The Mobile App Developer and Marketing

By Michael Kordvani

The popularity of mobile applications has skyrocketed. The pressure has shifted to the appdeveloper to build and present apps that are marketable. One concern for app developers is the fact that apps are often forgotten soon after they have been downloaded and used.  The challenge then, for app developers is to build apps that are effective and applicable to user’s lifestyles and interests and can be their go-to for some time to come.

Marketable App Development

There are three concepts build into apps that will help keep users engaged long after the initial download. Consider building in these three features to leverage marketing efforts.

·         Actionable Applications

Action apps are focused on how the user is going to use the app for commerce. This can be a broad range from purchasing tangible goods to paying to contract for services. These commerce specific mobile applications give customers a direct line and make it easy to purchase their content, music or tangible goods.

·         Informative Applications

Informative apps are the perfect fit for users who are looking for facts and figures. Informational apps don’t have the capability of selling or buying. It engages the user through offering them the information they are looking for right at their fingertips. Offers include things like account balances, comparing prices of airline tickets, or offering a fresh look at headline news. These actions may lead to commerce, but do not offer it directly.

·         Communicative Applications

It is so much easier to tap an icon and reach a digital destination than it is to type in a long URL. Think about social media platforms. These are perfect examples of mobile apps that are used to facilitate communication.

App Developers and the Consumer

How an app is going to be utilized, or add value to the consumer is of the utmost importance. Of course, the most basic answer is to provide them a means to make life easier and provide for stress-free digital activity. Consumers want an app that gives them what they want as instantly as possible. They want to indulge themselves in buying, selling or gathering data. Smartphone users typically have numerous apps downloaded at the same time and are also getting updates from them daily. However, the challenge for app developers and marketers alike is how fickle users can be.

App Developer Marketing Strategies

Attracting consumer’s attention can be the biggest marketing challenge for the app developer. Another marketing challenge for developers is offering the user more value than the norm as well as the competition. The need is to not only attract a consumer, but keep them for future commerce for the long term. More than ever, apps must contain pushbutton notifications for new features and built-in reminders of special offers. There should be consistent bug fixes and new features to keep it engaging and ahead of the competition.

Developing a marketable app is only limited by the marketer’s lack of vision. Designing and aligning an app to a business model requires ingenuity. You are taking the consumer on a journey, design apps that make their lives easier and provide more than what competitors have to offer.

7 Lessons We’ve Learned Running App Install Campaigns on Snapchat

adweek.com

Opinion: It’s easy to see why app marketers would want to advertise on Snapchat

Snapchat is quickly emerging as an excellent source of scalable, quality 
ad campaigns for marketers looking to drive app installs

Snapchat has made no secret of its desire to steal a piece of the mobile application advertising pie that is ruled by Facebook and Google.

The popular chat app has been rolling out a number of ad products over the last year designed to let app marketers tap into its 173 million daily users, many of whom fall into the highly engaged college-aged and millennial brackets that marketers crave.

And from what we’ve seen so far, after running install campaigns on the platform for several months, the company’s efforts appear to be working.

Since we first became an official Snapchat Ads Partner, we have run many campaigns on the platform, and our clients’ have generated a 30 percent lower cost-per-install rate on Snapchat compared with other platforms, while users acquired on the platform have converted to paying customers at a rate 30 percent higher. Meanwhile, the cost per action (for actions conducted post-install) was 46 percent lower than other channels.

Those numbers will surely fluctuate as Snapchat’s products mature, but they show strong promise for the early stages.

It’s easy to see why app marketers would want to advertise on Snapchat. It is the most popular social media app among teenagers and young adults in the U.S., and it is extremely “sticky”: Users open the app an average of 18 times per day and spend more than 30 minutes on it per day.

The platform also delivers more than 3 billion Snaps and serves over 10 billion video views every day, making it one of the most active social networks in the world.

To help app marketers turn all that consumer attention into downloads, Snapchat offers Snap Ads App Install. First introduced in beta last year and made available to marketers this spring, the format delivers a native experience, allowing Snapchatters to watch a trailer video and then swipe up to download the advertised app from the appropriate app store—all without leaving Snapchat. One tap later, the app installs in the background while the user continues Snapchatting. The experience is seamless and efficient, not to mention very effective.

