Skier or surfer emoji in push notifications: best engagement
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsStarting a push notification with a downhill skier or surfer emoji gave 10app its best-performing message in this round, but no lift figure was shared.
10app, a video-editing app for GoPro owners, ran the test and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
The team sent several message versions against a control at once.
- Engagement: the emoji version performed best, according to 10app's co-founder. No percentage, sample size or confidence level was shared.
- Because there is no number, treat this as a directional signal rather than a measured lift.
Control
Text-only push notifications asked users to share a video.
Variant
The same notifications opened with a skier or surfer emoji.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Few push notifications used emojis at the time, so an emoji at the start helped the message stand out on a crowded lock screen.
- The skier and surfer matched the app's audience of action-camera users, so the emoji felt on brand rather than gimmicky.
- 10app had just added emojis inside videos on iOS, so the emoji also hinted at a real product feature.
Caveats: No figures were shared, and the data dates from 2015. The tests ran on the Kahuna messaging platform.
Who ran it
10app ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on 10app →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we start our push notifications with an emoji that fits our audience, then more users will open them, because the message will stand out among plain-text alerts.
- Primary metric
- Push open rate, or the in-app action the push asks for
- Guardrails
- Push opt-out rate
- App uninstalls
- Engagement over the following weeks, to catch novelty fading
- Who should test it
- Consumer apps with a casual, visual brand and an audience that uses emojis. B2B or finance apps may find emojis feel off-brand, and the effect can fade once every app uses them.
Questions
Do emojis improve push notification engagement?
They can. In 10app's tests an emoji at the start of the message did best.
The effect likely depends on how well the emoji fits your audience and how many other apps use them.
Where should an emoji go in a push notification?
10app's best version put the emoji at the very start, where it is seen first.
Test placement yourself, as results vary by app and audience.