Rob Weber, founder of W3i and Apperang, shares his thoughts on how to successfully promote iOS and other mobile applications.  Rob is a ten-year veteran of application marketing and believes in the freemium model to create a sustainable iOS application business.

Deborah Manthei, Director of Marketing Communications, W3i, LLC, evangelizing the use of consumer application marketing to engage brands’ essential users.

Featured on ClickZ, Aug 10, 2010

Increasing application use is essential to a thriving app business. Studies show that it costs five times more to attract new customers than it does to get repeat customers and less acquisition costs equate to higher profits. One reason is that current customers are easier to convert as they gain trust and experience the value of the app. To measure success, a game developer uses this rule of thumb: more than 50 percent of total revenue should be from repeat players, and second purchases should be 30 to 40 percent of sales, according to Lisa Marino, chief revenue officer at RockYou.

Here are some ways to increase application use and safeguard an app business used by game developers:

1. Know the users/players: While planning an app, determine the target audience and what features will be sticky for that audience. Pretty basic, but it’s the key to building and marketing an engaging app.
2. Entertainment value: Again basic, but it’s much easier to increase application use with strong entertainment value. Incorporate human triggers: lust, mystique, prestige, alarm, power, vice, and trust. A narrative will increase interest in the app as well as rules, time pressure, ranks and levels, marketplace, different environments, and winning assets.
3. Tips about use (a start to advancing the user through the app): Reveal the rules as necessary, educate the user about app usage, reveal secrets or hints on improving the experience, or add features for additional interest (be sure to inform the user). Continued feedback accelerates mastery and increases application use.In Bookworm, basic rules are presented to the player prior to the start of app play.



4. Creating a community: Not only does it defray distribution costs, creating a social outlet for the audience increases buzz about the app. App promotion could include sending requests to friends or getting friends to work together to win a prize or achieve a goal.Apps like Resident Evil 5, Unreal Tournament III, Guitar Hero/Band Hero, and Mercenaries have features where the user gets a friend to join as they play through the normal game mode. This fosters community by encouraging play with others (regardless of their location or progress within the game). Facebook is a great place to start a community and then promote the app profile in the app to increase friends.Many games, like Bejeweled, have started Facebook pages for passionate app users. 
5. Collecting: Most people love to collect; it is innate in our nature. Provide opportunities for players to collect something to gain bragging rights with their friends.Games like LittleBigPlanet encourage players to collect as many items as possible. Some of these items improve the user’s status by changing the way the character looks. Players who have obtained items difficult to acquire will generally flaunt their success by dressing their avatars with these items.
    
6. Exchanges: Two-player games or teams encourage engagement by adding a social element and increasing competition. Exchanges can include: taking turns, making allies, getting app usage advice, sharing weapons or accessories, etc. Is there a way to add a social element to the app?The best game to demonstrate this is Nintendo’s Pokémon games. Each player is allocated only a certain number of items (in this case, Pokémon). In order to collect them all, the user must trade with other players. Some Pokémon will change forms while being traded, while others are simply not available unless traded. This also fosters community by forcing trades between players.
    
7. Customization: The more a user can customize the app and the interface, the more invested the user is in the app. Tests show that creating a character for the opponent instead of just labeling the opponent as the “computer” will create more player involvement.Customization is a game marketer’s friend. The Sims is a good example; games have slowly integrated the ability to create a custom character or shape experience to preferences. Games like Guitar Hero allow players to create a custom star. Customization gets as detailed as settings for four points on the cheek and three points on the chin for each character. Playing with the customization, players have recreated their favorite heroes/villains as well as creating self portraits to immerse themselves further in gameplay.
    
8. Points: Can some scoring method be built into the app to challenge the user to increase app usage? Psychologically, redeemable points drive loyalty as users equate earning points (especially to earn something) to not wasting time.PlayStation and Xbox use a trophy/achievement system to encourage users to compete against friends to see who can score higher or complete more objectives.
    
9. Create competition among friends using visible metrics: People are social beings; the more interaction the user has with the app, the more engaged the user will be. Some additional features could include:
   • Friend walls
   • Customization
   • User vs. user engagements
   • Instant messaging interfaces

   Console apps use messaging systems for players to keep in touch and send app invites. For example, while playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, the user can send a message to other friends requesting they join them in play. When friends are offline, messages can be sent through the app system similar to e-mail. In many cases, players on the friends’ list are more apt to check their gaming message box over their traditional e-mail box. For example, the app’s messaging box is used as a means to set up times to play apps with friends at a later point.
    

