eBrandz Blog

IT’S TIME TO STOP PLAYING THE GUESSING GAME IN APP MARKETING

apps

Gone are the days when the number of downloads portrayed actual success of an app. A few years back, seeing a thousand downloads of your app may have been an exhilarating experience, but today it’s not. The number of apps has escalated insanely, but then so has the number of users. So if you have witnessed a thousand downloads of your app and are jumping around in joy, then you need to calm down and get a reality check.

Sorry to break your confidence, but this is actually the case. Downloaded apps don’t guarantee user engagement. In fact, a survey revealed that due to mammoth availability of apps, most of the new apps never get used after being installed. People install the apps, engage with it a few times and then forget about it.

This makes the job of a marketer tough. Because currently the only measuring system is driven by the number of downloads. Hence, it is very difficult to find out which app is actually performing well and if it can provide with the data, a marketer is looking for.

Earlier, the success was measured by the number of clicks on the banners. But that was an old way of measuring. As technology has advanced, it has become possible to accurately analyze & measure the sales path. This is also the case with app marketing.

The best possible way to analyze the success of an app is to include a registration form which has to be filled by a user on downloading it. You can also evaluate the time spent, pages viewed, content views, levels or achievements unlocked, number of in-app purchases and more. But of course, these metrics are not “One size fits all” and can be implemented as per the niche & the type of the app.

These metrics can be a game changer because as I have already mentioned, app marketing still runs on the “Guessing Game”. So if we get accurate data from apps, it will help us (marketers) design close-to-perfect campaigns and get maximum return on investment. It will also help in understanding users’ behavior and thus it will be beneficial for app developers as well.

But in this highly competitive app world, it can be dangerous for app developers to force users to fill the form. Users are usually running out of time and have many options in hand. If a registration form turns out to be longer and detailed than usual, it can adversely affect app downloads. Also, any metric that involves users’ involvement can be risky considering the short attention span of the users.

However, Google is taking long strides towards scanning the data of the apps and analyzing user behavior. But this can be a success only when most developers will allow Google to do so. If a majority of the developers provide access to Google then a new door will get unlocked for everyone. After all, an app contains so much data that it can be used for creating pitch-perfect marketing campaigns by understanding the users’ needs. It will be a win-win situation for everyone, since Google will get the data and so will the marketers. People will get to enjoy free trial in exchange for viewing ads. And these ads will prove to be highly relevant as they will be targeted after analyzing an individual’s buying and usage pattern.

We can definitely expect huge advancement in the field of app marketing in the near future.

For more info on this topic, you can write to sales@ebrandz.com.