• Mobile apps deliver 2x the new user retention power and 3x the conversions compared to mobile websites.
• When using traditional UA channels, capturing a web user can cost 82% less than driving an app install.
• Create a seamless omnichannel experience, promote your app on your mobile website, and incentivize app downloads to improve customer LTV while still meeting your bottom line.

App stores are crowded, mobile development can be pricey, and capturing (and keeping) users can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. But despite these challenges, industry research shows that branded mobile apps — and the users they attract — are much more valuable than mobile web. According to App Annie, smartphone users spend 7x more time in native apps than in browsers. Additionally, time spent in-app is steadily increasing year over year and is projected to reach a daily average of nearly 3 hours this year – while time spent on mobile web remains stagnant. 

Recent research by Criteo shows that mobile apps deliver 2x the new user retention power and 3x the conversions than mobile websites. And apps account for over 70% of mobile sales, with in-app transactions continuing to grow 22% year-over-year. While this all sounds exciting, capturing user attention (and in-app dollars) requires app usage. 

That simple reality is why web-to-app conversions are a huge priority for brands. In fact, 50% of companies surveyed for Branch’s Mobile Growth Industry Report said that directing customers to their app from their mobile website is a top priority for mobile user acquisition. Yet despite app installs being a huge priority, there’s one big caveat: capturing a web user still costs 82% less than driving an app install. So how can you encourage your web users to engage with your mobile app in a way that still makes sense for your bottom line? 

Here are three leading (and cost-effective) strategies to move your mobile web users to your mobile app: 

1. Create a seamless omnichannel experience

According to Branch, app adoption and monetization are “heavily skewed towards the top few apps” in the App Store and Google Play. In fact, apps outside of the Top 5 compete for just 15% of consumers’ attention. If your mobile app doesn’t claim a dominant position in your App Store category, the likelihood of conversion is low. 

As app marketplaces become more crowded, brands must leverage omnichannel strategies to capture consumer attention and drive app installs. This means creating a consistent user flow across all channels and screens a customer uses regularly, from web to email to in-store. When it comes to generating app installs, that may mean advertising your app via smart banner ads, promoting it on social media, and incentivizing downloads during the in-store experience. Evernote, for example, places a large focus on content marketing and podcasting — strategic channels that have helped the brand garner over 225 million app users.

Want more omnichannel strategies to promote (and monetize) your mobile app? Download our Mobile App Monetization Whitepaper

Not only is a seamless omnichannel experience an effective way to drive app installs, it’s a powerful tactic to foster customer engagement and impact your bottom line. Despite representing only 7% of all customers, omnichannel customers generate 27% of all sales and are shown to have the highest lifetime value compared to single-channel consumers. 

2. Promote your app on your mobile website

As mentioned before, the customer acquisition cost of a mobile web user is significantly less than driving an app install. So why not get more bang for your buck and target potential app users on your site? After all, both channels sit on the same platform — smartphones. 

Once you attract customers to your mobile website, you can then convert them into app users in a much more cost-effective way. Wedding planning brand The Knot, for example, successfully leverages their already popular mobile website to accelerate app downloads, deploying targeted banner ads throughout the site to encourage visitors to download the app. These ads directly link to the Google Play Store/App Store, helping to drive 45% more Android app growth and 35% more iOS app growth.

Tools like SingleTap further improve this process by enabling users to directly install your app without the usual App Store redirects and drop-off that can negatively impact conversion rates. Users simply tap your ad, and your mobile app immediately starts downloading on their device. The tool has shown to increase conversion rates by 2-10x. 

3. Incentivize downloading the app 

With all the noise on mobile, brands need to give consumers a reason to download their app. Incentives are a highly effective way to add value and encourage users to hit “install.” 

Many brands leverage incentivization tactics like app-only discounts, loyalty programs, or access to exclusive content. For example, HotelTonight ran a mobile campaign incentivizing customers to download their app in order to receive a $25 credit. Chick-Fil-A saw a staggering 14,285% increase in app downloads in one day by offering a free sandwich to anyone who installed their app. Brick-and-mortar brands can even deploy proximity marketing (like triggering a notification or text message) or leverage physical signage to promote in-app rewards and prompt installs while the customer is in-store. 