10. Messaging when inactive: It’s important to build rapport and maintain relationships. Be sure to build a messaging platform into the app. Make messages interesting: new features, promotions, cross-selling opportunities, etc. Don’t drop the connection with the user if at all possible, but beware not to message too much to cause irritation.
11. Fresh content: Continue to perfect the app and use messaging to tell users when there is something new. Many games now utilize downloadable content (aka DLC) to expand the experience for gamers with brand new content, like additional stories, side quests, characters, or costumes. Sony’s Heavy Rain released a brand new side story as downloadable content, allowing the gamer to broaden their experience with the game for a nominal fee.
12. Incentives for returning: Give the user a reason to return – bonuses, additional app usage tips, special privileges, etc. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing is a perfect example, always giving players reasons to return. Depending on the date that the user fires up the app, they experience different events, meet new characters, or find new collectibles, like bugs or fish.
13. Accessible: Build the app for multiple platforms to ensure continued use. With the introduction of smartphones and now the iPad, loyal players want to engage where and when they have free time.
14. Mashups: If possible, build ways that an app can be repurposed/embedded on other sites, blogs, or apps. Can you create a teaser app with content from the app?
15. Syndicated: For speed to market, a sure bet is leveraging the success of an established brand.Many apps are syndicated. If you grew up in the 1980s, you’ll recognize Mario and Sonic. Both mascots are still heroes to the current generation. Mario was a villain (Donkey Kong Jr.), a Plumber, a Doctor (Dr. Mario), a racer (Mario Kart), and more. While Sonic’s resume isn’t nearly as impressive, Sega managed to slap Sonic in more titles than most people realize. In the Dreamcast Title Shenmue, players collected Sonic the Hedgehog action figures. Keeping this brand recognition, both Sega and Nintendo have managed to chain games together around a character. When players hear the names Mario or Sonic, sales are guaranteed.

Now that you have a checklist and some examples, build features to increase application use into the app design or add them as the app gets more traffic; and they become the foundation to a thriving app business. As revenue increases, you may want to buy traffic for your app.

Featured on ClickZ, Jul 13, 2010

Through increased understanding of what drives users to heavy mobile app consumption, a more effective marketing plan can be created and executed to increase Android, BlackBerry, and iOS app distribution. My company conducted mobile app distribution research with both B2B mobile app developers/marketers and B2C mobile app users in an effort to understand more about successful distribution tactics. The results are useful as you develop a kick-ass distribution plan.

This month’s column covers the results of our B2C mobile application research focused on Android, BlackBerry, and iOS applications. The results of the B2B mobile application research were covered in my last column.

B2C Mobile Application Research Summary

Method

This data was derived from 448 valid and fully-completed responses to our mobile app survey. The survey was hosted online with links distributed through a third-party site. Recipients of the survey link were asked to participate in the survey and received $2 for completion.

Purpose

This survey seeks to quantify aspects of mobile app discovery, acceptable ad formats, app purchases, and Web search from the three leading U.S. smartphone players: Apple (including iPod touch), Google, and RIM.

Criteria

Due to the difficulties in obtaining Android respondents, the survey company focused more than half of their efforts on targeting Verizon customers. Valid users included only those that correctly answered trap questions and met minimum qualifications. User composition by primary device was: 130 iPhone, 103 BlackBerry, 100 iPod touch, and 115 Android. All were from the U.S. All have an app-capable device. All have at least one app installed on their primary phone.

Quantity of Apps on Smartphone

Tip: Make the iPhone your starting point. Currently, iPhone users are the largest, most passionate user group and install the most applications.

How many apps do you currently have installed on your primary phone?

• 1 to 5 (24 percent)
• 6 to 10 (21 percent)
• 11 to 15 (16 percent)
• 16 to 20 (15 percent)
• 21 to 30 (10 percent)
• 31+ (13 percent)

Twenty-three percent of all users have 21 or more apps installed (heavy app users). IPhone owners have the highest ratio of heavy app users (iPhone – 34 percent, Android – 30 percent, iPod touch – 21 percent, and BlackBerry – 7 percent). These figures are reasonably consistent with the secondary research reviewed.

How many apps do you download per month to your primary device?

• None (7.61 percent)
• 1 to 3 (51.23 percent)
• 4 to 10 (29.31 percent)
• 11 to 20 (6.94 percent)
• 21 to 30 (1.79 percent)
• 31 to 50 (1.57 percent)
• 51+ (1.57 percent)

Forty-one percent of all users install four-plus installs per month. IPhone owners rank the highest in achieving this minimum (iPhone – 48 percent, iPod touch – 43 percent, Android – 38 percent, BlackBerry – 29 percent).

Role of the Desktop Computer in Mobile App Discovery

Tip: Syncing is a routine behavior, so marketing via the Web is a viable distribution tactic with links back to the App Store. Don’t ignore the influence of desktop websites to mobile app discovery in your mobile distribution plan. Submit free copies of your app along with marketing information to the various mobile app review websites. Users prefer to search the App Store for your app, so make sure the keywords most commonly used for your app quickly bring up your app in search results.

Syncing their mobile device with desktop computer: Eighty percent of Apple mobile device users fully sync at least once per month. Sixty-two percent fully sync at least once per week. These figures are relatively the same between the iPod touch and the iPhone. It would appear that Apple mobile device users are familiar with syncing and for most it is a routine behavior.

Downloading apps using desktop software: Ninety-two percent of Apple mobile device owners understand that you can download apps using the iTunes desktop software (96 percent for iPhone, 86 percent for iPod touch). Seventy-two percent download at least one app per month using this method (76 percent for iPhone, 64 percent for iPod touch). Forty-six percent download at least one app per week using this method (48 percent for iPhone, 40 percent for iPod touch).