Here are seven lessons we’ve learned from running successful app install campaigns on Snapchat.

1. Keep creative simple: The ideal length for Snap Ads is three to five seconds, which doesn’t give marketers much chance to convey a complex message. Therefore, they must keep ad creative simple and concise, with a single-minded message that can be gotten across quickly and clearly. Ads should mirror the bite-sized and linear storytelling of other Snaps.
2. Incorporate branding elements: While marketers must keep their messages concise, they still must not forget to incorporate brand elements as best they can. Highlighting the app name and logo is a necessity, as is using beautiful, high-quality artwork. But it’s also important to communicate a clear value proposition and unique differentiation so that consumers understand what the brand stands for.
3. Make effective use of sound: More than two-thirds of all Snaps play with the sound on, giving marketers an excellent opportunity to enhance their ads with audio. The right voiceover can communicate an app’s value proposition, while also directing users to download the app as a call to action, or music can be used to set a specific tone. Meanwhile, Snaps with no audio or canned music might look cheap and unprofessional, so marketers who ignore the audio qualities of their ad risk negative brand affinity.
4. Use goal-based bidding: Snapchat offers goal-based bidding so that advertisers can optimize campaigns by delivering them at the lowest cost possible to Snapchatters who are most likely to take whatever action the advertiser chooses. By targeting users most likely to swipe up on an ad (the equivalent of clicking-through on traditional ads) or installing the app, marketers can drive higher-quality downloads. A campaign that mixes approximately 50 percent optimization for swipes and 50 percent for installs will drive an effective mix of both scale and quality.
5. Optimize for vertical video: This might sound like an obvious tip, given that all Snaps run vertically, but it’s surprising to see how many ads on the platform still aren’t optimized for vertical video or don’t take up the full space they are allowed. This usually happens because advertisers simply port video content from other platforms over to Snapchat, without fully optimizing it for Snapchat’s specifications—a big “no” when running ads unique to any platform.
6. Run multiple campaigns: As with any emerging platform, running multiple campaigns helps advertisers get key learnings faster than they would by just running one campaign at a time. The more campaigns they have running, the more points of control they have to optimize for overall performance by adjusting levers such as bid amounts and ad creative—not to mention the more aggregate scale they will achieve. We recommend running a minimum of 12 campaigns or ad sets per operating system.
7. Target the right users: Snapchat offers a variety of targeting options that advertisers would be foolish not to take advantage of. Aside from standard targeting options such as age, gender, location, device type, etc., the platform offers a mix of predefined audiences in categories based on lifestyles, events, life stages and more. And then there are advanced targeting options such as lookalike audiences or engagement audiences, which enables marketers to target users who previously interacted with their ads. Aim to include one targeting type per campaign, while ensuring sufficient reach.

Snapchat is quickly emerging as an excellent source of scalable, quality ad campaigns for marketers looking to drive app installs. By following the tactics described above, marketers will get the most from the platform and generate impressive growth for their mobile apps.

The Cost of Acquiring a Mobile App User

emarketer.com

There’s always an app for that

Getting a first-time user to install an app isn’t easy. And getting that user to make a purchase within the app is even harder—and a lot costlier.

In fact, mobile app marketing and retargeting company Liftoff analyzed user data for a year, and found that the average cost to acquire a user who makes a purchase via an app is $64.96.

That’s significantly higher than the cost of getting someone to install an app, at $4.12, as well as getting a first-time user to create an account via an app, at an average cost of $8.21.

And getting a user to buy something within the app, or subscribe to a paid service? Better open up that wallet. For example, Liftoff found that the average cost to acquire an app user who makes an in-app purchase—like game content—is $76.40.

Meanwhile, the cost of acquiring an app user who subscribes to a paid service is a lot more expensive than any of the other types of acquisitions. It averages to $162.22 per user.

There’s no doubt that the mobile app ecosystem is a competitive one. Marketers are constantly aiming to keep their app top of mind, and many hope to get their app featured within an app store to help drive downloads.

But those who don’t make the top of the charts are looking at ways to attain new users, and spending money to do so.

eMarketer estimates that US mobile app install ad spending will reach $7.57 billion this year, an increase of 29.0% from 2016, when it totaled $5.87 billion.

