Mobile Marketing Survey 2016 – Part 2 of 6 – Most Important Business Metrics in App Marketing
This post is part of a series that focus on the results of a recent mobile marketing survey that our team fielded in Summer, 2016. Yesterday’s post discussed what the marketers told us they think about themselves, their teams, and the need for data-driven insights to power more effective marketing and optimization. Today’s post is focused on apps as a business, including the most popular revenue models and marketing support levels for the businesses.
According to the most recent data from comScore (note, reg required to see/download), mobile apps now comprise 58% of connected time in the US. The share of connected time that takes place on mobile phones is now 67%.
The figures in many other parts of the world are even higher. Given this, it’s natural that apps are increasingly viewed as a major revenue source for companies. They’ve always been important to mobile –only businesses, but now retailers, travel companies, financial services business and firms in many other verticals are placing greater emphasis on apps as a business channel.
Multiple Revenue Sources Becoming the Norm
One of the first decisions that app makers need to consider is “how will we make money?” By charging for the app? Advertising? In-app purchases? Virtual goods? According to our respondents, advertising has become the most frequently leveraged revenue channel.
Advertising is critical to the so-called “freemium” mobile app business model for many gaming apps, where non-payers are monetized through ads. But it is also increasingly common in other categories. Next most popular are real world and virtual goods transactions. Real-world goods sales are the keystone for retail apps, while virtual goods sales are most commonly leveraged in the gaming side of the business. Subscriptions are also becoming increasingly popular, with about ¼ of our respondents reporting that they are part of their revenue models. Subjectively this figure seems rather high to us, which may be driven by our respondent sample. Nevertheless, it seems apparent that subscriptions have “arrived” as an avenue for revenue in our world.
Advertising More Popular Monetization Model in the Developing World
Ours was a truly international respondent sample, and an analysis of developed versus developing world apps showed some interesting patterns. Most vividly as regards in-app advertising. Perhaps not surprisingly, advertising was leveraged more often as a revenue source in developing markets like India, China, and Latin America.
So that’s some summary information on how mobile phone apps MAKE money. On the investment side, there is naturally a big range of monthly marketing support levels for apps. About half our marketers said that their average monthly marketing investment per app is $25,000 or less. About a quarter reported spending between 25,000 and 100,000, and another quarter say they average more than $100,000 in monthly spending per app.
Tomorrow: Passion for Quality Users
Blog Post Links
2016 Mobile Marketing Survey Part 1: Mobile Marketing Teams and Challenges
2016 Mobile Marketing Survey Part 3: Passion for Quality Users
2016 Mobile Marketing Survey Part 4: App Marketing Media Trends
2016 Mobile Marketing Survey Part 5: Concerns About App Fraud
2016 Mobile Marketing Survey Part 6: 4 Key Takeaways