If you missed the first part, let us introduce ourselves:
We are the Push Express team. Our platform helps automate work with push notifications. For our research we analyzed data from various user cohorts — from 25 thousand to 5 million — over the past few years. Based on the results, we identified key approaches that will help increase user engagement and reduce churn.

In the first article, we have already answered the following questions:

• Is it necessary to use push notifications, and do they really annoy users?
• Which push notifications work best?
• What is the right time to send push notifications?
• Is it possible to use the same push journeys for all countries?

Now, let’s discuss:

• Should you push your old traffic?
• Which approach is more effective: positive or negative? Should you use CAPS LOCK?
• How to translate push notifications to raise their clickability rates?
• How many characters should a push contain?
• Should you add emojis and images?

Who pushes old traffic…

Attracts more active users. While the longer it’s been since app installation, the lower the CTR (Click-Through Rate) becomes, it still exceeds 1%. Ignoring old traffic means missing opportunities:

Negative vs. Positive Approach

A positive push notification like “Want to earn more?” might seem more appealing. However, our research shows that a negative approach, such as “Don’t miss your benefit!” performs better. This comes down to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – a powerful factor influencing user behavior, which can boost the CTR of your push notifications.

Using CAPS LOCK can also enhance the CTR of your pushes by grabbing attention:

Translating Push Notifications – Why and How?

Translating push notifications is essential. To confirm this, we conducted a test – sent notifications to devices in Turkey, France, and African countries in both English and local languages. In every case, translating the push notification into the device’s language increased its CTR by 35% or more:

Additionally, the way you translate push notifications matters. Should you use Google Translate, ChatGPT, or ask a native speaker to help? Our tests showed that the lowest CTR was for notifications translated with Google Translate, higher – for the ones translated with ChatGPT, and the best performing were the ones translated by a native speaker:

Above are the absolute results; the ratio looks as follows:

Thus, Google Translate is the least effective for adaptation. For push tests, ChatGPT is a better option, but when scaling – translation by a native speaker is crucial.

Crafting Push Notifications

The most important factor here is choosing the right number of characters for the push notification. For Android, we recommend up to 6 words in the title and up to 7 – in the description; for iOS, up to 6 words in the title and up to 15 – in the description:

Should you include emojis and images in your push notifications? If you don’t currently use visual elements in your push notifications, here’s the good news: paradoxically, pushes with emojis and images perform almost the same as those without any visual enhancements.

If you’re already using emojis, continue doing this to maximize clicks. But if your pushes don’t currently include them, there’s no need to rush into adding them – such pushes will still capture enough audience attention.

The effectiveness of push notifications depends on the right strategy: well-crafted text, localization, smart use of emojis and CAPS LOCK. Test different approaches to find what works best for your audience.

And for everyone who read the article to the end, we have prepared a special promo code CPARIPEN. With it, you can receive a $50 deposit for push notifications for your first successfully added app in the PUSH EXPRESS service. 

We look forward to seeing you!