We live in an era where there’s an app for everything, and standing out from the noise can be challenging and costly. Yet despite the challenges, mobile app users continue to prove their value day-in and day-out. With 2x the retention, 3x the conversions, and the potential to foster significantly higher lifetime value than mobile websites, it’s more critical than ever for brands to drive mobile app installs.

Mobile apps have the power to be a highly lucrative channel — in 2023, mobile apps are projected to generate more than $935 billion in revenue via paid downloads and in-app advertising. For more expert strategies on how to drive app installs (and capture revenue), download our latest whitepaper on Mobile App Monetization! 

The post 3 Strategies to Move Mobile Users from Web to App appeared first on Digital Turbine.

While a smartphone is a very different purchase to a car (although rising costs are certainly making premium handsets a more considered purchase) there is absolutely no reason why manufacturers (OEMs) and carriers cannot extend the value of their customer relationship beyond the initial sale and monthly bill cycle.

Increased Opportunities to Monetize Devices

As the smartphone continues along its rapid evolution from a humble communications device to a seamlessly unlimited technology encompassing everything from media, entertainment, business productivity, commerce and even health (meaning users just cannot put them down), OEMs and carriers are presented with numerous opportunities to increase touch points and drive incremental revenues.

Much of this opportunity is scooped-up by third-party app stores, advertising networks and payment gateways (with very little filtering back to manufacturers and networks to invest in product development and the wider eco-system). And it’s not just revenue the OEMs and carriers are missing out on. In an open eco-system, OEMs and carriers are essentially outsourcing user experience and device security to unknown operators. This creates an opportunity for poorly developed and even fraudulent apps to sour the users’ experience and when this happens on a branded device or via a specific network, their brand reputation (along with everyone else in the industry) is also potentially tarnished.

Further Reading: How Pre-Loading Apps Can Help Developers Circumnavigate Fraud

Continued Disruption: What Would Amazon Do?

OEMs and carriers can learn a lot from a company like Amazon. By creating devices (such as the Kindle or Echo) which encourage exclusive, ongoing engagement and drive future purchases, they are able to off-set device costs against customer lifetime value and completely take ownership of a market. Amazon didn’t invent the eBook or pioneer voice search, but thanks to competitive pricing, readily available inventory and amazing customer service, competitive brands will struggle to compete in any market which they focus their attention on. With this is mind, it’s always worth remembering that while Amazon’s previous attempts to enter the smartphone space were largely unsuccessful, only a fool would bet against an organization that controls so much of the digital eco-system. It’s therefore vitally important that OEMs and carriers look to maximize their commercial opportunities and re-invest in new products, apps and services to maintain and maximize their current position.

Taking Back Control

As a leading mobile solutions provider, Digital Turbine helps OEMs and carriers around the globe to take control of their own eco-system, guaranteeing user experience and creating new opportunities to drive additional streams of revenue.

These include:

App Discoverability

The secret to successful app discoverability and activation is often down to simply putting the right app in front of the right person at the right time. There is no better way to do this than directly with the OEM or carrier. Digital Turbine enables OEMs and carriers to support this strategy via targeted Pre-Loaded App campaigns and through the creation of Smart Folders.

• Pre-Loading: Pre-loaded campaigns enable OEMs and carriers to create a highly engaging user-experience straight out of the box. This is a particularly useful route to market for app developers because smartphone users are more likely to engage and activate apps in the immediate moments after un-boxing a new device than at any other time. Pre-loading also carries a number of additional benefits for app developers, such as the increased credibility afforded by partnering with a specific OEM or carrier brand and the reduced risk of attribution or click fraud.
• Smart Folders: Smart Folders present apps based on a user’s specific interests without cluttering device screens or hogging memory. This is a great way to deliver targeted apps to the individuals who are most likely to engage and activate over the lifetime of a device while maintaining the same credibility and security as pre-loading.

Further Reading: Preloaded Apps Deliver Credibility, Security and Engagement

Content Monetization

As the lines between media and technology continue to blur, OEMs and carriers have the opportunity to develop their own content-led channels via their own branded apps and mobile sites which can be monetized via the Digital Turbine platform through our mobile advertising network and payment gateway.

