YouAppi Research Shows that Mobile Marketers are Optimistic About the Future of Apps

Research from comScore in 2016 showed that 49% of US smartphone owners downloaded zero apps in the last month caused concern in the app marketing ecosystem. New research from Dimensional Research commissioned by YouAppi, a leading mobile growth marketing platform for premium mobile brands, highlights optimism among mobile marketing professionals responsible for app marketing and user acquisition. Given the aforementioned comScore data, a surprisingly high number – 60% of respondents – are not concerned or have never even heard of App Overload.

When asked, “What phases of the customer journey are a priority for your marketing organization in 2017?,” the top response was User Acquisition (86%), followed by Engagement (68%) and Segmentation (55%). Only 50% mentioned App Re-Engagement as a priority in 2017. And when asked “Are you employing any of the following to meet your customer journey priorities?,” 78% of respondents mentioned User Acquisition, while only 51% mentioned App Re-Engagement.

“The results of the research surveying 327 in-house, agency and ad tech provider mobile marketing professionals clearly show that those in the trenches of mobile marketing are optimistic regarding the future of app marketing when User Acquisition is still the leading tactic as well as the one delivering the best ROI and so few are concerned about App Overload,” said Diane Hagglund, founder and principal of Dimensional Research.

Trends in Mobile Video, Social, Re-Engagement and New Technologies

The research showed that video will continue growing in 2017, with 74% of those surveyed saying that they’ll increase their investment in mobile video in 2017, while only 9% plan to decrease their investment in mobile video. The leading types of mobile video ads were Video for Social Media and In-App Video, cited by 48% of respondents, followed by Brand Video Advertising (38%), Video for the Mobile Web (36%) and Rewarded Video (31%). The top video-related concerns among those surveyed were the Ability to Effectively Measure the Impact of Video (40%), followed by the concern of Fraud (33%), which was stronger in EMEA and for respondents targeting Millennials.

For paid social campaigns, respondents said that Facebook properties delivered the best ROI, with 89% saying that Facebook was the most effective, followed by Instagram (41%) and then Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest. Bright spots for Twitter included APAC, where more than twice as many respondents, said the company’s campaigns delivered the best ROI vs. the Americas, and with Agencies.

Though 64% of respondents said that they were using Social Media to meet their customer journey priorities vs. only 51% using App Re-Engagement, Re-Engagement outperformed Social Media by 50%, when respondents were asked which channel delivered the best ROI (18% vs. 12%). The most bullish on Re-Engagement where respondents from Agencies, where three of 10 said that Re-Engagement delivered the best ROI. With agency respondents generating by far the best results via Re-Engagement, in-house mobile marketers would be wise to consult with their agencies on how best to maximize performance on their re-engagement campaigns.

Perhaps the most interesting result of the research was the question asking which new technologies mobile marketers plan to invest in to support their customer journey in 2017. Going beyond hyped technologies like Chatbots, Emoji, VR and AR, respondents indicated that they would invest in data-driven technologies with proven business value and revenue potential led by Machine Learning (37%), Mobile Payments (25%) and Artificial Intelligence (23%).

“As a data-driven company, we’re excited to see that most mobile marketing professionals plan to invest in technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, which will enable them to better analyze and use their data to improve campaign performance,” said Moshe Vaknin, CEO & co-founder, YouAppi. “We are increasing our investment in mobile video advertising and look forward to many successful product launches in 2017.”

Source: YouAppi

  App, comScore, Digital, Dimensional Research, Marketing, Mobile, Re-Engagement, Report, Study, Technology, YouAppi