Why You Should Run Mobile App Install Ads, ASAP

Marketing your app is an increasingly difficult task. Here are your challenges: there are 1.5 million apps out there on both iOS and Android, with a thousand new apps added per day; user retention rates hover around 3% after 30 days; and app users are becoming set in their ways, using the same apps over and over. How can your new app get the installs numbers that your team is looking for?
Right now, the overwhelming answer to this marketing question is mobile app install ads, an increasingly popular ad type that companies are spending lots of money on. In fact, from 2014 to this year, US app install ad spending increased by 80%. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of mobile advertising.

What are mobile app install ads?

These are ads that run on various channels, especially social media, that have a call-to-action to download your app. Usually the ad would funnel those who click directly to the install page on Google Play or Apple’s App Store. If you’ve used your smartphone at all today, you’ve probably already seem a dozen of them.

Source: Forbes
Gaming apps have been quick to embrace these ads early on, and they often cross-pollinate within games themselves. These ads can be images, video, or simple text ads with a logo (mobile ads on AdWords being a prime example).

Why should you run these ads?

In short, because they work. Sean Galligan, VP and industry lead for entertainment at Yahoo, said he has seen many brands find success with app install ads, citing SeatGeek (133% higher ROI) and GSN Games (30% higher user retention). A report from BI Intelligence found that these ads resulted in “significant downloads” and not just for game makers, but apps in various industries.

As a bonus, ROI is easy to measure for mobile app install ads. Being able to see what each dollar of your ad spend is doing is a powerful metric when it comes to optimizing your mobile marketing spend.
Video ads in particular made people use the app 40% more often once it was installed and 20% longer for each session, compared to image ads. Furthermore, app install ads generally saw a 4x higher CTR on Facebook compared to other ad types. It’s hard to argue with these numbers. Ads with a clear app install call-to-action simply pulls in more customers to your business.

They’re easier to run than ever before.

Most traffic channels are getting in the game as the popularity of app install ads continue to grow. Twitter announced a free way of running these ads, and you’d be foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity. Instagram just announced a new partner program that will advertise companies looking to drive more installs (we’re sure they’ll expand from the initial 40 partners soon), and many mobile gaming companies are already running ads on this platform. Facebook, as previously mentioned, is rife with these ads that advertisers are spending more and more money on.
So all good stuff, yes? Well you better jump on this opportunity quick because…

They’re showing signs of fatigue.

Just the slightest bit, but the signs are there. Some articles are already touting that we’re entering into a “post-install” world of app economics. And Google is downranking mobile webpages that show large app install ads. And cost-per-install is still increasing year over year according to Fiksu:

Meaning? Like every other marketing tactic in history, soon the masses will get tired of it. So that means you need to jump on this advertising trend ASAP to get installs while they’re ripe for the taking. App install ads can, and probably will, tangibly impact your business’ revenue in the coming year. There’s no better time than right now to get started.
Have you seen success with app install ads lately? Sounds off in the comments below!