• Mobile Ads: OEMs and carriers monetize their content-led channels by presenting targeted advertising campaigns to their app users and site visitors, creating new revenue earning opportunities with every click that results in an install. Digital Turbine’s advertising inventory is 100% non-incentivized, reducing the risk of fraudulent attribution activity and guaranteeing network (and your brand’s) integrity.
• Optimized Delivery: Revenues are optimized via our “Single Tap Install” technology which helps to reduce the number of abandoned app installs by cutting out unnecessary clicks through an app store.
• Mobile Payment: Digital Turbine’s mobile payment gateway enables OEMs and carriers to further monetize “premium” content by taking payment for subscription services or sales of digital or physical products and services.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

The question OEMs and carriers must ask themselves is: Are we in the business of shifting units or building long term relationships?

With the average smartphone contract guaranteeing a device remains in the hands of a user for a minimum of two years, the opportunity to drive new revenues seems too positive to be ignored.

To learn how Digital Turbine can help OEMs and carriers generate new streams of income contact us to schedule an appointment to speak to one of our advisors.

The post Monetizing the Mobile Eco-System: Driving Revenues over the Lifetime of a Device appeared first on Digital Turbine.

Step #1: Decide how your app will be published. This is critically important since this decision will affect the monetization options available for your app. Will it be a placed directly on the home screen via a native app preload at the factory by an OEM? Will your app be available on the OEM’s retail app store, like Samsung’s Galaxy apps store for its Galaxy line of phones? Or, will you publish your app to the likes of Google Play, Apple Store, or other retail app outlets?   

Step #2: Define what type of app you are planning to monetize. There are a lot of different of apps available through retail app stores such as Google Play or the Apple Store. Using one of those stores, do some research!  Look at apps similar to your own. This inspiration will help you categorize your app and give you insight into how other developers are successfully monetizing their apps.  Make note of the different ways other developers are monetizing their apps, highlighting the most popular monetization strategy. 

Step #3: Decide on a monetization strategy. Before automatically choosing the most popular strategy for apps similar to your own, take some time to carefully research and evaluate current monetization strategies to determine which one will work best. You may find a different strategy – or even a combination – is what will work best for your app. Regardless of the monetization strategy you decide upon, it’s really important to get it right the first time — changing your approach after your app is published can be difficult and expensive.  

Step #4: Publish your app. After you publish your app, give it some time to be ‘seen’. This may take a few weeks or even months, depending upon how you chose to publish. To help make it easier for your app to be seen, you may want to perform App Store Optimization, which is similar to SEO, only you find keywords that will help you get your app listed at or near the top of app store search results. The keywords are then incorporated into your app’s name and description. 

Step #5: Track monetization activity and revenue. Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your app monetization strategy. Monitor monetization activity and revenue, tweaking your strategy for optimal ROI. Keep a record of your strategy’s details for future reference when monetizing other apps. If, after 90 days or so, you find a particular monetization strategy isn’t working as well as you like, you may need to revise your strategy to include other app monetization strategies. For example, if you have a paid app, you may want to offer premium features on a subscription basis – such as up to a maximum amount of storage capacity for a monthly fee. The fundamental idea here is to mix and match monetization strategies until you find the strategy that works best for your app.    

Monetization is a critically important part of an app’s overall success. Choosing the right monetization strategy will largely determine the overall success of your app. With the right monetization strategy, your app can meet and even exceed business goals. 

The post 5 Steps to Choosing the Best Way to Monetize Your App appeared first on Digital Turbine.

Why did we build our apps?

While it is undoubtedly true that all app developers want to increase consumer loyalty, develop product awareness, and provide users with a tangible benefit — if we respond with any of these answers, we are not being completely honest. If we were to answer the question 100% truthfully, with the response that is necessary to survive and thrive in today’s mobile boom, we would use one word:

Monetization…

Let’s admit it, we all have dreams of becoming the next Vine, Instagram, or Whatsapp. Yes, we want to stimulate user loyalty and provide our consumers with utility, but in the end, we wouldn’t mind too much if we discovered the next billion dollar app either. One of the hardest truths of the digital age is the fact that only 2% of app developers share over 50% of all app revenue. Competition is fierce, and while the chance of monetizing the next “big thing” is statistically slim, it can be significantly improved by proper planning and monetization model selection.

