BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - May 2, 2014) - Fiksu, Inc. (www.fiksu.com), developer of award-winning app marketing technologies, today published its latest Fiksu Indexes that show the App Store Competitive Index hit a record high of 7.1 million daily downloads in March, a 41 percent increase year-over-year. Although this Index is only indicative of iOS traffic, eMarketer predicts that growth rates for Android and iOS will be almost identical at 18.2 and 17.8, respectively, in 2014, so it is likely similar parallels can be expected with Android downloads.
Although traffic was high, marketers were able to keep spending in check through programmatic buying, indicated by the drop in Fiksu's month-over-month Cost per Launch Index for both iOS (down 10 percent to $0.17) and Android (down 5 percent to $0.10). The decrease in Cost per Launch is not a result of more devices in the market but of the dramatic increase in app usage.
Continued growth in app usage means more downloads, more launches and more time spent in apps, but at the same time, marketers are still hit with the challenge of attracting loyal app users. If we compare the 20 percent year-over-year increase in Cost per Install in iOS to the 7 percent year-over-year increase in Cost per Loyal User Index, we can see that marketers are getting smarter about leveraging the right ad formats, ad creatives and targeting tools to reach the right users. Otherwise, without these optimization and targeting capabilities, the CPLU Index would have likely seen an increase of 20 percent year-over-year.
"The March Indexes tell us that while the market is only getting bigger each month, it has also grown volumes in terms of maturity," says Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu. "With the addition of programmatic and optimization technologies, marketers have the tools to market their apps better and can do so without breaking the bank. As we've seen with major players like Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! getting in the game, the industry has certainly come a long way in the last year, and what was once a challenge for app marketers is now an industry standard."
For Fiksu's full analysis, visit http://www.fiksu.com/resources/fiksu-indexes#analysis.
To date, Fiksu has accumulated more than 252 billion app actions including launches, registrations and in-app purchases, as well as massive amounts of data from real-time bidding requests and mobile advertising networks. Additionally, Fiksu has also driven more than 2 billion app downloads for its customers.
About Fiksu
Fiksu is the leading provider of mobile app marketing products that help app and game marketers reach their user acquisition goals. The company's patent-pending Programmatic Mobile Demand Platform applies intelligent technology to proprietary big data to master ALL the challenges of mobile advertising -- including tracking, optimization, media buying and integration. This cohesive approach spans the entire mobile ecosystem and ultimately delivers the best marketing performance. Additionally, Fiksu offers FreeMyApps®, the world's largest app discovery platform where users are rewarded. Based in Boston, Mass., Fiksu is venture-backed by Qualcomm Ventures and Charles River Ventures. More at www.fiksu.com, @Fiksu, and on the Fiksu blog.