Gamasutra: Maryna Petrenko’s Blog – App Store Optimization: The basics

via Gamasutra: Maryna Petrenko’s Blog – App Store Optimization: The basics.

 

 

Observations on the App Annie Index

It seems increasingly clear that Android purchases are people who need a cell phone, go to their carrier, and pick out what appeals to them (or is pushed on them). They may download some games, but that’s about it.

iPhone users, on the hand, want the iPhone, and are highly driven by launch dates and seasonality. They are much more likely to see the iPhone as a central object and invest accordingly, both in time spent on the device as well as money spent in the app store.

via stratēchery | Observations on the App Annie Index.

At Yahoo, direct mobile revenue hovers only around $125 million annually

This is not surprising.  Mobile is still pretty early and hasn’t scaled much.  I bet search accounts for a huge piece of the mobile revs too.  You can talk to any big agency out there to figure out that this is the state of play not only at Yahoo but almost everywhere else.

Because, according to sources inside the company, direct mobile revenue hovers only around $125 million annually, mostly from search revenue on mobile devices. While users are consuming lots of Yahoo Web pages on their phones, which could technically boost the sales numbers higher, rendering most desktop-created ads on mobile is not the same thing as the significant mobile revenue Yahoo needs to generate.

via When Mayer Called Yahoo’s Mobile Revenue “Nascent,” She Wasn’t Kidding – Kara Swisher – Mobile – AllThingsD.

Helpful: Estimating Google Organic Search Visits Hidden by iOS 6 | RKG Blog

This is a helpful article from last month.  Why would you be interested in estimating Google organic search visits? Because of the new way that iOS (iPhones and iPads) implements Google search, which strips our referrer data.  The result is that Google organic doesn’t get credit for the actual amount of traffic it yields

A typical site that generates 25% of its traffic from mobile is already seeing its recorded Google organic search visits running about 12% lower than the actual volume. If iOS 6 adoption were 90%, that figure would increase to 16%.

via Estimating Google Organic Search Visits Hidden by iOS 6 | RKG Blog.

automatically capture all gestures and interactions in mobile apps

Delight enlightens developers and designers on how their users interact with their iOS applications. We seamlessly record your application screen and automatically capture all gestures.

via Delight.

Unnatural Acts And The Rise Of Mobile | TechCrunch

This mobile ad strawman is nothing new but it’s worthy of a link since it shows a good understanding of the state of play.  This is especially good now because I’ve seen so many terrible articles about advertising in recent weeks.  The main argument in the post below is that firms are desperate to monetize mobile and they will use very short term driven tactics to do so, which will end up hurting the entire ecosystem in the long run.

Advertising is so far disappointing both in terms of its scale and its growth trajectory, as well as the value of a CPM. This disappointment forces mobile marketers to either innovate in the meaning of advertising on mobile or to systematically force feed both a large volume of ads, as well as attempt to target those ads in such a way that higher CPMs can be achieved.

via Unnatural Acts And The Rise Of Mobile | TechCrunch.

eBay to Stop Advertising Inside Mobile Apps: “It’s Not Worth It.”

In many cases, mobile advertising still feels too early and players in the value chain don’t seem to be in sync.  Ebay is deciding to remove mobile ads for now:

This year, eBay displayed ads inside of its iPhone app as an experiment, but found that they were distracting and cluttered up the smaller screens. The ads also didn’t deliver meaningful revenue. via eBay to Stop Advertising Inside Mobile Apps: “It’s Not Worth It.” – Tricia Duryee – Commerce – AllThingsD.

I’m not sure I would pull back my foot in the mobile ad door though.  In this world, the biggest delta is relationship driven and it helps to have a presence in that world or you might find yourself several steps behind the competition.

 

Mobile advertising will be huge, right? – Business Insider

Here an 86 slide deck on mobile.  Hopefully, this links directly to the mobile advertising section:

THE FUTURE OF MOBILE [SLIDES] – Business Insider.

Will this decrease mobile clicks by 100x or greater? “Combating accidental clicks in mobile ads”

By expanding confirmed clicks to in-app image ad banners, we’re now making this improved user experience consistent across the vast majority of the ads that we serve in mobile apps. In our initial tests, we found that confirmed clicks notably improve mobile conversion rates, with a slight decrease in clickthrough rate as accidental clicks are avoided.

via Combating accidental clicks in mobile ads – Google Mobile Ads Blog.

Verizon to start targeted advertising this week, will be optional – SlashGear

Verizon is testing it’s targeting program, which is opt-in if users want to participate and share their data:

If you’re a customer of Verizon‘s, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for an email, text message, or notification mentioning the carrier’s new “Verizon Selects” program. In exchange for sharing your data usage, such as location, web browsing, and mobile app usage data, you’ll get targeted advertisements delivered to you by either email, text messages, or other forms of mobile advertising.

via Verizon to start targeted advertising this week, will be optional – SlashGear.

An important point above is that email is mobile advertising.  Maybe it’s time for a resurgence in that business.