Preferred method for downloading an app discovered while using their desktop computer:

Apple mobile device owners:

• 56 percent prefer to search the App Store from their mobile device for the app
• 17 percent prefer to use the iTunes desktop software
• 13 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail
• >7 percent prefer taking a picture of an app’s designated bar code, receiving a link via SMS
• >7 percent prefer receiving an alert via a mobile app

BlackBerry owners:

• 42 percent prefer to search the App Store from their mobile device for the app
• 40 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail

Android owners:

• 72 percent prefer to search the app store from their mobile device for the app
• 11 percent prefer to have the download link sent via e-mail

Mobile App Purchases and Advertising Formats

Tip: Offering the mobile app for free increases distribution. IPhone app users are most willing to pay $0.99. Users are receptive of an ad-supported model. Users are also receptive to paying for additional features. IOS app marketers are successful with the freemium model.

Installing free apps as a substitute for paying: Most users would prefer to install three free apps (52 percent) over paying $0.99 for an app or premium feature (42 percent). IPod touch, Android, and BlackBerry users all shared this preference (58 percent, 53 percent, 55 percent, respectively), whereas iPhone users preferred to pay the $0.99 (54 percent compared to 43 percent to install three free apps).

The remaining users (6 percent) selected the other option, which asked them to submit their own custom answer. The general response was that these users would simply avoid apps that require some form of payment.

Ad formats for free apps: Users showed a strong interest in new advertising formats when asked to select their top three options in supporting free apps.

New advertising formats:

• Submit a rating and a review for an app I like every five uses (25 percent)
• Complete a short survey every five uses (24 percent)
• Select and install a free app from a recommended list after every five uses (21 percent)

Existing advertising formats:

• See a 20 second ad once during each use (33 percent)
• See persistent small ads during use (24 percent)
• Select and install a free app from a recommended list in exchange for a virtual good (16 percent)

Influences to purchasing a paid app or extra feature: Forty-two percent of all users have purchased an app or extra feature, after first trying the free version of an app. Apple mobile devices show a much higher composition of users that made such purchases (iPhone – 55 percent, iPod touch – 49 percent, Android – 27 percent, BlackBerry – 34 percent).

Users ranked what motivates them to purchase a full version app or an extra feature (selecting all that apply):

• Expanded features and capabilities (77 percent)
• Remove ads (44 percent)
• Trial expired (35 percent)
• To support the developer (22 percent)
• Curiosity (16 percent)

Mobile App Discovery

Tip: Appearing in the top 25 and category lists is essential for effective mobile app distribution. Users prefer to find apps using the top 25 and category lists in the app stores. Popularity (past 24 hour downloads) and total following (overall active users) are the two preferred options for sorting apps from a list. It’s no surprise that in our B2B survey, incented app distribution was the most effective type of advertising for mobile app marketers. This is generally the low-cost, predictable, high-volume source of distribution. Since search is also important, paying close attention to keyword and description SEO tactics is important in your app marketing campaign.

Methods tried by users for finding new apps (select all that apply):

• Categories (57 percent)
• Search (57 percent)
• Featured – new (52 percent)
• Top 25 overall (52 percent)
• Features – what’s hot (48 percent)
• Featured – personalized recommendations (e.g., Apple’s Genius) (18 percent)
• Ads in other apps (12 percent)

Apple mobile devices have the top two selections being categories and top 25 overall (iPhone Top 25 – 65 percent, iPod touch Top 25 – 63 percent, iPhone Categories – 61 percent, iPod touch Categories – 64 percent). IPhone users are far more likely to try a personalized recommendation solution than other device owners (iPhone – 27 percent, iPod touch – 17 percent, Android – 12 percent, BlackBerry – 15 percent).

Methods preferred by users for finding new apps (rank order):

• Most popular topics (7.3)
• Ads in other apps (7.0)
• Featured – personalized recommendations (5.2)
• Search (4.5)
• Featured – what’s hot (3.9)
• Featured – new (3.3)
• Top 25 overall (2.3)
• Categories (2.6)

There was no significant variance between devices.

User preference toward different sorting options in their app store (rank order):

• Buzz – media mentions and links (7.2)
• Recommendation – based on other apps you have installed (7.1)
• Discount (6.8)
• Newest (4.9)
• Expert’s rating (4.9)
• Friend’s rating (4.8)
• Everyone’s rating (3.8)
• Total following – active users (3.4)
• Popularity – past 24 hour downloads (2.1)

The order is consistent between devices, but on Android, the Everyone’s Rating option is noticeably closer to the Total Following option (Everyone’s Rating – 3.6, Totally Following – 3.5, Popularity 2.0). It’s noticeable that several very popular sorts are not yet available in Apple’s App Store (Total Following, Friend’s Rating, and Expert’s Rating).

By understanding user preferences, you can put a more effective mobile app distribution plan together for your Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone app marketing campaign. Hopefully this application research gives you some ideas on elements that are important in your marketing and design tactics. Be sure to read last month’s column on B2B mobile application research and its implications. If you have any thoughts on how to get top iPhone apps, please leave your comments below.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Google Chrome is building up anticipation from users and developers for their upcoming Chrome Operating System release which is set to include the Chrome Web app store.  As part of the new web store, users will have the capability to find and buy browser extensions and web applications based on ratings and reviews similar to Apple’s iPhone App Store.

