Raise a hand if you've recently found a great deal online. That’s no surprise when you hear that the e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is set to hit $50 billion USD by 2029. That’s the entire GDP of Cameroon!
Now, keep your hand raised if you found that deal on an app. Again, no surprise. MENA is a mobile app powerhouse, pulling in 10% of global app traffic and revenue.
When we at Extra, a leading consumer electronics retailer in Saudi Arabia, launched our annual “Mega Sale” during the summer, we set a bold target: a 50% lift in sales. And we wanted our app to play a starring role in our success.
Customer journey decoded: Nurturing consumers beyond conversion
We already knew that Extra commands attention from consumers in Saudi Arabia. During the summer sale months in Saudi last year we ranked fourth for branded search volume — the total number of online searches that include a specific brand's name, or variations of it — out of the top 5 online retailers.1 And that ranking surged to third among the top 6 electronics players during the same time frame.2 We also saw the second-strongest brand presence compared to our omnichannel competitors, demonstrating significant brand recognition and consumer interest.
To unleash our app’s full potential, we realised we’d need to overhaul our app marketing strategy, encouraging both app downloads and on-app sales.
A competitive analysis revealed that we’d also secured a digital market share on par with competitors, capturing around 7.4% of total click volume for telephone, home appliances, computers, and consumer electronics-related search interest. That’s roughly 2.2% higher than the average of our top 6 peers.
However, our app presented a challenge. While our app downloads were climbing 10% year-on-year, our analysis revealed that competitors were grabbing more of the market when it came to both new downloads and in-app purchases.3 This presented a massive, untapped opportunity.
To unleash our app’s full potential, capture market share, and effectively compete with other e-commerce players, we realised we’d need to overhaul our app marketing strategy, encouraging both app downloads and on-app sales.
Our original approach focused primarily on the lower funnel, overlooking the exploration and evaluation phases of the customer journey. To accelerate customer growth and encourage people to download and shop via our app, a full-funnel approach was essential.
We had to shift from just chasing final conversions to engaging and nurturing potential customers across their entire journey. This means guiding them from initial awareness right through to making a purchase, ideally on our app.
Optimised for success: AI as an ecosystem
We partnered with media agency, Keyade, to bring this new full-funnel strategy to life. This approach harnessed AI to build a seamless path from initial interest to conversion, encouraging people to both download our app, and buy from there too.
For consideration — that crucial stage where consumers start exploring brands and evaluating products — we deployed Demand Gen campaigns. These are designed to drive demand and engagement with visually appealing, multi-format ads. We used them to communicate the details of our sale and spark initial interest in considering our brand, effectively inviting consumers to discover what Extra had to offer.
To capture customers ready to buy, we launched Search campaigns, which helped our brand show up when people searched for what we offered. Our goal here was to ensure we appeared directly in front of people on Google's Shopping and Search feeds the moment they actively looked for products like ours. By combining strong ad copy with strategic keywords, we directed these high-intent shoppers straight to our app, streamlining their path to purchase.
Finally, we fired up Performance Max. These goal-based campaigns use AI to maximise performance across Google's advertising channels. This helped us efficiently find new customers in the most promising places online, specifically designed to boost sales directly on the app.
Tapping into success: How our full-funnel approach drove app growth
Our dedication to developing a full-funnel strategy really paid off. Our overall net revenue climbed 1.5X year-on-year during our Mega Sale event. And this increase was thanks in large part to our app, with app transactions jumping by almost 1.6X, and app revenue soaring by nearly 1.8X versus the previous year’s sale.
We learned a crucial lesson from this campaign. True digital transformation, particularly in app acquisition, hinges on orchestrating an AI-powered, full-funnel strategy. It’s about enabling AI to connect every step of the customer journey, from initial interest to conversion. This holistic approach provides vastly richer data, cultivates a genuinely intelligent customer experience, and ultimately delivers superior business outcomes.
Scrolling into the future: AI to enhance app capabilities
Building on this success, the next frontier for our app growth lies in harnessing AI's evolving capabilities. We’d love to use the technology to explore hyper-personalisation within the app experience itself, dynamically tailoring recommendations, offers, and even the app interface based on individual user behaviour and preferences.
Meanwhile, AI agents could help us streamline in-app support, or even proactively guide people through complex purchase journeys. This would help ensure our app continuously maximises value, accelerating future acquisition and revenue.