To help with this selection process, we have outlined some of methods we believe to be viable options for navigating the 2017 mobile boom. As you read and review each one of the models, it is important that you continuously remind yourself of the following monetization building blocks:

• Value Proposition: What problems do your users have and how are you solving them? A strong value proposition is a key component to any monetization model.
• Features: Does your app provide unique features and benefits that would incentivize your users to pay for access?
• Competitors: What models are your competitors using? How do they present their value proposition? What unique features do their apps provide?
• User Acquisition: Generating revenue and user acquisition go hand-in-hand. Without a sound acquisition strategy, it will be difficult to optimize your model selection.

Without further adieu, let’s take a look at a few of the many ways you can monetize your app!

Model #1 – Paid Apps/Subscriptions

Perhaps the most widely recognized app monetization model, charging consumers for an app download is as basic as monetization gets. It involves charging users an initial download fee, and placing a cost barrier in the way of downloading the app. Said another way, you are purposefully implementing a barrier to initial user acquisition. It is for this reason that, if you decide to go with the paid app route, you must be able to clearly demonstrate your app’s unique value proposition to your target market (i.e. why they should elect to pay for your app rather than download a similar free version).

While paid apps are the traditional face of the Google Play and iOS App Store, this technique is generally not the best route to select as a monetization rookie. Why? Well, with only 20% of paid apps ever attaining over 100 downloads (as opposed to over 20% of free apps reaching 10,000 downloads), it takes an amazing value proposition to convince potential users to “pay-to-play.”

That isn’t to say that no one will download your app, but a successful paid app typically requires the following three elements:

• There can be no “free but equal” competitors on the market.
• Your product must be validated through app reviews or word-of-mouth marketing.
• You must aim to minimize app maintenance and upkeep costs (as compared to the number of downloads).

These three goals are hard to accomplish, and it may be an explanation as to why up to 90% of iOS App Store apps and almost 70% of Google Play apps are free. It could also explain why, in 2017, the marketing gurus at Emarketer predicted that only around 33% of mobile users will actually pay for an app.

Yet do not fear, for if your goal is to attain a consistent revenue stream, there are other similar options available. One such similar option is to implement an app subscription service (as opposed to a one time fee). This means that you charge users a monthly expense to access your value. If you are looking to provide a streaming service (i.e. Netflix), or a language education app (i.e. Memrise), this model makes sense, especially when integrated with a free trial offer or free version. Similar to paid apps, you are still placing your content behind a paywall. While subscriptions present a lower turnover rate and more consistent revenue streams, they are not appropriate for all product/service/content offerings.

Model #2 – “Freemium” Apps (In-App Purchasing)

Another model of app monetization is a hybrid category that lands somewhere between being a free download and a premium purchase…

The “Freemium” App.

How exactly does one monetize a “freemium” app?

Glad you asked! Here we will present you with two potential solutions for freemium app monetization. To start, let’s turn to what is called “in-app purchasing.” As the digital age’s current king of revenue, in-app purchases in 2017 are expected make up 42.6% of all app revenue in 2017. The basic idea behind in-app purchases is that you allow your target users to download your app for free, and then improve their app experience in exchange for money in the form of micro-transactions and digital content purchases. While most of your go-to app content should be available from the start (otherwise who would download?!), most in-app purchases are driven by the consumer desire for added value.

This technique is commonly used by app “gamers” to facilitate micro transactions within games to allow users to access a checkpoint or ability that they could have waited for. This one-two punch of exclusivity and instant gratification has played a huge role in the success of mobile gaming. An important upside factor to note, and one of the reasons why in-app purchasing is so popular, is that even though you are likely to have more free users than paid users, the non-paying users become great word-of-mouth promoters. They attract other users who are willing to pay, and can go a long way in contributing to your iOS App Store and Google Play ranking.