How can blockchain disrupt the app store business?

e27.co

We will share more revenue with developers, manufacturers will benefit from the app economy for the first time, and users will be rewarded through proof-of-attention

Today when you want to buy content (e.g. books, songs, movies) there are hundreds of alternatives to choose from. But why, when it comes to apps, are there only two options (i.e. Google Play and Apple Store)?

Taking advantage of blockchain technology, it is possible to disrupt the traditional app economy which is worth US$77 billion today. Here are some thoughts on how it can be done.

How the blockchain can address problems with traditional app stores

The blockchain has a huge potential because it offers an unprecedented transparent and accessible public ledger that can redesign the way transactions are made. If correctly applied to the app store economy, it can address three major inefficiencies witnessed today:

Advertising: User acquisition is non-transparent and costly due to all the ad tech middlemen. By making use of smart contracts it is possible to establish direct relationships between developers and users, eliminating intermediaries.

Also read: How we became the first EU startup to raise from Gobi Partners and Golden Gate Ventures

In-App Billing: A majority of the population still has no access to traditional payment methods. For those that do, and spend money inside apps, developers are frustrated with the cut taken by app stores. With blockchain it is possible to introduce a frictionless method to pay for in-game items and to pass on 85% of the value to the developer (vs. 70% today).

App Approval: Android has a reputation of being unsafe when compared to other operating systems such as iOS. By developing a new reputation system based on the developer’s track record of transactions, which will be public in the blockchain, it is possible to develop a more transparent and secured environment.

To tackle each of the three major inefficiencies mentioned above, we decided to create AppCoins, the world’s first blockchain-based open protocol that will be integrated into the Aptoide ecosystem and any other app store. Here is more detail on how we plan to achieve this:

1. Advertising

Today there are more than 2 million apps available in App Store and Google Play. To stand out, developers invest in CPI (Cost Per Installation) campaigns, which are expensive and non-transparent due to all the intermediaries in the process:

AppCoins will eliminate middlemen and create a new method to acquire users that will make CPI campaigns obsolete. We are calling it CPAt (Cost Per Attention) to allow a developer to directly reward a user for spending at least 2 minutes inside the app. The users earn AppCoins, which are stored in their wallets, and can be used to buy in-game items (see In-App Purchases section below), closing the loop.

Also read: Top reasons why we download dating apps but neglect using them afterwards

By using smart contracts, we will guarantee that the user spends the required time and Aptoide will register all transactions in the blockchain to guarantee user authenticity. Consequently, fraud is avoided, which is responsible for over US$850 million in losses per year.

2. In-App Purchases

Blockchain can help remove barriers for the unbanked. Today there are an estimated 2.6 billion smartphones in the world but 2 billion of those smartphone users do not have access to the payment methods required for in-app purchases such as a credit card. With the new model, users will be rewarded by CPAt campaigns (see Advertisement section above) and once they earn those AppCoins they can just turn around and spend them inside their favourite game or app hence closing the circular economy.

It can also reward developers fairly. Whenever a user makes a purchase inside a game or an app, the developer only gets 70% of the transaction value. AppCoins will change that by rewarding the developer with 85% of the tokens spent by the user. How did we come up with that revenue split? Because we work closely with 12,000 developers, who told us that this would be the sweet spot of what they feel to be fair.

3. App Approval

The existing app approval process today is complex, being handled by centralized app stores with complex quality assurance flows and non-transparent distribution policies. Similar to other competitors, Aptoide has been banned from Google Play for many years now, and has filed complaints with EU regulators.

By using blockchain, app approvals will be made universal and more transparent through a developer reputation system. The reputation is tied to the financial transactions on the public ledger and is auditable. A dispute system will be created so that AppCoins’ owners can create rankings for developers and the apps they publish.

Bonus: Rewarding Manufacturers (OEMs) for the first time

If you take a look at the circular diagram at the beginning of the article, you will notice that 5% of the value of all the transactions within the new AppCoins-based store will go to device manufacturers (OEMs) versus the 0% they receive from Google Play. This is unheard of, but from working with more than 70 OEMs around the world, we concluded that they are important stakeholders in the new app economy and should be rewarded accordingly.