Why is a web store needed for Chrome extensions and web apps? 

For users, an ever increasing amount of noise clutters the internet, preventing them from finding applications that best suit their needs.  For developers, there is no simple way to charge for their extensions or web apps, which provides a scalable distribution channel and a widely used commerce platform like the Apple App Store.  Google’s new Chrome Web Store will be released to solve these problems.  Google is following the lead of Firefox, which announced they would be supporting the sale of browser extensions at Add-Con 2009. 

How will browser add-on developers respond to the new Chrome Web Store?

Google began with their design principles for extensions and discussed how they may elaborate on them.  Four key components that went into the creation of each extension include:

• webby:  allow developers to easily create
• streamlined: avoid distracting users from the web
• fast and robust: automatically test for bugs and performance levels
• secure: sandbox environment so extensions must be granted by the user

With all of Apple’s mobile application success can you really blame Google for creating this web store for Chrome? 

This is an attempt for Google to increase traffic and grow their company as a web application distributor.  Apple witnessed a growing amount of success with their app store.  Right now the iPhone and iPad lead consumer app usage with 91% of the market, Android with 7% and Blackberry and Java with 1%.  Consumer apps have grown from 65,000 in July of 2009 and 100,000 in November of 2009.  The iPhone moved over 2 billion apps with an average of 6.7 million a day. With such a wide variety of applications only 5% of apps have over 100,000 users.  With these numbers, it is a no-brainer for Google to start developing their web store.

How will the Chrome Web Store benefit app developers?

There is consistent growth in the development of applications since 2008.  In the Chrome Web Store, apps will be provided to users for free or for a fee.  Currently, in Apple’s AppStore, 75%-85% of the apps downloaded are free while the remaining are paid applications.  The price of a Chrome Web App is predicted to range from $2.99 to $3.99.  70% of the revenue generated from the Google Web store will go to developers and 30% to Google.   Apps that run on Flash, HTML5, or any other type of format will be offered if compatible with the Chrome Browser.  “The Chrome Web Store appears to be less about control and more about connection,”  comments Clint Boulton of EWeek.com   

Creating the Google Web Store is a good way to sort out apps as it provides a catalyst for users to find the apps that they are looking for.  W3i helps users discover apps when they don’t know what they are looking for—during the installation. 

About W3i:
W3i increases revenue, distribution, and engagement for consumer desktop applications, browser add-ons and mobile applications enabling publishers to provide quality consumer apps for free by recommending relevant applications giving advertisers a mass, performance driven distribution channel.  The W3i Application Network uses InstallIQ, W3i’s intelligent installation technology, for recommending PC and mobile applications that users value.  InstallIQ was tested and optimized on over 350 million app installs-over 100 million app installs in 2009.  W3i will prove to be a valued partner in growing your application business. To learn more, visit the W3i Application Network.

Matt Machacek, Marketing Communications, W3i, LLC
Matt is a senior in the Marketing program at SCSU.  Matt is applying his learnings to W3i’s social media outreach.

Tech Crunch recently posted an article by guest author, Alex Ahlund, that’s worth reviewing if you are interested in marketing an iPhone app.  The article tries to answer the question most asked by application developers and those considering building an iPhone app–How much money can I make developing apps? 

Ahlund conducted a survey to see if he could uncover any information that might shed some light on the answer for this question.  He cautions readers not to take the information too literally, “I strongly encourage you to interpret this information only as an overview of the industry.”

Summary            

Financial information is provided on 96 different developers with average units sold around 101,000 during an average of 261 days.  The average price per application was $5.49 with around 387 sold per day.  According to Ahlund, developers have seen a return of 15 times their development costs.  Numbers may be skewed with the top 10% of developers being the ones with the best sales. 

• 23% of apps sold less than 1000 units
• 56% of apps sold less than or equal to 10,000 units
• 90% sold less than 100,000 units 
• 10% remaining sold 127,000- 3,000,000 units

*Note that Apple seems to be a key contributor in the rising sales of iPhone applications

Promotion Is Key

Success lies in being able to market your application so that it gets into the Top 100 or into any mentioned list.  Being on a recognized chart creates awareness of the application and continued sales. 

Other application marketing techniques include using Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs, LinkedIn, and other social networks.  Developers continue to search for their niche hoping to create an application that will catch on with consumers and incur high amounts of revenue.  Ahlund states that success is a pretty basic product management theory, “Developers need to produce a fantastic product with high production values.”

Learn more  about W3i entering the iPhone application distribution space.  If you have any iPhone application distribution advice, please leave a comment.

To read Ahlund’s full article, click here.

Matt Machacek, Marketing Communications, W3i, LLC
Matt is a senior in the Marketing program at SCSU.  Matt is applying his learnings to W3i’s social media outreach.

This article was written for app developers seeking distribution, however, if you have a website and would like to promote W3i’s applications, go to W3i’s affiliate sign-up form.

