ConsultMyApp (CMA)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of the Church of Sweden abroad. We have about 40 congregations that we support, and we’re one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world, with around 8 million members.

What challenge were you trying to address with ConsultMyApp (CMA)?

We wanted to have our congregations online when we couldn’t be physically present. This project was pushed forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea was to tie things together in the tech world with something that used to be face-to-face.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CMA developed a one-stop-shop Android and iOS app from scratch. Within the app, users can select their congregation and see contact information and the services offered. Additionally, information like news, where to donate, podcasts, and live feeds are all available. 

First, we had a startup meeting, and we continued with scrum meetings throughout the process. We collaborated with CMA to define the wireframes. From there, they did the development work, including optimization for the App Store and the Google Play Store. We wanted to focus on user engagement, so we collaborated to decide what to put on push notifications to maximize users returning to the app. Currently, CMA is helping us with marketing. 

What is the team composition?

We've engaged with around 10 people from their CMA, including project managers, developers, and marketing specialists.

How did you come to work with ConsultMyApp (CMA)?

Since it was the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we needed someone that had expertise in the field if we were going to get the project off the ground. We chose CMA because they had a proven track record of engaging users on an app platform. 

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent roughly €50,000 (approximately $53,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The app has about 1,000 active users, which is really good for an app like ours. Additionally, we have many success stories at a congregational level. For example, we saw people over 70-years-old engaging with the app quite early in the Netherlands, which is unusual. 

Overall, everyone is happy with CMA’s work, and our users have been able to interact with their church and attend services digitally despite lockdowns. The project has been a real success, and now we’re looking at expanding and doing something even bigger with it. 

How did ConsultMyApp (CMA) perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven’t had any problems at all regarding project management. The team has hit all the deadlines, and they have been very proactive. We have one designated teammate who works with CMA, and we mostly use email to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed by CMA’s honesty, and I appreciate how they try to understand our requirements. The team has been open-minded in interacting with us and figuring out our church and theology to help as best they can. Additionally, they’ve tried to expand on what we’ve told them on their own, which is uncommon today. Overall, working with CMA has been a really great experience — they have our best interest at heart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We honestly haven’t had any problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and clear with what you want and allow CMA to add to the scope. When we started talking about the project, they completed the picture for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior mobile marketing manager for Lottoland. We are a gaming company and our core product is online lotteries. We also offer other popular gaming products such as scratch cards, casino games, and recently we have also added our sports vertical. I look after our mobile apps, and I am responsible for the mobile marketing strategy worldwide.

What challenge were you trying to address with ConsultMyApp (CMA)?

We needed someone to help us with app store optimization. Before working with them, I was working with another mobile marketing agency, but their services started to become quite costly and we wanted to look somewhere else and explore other partnerships. At the same time, they were quite cold in what they were expected to deliver, meaning that they did the job, but I don’t think they went the extra mile. We wanted something more and wanted to build a stronger relationship and get more of a tailored service rather than being just one of their main customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project was about App store positioning and helping us get our apps more discoverable in the App Store and Google Play Store, and improve our visibility which would end up in more installs. They fully delivered according to our expectations, and they were able to help us define what success could look like.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people. One was a guy who has since left the company. I now work with Martina (Senior Marketing Consultant) who takes care of our account.

How did you come to work with ConsultMyApp (CMA)?

They found me. Mike (Founding Director) reached out to me on LinkedIn. He told me that he noticed that our overall performance in the App Store was not as good as it could have been. He wanted to have a chat with me and my team to understand our challenges. He then made a clear proposal on what they would do for us. I decided to start working with them because, from the very beginning, I noticed that they were extremely knowledgeable, set clear goals and KPIs, and they actually delivered what we expected them to.

How much have you invested in them?

It was around £200,000 (approximately $250,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2018, and we’ve recently wrapped up the project in July 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We did notice an impact. They managed to fully exceed our expectations. Our market is quite a competitive one, especially in the UK, and they managed to improve our rankings, and now are we are ranking second after the national lottery which is a strong brand in the UK. Since we don’t have any physical presence, we started fresh there. We were not as popular and to now rank second is a great result. We were not expecting that.

They were so good in also helping us build our own skills and learning from them, that now we feel like we can stand on our own feet and go on thanks to their expertise.

How did ConsultMyApp (CMA) perform from a project management standpoint?

It was really smooth. They took care of everything. It was quite easy for us to relax and take advantage of the fact that they were really good at doing the project management side of things. They were setting deadlines and took care of scheduling all the activities to get where we wanted to get. It was quite comfortable for us to be guided by them. We set the goals, but then they were the ones that ensured that we had the best possible metadata, keywords, and whatever makes the app perform better.

They were also good at managing all the stakeholders within our company. For example, we have to closely work with the product team. They had to take care of the app build and we can only do an app release when the build is ready, and this comes from the product team. The agency was liaising with them to understand when we were about to have a new app release and made sure that they were ready by then with the up to date metadata.

To show their results, they presented them through a tool that they had developed. This platform allowed us to understand how our visibility has changed over time, but it might not be as transparent to the customer how this tool that they have created delivers specific metrics. Sometimes when you have a session with them reviewing the data, it might be unclear as a customer whether they really achieved something or if it something they see in their tool. Beyond that, they also told us the number of organic installs we’ve achieved in that period. In the end, it is not a problem. We can see the results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing which is very good is the fact that they are extremely proactive. They really care about our brand and our app. For instance, they reach out to us whenever there is something that needs to be changed, fixed, or improved without having to chase them. Many times, it was them telling me that we need to change something because of an update of Apple’s side or Google side. They were able to share any relevant updates with us, so we were ahead of the curve before any issue came up.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I am extremely happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can just trust them and rely on them and let them guide you. They are absolutely trustworthy and knowledgeable. To take full advantage of their expertise, you need to fully rely on them, accept their guidance, and listen to them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Senior Marketing Director of Engine Media Holdings.

For what projects/services did your company hire ConsultMyApp (CMA), and what were your goals?

We hired CMA to manage all of our App Store Optimization. From managing keywords and metadata to App Store rating strategy, we relied on CMA to increase our App Store Rankings to ultimately convert new users into WinView Games players.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Industry experience and amazing referrals from industry veterans in the gaming space were the primary reasons we hired CMA for our App Store Optimization.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

CMA provided Mobile Marketing services to WinView Games across the iOS version of their mobile App, in order to maximize search rankings, visibility, organic & paid traffic and view-to-install conversion rates in the US App Store. This work ultimately delivered increased downloads, registrations and active paying players.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Roughly 7 people from the CMA team were dedicated to our project. From account managers to PPC specialists and designers, we had the full range of services from CMA dedicated to our brand.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We increased our ranking so much so that we became the Top 200 sports apps within the App Store. We also increased our App Store Rating to 4.0 from 3.7, which was crucial in getting new users' trust to download our app and deposit funds to becoming paying users.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

CMA is very attentive and has a dedicated team of account managers available almost 24/7, even with 5 - 8 hour time zone differences amongst our team. From Slack to Zoom, we had many different channels to communicate with CMA whenever we needed their assistance.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their PPC experience is unmatched. The way they strategically choose keywords for metadata to match up with the competition is remarkable. Their strategy and consulting experience proved enormously successful for us reaching our KPI's.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly, none. They exceeded our expectations and more. I will be working with CMA for as long as mobile marketing is needed for any brands I work with.