Conclusion

What we are proposing is a gigantic task. If it were easy, everyone would do it. We will share more revenue with developers, manufacturers will benefit from the app economy for the first time, and users will be rewarded through our novel implementation of the proof-of-attention concept. Thus, all stakeholders in the app economy (besides Google and Apple) will substantially benefit from Aptoide and its AppCoins integration.

Why brands should care about mobile performance marketing

mobilemarketer.com

A brand advertiser's mission is to cultivate a tribe of believers and create a strong affinity for a product or service. When brand marketers evaluate the success of an ad campaign, results are often measured in terms that reflect their goals to build awareness, communicate a brand promise or value proposition and shape positive sentiment. Building awareness and shaping sentiment are important and necessary conditions for priming consumers to make an eventual purchase. Yet 'awareness' and 'sentiment' are broad strokes, and can be illusive, difficult to track and quantify. This challenge is nothing new to brand marketers, but conventional brand advertising practices endure because they work, and we all enjoy powerful storytelling that resonates in our hearts and minds.

Yet consider this: In the age of mobile and an omni-channel brand presence where shoppers seamlessly transition between online, mobile and in-store visits, there is another — and more measurable — approach to advertising that can be equally valuable for brands: performance marketing.

Mobile performance marketing allows marketers to achieve specific KPIs such as retention and lifetime value of a customer, by driving and measuring distinct types of actions. There's the obvious action: get audiences to download the brand app. Going one step further, tying mobile campaign performance to specific revenue-generating actions such as making a purchase, visiting a level or area within the app, redeeming a coupon, completing a form, or returning to the app within a given time span, are also possible. Advertisers only pay when a specified action is completed.

Achieve specific KPIs

Paying on CPM (cost per thousand impressions), as most brand campaigns and even performance marketers are set up to do (when buying programmatically), means marketers are paying based on how many times the ad is served — reaching an estimated number of eyeballs — regardless of whether or not the user clicks on an ad. 

However, working with your mobile ad platform partner to set up your performance marketing campaign budget according to specific consumer actions can be more efficient than the risk of paying large amounts for advertisements that may not be seen.

Proving efficacy

With conventional brand advertising, marketers may spend additional budget on surveys to prove campaign efficacy and maintain accountability. Measuring signals such as "ad recall" (e.g., Do consumers remember seeing the ad?), aided awareness (e.g., Do consumers remember the ad if given a gentle reminder about the ad?), propensity to purchase (e.g., How likely are consumers to make a purchase from the brand as a result of being exposed to the ad?), provide assurance that awareness and sentiment can be achieved. With performance marketing, the consumer actions are quantifiable, removing the guesswork about whether or not a campaign was effective.

Apple Search Ads App Showing Strength In Downloads

mediapost.com

Less than a year from its launch, Apple Search Ads now ranks No. 3 and No. 4 in the universal non-gaming and gaming power rankings, respectively, in AppsFlyer's Performance Index report released this week.

Apple App Store Search Ads recently expanded into Canada, Mexico and Switzerland.

Apple Search Ads hit the No. 1 spot in the iOS ROI Index with a 30% higher average revenue per user and a 40% lower price than the other networks in this index.

Facebook led the non-gaming category, followed by Google AdWords at No. 2. Twitter came in at No. 4; AdColony, No. 5; Vungle, No. 6; AppLovin, No.7; MUNDOmedia, No. 8; YouAppi, No. 9; and Cheetah Mobile rounded out the top 10.

In the fifth edition of its Performance Index report, AppsFlyer ranked the top media sources in mobile advertising. The report examines more than 6 billion installations and 80 billion sessions across four regions.

For the first time, the report also takes into account multiple, advanced fraud signals, as it is estimated that advertisers will lose between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion this year to app install fraud.

While fraud was heavily considered in the methodology, the ranking is based on the total number of fraud-free installs that each app generated. AppsFlyer then factored an additional fraud penalty based on the network’s install fraud rate for the region in question.

While Facebook and Google have always made it to the top slots, the two dominate the mobile ad space. AppFlyer's new return on investments (ROI) index shows Facebook and Google reaching the No. 1 and the No. 2 spots on Android, and the No. 2 and No. 3 positions on iOS, respectively.

