A new research report series from independent mobile growth platform Digital Turbine and real-time competitive intelligence firm Apptopia highlights UA strategies of mobile apps delivering above average app install volume relative to the prior quarter’s brand funnel of consumer awareness and install intent.
Investing in brand awareness became a higher priority for mobile marketers a year ago, when App Tracking Transparency (ATT) limited the access to identifiers for advertisers (IDFA), thereby shifting focus from targeted ad campaigns to contextual. The first installment of the firms’ BRAG (Brand Relative App Growth) Index series gives well-timed insight to the mobile marketing tactics and trends born in this new age of mobile marketing.
Across app categories, the top BRAG-ers engaged in one or more of the following strategies:
- Offline Partnerships including presence and promotions with sports teams, games, athletes, and music artists that aligned a brand with an active fan base.
- Mobile Ecosystem Integrations including product development that positioned apps on operating systems, blockchain, payments platforms, and carrier/OEM devices.
- Product-Led Growth including features that make the experience more valuable to users on each return visit to increase the likelihood of organic sharing. This came in the form of unique currency, experiences, entertainment, or information.
“Today’s CMOs are always on the lookout for successful growth strategies,” said Greg Wester, head of on-device marketing at Digital Turbine, in a news release. “Having a method to identify the brands whose brand growth or mobile performance growth is truly outpacing the competition was the missing piece. Apptopia, with their expertise in app performance data, was an ideal partner to co-design the needed methodology.”
“We value looking at problems from many different angles because oftentimes the most impactful insights come from combining multiple data points and multiple perspectives,” said Jonathan Kay, CEO at Apptopia, in the release. “This helps cut through all the noise in the app stores to find out what’s moving the needle, and that’s what we’ve worked on alongside Digital Turbine.”
The report combines two data sources: end-of-Q2 install volumes from Apptopia’s Performance data, and survey data on consumers’ awareness and install intent of leading apps across seven different categories completed by Digital Turbine at the beginning of Q4 2021.
The first report series analyzed seven app categories: Shopping; Streaming Video; Health & Fitness; Music & Audio; Finance; Food & Drink; and News. According to the research, lesser known Retail apps outperformed 33 percent of leading retail brands, while lesser known News apps outperformed more than 66 percent of leading News brands. In the last six months across all categories, lesser known apps on average outperformed 46 percent of leading brands.