A second “freemium” in-app purchasing strategy is to begin by allowing users only a limited degree of app functionality upon download, and then present users the possibility of a functionality upgrade. Likely coming in the form of either a single or a series of one-time purchases, this technique is categorized as a “freemium” technique because apps that apply this strategy will still have some degree of functionality when they are originally downloaded. Potential functionality upgrades could include more login time, memory space, ad removal (similar to subscriptions), and enhanced customer/tech support.

Model #3 – Free Apps (In-App Advertising)

Another highly effective monetization technique is to integrate free and “freemium” apps together via in-app advertising. Specifically, we are referring to displaying promotions on your app in the form of native ads or banner ads.

If you offer a product that compels users to spend a lot of time engaged and using their phones (i.e. watching, playing, or interacting), you should consider this as an essential element of your monetization strategy. The reason in-app advertising is often associated with free apps is because free apps stand the best chance of rapidly widening their user base. This means developers can acquire user data and sell ad space on their apps. While in-app advertisements can include everything from video to interstitial ads, the two types of ads that are most often used in mobile app advertising are banner ads and native ads, both of which we have previously covered in detail. Whether using banner or native, it is imperative that your in-app advertisements integrate as a seamless part of the user experience. Nothing motivates an app deletion faster than an intrusive interruption of the user experience.

Another important focus point when it comes to in-app ad campaigns is the type of advertising payment model. The acronyms used to describe advertising payment models may be confusing, but they can all be broken down and simplified by remembering how the methods pay out:

• CPM: Also know as cost-per-mille (i.e. thousand impressions), this is a campaign type where the end goal for the campaign is for the ad to be seen by the user on the mobile platform. “Impression” refers to when an ad is retrieved and placed within a user’s app for the user to see. This type of campaign goes great with rich media.

• CPC: Also known as cost-per-click, this refers to when advertisers pay a fee for each and every time an ad is clicked on. CPC campaigns have the potential to provide intimate consumer insight, and can be very cost effective IF you can maximize conversions.

• CPA: Also known as cost-per-acquisition, this refers to the measure of the costs of acquiring a new customer. CPA, unlike other campaign payment models, is a financial metric used to measure the revenue impact of your ad campaign. The lower your CPA, the more cost-efficient your campaign is functioning.

• CPI: Also known as cost-per-install, this refers to a campaign where the goal is user acquisition. When CPI redirect links are implemented, advertisers pay per the number of people who use the link to install the app. It is low cost, low risk, and you don’t spend money on users that don’t convert to installs.

Of all the ad campaign payment models available, CPI is perhaps the most effective measure when it comes to app monetization. Why? Well, as a performance-based pricing metric, CPI campaigns are suited to developers, advertisers, and marketers that want guaranteed installs. With every install that your app achieves, it gets ranked higher and higher on the iOS App Store and the Google Play charts, thereby promoting visibility, improving organic growth, and increasing the likelihood of more downloads.

Remember, premium advertisers are looking for premium return-on-investment. This means that to get quality offers on your in-app advertisements, you have to play where the big boys play, and that is with CPI.

In Conclusion…

While the above list of potential app monetization models is by no means exhaustive (i.e. mCommerce, sponsorship, and app marketplaces), you should now feel comfortable with the basics of app monetization in the digital age. Remember to always keep in mind your app’s specific monetization building blocks, especially when it comes to your target market and your app’s unique value proposition.

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Downloads

It is common for businesses to focus on number of downloads to determine the success of an app. Which makes sense, because the rest of the important factors comes into play after downloads. Getting your app downloaded is the first step and can also be the most difficult. You can use a variety of techniques such as making a video for your app, offering discounts, or doing a press release.

An alternative option to get your app in front of audiences is to use Digital Turbine’s Native App Preloads. This allows users to discover your game immediately – as it is preloaded on to their home screen.

User Behavior

Most apps have different types of users and behaviors. Approximately 33 percent of mobile gamers in the US are defined as “avid gamers.” Avid gamers spend more than nine hours a week on average playing mobile games on smartphones. That leaves a large amount of “casual gamers” who play games much less, averaging only an hour a month in games.

Because of the disparity in use, there needs to be a large amount of varying and engaging content to keep avid gamers engaged. At the same time, engage the less avid users with a small set of achievable and engaging levels. The popular app, Cookie Jam, employs this strategy well by offering many skill levels to keep avid gamers engaged but also keeping the game fun and engaging at each level for less avid users.