While the two top the rankings across the board, their dominance in the non-gaming category shows their strength. Facebook and Google’s share of installs in non-gaming was 70% higher than their share in gaming. When looking at operating systems, their share on Android came in nearly 50% higher than iOS. Regionally, the data shows that Latin America has the highest share of installs coming from Google and Facebook, followed by Asia, Western Europe, and lastly, North America.

Those are just two of several key insights you will find in the index, in addition to the full power, volume, and ROI rankings.

Interestingly, gaming marketers appear to prefer iOS over Android, as iOS had a 20% higher quality score, but iOS and Android were equal among non-gaming apps.

How chat and voice-related tech is changing retailer-customer interactions

retaildive.com
New chat channels are emerging as a real-time alternative to email, along other technologies, but a comprehensive view matters most.

There is no shortage of companies, white papers, studies and advice blogs aimed at helping retailers write perfect emails to their customers before and after they visit stores (Google "email marketing" if you don’t believe us.)

Yet email isn’t the only avenue available to companies trying to communicate with customers outside of stores. Retailers and brands now have more online and mobile communications tools at their disposal than ever before — mobile messaging; text, voice and video chat; and even website and in-app content and community forums. These tools enable more direct, real-time communication with customers than email could ever hope to offer.

"There are various factors driving this trend," Adam Pressman, principal in A.T. Kearney’s digital transformation practice told Retail Dive in an email. "Timeliness, scale and costs/value are all in play. Also, with e-commerce continuing to grow, it’s now necessary to support interactions outside of the store in order to succeed. It’s no longer a nice-to-have capability."

"Retailers definitely need to be mindful of the balance between being helpful and being annoying. They should never push information on customers."

Adam Pressman

Principal, Digital Transformation, A.T. Kearney

As retailers sort through new options, at least one long-standing rule about customer engagement still applies, according to Pressman. "Retailers definitely need to be mindful of the balance between being helpful and being annoying," he said. "They should never push information on customers."

It’s a rule that retailers may feel tempted to break as they try to beat the competition, win customer loyalty and unify their offline, online and mobile engagement efforts.

"Retailers need to think about the before, during and after of purchases and tailor their communications and interactions accordingly," he said. "Combining context and content can create a very powerful understanding of behavior and the ability to shape the interaction. 

Opening the chat channel

Mobile messaging and chat applications are not new tools for retailers, but increasingly look like the best way for immediate, direct contact between consumers and retailers. Automated chatbots running off mobile messaging platforms are another mobile-first avenue for consumers to engage with their favorite brands.

Retailers such as Sephora have gamely explored their potential, offering a variety of capabilities through chatbots on Facebook, Kik and elsewhere, and Facebook Messenger has promoted itself aggressively as a home for chatbots.

The first generation of these bots were somewhat limited in what they could, but now artificial intelligence is being used to create the next generation of chatbots, capable of learning from customer interactions and switching to live human helpers at the moment a customer need to do so.

However another evolution in chat communication between retailers and customers already may be upon us. In June, Apple announced plans for Apple Business Chat, a dedicated chat service for customers to communicate with the staff of businesses, including retailers, for the types of customer service exchanges that otherwise would take place by phone or email.

McDonald's readies marketing push for mobile ordering

mobilemarketer.com

Brief:

• McDonald's, the biggest U.S. burger chain with more than 14,000 U.S. restaurants, is preparing to enhance marketing efforts for its mobile pay and ordering, Marketing Week reported. The company has spent this year working out kinks in its mobile platforms and setting the stage for a larger push next year.
• The company offered mobile order-and-pay in more than 6,000 restaurants by the end of September and expects to reach all 14,000 restaurants by the end of 2017, according to its Q3 earnings report.
• McDonald's said about 30 million people have downloaded its mobile app, while nine million actively use it. Same-store sales grew 4.1% in Q3 2017 from a year earlier, as total revenue reached $5.8 billion.  

Insight:

McDonald's is in the midst of a significant push to upgrade its in-store and online use of digital and mobile technology, as it addresses the need for updated digital experiences to appeal to today's tech-savvy consumers, especially millennials who generally like to eat out or order in — but often not with fast food chains, according to data from the USDA via Forbes.