Pay Per Install Programs for All Platforms

Every market leading platform, including iPhone, Facebook, Windows, and even Internet Explorer toolbars, has at least one vendor who will sell a consumer app developer installs on a pay per install or pay per download basis.

Cross Promotion Typically the Method Powering Pay Per Install Programs

Most of the pay per install networks utilize some method of cross promotion to drive additional installs while users are installing or interacting with another app.

What Other Distribution Channels Don’t Want You to Know About Pay Per Install Programs

So, how do these pay per install networks, like W3i’s Application Network for Windows apps and browser add-ons, compare in cost to other channels for app distribution such as search, display, affiliate, and OEM?

To answer this question, I had W3i’s Media Buyers examine past campaign performance across these difference channels and tallied up our effective cost per install by channel. The following bar graph is based upon the actual campaign performance which was achieved.

Pay Per Install Programs the Lowest Cost Alternative

As you can see from W3i’s campaign results, pay per install programs can create a meaningful distribution channel while lowering an app developers costs by often as much as one third the cost of other alternatives!

Many app developers have tried search and affiliate programs to promote their app because they are more widely recognized tactics, but have failed to launch and optimize their apps for low cost pay per install networks.

Ask About Compliance & Review the User Experience

Make sure you ask your pay per install program how they adhere to industry best practices, and what care they take in establishing a valued user experience. The engine that powers W3i’s Application Network, InstallIQ, has received the Truste Trusted Download certification and is white listed by Truste.

Get your App on a Pay Per Install Program

Whether you have an iPhone app, a Facebook game, a Windows application, or a browser toolbar, contact W3i to learn how you can launch and optimize your app using W3i’s pay per install network. 

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Despite the advances made in buying digital media, marketers face significant challenges in effectively identifying and targeting the inventory that is right for them and delivering ads that are relevant and timely to acquire additional users.  This becomes more complicated with the addition of mobile platforms.  The following is a short review of the state of search, display and mobile advertising as it pertains to application promotion.    

W3i asked 33 mobile application marketers and developers what type of advertising they used or tried (at least once). 

Search: Making Progress on Meeting the Demands of App Marketers
Although search garners the largest share of online ad dollars, it was not the most commonly tried form of app advertising in our survey due to innate limitations.

Google took the first step forward by allowing advertisers to target each mobile operating system independently and by carrier through keyword search.  Being able to target by mobile operating system is very valuable to app marketers who do not generally have their app available across all the different operating systems. My guess is that the carriers will be the power users of the carrier data rather than app marketers as they try to steal market share from each other.  There is still room for improvement.  Advertisers cannot target by type of device (think iPhone, iTouch, or iPad) or the version of the operating system. 

Google is also offering the option (although it is opt-out) to block advertisers’ ads from showing to users searching on mobile devices. This has the potential to improve the ROI for Internet marketers should mobile search become a large portion of Google’s search query volume.  Imagine a company promoting a desktop app paying for clicks that were generated on mobile devices that their app was not compatible with– it would be a complete waste of their advertising dollars.

Current desktop keyword search advertising is limiting for app marketers because none of the major search engines allow advertisers to target by desktop operating system, browser, or hardware specification.  Imagine a Firefox browser plug-in marketer purchasing non-browser-specific search keywords when 70% of the impressions are viewed by users with incompatible browsers or a marketer of a Mac app wasting 95% of its ad budget on non-Mac users.

Display: Closer to Meeting the Demands of App Marketers
Many would argue that display advertising is less mature than search, but with the advent of ad exchanges and real-time bidding marketers have more targeting variables to use when architecting their campaigns.  Variables like browser, operating system, and connection speed are just a few of the options that are available in addition to demographic, contextual, or behavioral attributes. For example, think of the value of knowing connection speed to an MMORPG company like Turbine who is looking to promote trial downloads for their extremely popular, free-to-play 2.8 gigabyte Dungeons & Dragons Online game.  Unless the user has a robust broadband connection, receiving the trial download digitally from Turbine is impractical. Web ad exchanges could improve performance by offering these variables within their reporting tools in addition to their bid targeting architecture in order to drive further value from targeting. 

Mobile Advertising:  What Targeting Is Currently Available
The two major players at this point are Quattro Wireless and AdMob.

Q Elevation is Quattro’s ad serving solution that optimizes every ad impression delivered to a user.  Publishers can drop in the Quattro SDK and start serving ads based on the audience parameters that they specify. Quattro then uses the content and nature of the publisher’s app to determine the most relevant ads to show to a particular user.

Advertisers can drive distribution by targeting by phone platform (Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone) so the app is targeted to the appropriate user.  In addition, an advertiser may want to retarget certain users or present ads from showing to users who already installed the app.

Quattro positions itself against Google as being a “premium” network, providing full transparency into the publishers within its network.  With Google and AdMob, an advertiser has no visibility into the sites or apps that they are advertising on.  Transparency, premium inventory, and optimization capabilities are what Quattro is choosing to focus on.

With the rise in mobile as an advertising platform, publishers are now facing similar challenges in mobile that they faced on the desktop internet.  Large publishers are hesitant to make their inventory available on exchanges because of their lack of control over pricing.  They want to charge the highest possible rate for what they consider to be premium inventory. 

