Discovery continues to be a challenge, but more companies are offering up creative solutions to help drive user acquisition and increase revenues.
Mobile analytics provider Flurry jumped on the discovery bandwagon in 2010 launching AppCircle, a cross-selling service that combines a recommendation engine with Flurry's analytics data to connect the appropriate app to the right user at the right time.
Developers can use AppCircle to advertise their app in other apps or get a referral fee when their customers download another recommended app.
We met up with Flurry's veep of marketing, Peter Farago for a coffee and an update on the service.
PocketGamer: App Circle was made available to all developers last summer, so how's it going?
Peter Farago: AppCircle growth has been staggering. Since making it available, net revenue generated for partner applications has doubled month-over-month.
Even in January, revenue doubled over that of December. AppCircle is now generating millions of dollars per months for its publishers.
Have there been any surprises in its deployment?
The main surprise has been AppCircle's adoption and growth. On the backend, our system, which also powers Flurry Analytics, is growing exponentially. To keep up with demand, we plan to add 500 servers over the next six months to our data centers.
In terms of consumer reach, in six months, it's grown from a small base to over 80 million unique users reached per month. Every day, AppCircle reaches over 30 million unique users. Comparatively, this audience size exceeds primetime TV shows such as Glee and American Idol in the United States, and we're reaching them every day of the year, not twice a week.
How many developers have signed on?
Over 1,200 developers currently participate in AppCircle.
What's the typical investment and how are costs controlled?
As a publisher, it takes a few man hours to design and implement a solution appropriate for your application. As an advertiser, the minimum campaign level is $250.
As advertisers, developers can set daily spend limits, set their own bid price per newly acquired user and choose to fund their total campaign at any level they like.
Is there a particular game genre that AppCircle is best suited for?
Overall, social games perform best.
For advertising, any application can benefit, from brands to independent games. For publisher apps, those that also have a virtual currency, which can be leveraged to reward application downloads, perform exceedingly well with click-through-rates of up to 25 percent. We call this implementation AppCircle Rewards.
Does it have to be integrated at launch or can it be incorporated at other stages of a product's lifecycle?
Integrating Flurry AppCircle anywhere with the application experience is possible for publishers.
The service allows any form of integration such as interstitials at launch, interstitials when a user resumes the app or completes a level, links to menu pages, banners, or even extensions of gameplay or application functionality.
What's App Circle's advantage over traditional text-based or display advertising?
AppCircle offers far more efficient acquisition than CPC and CPM advertising. Flurry charges advertisers only for applications that have been downloaded and launched as a result of its service.
It's the most efficient form of application marketing possible, and the cost of acquiring user reflects the true CPA. Comparatively, CPC campaigns can result in CPA costs of $2 to $10, sometimes more.
How about other CPI services?
In addition to the size and method of leveraging its data set to generate the industry's most relevant recommendations, Flurry pays out three times as much to its publishers than these competing services.
Additionally, Flurry never asks its customers for exclusive agreements, which we believe only serves to reduce their options. We support an open marketplace, and the developer's right to choose the best solution for its business any time it wishes.
What results should a developer expect with the service?
A developer should expect to solve discovery and monetisation in a significant way. AppCircle revenue generated for publishers is incremental, and complements any other revenue model. Customers have measured absolutely no cannibalisation of in-app purchase, or other revenue sources.
What's the future for AppCircle?
Flurry is focused on continuing to grow AppCircle in size and scale throughout 2011 on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Additionally, we'll introduce the ability to target specific segments of customers. For example, a developer may want to present app recommendations to just those consumers that have no history of spending on in-app purchases.
Thanks to Peter for his time.
You can find out more about AppCircle on the Flurry website.