This emphasis on mobile presents several challenges, the company acknowledged in its conference call with investors on Oct. 24. 

"We're really at this point focused on getting the operations right," said Chris Kempczinski, McDonald's U.S. president. "Getting, for example, the crew to understand when a curbside order comes up, how do they take that order, how do they go out and bring the food to the customer. We're spending a lot of time on mobile order and pay.

As the chain is starting to get a handle on these challenges, it is planning to ramp up marketing behind mobile ordering. Doing so any sooner could have turned off customers if, when they arrived to pick up their order, they had to wait. Chains like Starbucks and Chipotle have similarly had to manage behind-the-counter operational changes demanded by the introduction of mobile ordering. 

"What will happen then in 2018 is we're going to flip the marketing switch on it and start to drive really much more increased usage," he added. 

In the past few years, the fast food giant has begun to embrace new technology to reach the next generation of consumers, including digital ordering kiosks and delivery options. It partnered with ride-hailing company Uber earlier this year for UberEats delivery to address consumers' shifting preferences toward convenience. Customers can now request food on a smartphone without ever leaving their home.

​As the company realigns its operations to respond to mobile capabilities, it plans to drive orders and store visits with fresh digital offers. "We are increasingly driving traffic and check growth with digital offers," CEO Steve Easterbrook said in the call. "Retention of mobile offers continues to grow month-on-month, with a meaningful portion of the redemptions representing incremental visits."

Despite its efforts to emphasize mobile engagement, McDonald's saw its biggest mobile misstep in July when its app crashed during a free ice cream offer to celebrate National Ice Cream Day, causing customers to take to social media to air their frustrations.

AMAZON INTRODUCES APPSTORE MOBILE APP WITH A FOCUS ON COINS

mobilemarketingmagazine.com

Amazon has launched a standalone Appstore mobile app, bringing the apps and games from Fire TV and Fire tablets to smartphones.

The Amazon Appstore is exclusive to Android devices. It features an overhauled user interface, with a navigation bar located at the bottom of the app, as well as an increased focus on Amazon’s virtual currency, Amazon Coins.

Amazon Coins, which were introduced in 2013, have got their own dedicated tab within the app and customers can now purchase coins from anywhere within the app.

With Amazon Coins, customers can buy apps, games, and in-app items from the Appstore ‘for less’. Coins can be purchased from Amazon, or acquired for free as rewards in games. Those who bulk-buy coins receive larger discounts on the price of virtual currency. Either way, however customers acquire coins, developers will still earn 70 per cent royalty on purchases.

For Appstore developers that have already selected to distribute their apps on ‘All other Android devices’, their apps will automatically become available to customers on the mobile app. If not, this can be toggled via the developer portal.

In addition to the new Amazon Appstore, the eCommerce giant has also introduced a new Kindle app with updated look, one-tap access, and improved search bar.

Google Play and App Store downloads and spending hit record levels

gamasutra.com

The mobile app economy shows no signs of slowing, with Google Play and the App Store both seeing record levels of downloads and consumer spending during the third quarter of 2017. 

According to a new report from App Annie, the two stores pulled in combined downloads of nearly 26 billion worldwide -- a year-over-year increase of 8 percent. 

Combined worldwide consumer spending increased even more, leaping up by 28 percent year-over-year to $17 billion. 

More people are actually spending time using apps as well, with app usage among Android phone users growing by 40 percent to 325 billion hours. 

As was the case in previous quarters, Google Play maintained a healthy lead over iOS in terms of worldwide downloads, and actually widened its lead by 10 percent. 

That growth was largely driven by emerging markets, and particularly the influx of first-time smartphone owners in those regions.

India, for instance, was the biggest contributor to download growth by a large margin, and has been the largest market for Google Play downloads since Q4 2016.

On the other side of the coin, worldwide consumer spending on iOS was nearly double that of Google Play, and Apple's marketplace increased it's lead compared to Q3 2016. Both stores, however, reached record levels as growth rates exceeded 25 percent.

The graphs below illusturate how both storefronts are faring in terms of consumer spending and downloads. For more information, you can grab the full report from App Annie.

