According to Mashable, the Boston-based app marketing technology company Fiksu released a report that says the cost of app marketing is at an all-time high.
In June, the Cost Per Loyal User Index (CPLUI) — which measures how much money brands spend to acquire regular users of their iOS apps — peaked at $2.23. According to Fiksu, who has been analyzing trends in app marketing for the last four years, a regular user is someone who uses the app at least three times.
These numbers tend to be cyclical, with downloads typically increasing with anticipated product launches and during the holidays, and decreasing during the summer. This summer, however, the number of downloads was lower than usual with 6.1 million in June, versus 6.6 million in May. June also marked the first time the CPLUI was higher than $2, a 25 percent increase from May and a 49 percent increase from last year. Chief strategy officer at Fiksu, Craig Palli attributed this to the popularity of the World Cup along with Apple’s temporary ban on apps with incentivized video advertising.
Palli believes the costs will go back down in the coming months, but only for a short while.
“The cost of a loyal user is increasing because mobile is such an incredible value compared to every other form of marketing,” Palli said in an online piece with Mashable.
Mobile marketing is indeed a fraction of the cost of other forms of digital marketing, which itself is significantly cheaper than traditional strategies.
As of June, 1.2 million apps were available in Apple’s App Store.
“It’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. Even if you’re a major brand with a loyal following, it can be a challenge to convince users to add your app to their already-crowded phone screens,” said Joe Laszlo, senior director of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “It’s not enough to build an app, launch it in the app store and hope the world beats a path to your door.”
Nowadays more brands are viewing apps as moneymakers, rather than powerful branding tools, as they have been traditionally viewed. Mobile app revenue was at $38 billion last year, a number projected to increase to $92 billion by 2018.
“People are jumping into this boat really quickly,” Palli said. “You’ve got industry leaders like Coca-Cola utilizing mobile and doing a great job with it. Now I think the rest of the market is looking to catch up and accelerate their use of mobile, and they’re getting a tremendous benefit.”
Source: Mashable