Therefore, understanding behavior among mobile app game users is key to reaching your revenue goals.

User Engagement

The amount of time users engage with an app is important. For app advertisers, the more time spent in the app equals more opportunities to serve up ads. For app developers, keeping users engaged will help lead to the development of quality users that are willing to pay-to-play or pay to advance in the game.

Revenue

A variety of factors can affect overall revenue. It is important to remember that quality users who spend money in your app can be more important than the number of users total. If you have a good amount of players spending a large amount of money, you will need fewer players to meet your revenue goals. The top two categories of games in terms of revenue are Role Playing and Strategy games. These two categories make more than twice as much revenue per daily active user than any of the other categories.

Whether you are an app advertiser of an app developer, gaming apps are a good bet. However, you must analyze all of the above factors and determine your goals.

Digital Turbine can help you get your mobile game app in front of users as well as assist in other ways. Contact us for more information.

The post Metrics That are Important to Mobile Game Apps & How They Vary by Category appeared first on Digital Turbine.

Developer: Halfbrick Studios

After launching in the summer of 2012, Fruit Ninja quickly found a happy medium betweenmonetizing their free and paid applications. Through their work with Mobclix, a former mobile advertising network, the app brought in $400,00 per month on ads from their free app. Furthermore, around $600,00 per month was brought in from paid version downloads and in-app purchases. Two years after initial launch, Fruit Ninja had been downloaded around 300 million times and approximately 1.5 trillion pieces of fruit had been sliced.

Clash of Clans

Developer: Supercell

According to App Annie, Clash of Clans was the most profitable game in the world in 2013 and 2014. For an app that brings in $5 million per day, Supercell must have loaded the application with advertisements, right? Wrong. Clash of Clans offers a unique user experience without any ads. Operated as a freemium model, this app brings in the majority of its revenue through in-game rewards known as gems. Gems are shortcuts to gain power quickly. They can be used to accelerate the speed of collecting resources, complete construction instantly, improve the level of an army, and more.

Candy Crush

Developer: King

In April of 2012, King initially launched Candy Crush for gaming on Facebook and after much success, it was launched on iOS and Android just seven months later. Within a year, Candy Crush had quickly taken over Facebook’s top played game, FarmVille 2, and became 2013’s most downloaded app. 2.3% of players that paid for an in-game boost generated 1.04 billion dollars in the second half of 2013 alone.

Angry Birds

Developer: Rovio

The original Angry Birds app underwent two different launches. On iOS, Angry Birds launched with a price of .99 cents and all updates were available for free. It was launched simultaneously on Android as a free app on an ad-based model. Within ten months, the paid iOS version produced 12 million downloads while the free Android app produced 30 million downloads. Two years after the release, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka shed more light on the growth of Angry Birds, “We serve 10 billion ad impressions every month already. We are the biggest mobile ad publisher on the planet already.”

Crossy Road

Developer: Hipster Whale

Crossy Road’s entertaining gameplay, modest in-app purchases, and optional in-app ads driven by the Unity engine uniquely combined to produce $10 million in the first 90 days of its release. In this freemium model, $3 of the $10 million came from the Unity engine video ads. Hipster Whale’s cofounder Matt Hall provided great depth on the thinking behind their decisions, “Crossy Road was an experiment to see what happens when a free to play game puts the player first. Integrating Unity Ads was very easy and players can choose to watch video ads to earn in-game rewards if they want to. Crossing $3 million dollars proves that this kind of advertising can be financially successful and also provide the best possible user experience.”

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The Cost Per Window Shopper Model

Traditional cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand (CPM) campaigns face a growing wall of resentment from companies and consumers, although impression based and non-conversion action based campaigns do work.

Companies are tired of paying money for low conversion CPC campaigns and misdirected CPM campaigns that lead to window shopping. Consumers are tired of having their window shopping interrupted with intrusive, irrelevant content. Both of these situations are exacerbated in the mobile space. Companies are watching CPC and CPM prices rise for competitive keywords as new business flows into the mobile platform. Consumers only have room on mobile screens for relevant information; huge flashing ads are much more annoying on this screen than on a desktop, where they can be easily ignored or pushed to the side.