Global app revenue and downloads hit record levels in Q3

techcrunch.com

App downloads and revenue hit record levels in the third quarter of 2017, according to a new report out this morning from App Annie. Downloads across the two major app stores, Apple’s App Store and Google Play, reached nearly 26 billion worldwide – up 8 percent over the same time last year. That figure doesn’t include reinstalls or app updates, only new downloads. In other words, it paints a picture of the app economy’s true growth, rather than including downloads from people who were just grabbing a new version of an existing app, or re-downloading an app they had previously installed.

In addition, app revenue reached a record of nearly $17 billion, App Annie said.

Much of the download growth is coming from emerging markets where smartphone penetration is still relatively low. That means we’ll likely see continued increases in worldwide downloads for some time.

In particular, App Annie found that the download growth on Google Play was heavily fueled by emerging markets, with the biggest contributor being India. In that country, downloads nearly doubled from Q3 2016 to Q3 2017.

Other Southeast Asian nations, and particularly Vietnam and Indonesia, contributed to Google Play growth, too. Both countries saw double-digit growth rates year-over-year, with Indonesia in 4th place, and Vietnam moving into 7th.

Overall, Google Play led iOS in worldwide downloads, having grown downloads by 10 percent since last year.

Meanwhile, iOS download growth was up 8 percent from last quarter – its highest quarter over quarter growth rate since Q1 2016. This is largely attributable to China, which saw the highest quarter over quarter market share growth, followed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Alongside the increase in downloads, consumer spend is also still growing. In the third quarter, revenue from iOS apps and those on Google Play combined reached nearly $17 billion, up 28 percent over the year prior.

In this case, it’s iOS that’s leading the app revenue growth. In Q3 2017, consumer spend on iOS was almost double that of Google Play. But both stores reached record levels of consumer spend, thanks to year over year growth rates over 25 percent.

China, again, is a major factor. It was the largest market overall for consumer spend and saw the highest year over year growth in absolute spend. South Korea – now at its highest ranking ever as 4th overall in consumer spend – saw the second highest market share growth.

App Annie attributed a lot of South Korea’s performance across iOS and Android to NCSOFT’s game, Lineage M, which became the highest grossing app on both platforms in the quarter.

Entertainment apps, and particularly video streaming apps, also had a strong showing in Q3, with worldwide consumer spend in the category up by 30 percent quarter over quarter on iOS, and up 45 percent on Google Play.

On iOS. Tencent Video grew the most, followed by Youku and Starz. And on Google Play, HBO NOW had the highest share change, followed by Netflix and Starz.

Apps are also continuing to capture more of consumers’ time and attention, with the total time spent using apps grew 40 percent year over year to reach almost 325 billion hours in the quarter, App Annie found. (This figure comes from measurements on Android phones only and excludes China, meaning it’s not fully representative. But it does give you an idea of the growth trend.)

App Annie’s current forecast estimates that worldwide downloads will reach nearly 240 billion and consumer spend will top $100 billion by 2021.

Snap is turning to programmatic ads for Snapchat shows

digiday.com

Snap has told Snapchat shows partners that it plans to bring in more programmatic ads after struggling to fill space inside the programming.

According to three sources, including two media executives who have aired shows on Snapchat Discover and one ad buyer who has knowledge of Snap’s plans, Snap plans to inject more programmatic ads within Snapchat shows. Advertisers can already buy Snap Ads programmatically through the company’s ad manager, which gives advertisers the option to run ads inside Snapchat shows. However, during the first round of Snapchat shows, Snap was hesitant to run ads bought in the auction, according to the two media executives. This “depressed revenue dramatically,” said one source, which has led Snap to promise to open up the programmatic doors even more.

Currently, advertisers can make programmatic buys on Snap Ads — 10-second vertical video units — across the app’s public user stories, Snapchat-curated live stories and Discover publisher channels and Snapchat shows. Advertisers can make make these buys through Snap’s ads application programming interface partners such as 4C, Kenshoo and Videology. Advertisers can also use Snap’s self-serve platform, which the company launched in the summer.

For Snapchat shows, Snap has mostly sold the inventory directly. In some cases, Snap has worked with major media giants, including NBCUniversal and Viacom, to co-sell advertising within shows produced by those companies.

