90 Percent of Push Notifications are Opened [5+ infographics]

According to e-Gio, push notifications are opened 90% of the time, as an industry average. Whilst this might be a differentiation based in definition, when comparing this to CleverTap’s highest open rate estimated of 5.46% in the business and finance vertical. e-Gio, might be referring to ‘delivery rate’ rather than open rate in this situation.

Whether the open rate is 5% or 90%, push notifications are an industry staple for increasing in-app engagement and in-app revenue. Thus, it is important to measure the performance of this, regardless of the open rate. In this article, we will be discussing some benchmark statistics about in-app engagement and push notifications, as well as some ways to maximize the impact from push notifications.

In this article/

• Push notification statistics and infographics
• Global opt-in rates for push notifications
• How to use push-notifications effectively
• Suggested future research
• Strategies to maximise the impact on push notifications

Push notification Statistics and Infographics

There is a plethora of information available in order to tweak your push-notification campaigns. Let’s have a look at some of the industry’s best statistics and infographics.

Opt-in Rates

Industry average for opt-in rates according to different verticals vary less than 10% with the highest vertical, Finance,  receiving 72.3% to gaming’s 63.5%. Gaming being the lowest vertical for opt-in rates is probably partially due to the sheer volume of push-notifications that many mobile games send their users, leading to opting out, or never opting in, due to past negative experiences. Again, according to Accengage, the lack of variation is seen between the different opt-in rates per continent, with all continents averaging at around 67% opt-in rate. Here are some other statistics on opt-in rates.

• Italy has the highest opt-in rate of 92.3% on Android (Accengage)
• Switzerland has the lowest opt-in rate of 39.9% on iOS (Accengage)
• Global, opt-in rates for push notifications is 91.1% on Android devices and 43.9% on iPhones.
• Ride Sharing’s average opt-in rate of 79% is double than that of the opt-in rate of Social (39%).

How to use push-notifications effectively

Best day of the week

Accengate, Localytics and WVO Engage show that there is little statistical variance between the different day’s formance of push notifications. However:

• According to Accengage, Tuesday outperforms other days at 8.4% reaction rate, compared to the lowest day’s reaction rate of 7.4% on Wednesday.
• Localytics also shows that Wednesday is also one of the three least successful days to send push notifications with 9% CTR, compared to their highest CTR of 11% on Thursday. Again, this shows that variation between days is minimal.

Best time of day

• 11pm - with 11.4% reaction rate, according to Accengage.
• Total average CTR peaks during the hours of 12am - 1am, 7-8am and 12pm-2pm, according to CleverTap (Business of Apps)
• Congruent to the above, Localytics also shows good performance between midday, with 10am-1pm receiving their highest average CTR of 15%
• Lowest competition (least number of push notifications that are sent) is between 10pm - 9am, according to CleverTap (Business of Apps).
• Again, there is some industry agreement that around midday is the best time to send push notifications, with Hengam.io stating the ‘afternoon’ has a 6.7% CTR.

Frequency of Push Notifications

Whilst numerous industry experts all agree: the specifics of a push notification greatly varies upon a case-by-case basis, this principle is no more true, than when being applied to the frequency and number of push notifications. Whilst it might seem normal, to receive multiple push notifications in a day, from an email app, or a gaming app, even a quarter of that amount might seem obtrusive from an eCommerce app.

• Less is more, but also more is more. Numerous reports show that few and many push notifications yield similar negative responses, such as Localytics’ report above (see image).
• Push notifications from 1-4 yield similar results, with more than 4 push notifications yielding lower and lower CTRs, according to VWO Engage. For example, for banking, financial and insurance apps (BFSI), 1- 4 push daily push notifications yield 10% - 11.5%

Suggested Future Research

Throughout Business of Apps’ extensive compilation of push notifications, which is collected from over industry leading sources, including Localytics, CleverTap, VWO Engage, Accengage, eMarketer and Urban Airship. However, none of the research discussed how push notifications actually positively impact the business, such as in-app engagement rates, any increase in purchase or purchase intention, increase in app session time, so on and so forth.

Whilst, upon further digging, there is some statistics available on the above queries, the lack of statistics in this comprehensive push notifications round up, does exemplify an area for research which will benefit the whole mobile and app ecosystem. Whilst it is clear that these tools benefit the app community, understanding of that benefit would be maximised if it could be quantified. For example, localytics writes that push notifications result in 88% more app launches and 2-3x more retention rate. It would be great if more statistics, across the industry were available, so they could be compared and evaluated more frequently.

Compounding Strategies to Maximise the Impact on Push Notifications

Let’s reflect back on the opening statement, taken from e-goi’s blog that apparently 90 percent of push notifications are opened. Whether this exact figure is true or not, it is clear that opening rates are just the beginning of a successful push notification campaign. This is what we will be covering.

#1 Geo-Location Pushes with Relevant In-App Content

There is a plethora of evidence that backs up the common sense notion, that more thoughtful push-notification campaigns yield better results. One report by Localytics shows that regular push notifications have a CTR of 4.2% compared to the 7.9% CTR of the geo-push. This signifies that more thoughtful and tailored campaigns are more effective. This theory and practise should not be limited just to the push notification, but also where the push is leading to. Rather than having a geo-targeted push notification, that lands to a generic in-app page, you can direct them to custom content through deep-linking. For example, take the eCommerce app, Flo’s custom content around sport shoes and their sales. You could send a geo-target push to people in Irvine, California, a location known for people who are fit and therefore, are probably most interested in your sport shoes, and directly send them to your in-app stories showcasing your new sport-shoes available and the sport shoes that are on discount.

#2 Segmentation Leading to In-App Stories

Geo-push is only one of the most popular methods of tailoring your push notifications, the other popular and effective method is of course, segmentation. Again, Localytics shows that segmented push notifications yield better results that broadcast push notifications. This has also gone onto impact the type of push notifications that are being sent, with segmented push notifications increasing in their majority share of the number of push notifications sent, from 2015, with 65% of the total push notifications sent, to 2017 with 85% of push notifications sent.

So, how can you leverage the popularity and effectiveness of push notifications. Again, like many thought leaders on in-app engagement will tell you, utilizing industry best practises always has to be guided by the execution of a thoughtful strategic campaign. In this instance, the question yet again in, what is the purpose of the segmented campaign. Are you sending them to specific content, offers or in-app functions that are relevant to them, or something generic?

Final Thoughts on Push Notifications and In-App Engagement

It is clear from above, the more tailored and thoughtful your push notifications campaigns are, the better the results. This is even seen when the customized options are compounded. So, how could we further enhance these results? Perhaps by compounding them with even further personalization and customisation that continues after the push notification, into the app.

So to answer the first question, are 90 percent of push notifications opened? The answer is, does this really matter – it is what happens after the notification is opened that really counts.

References

All Business of Apps references can be seen here

All Accengage references can be seen here

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