AdMob has the ability to target bundles of apps by category, such as News and Entertainment.  On the mobile web, they have the ability to target by channel (Communities, Entertainment, etc).

With the announcement of iAd these platforms will continue to evolve as the market gets more sophisticated. 

The Future of Mobile Advertising- Apple iAd Promising More Emotion as well as Interactivity
On April 8^th Steve Jobs introduced improvements available in the iPhone 4.0 OS at the Apple Launch Event.  Jobs states that current “mobile advertising really sucks” so one of the major improvements is to make ads more interactive and emotional—combining the best of the Internet and TV.  This is accomplished through the iAd advertising platform.  iAd keeps consumers in the app not forcing them to open a browser.  Ads can take over the screen and offer the user multiple options—streamed videos, games, wallpaper, location-based info, etc.  Apple plans to have over 1 billion ad impressions by mid-summer if ads run every 10 minutes giving app marketers a new source of revenue (60% revenue split with Apple).  More entertainment opportunities for ads are great, but there remains the problem of relevancy and disruption.  No one knows what affect Apple’s entry into advertising will be; however, they will have access to a lot of behavioral and demographic data that could be a powerful asset in relevant advertising. 

More Relevancy and Less Disruption—Cross Promotion.
Cross-promotion should be considered as an advertising option.  Companies like AdMob for mobile apps and the W3i Application Network for desktop apps recommend relevant applications when consumers are in the installation mindset.  The way it works is analogous to displaying magazines or a pack of Trident in the checkout lane at the supermarket; as consumers are installing an app from various publishers, relevant applications are offered for their review.  This type of advertising is relatively low cost, low friction, and allows for rich targeting to meet the compatibility needs of the app.  For example Limbic Software used AdMob to cross-sell TowerMadness Zero on TapTap Revenge 3 to get them back into the Top 10 Strategy Game category in the AppStore.   Likewise with the W3i Application Network, Exent Technologies used Freeze.com Living 3D Dolphins ScreenSaver to cross-sell Exent’s http://www.freeridegames.com/ app.  Cross-selling is an effective distribution strategy as offers are presented in a trusted environment to consumers that have predisposition for similar products.

As more devices enter the market place and apps continue to proliferate, finding the most effective advertising platform will become paramount.  If you have any tips on successful app marketing, please leave them in the comments below.   

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry. 

Amazon, along with all other book retailers and a variety of device manufacturers, are faced with a most disruptive competitive threat to their eBook business to date, the April 3 US release of Apple’s iPad.  Amazon is turning to app marketing to defend their competitive position.

Defending and Growing Their Core Business, Books–There’s an App for That

Amazon and other book retailers, like Barnes and Noble, are in the business of selling books, not selling devices.  Apple is in the business of selling devices, not selling books.  

Armed with this knowledge, Amazon has launched Kindle for the PC and Kindle for the iPhone.   Think of the Kindle for iPhone as a consumer’s “eBook store for iPhone/iPad” more so than Apple’s owned and operated e-Book store. This is a smart move by Amazon’s marketing team. Recent research conducted by W3i shows 50% of respondents indicate that they have an interest in using an application to aid in the discovery of books. Amazon introduced Kindle for iPad March 22, integrating with the Kindle bookstore and making more than 450,000 Kindle books available through its Kindle app.  Able to sync with Amazon’s servers, Kindle for iPad makes it possible for you to continue reading on a PC, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Kindle e-reader.   Amazon will continue to grow by knowing their strength, selling books, and making sure that their content is available in emerging platforms—like Apple’s iPad.  Barnes & Noble has already jumped on this bandwagon with the anticipated early April release of their eReader app for the iPad.  Other book retailers will be wise to follow suit and use app marketing to their advantage. 

It is important that app marketers consider what utility is provided by the apps they are developing and marketing. Amazon did a fantastic job with their PC and mobile apps versus their Kindle eReader. (I own a Kindle 2, and I rarely use it. When I am traveling, I’m much more likely to carry a pocket device like an iTouch, and when I am at home, I am much more likely to use my laptop PC.) I’ve used both the Kindle for PC and the Kindle for iPhone apps for a couple of months now, and I’ve found both to be very fast, easy to use, and well thought out. After I installed the Kindle for PC on my laptop, I tried out its “free sample” feature and skimmed through a few pages of Chris Anderson’s “Free” book, which is one of my all-time favorites. Unlike the Windows iTunes app by Apple where most of the navigation of content itself is within the app causing it to be very slow at times, most of Amazon’s desktop app is built by calling back to Amazon’s web technology while still managing the eBook files locally on my machine. This makes for a much faster, enjoyable experience. Next, I installed the Kindle for iPhone app on my iTouch. I purchased the book “The Quants” by Scott Patterson, and read it while on vacation with my family in Orlando. Amazon’s website, iPhone app, and PC app are all synchronized through their “Whispersync” technology. Kudos to Amazon for having a truly synced up, multi-channel strategy that creates great utility for its users.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-Mobile

Now that Amazon and other brands have very user-friendly mobile and PC apps, they need to find solutions to market their apps to the masses.  Last month, my Clickz column discussed a variety of ways marketers could find alternative distribution models for mobile, including rebates, free-for-a-day, free for virtual goods, and cross-promotion in app advertising. One example mentioned was the cross-promotion solutions provided by Tapjoy.  Tapjoy drove the Book Bazaar app to a top 10 position in the Books-Free(App) Category.  

