What can I do with my promo slots?

Promo slots are there to give you another way to talk to your audience. These are images that we serve at key points in the app, offering you the opportunity to provide messaging that will give your users a better experience and thus reward you with higher engagement.

Common uses for promo slots

1. Selling subscriptions. Explain to your users why and how they can subscribe. Tapping the image can automatically bring up the subscription dialogue, making the process quick and seamless.
   
   
2. Tease content that’s coming in future editions, this helps increase the number of users who consistently return to your app, especially for titles with monthly or longer publishing cycles.
   
   
3. Promote supplementary content, such as events and initiatives being run or sponsored by your title.
   
   
4. Serve advertising from your partners. These elements are front and centre in the app, giving fantastic, consistent exposure. They can be configured to tap out to a destination of your choosing and are easy to preview and update. 

Tips on getting the most out of your promo slots

Promo slots can be very powerful, but if used incorrectly users can become blind to them, blunting their effectiveness. 

1. Use a similar visual language to your branding in the app. This helps prevent users from thinking it’s an ad and instead see it as a key part of the app that deserves their attention.
   
   
2. Have a clear goal and a clear call to action. If you don’t have anything you need to tell your users, leave them to focus on your content. The promo slot will collapse so as not to take up needless room.
   
   
3. Be mindful of who your users are. If your app has a niche, B2B focus and is generally only going to be discovered by clients with an active subscription, you may be wasting your efforts with a promo that's trying to push subscriptions.
   Likewise, an app that has a large userbase buying single issues might benefit greatly from promos expounding the benefits of subscribing.
   
   
4. Stick to the recommended sizes. While we accept images of any dimension, our suggested sizes are the ones the app was optimised to accommodate. 

Targeting different user states

With such a wondrous plethora of uses, flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to promo slots.

The first way we let you do this is by targeting different user states with different promos. There is, after all, very little to be gained in rambunctiously pestering a long-term subscriber to “JOIN NOW!!!”

Users can be targeted based on whether they are:

1. Signed out
2. Signed in
3. Either

This is all controlled from within our distribution service. Select Promotional Slots under the Marketing section of the left hand menu. 

Hit the nice big "add a promotional slot" button and the first option you’ll see on the subsequent screen is Display. Here are your options:

Display

Always: Shows to all users regardless of their state

Marketing: Shows to users who aren’t logged in

Private: Shows to users who are logged in

Title

This is purely for your own reference, so go wild.

Action link

This describes what tapping on your promo image does. It can be an external URL linking out to content on another of your properties or to an advertiser. Alternatively, the tap can fire off actions within the app itself. These include:

• Login: brings up the login dialogue
• Settings: Takes the user to the settings screen
• Scrapbook: Takes the user to the scrapbooking page so they can see what they've got saved
• Account: Takes the user to the account screen where they can view their account status, restore purchases or log in
• Subscribe: Brings up the subscribe dialogue, making subscriptions incredibly quick and easy
• Content: Deep-link the user straight into the content you're talking about

Image

Self explanatory, upload artwork.

Different filter, different banner

Likewise, you might wish to speak differently to users in different parts of your app. We’ve catered for this, too, by allowing you to set specific promos for each filter. This not only allows you to present a more diverse range of messages, as you’re not limited to just one for each kind of subscriber, but also to further tailor your messaging to that specific position in the user journey.   

On the add a promotional slot screen shown above, click the placement tab. You’ll then have the following options.

Publish

Ticking this makes your promo live, so only tick this once you’re happy that everything is set up correctly.

Feeds

Should your app be consuming multiple feeds, you’re able to target these specifically. In general these settings don’t need to be changed.

Filters

This is where you can target a promo slot to one or more filters. Simply tick the box of the filter(s) this promo is relevant to. There’s also a handy "show everywhere" box if you feel the messaging is relevant across your userbase.

Platforms

Self explanatory. There’s no reason you can’t use the same promo image across all platforms, but if you do wish to diversify the messaging by platform, you have those capabilities.

Position

We offer a number of different locations for promo slots, but in general we recommend the Hero position for maximum viewability. The various options are detailed below.

Banner: This is a full-width promo slot carousel which can hold multiple images. These images can be scrolled between by the user, but will also automatically scroll from one to the another every 5 seconds. Note that due to the need to be full width this is not visible on phones when used in landscape. The best way to get multiple messages across to your users in a smooth, beautiful way.

Hero: A promo slot that sits at the top of the feed. This is a flexible position that scales to the size and shape of your chosen image, with some constraints. This is great for large, billboard type promos, but you should be careful not to make it so large as to unnecessarily dislocate the editions below it. Please note Hero banners do not show on web reader. 

Grid: These promos appear in the actual edition grid, taking the place of an actual edition. This make them look like a natural part of the app's content and increases the chance of a user visually engaging with the image. You can select in which position the promos appear. They have no limited size.  Please note Grid banners do not show on web reader. 

Table of Contents: This allows you to speak to your users where they spend most of their time, in an actual edition. Nestled on top of the contents list in the left-hand slide out menu, this is a prime location for engaging with your audience.

 So that's promo slots! A simple, flexible, powerful way to talk to your audience.