Window Shoppers Aren’t Clicking Any More

Leading digital marketing research agencies have reported that Facebook suffered a 15% drop in its Facebook ad click-through rate year over year in 2015. However, click to install rates increased 32% over the same period. The cost of CPI is also dropping on both Android and iPhone devices, and customers can expect anywhere from 30 to 33% of clicks from the mobile Facebook ad program to convert into an install. Other major platforms such as Twitter have yet to fully assess their CPI programs, but market experts expect the same type of performance.

What does all of this mean?

Online consumers, especially those on smart phones and tablets, are learning how to ignore irrelevant ads even more than before. However, they are engaging more with targeted material. If a business pays per install, they are getting more value than ever before when compared to paying per impression or per non-converting action.

CPI – The Future of CRM?

The latest Facebook statistic not only points to higher ROI for CPI campaigns, but also more effective customer interaction. A high install rate gives a much higher chance for engagement when compared to traditional CPC and CPM ads, both of which give a company around four seconds to make an impression, if that. 25.5% of iOS device users and 29.1% of Android device users will keep an app for at least a day (with 100% keeping it for more than four seconds). Companies gain even higher retention rates if they sourced the customer from Twitter (25% higher retention) and multiple reminders on more than one platform increases retention as well, to a point. If you use better techniques to get your potential customers to install, you have a much higher chance of actually making an impression instead of just paying for one. Your customers appreciate your brand more, and you spend less money as well.

Savvy marketers are using their initial time with the consumer well. In some cases, apps also function as information grabs that give the company a chance to remarket even if the consumer deletes the app relatively quickly. The stats on remarketing continue to impress, and if a company can build a call list of hot leads from app downloads, its chances for an ongoing improvement in customer relationships vastly increase over time.

The post Forget CPC and CPM: Improving Revenue Through CPI appeared first on Digital Turbine.

CPM – The Machine Gun

Cost per thousand, or volume advertising, no longer brings the stable conversion rates that it once did on mobile. Performance based advertising has finally found full mainstream acceptance. Instagram’s recent announcement of business profile analytics means that social influence can now be quantified on all major platforms. Why would a company pay for a spray gun when it can precisely outsource its production to a proven entity and its payment to a CPI structure?

Traditional ad performance is also down. The Internet continues to find its voice through social influencers and content, not direct ads. Companies experienced a 133% higher retention rate from customers for apps downloaded through an “organic” source [read: no CPM ads]. Android users retained their apps at a 156% higher rate if the company engaged them organically as opposed to directly using a CPM spray tactic.

CPC – The Blind Shooter

The cost per click model threatened to end the traditional volume based advertising structure in 2013. Although this first step into performance based advertising did not replace CPM, it certainly began to open some eyes in terms of how precisely an ad campaign could be structured. However, CPC statistics are also falling in the face of new technology, because CPC still has no built in focus mechanism to force an advertiser to hone in on a market niche. CPC also leaves the door wide open for underhanded tactics – it’s really nothing for a competitor to click on ads to reduce a budget and waste impressions, even with Google’s tough talk on ‘invalid activity impressions.’

If CPM is the machine gun, CPC is the blind sniper. A company may get clicks, but clicks do not equal revenue. Overall, CPC still sends ads to people who do not want them, wastes money and reduces revenue when compared to CPI.

CPI – The Professional Hitman

CPI naturally focuses the efforts of a marketing company. The purpose of an ad campaign under CPI is no longer volume (CPM) nor imprecise action (CPC), but true conversions. The result is less ads and more revenue. CPI currently has an overall conversion rate of just under 33%, meaning that one of every three people who see an ad from a company who really knows CPI downloads an app.

From this point of connection, a company has many options to continue the relationship with a customer. That company also has much longer to engage: About a quarter of downloaded apps stay on the user’s mobile device for a day. Compare this to the four seconds that the average consumer gives to an unsolicited ad, and you have much more solid ground for an increased revenue generation.

Learning how to properly tap your potential customer on the shoulder just enough is an art form that you must learn to succeed in the modern business landscape. Make sure to cultivate the right partnerships and employ the right strategies to make this happen.

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