Why investing in efficiency is key to standing out in a competitive and crowded app marketplace
Mary Meeker’s latest Internet trends report confirms that more and more of our time online is shifting to mobile, with U.S. adults spending 3.3 of their 5.9 hours of daily digital screen time on mobile devices. At the same time, while the app economy is booming, our in-app time is maxing out—growth stagnated to just 6% in 2017 vs. 11% in 2016. There’s only so much messaging, YouTube-ing, and shopping consumers can fit in a day, after all. To top things off, it’s an app downloader’s market, with more choices than ever, leading consumers to divide their time—and their loyalties—accordingly. As a result, mobile app marketing programs are feeling the squeeze.
The App Marketer’s Dilemma
Consumer spending and the potential for breakout success are still there, but competition is fierce. Take a look at what you’re up against:
- Nearly 6 million apps in total are available in the Google and Apple mobile app marketplaces
- More than 6 thousand new apps are released daily (daily!)
- Consumers use, on average, about 9 apps every day
Making your app rise above all of this noise and clutter takes attention to every facet of app development and distribution. But we’re here to focus on the part you control—mobile app marketing. The challenge of efficient, effective advertising goes beyond securing mindshare and minutes. You’re tasked with rationalizing where and how to buy, as well as how to synthesize and understand reporting across the world’s hottest publishers and platforms.
And you can’t afford to ignore any of them. While Facebook remains a leading platform for mobile app ads, Google’s launch of Universal App Campaigns brought with it a serious contender for performance at scale. Snapchat offers its own spin, with impressive targeting and creative capabilities.
All important. Each unique.
For many marketing teams, understanding the relative impact of these publishers, let alone how to leverage data from one to inform another, remains a pipe dream.
From Fragmented Marketing to Efficiency at Scale
Skai Apps, the complete mobile app marketing solution for user-driven app install and engagement, was launched in 2012 with that era’s need for audience and reach in mind. As the industry has evolved and with it, publisher complexity, we’ve stayed ahead of the curve, implementing sophisticated tools for mobile app marketers to learn, experiment, optimize and manage their marketing mix.
Centralized media buying with Skai Apps today presents opportunities that plainly didn’t exist before, nor are available anywhere else. These include unprecedented clarity and control over:
- Campaign and ads creation and management at scale
- Robust, granular reporting including:
- Detailed cohort analyses
- Shared data and insights across the publishers
- Centralized management and allocation of creatives, budget, and performance across publishers
- Advanced optimizations towards users with the highest Lifetime Value (LTV)
So what do those nifty features enable you to do? Realize a whole lot of mobile app marketing efficiency. For example:
- Mashup monetization trends from Facebook with the analytics from Google’s UAC while layering in critical insights on customer LTV from SnapChat’s prolific audience targeting
- See streamlined, actionable data and a full-picture view of your users’ funnel maturity over the course of their lifecycle
- Predict and pinpoint those most likely to become loyalists to your app
Changing your approach from siloed to centralized media buying and campaign activation for your mobile app marketing programs is, at its core, a shift in mindset aligned with both the changing behavior of app users and the new possibilities for app marketers. We know it’s no small thing. Yet when powered by a best-of-breed technology partner tailored to mobile app growth and your specific marketing KPIs, it’s a move that can become the very competitive edge you need.
Wondering if centralizing your media buying makes sense for your team? Contact us today.