Dominant personalities have the highest click through rates in mobile advertising

02 Jan, 2013

Justin Mauldin
8 Comments

Are you already running mobile advertisements in your app? Looking for some tips on how to optimize? Today, we are going to take a look at mobile advertising user behavior and see if we can make some generalizations about each audience.

In the experiment below we arranged for dozens of apps to show the same advertisements throughout the day to each of their different audiences in an effort to better understand which audiences are more or less receptive to advertisements in general.

Let’s ignore the two outliers (tools and music) for now. I’m pretty confident I can fit the remaining six categories into some of the Meyers/Briggs personality types:

Driver - Productivity

Analytical – Brain and Puzzle, Books and Reference

Expressive – Photography, Arcade and Action, Casual

Drivers have very strong, dominant, personality types. They know what they want and can be controlling or arrogant in order to get it. Emotions don’t factor into their decision-making process. They decide very quickly and could be a reason for a click-through rate that is double the average.

Analyzers are constantly assessing the situation. Weighing the pros and cons. Making lists, checking them twice. They are constantly asking questions because there is never enough information to make a decision. The “never enough” attitude could be a reason why their CTR is 75% above average. If the app is free (which generally most are) there is no risk and unlimited upside for the app analyzer.

Expressive people are exactly what it sounds like. They are the life of the party… true socializers and probably posting way too much on Facebook. They are life’s storytellers and attempt to please people all the time. Their CTR is pretty close to average with the exception of the photography category. Photographers, in general, are more visual people and could be why a full screen advertisement draws them in.

Then there are the last two – Tools and Music/Audio. I could have put each of these categories into the MB personality types but I think there is something else going on that has to do with the nature of the apps themselves.

Tools are apps you might use once in awhile to solve an immediate need (flashlight, calculator, task killer, etc.) Think about the way most people use these apps and it becomes pretty clear why the CTR is half the average. You’ll open up the app, get what you need usually within a few seconds, and go back to whatever you were doing that prompted you to open the app. Any advertisement shown is only going to interrupt you from accomplishing your bigger task and the data shows most people are just going to ignore it.

Last but not least there are Music & Audio apps. Again, look at the usage case. We open up our music app, put on a song, and shove the phone back in our pocket or purse. Whenever you open the app back up it’s usually because you want to change the music and that’s when the advertisement pops up. The interruption is easily ignored because it stops us from our goal. We know advertisements are always more effective when they are placed at natural breaks in the app (level up, scene change, task completion) or when a user is exiting the app.

In order to capitalize more efficiently within your app, it is imperative that you understand the type of users you have and how they respond to ads. Even though there will always be a mix of personality types in your app, ask yourself; What kinds of generalizations can I make to improve monetization?
INFOGRAPHIC: For Developer Eyes Only

06 Dec, 2012

Justin Mauldin
0 Comments

As we wrap up 2012 celebrating 50 years of James Bond we thought it would fun to share some insights and trends from this year on the Android app ecosystem. Keep reading to see where and how developers are making their money.

Breaking it down

Licence to Bill

Most Android developers on our network generate 78% of their revenue off in-app purchases. What's interesting is that even though Google IAP is available there is almost 20% of transactions being processed through PayPal. Of the remaining 22% of revenue that comes from advertising, a little over 60% is from selling non-incentivized advertising on Papaya's cross-promotion network AppFlood.

GoldenBuy

Freemium social game developers often sell in app content that can be categorized as a durable or consumable good. A durable virtual good would be something that benefits the player permanently throughout the game such as increasing attack points. A consumable good is the opposite. It gets used up quickly and examples include bullets, cash, and energy. Even though the average price of consumables and durables aren't very far apart, 97% of all in app purchase revenue come from consumables.

WindFall

2012 was a huge windfall for Casino app developers. Currently 28% of the top 25 grossing apps on Google Play are Casino genre. What's even more amazing is how unpopular these apps are - only 2% of the top 150 free apps are Casino. Don't read too much into this - gambling is extremely popular and this genre is bound to catch fire once real money gambling legislation is resolved. Expect to see another big wave of casino app clones in 2013.

GoldFingers

As mobile advertising and cross-promotion networks evolve we start to see new ad formats being rolled out in order to push engagement higher. You may have noticed interstitials (full screen advertisements) are popping up on your favorite free applications. All for good reason too - interstitials are providing developers a 300% increase in click through rates over standard mobile ads. Additionally, some of the highest CTRs on AppFlood are from mid-core fantasy players.

The World's Enough

The average revenue per paying user is a key metric for any developer. In 2012, with the rise of Android smartphones around the world, we have seen unexpected countries become a top priority for localization.

From Droids with Love

Google I/O 2012 promised us all device fragmentation would be a thing of the past with new carrier and OEM initiatives. Six months later and we have seen little change to one of Android's biggest problem. You could always try to develop for every device and OS but you'll probably need a few martinis... shaken not stirred of course.
Portrait and list view added to the AppFlood ad arsenal

24 Oct, 2012

Ryan J. Ha
0 Comments

Portrait interstitials and “list views” are the two new ad formats that ship with verison 1.4 If you have a portrait app then you can now take advantage of weekly CTR's of 18%and dailiesas high as 43%. You even don't need to do anything, it's all automatic, just set it and voila!!

"List view" means not having to restrict your ads to just a few apps, now you can list them all! Rack up those install credits across your entire inventory

Download the AppFlood 1.4 SDK Now
NEW fully customizable ad format in AppFlood

22 Oct, 2012

Ryan J. Ha
0 Comments

Our latest ad formats allow you to integrate ads right into your app Do you already have a "discover more games" page? AppFlood can integrate right into it for the ultimate user experience and install rates.

Get the AppFlood 1.4 SDK Now

All we do is give you the resources, and you can integrate AppFlood anyway you like. It makes for a smooth transition within your app.
App Conference on October 18 - 20

17 Oct, 2012

Justin Mauldin
0 Comments

This Thursday, October 18 we are going to be in San Jose Convention Center for 3 days, where we will hear from over 100 different speakers, address key components in app development.

The emphasis over the 3 days will be cross platform development, revenue strategies, and global growth. The highlights will include:
- App Business Strategy Track
- App Product Strategy Track
- Future of Mobile Innovation Track
- Global Growth Track
- App Economy Track
- Start-Up Ecosystem Track
- appSpace - Developer Track
- G-Startup Competition
- App Conference Executive Lunch
- Featured Keynotes
We'll see you there!