How might Amazon push their Kindle for iPhone app more aggressively?

One of the most common distribution tactics used by top mobile app marketers is to get top ranking in the App Store.   As I read recently, “You don’t call Apple, they call you.”  I doubt Amazon will be getting a call from Apple to give them free publicity on the AppStore.  Amazon needs to use a variety of other consumer application marketing tactics: 

• Advertising – go old school with traditional advertising; an expensive tactic, but it can work.
• Download exchange – optimize ad campaign performance with mobile ad networks like Admob.
• Word of mouth – make it easy for friends to engage.
• Social buzz – expand your app’s horizons through viral market on existing social media such as blogs, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook.  
• Review sites – get app ratings and reviews on sites like AppShopper, iUse This, AppVee, and Apple iPhone School.  Let positive reviews to do the work for  you.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-PC

One very effective application marketing tactic currently employed by Amazon is sponsored search.

However, there are limitations to search marketing; a major limitation being the lack of volume available in many new product categories. Amazon is also using In-house promotion tactics by heavily advertising new Amazon apps on their already highly trafficked and successful website.

How might Amazon push their Kindle for PC app more aggressively?

• PC OEM Deals – expand relationships with channel partners.  Ever heard the phrase, “enemies of your enemies are your friends” from Art of War? Most PC manufacturers are very concerned about the growth of Apple’s market share in the desktop and laptop market, the smartphone market, and now with iPad and Netbook sales. Even if the iPad is a smashing success, total unit sales are not going to come close to all other devices.
• Cross promotion- similar to Tapjoy in mobile, Amazon could contract with cross promotion companies like W3i.
• Affiliate marketing – Amazon is a pioneer in affiliate marketing.  If they are not already doing so, adding apps to their affiliate program could boost distribution.

Will Apple Block Amazon’s Apps?

No, there is too much risk from user outrage and potential unwanted attention by anti-trust government agencies.  Ultimately Amazon does not cannibalize Apple’s device sales but adds value.   

Strapping on the Amazon Marketing Armor

Amazon is making its content readily available on emerging platforms and in doing so is providing greater utility to its consumers.  Marketing their great new apps using cross-promotion,  search engine marketing, and other consumer app marketing tactics has Amazon well armed to fight the ensuing eBook battle.

If you observe any other Amazon app marketing tactics, or otherwise have a perspective, please post a comment.  We are always eager to learn from our valued readers. 

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Why is the opportunity for marketing free apps larger than paid apps? Analyzing user engagement trends, mobile app advertising trends, and details regarding the lack of attention being given to free apps compared to paid apps gives some strong indications. The explosive growth of mobile apps since Apple’s App Store launched on July 10, 2008, has led to increased competition as well as innovation. App store revenues are expected to grow from $4.2 billion in 2009 to $29.5 billion in 2013. Mobile advertising expenditures are predicted to increase 28 percent to $914 million in 2010.

The value of free mobile apps is not limited to advertising revenue; free mobile apps are also the leading influencer on paid downloads and support the rapidly booming virtual goods business through in-app purchasing. The importance of free apps is misunderstood by developers, as the number of paid apps is disproportionate to their demand and revenue contribution.

Free Mobile Apps Drive User Engagement

Android, iPhone, and iPod touch users are averaging 79 to 80 minutes per day engaged with apps. This is phenomenal usage.

Flixster, the leading online destination for movie enthusiasts, touts 30 million unique visitors per month and 2 billion movie ratings. Flixster found that mobile apps provided superior user engagement over their mobile Web page. Flixster apps offer an easy way to share movie choices and meet-ups with movie-going friends because it combines movie information with social networking. Flixster now has 11 apps built for various platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. The “Movies” app is said to be installed on one in five iPhones in the United States. Eight million users engage with the apps, adding to the 20 million unique visitors Flixster attracts on the Internet. Using mobile apps, Flixster’s mobile user base more than doubled in 2009.

Demand for App Distribution Drives Mobile Ad Innovation

Publishers are using mobile advertising campaigns to propel their app to the top of app store lists. AdMob routinely sells burst campaigns to help marketers achieve prominence in the Apple App Store. Being on the top of app store lists fuels revenue, whereas not making it can plunge an application into the great abyss. Of course, the cost to buy your way into the top 25 free apps in the App Store is growing fast: $10,000 in October 2008, $11,000 in December 2008, and $20,000 in March 2009. The coveted number one spot can cost as much as $250,000. It’s tough to make these numbers work without a strong business model.

New promotional methods are leading to new, innovative distribution alternatives for mobile apps. Here are some examples:

• Rebates (paid apps)
  • iPhone Game Rebates
• Free for a day (paid apps)
  • Free App A Day
  • Great App a Day
  • Free Game of the Day
• Free for virtual goods (free apps)
  • Tapjoy
• Cross-promotion in-app advertising
  • Flurry: AppCircle

Free Apps Are Underserved

Apple knows it. Apple acquired mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless in January 2010, investing $275 million. Apple launched in-app purchase support in October 2009, to support the monetization of free apps. Popular opinion is that Apple will feature app ads in the App Store similar to AdSense.

