Facebook has taken its push campaigns out of beta, allowing any developer to create customised push notifications.
Introduced as part of Facebook’s Analytics for Apps tool, push campaigns can help apps directly target specific audiences and boost retention by taking a more personalised and direct approach.
With 60% of all apps used less than 10 times on average, push notifications are an incredibly popular way of boosting user retention.
Facebook said: “Today, we’re happy to announce that push campaigns have come out of beta, and are now available to all businesses.
“With a redesigned audience targeting section, it’s now easier than ever before to send push notifications to specific audience segments for a smoother and quicker workflow.
“When your users opt into push campaigns, it’s much easier for you to remind them of the things they love about your app.
“In fact, apps can see up to 180% higher retention when the people using them opt into receiving push notifications.
“For example, you can use them to target reminders and offers, using deep links to send people to a specific place within your app. This helps you increase your engagement and retention.”
Since the launch of the beta, over 10,000 companies requested access to the tool before it was made public earlier this year.
The free tool also gives businesses the chance to notify their users within apps using customisable pop-up media cards within the app.
These cards can be altered to fit the look and feel of an app by using things like photos, emojis, animated GIFs and buttons.
And following the recent iOS update to include double tapping to unlock, Facebook has found that push notifications actually stay on the screen longer, improving reach and user acknowledgement.
Android also has a bonus in the form of Android Nougat, which lets users easily reply to push notifications, keeping things simple and boosting engagement.
To find out more about Facebook’s push campaigns please click here.