childcare listings or make enquiries. Others interacted with listings but didn’t follow through with enquiries, applications, or tour bookings. Understanding why these drop-offs occurred was crucial to refining the user experience and avoiding wasteful spending, which was the number one cost in the start-up phase of the business.

The KindiCare team therefore started looking for solutions to help them fine-tune their user acquisition strategies. The goal was to reach parents most likely to drive growth by taking meaningful in-app actions with childcare providers on the other side of the marketplace. Identifying this gap was pivotal, as delaying action could have cost KindiCare close to $250,000 in futile expenses.

KindiCare took a mobile-first approach with their platform launch, launching without a desktop or mobile web solution, because they believed a native app solution would improve user experience and engagement while offering something unique to the market. But, since Australia’s market was more geared towards desktop usage, KindiCare needed to guide users seamlessly from traditional incumbent website solutions to the app stores to install the KindiCare App. 

The mobile web and desktop web solutions for parents launched a year after the mobile app. But, despite substantial web traffic, few users ended up downloading the app. Fortunately, the KindiCare team was quick enough to work out that the web-to-app migration wasn’t intuitive and seamless for users. 

When it comes to childcare, the goal is simple – make it easy for parents and providers. AppsFlyer helped us navigate the complexity and brought us closer to our sticky and highest intent users. By focusing on the right media sources that drove true results for us, we were able to bring our vision to life, connecting parents with the childcare they need

Benjamin Balk, Founder and CEO, KindiCare

Firstly, users clicking on the website weren’t made aware of a native mobile app being available, and also couldn’t easily find their way to the correct app store. Next, KindiCare faced challenges with the website’s app download links, which primarily relied on small, easy-to-miss native AppStore banners. Additionally, they found it difficult to determine which messages resonated most with their audience. 

With a sub-par user experience leading to drop-offs, it was tough for KindiCare to fix the web-to-app journey and turn curious website visitors into active app users.

AppsFlyer was like a GPS for our campaigns. We gained a new ability to pinpoint what was working and what wasn’t. It’s not just about the installs; it’s about the right installs, it’s about maximizing those crucial in-app events such as checking out listings that make an impact on the revenue.

Benjamin Balk, Founder and CEO, KindiCare

Solutions

In light of these various challenges, the team decided to launch KindiCare with AppsFlyer onboard. They leveraged AppsFlyer’s Measurement Suite, together with their proprietary event engine which fed directly into AppsFlyer, to gain insights into user actions and campaign performance. This optimization was aimed at achieving a higher number of app installs with strong user intent.

By studying the performance of each campaign, KindiCare pinpointed where their marketing dollars were paying off, where they weren’t, and where adjustments were needed. By analyzing campaign performance data and identifying which users from specific campaigns were engaging in particular events, they could promptly identify the most effective acquisition channels and campaigns. This allowed them to adjust their budget allocation in real time on a daily basis. 

The new, data-driven approach empowered KindiCare to redirect their attention from less valuable users to those who were more likely to engage and convert. It also led them to focus on the acquisition channels that brought in those high-converting users, even if acquiring them came at a higher cost.

Media has been a core part of KindiCare’s launch strategy, with the company and its Founder and CEO featuring regularly in broadcast, digital, and print coverage. AppsFlyer’s reporting enabled the KindiCare team to see the impact of different media segments and coverage in real time to assess impact and benefit. This was also crucial in focusing the CEO’s limited time on those media opportunities that deliver the highest engagements and outcomes with KindiCare’s target audience.

Using its event engine, KindiCare systematically tracked user interaction with each new feature and essential step in parents’ childcare journey. Key events, such as user account creation, viewing a childcare center listing, making an inquiry, submitting an application, or booking a tour, represent significant interactions between the parent user and the childcare provider. AppsFlyer’s Measurement suite allowed KindiCare to feed and monitor these crucial in-app events into the user journey beyond app installs. 

By identifying specific user actions that indicated genuine interest, KindiCare was able to fine-tune its campaigns to reach users more likely to engage in actions that could be commercialized on the childcare provider side of the marketplace. This approach led to improved user engagement as well as monetization.

To address the challenge of turning website visitors into active app users, KindiCare used AppsFlyer’s Smart Banners. This tool enabled KindiCare to seamlessly deep-link web visitors to relevant, context-specific sections within the app, ensuring a top-notch customer experience. Additionally, they were able to conduct in-depth analysis of app installs resulting from their web campaigns and carry out A/B tests on creative and messaging independently, without requiring technical support. As a result, more and more app installs started coming from Smart Banners.

I’ve been using AppsFlyer along with other data and analytics on user behaviors and conversions to smartly allocate our marketing budget where it matters most. Having this feedback loop and visibility is crucial. I actually check AppsFlyer on my mobile app every day to see how our installs are doing.

Benjamin Balk, Founder and CEO, KindiCare

Results

KindiCare’s partnership with AppsFlyer yielded significant business outcomes, driving the company towards its growth objectives:

• 110k installs in two years: Through strategic user acquisition and optimized campaigns, KindiCare managed to achieve an impressive 110,000 app installs within just two years of launch. This demonstrated the effectiveness of their mobile-centric approach and their ability to attract and engage a substantial user base.
• Cost-efficient user acquisition: Using AppsFlyer’s attribution capabilities to optimize campaigns, KindiCare achieved a remarkable 50% reduction in the blended cost of app installs. They could allocate marketing budget more efficiently, resulting in substantial savings while still achieving their user acquisition goals. As a result, digital marketing spend reduced by 70% between 2022 and 2023 alone. 
• 92% increase in organic and direct referral traffic: KindiCare’s focus on mobile measurement and optimization paid off with a significant 92% surge in organic and direct referral traffic to their platform. This underscored the effectiveness of the data-driven mobile strategy in driving brand awareness and user engagement, leading to increased organic traffic and direct referrals.
• Enhanced user engagement: By fine-tuning their campaigns based on the insights gained on AppsFlyer’s platform, together with the data feed from their own event engine, KindiCare witnessed a substantial improvement in user engagement and conversion rates. Users were not only installing the app, but also taking valuable actions like viewing childcare listings and generating inquiries, contributing to KindiCare’s growth and success.
• Streamlined web-to-app conversion: KindiCare’s use of AppsFlyer’s Smart Banners successfully addressed the challenge of converting high-intent website visitors into highly-engaged app users. These banners enabled seamless redirection to the app stores, resulting in over 15% of total app installs originating from Smart Banners alone.

With a solid go-to-market approach, and a robust foundation for running successful UA campaigns at scale with AppsFlyer, KindiCare is well-positioned to venture into other childcare markets globally, as well as adjacent new markets like schools and elderly care.

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