Google knows it. Google is investing in a mobile future by signing an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display advertising company, for $750 million. It was reported in November 2009 that AdMob served over 10.2 billion ad impressions per month, up from 1.6 billion a year ago.

Game developers know it. Backflip Studios CEO, Julian Farrior said he uses its free app (Paper Toss, now with 17 million downloads generating 400 million impressions per month) to cross-sell Backflip’s paid apps and generate ad revenue. “Free impressions give you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you run your business,” Farrior explained at the recent 2010 Game Developers Conference.

SGN, iPhone game publisher, CEO Randy Breen said, “The charter of this company is free apps with micro-transactions.” He predicts the mobile market will become larger than Facebook.

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The power of free is driving the success of mobile app marketing. Users continue to demand apps with value – be it time-killers (entertainment) or time-savers (information) – and the companies that can figure out the way to leverage this monumental demand while promoting their mobile apps for free will be the long-term winners.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

IPTV is at the forefront for many top consumer tech companies. At the CES show in January, Samsung announced the launch of Samsung Apps, a multi-device application store which would make apps available for a range of devices, including HDTV’s. As part of their announcement, Samsung named several content partners which were already on-board, including Blockbuster, USA Today and others. Yahoo is also one of the big players in the web TV app space with their TV widgets (http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/services/tv-widgets).  Yahoo has apps like YouTube, Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster, Twitter and TV Guide.

So, just what will be the killer apps for IPTV? I will explore some obvious, and not so obvious, killer apps for IPTV.

The IPTV Apps Already Being Consumed By Early Adopters

Content Discovery Apps for Long Tail Video & Professionally Produced Movies/TV: YouTube and start-up Clicker will compete with each other to be the TV guide of the future.  For movies, Netflix and Blockbuster are already providing on demand solutions for their customers. To be the killer app, these video services need to understand who is in the living room. If I am looking for content for just myself, I am likely to tune into business news or a historical documentary, if my wife, daughter and I are all sitting in the room, we are likely to watch American Idol as we all have at least some level of interest in it.

Content Discovery Apps for Music: Many televisions are already coming pre-loaded with Pandora. Whether you have friends over, or are simply looking for background music while you are doing something else, services like Pandora and Slacker provide a nice alternative to the radio or a personal music collection.

News/Weather: USA Today and AccuWeather.com were named as content partners for the Samsung App. The key question in my mind is, “what content will these companies showcase in the form of an app that will be more useful than simply tuning into a news or weather cable station?”

On-Screen Caller ID: Definitely not the killer app, but having caller id on your television is a nice utility to have.

Photo Viewing: Flicker and Picasa are already available for IPTV purposes. Browsing through photos on a giant high def television with your friends and family makes a lot more sense than crowding around a small desktop monitor.

The Future IPTV Apps That May be the True Killer Apps

Apps that Interact with Shows Themselves: These will likely take many forms.  Let’s consider several examples:

• You are watching Vikings versus Packers and the widget shows you the box score on the side or does polls like “should they go for it.”
• You could use Twitter or Facebook to see the crowd’s comments or your friend’s comments that are relevant to the program you are watching.
• You are watching a movie and a movie widget allows you to see information about the movie such as actors, directors, year released, reviews, etc.
• You are watching a show like American Idol and are able to cast your vote through your TV instead of calling in.

Social Media- Twitter was announced as a part of the Samsung CES press release. I would expect top existing social media players like Twitter and Facebook to emerge with top apps for IPTV. Wouldn’t it be cool to see your Twitter stream on a giant HDTV television or flip through your friend’s Facebook photos easily on your big screen?

Games- Today, consumers who want to play games on their televisions rely on consoles. Will they tomorrow? One scrappy start-up named OnLive is betting that you’ll play games directly through an internet connection. 

Family Calendars- Right now, it is common to still find a family calendar hanging on a refrigerator with various important dates scribbled on it. Why not turn tomorrow’s living room into a central calendar for the family, and sync up everyone’s calendars together using IPTV? The utility of a Windows app like Cozi would make for a nice background on an HDTV.

Video Call- How cool would it be to be to chat with loved ones on a giant screen, as if they are sitting in your living room? I expect existing video call players like Skype, ooVoo, and Logitech to compete to provide you with this type of functionality. Take video calling one step further, and imagine the use of 3D television capabilities to do video calling.

Now that we have the IPTV killer apps out of the way, how are you likely to gain access to them? This will be an important question for app marketers, as it will change the way they think about distribution. There is a heavyweight fight going between where the widgets/downloads will be placed:

• On your TV
• On a box like Roku or Boxee.tv
• On your video game machine like Xbox 360 or PS3
• On other devices like a Blue Ray player
• On a laptop with wired or wireless connection to your TV

If you disagree with my ideas for killer apps for IPTV, have a fantasy IPTV app of your own, or care to provide any other commentary on IPTV app trends, please share your perspective by adding a comment to this blog.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.