So far, these efforts have yielded mixed results. For instance, a review of the six shows available on Snapchat on the afternoon of Oct. 20 found that three of the six shows — CNN’s “The Update,” NBA’s “Versus” and E! News’ “The Rundown” — featured no commercials. Of the three shows that did — NBC’s “Stay Tuned,” Barstool Sports’ “5th Year” and B17 Entertainment’s “Nail the Look” — sponsors included Wendy’s, TD Bank and Tresemmé.

A new show from E!, “Face Forward,” premiered on Oct. 21 with Abercrombie & Fitch as a sponsor. (It’s E!’s third show on Snapchat, following “The Rundown” and “Ask Kylie.”)

Snapchat shows typically have three to four ad breaks within each episode.

One Snapchat shows partner said Snap, which was responsible for selling advertising within its program, had a difficult time filling inventory. The show was popular, too, with total views far exceeding 50 million, he said. This executive said Snap struggled to fill ad inventory because of two reasons: inexperience with selling this type of content and a lack of data to show advertisers how successful the program was. For the second season of the show, the media partner is taking the lead on selling advertising, with Snap promising to use programmatic ads to fill any remaining space.

“I can go to Pepsi and sell them on adding $500,000 [for the Snapchat show] on top of an existing buy,” this executive said. “That $500,000 isn’t a lot for Pepsi, but it is a lot for Snapchat.”

When reached for comment, a Snap spokesperson did not provide additional details on Snap’s plans for programmatic advertising within Snapchat shows.

One of the issues media companies face in producing shows for Snapchat is that Snap is not fronting them any cash to make the content. The media partner is responsible for funding the show, after which they can make their money back through advertising — with Snap taking a 50 percent cut of all ad revenue.

That could be easier to justify to some of the bigger media companies, which can treat Snapchat as a marketing experiment, but might be a tougher for digital publishers that don’t have the same level of resources as an NBC, Turner or Viacom. But even one TV network executive said their network won’t make more shows for Snapchat if it “can’t make any money.”

Getting more revenue from Snapchat shows is a growing priority for Snap, which is also searching for a headof brand integration who can sell brand and product placements inside the programming.

One issue has been pricing. As Digiday previously reported, Snapchat has high price tags for series sponsorships. A second ad buyer told Digiday the price for a 33 percent share of voice on one show was $350,000. The price then dropped to less than $200,000 for a sponsorship of just one episode.

Like with Snap’s other advertising products, the company is struggling to find the sweet spot for pricing its premium products, especially considering how cheap the media can be in the auction, ad buyers said.

“It’s inevitable that they open up programmatic,” said the first ad buyer. “The shows don’t have enough scale to begin with. Programmatic definitely makes Snapchat a buy that advertisers can just plug in for their existing campaigns.”

20 Data-Driven Tips for Improving Ecommerce Conversion Rates

redstagfulfillment.com

In 2016, eCommerce represented 41 percent of all retail sales growth, with eCommerce sales totaling $394 billion. You may be surprised after hearing these numbers to find eCommerce still represents less than 9 percent of total retail sales, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. You may be even more surprised when you learn the average eCommerce site’s conversion rate is below 5 percent.

As billions of people around the globe enter the eCommerce marketplace, these numbers will likely rise precipitously. The environment for conducting business online is a highly distributed and competitive arena where consumers have a nearly bottomless sea of choices. Some of the challenges eCommerce companies face today are almost identical to their brick and mortar predecessors. One common problem is converting a window shopper into a customer.

Even in-store shoppers are comparing prices online before purchasing. In fact, 72 percent of shoppers perform research online before traveling to a location, and nearly two-thirds report checking prices on their phone while in the store. These are moments when your eCommerce store could win the sale, and convert your competitor’s potential customer into your customer.

Average conversion rates across the entire eCommerce landscape are between 1 and 4 percent. When improving conversion rates by even a percentage point is an accomplishment, these data-backed, actionable tips can impact your bottom line.

There are many touch points in the life cycle of a site visitor that can impact their decision to make a purchase. Something as trivial as the lighting in product photography to as intricate as the fulfillment policy can influence someone to either add to car or abandon your site altogether. Improved conversion rates can place stress on your operations, it is important to have inventory management, fulfillment logistics, and delivery speeds optimized.

Original Post: https://redstagfulfillment.com/ecommerce-conversion-rate/