Truth About Facebook Mobile

I keep hearing about Facebook and mobile and how its going to “change everything” but I haven’t messed with it much because Facebook (like Google) broke my heart. Let me explain why I’m not a fan of both giants. They seem to not care about  their advertisers, even if you spend $50,000 + a month… and the reason… its much easier to rip off small business and branders who have no clue what they are doing, but I digress.

Anyway, I was bored so I decided to log into one of my FB Ad accounts to see this:

HOLLY CRAP BATMAN… can it be that I, the lowly layman can now target mobile users?

Of course I set up campaigns using our trusty Mobile Analytics and off to the races I went. I started with all Android Users.

Round 1:

Awful… so I decided to check my analytics and low and behold didn’t get a single Android user according to our data. How could this be?

I checked the raw user agent info and kept getting “Facebook” type entries instead of the usual Handset / Version / Operating System we use to track. Ok this kind of makes sense since users are clicking out of Facebook, seems sketchy but moving on.

So I came up with a clever idea for round 2. Send visitors to a landing page then send them through the tracker, that should reset their user agent info.

Round 2: 

Garbage… what gives why are so many of these users on PCs, more than 80% to be exact. I started second guessing our tracking so again I dug into the user agent info and nope these were users on Personal Computers after all.

What does this mean?

Simple when you target “Android User” it should really say “Users That Have Logged in on Android Devices Sometime in Past“

By the way was I really gone so long from FB that the suggested bids are now $1.50 a pop?

Advertisers tread with caution…

MobAff Makes Top Mobile Network List

DirectResponse.net is one the leading blogs in our space. With constant gold being dropped its main goal is to help advertisers, networks, and affiliates understand the direct response landscape better and to create a sense of accountability with what we do. Because I’ve always been a fan I was pleasantly surprised that they ranked MobAff as one of the top mobile ad networks out there.

Read more of 2012 Best CPA Networks

Looking to Start Mobile Media Buying?

For most mobile marketers who finally discover how to get profitable on mobile, the next challenge is how to get more volume. You can try scaling among self serve networks, but you will find it time consuming and frustrating, unless of course you’re using our mobile tracking solution.

As simpler approach is to take traditional media buying tactics and apply them to mobile traffic sources. Yes, this means signing Insertion Orders, negotiating rates, trying CPM bidding, and more!

At MobAff Performance Network we want our publishers and advertisers succeed so we recently held a private Mobile Media Buying webinar. We went over the key ingredients needed to start successfully buying mobile inventory and ways to use our tracking technology to audit and optimize traffic.

I’m not going to post the full webinar to the public, but I did condense some of the slides for you lucky readers.

Below is the SlideShare of some of the high level slides.

How to Market a Mobile App

If you’re a mobile app developer looking for more installs it can be daunting to figure out where to go to get volume and scale in a cost effective manner. Have no fear MobAff is here to help you make sense of the mobile media buying landscape and help you make more money from your apps.

First off you have a few choices in terms of the types of installs you can get incentivized, display, or organic.

Incentivized – These tend to be installs that are driven with things like in app currency or rewards. Basically users are asked to try your app in exchange for something they are looking for like unlocking a level or certain features within another app.

Pros: Massive scale and low Cost-Per-Acquision

Cons: Engagement of new users can be very low.

Display – This is any installs that are generated due to your “ads” being shown. This can include mobile search, banners, push, icons, and more. A user is presented with a marketing message coaxing an install and if user choses they have option to click and download your app.

Pros: Quality of user is higher since the users curiosity/demand initiates download, scalable with strong offering

Cons: Need to have a strong mass market app that can compete in the marketplace

Organic - These installs come from word of mouth, social media recommendations, and app store rankings. The key is to have a strong app with user affinity.

Pros: High ROI from free installs

Cons: Can be difficult to cut through noise and competition of other apps

The secret on how to market a mobile app is to have a diversified mix in your marketing strategy. For example to gain organic downloads you will need a strong display and incentivized initiative to reach the critical mass of users to become a leader in your space. To most cost effectively market your app you have to think in terms of CPI (Cost Per Install). Only when you know your CPI metrics will you be able to go after paid traffic in a confident and manageable manner that won’t leave you scratching your head over efficacy of your campaign.

So how do you figure out reasonable CPI

1. Find out the Lifetime Value of new users on your app using mobile analytics solutions
2. Figure out additional revenue streams including in app advertising, up sells, and cross sells
3. Test small amounts on self-serve paid mobile traffic sources to see rough CPI figures
4. Use tracking like MobAff Tracker to optimize your ad spend and reduce your CPI
5. Work with companies like MobAff on a CPI basis for maximum exposure

Remember that CPI’s will vary depending on traffic source and partner, so monitor closely to ensure that you’re paying a CPI that leaves you enough room to make that money back.

How Mobile OS Updates Affect Marketers

I’ve noticed something quite curious recently. I was running reports using our favorite mobile tracking tool and noticed there was a lot of phones being labeled as “Generic Android 4.0″

(click image to enlarge)

Since we use an enterprise level device detection database I started poking around trying to figure out what caused this. Then Stephen, our lead developer, pointed out that Samsung was rolling out a major update to its phones. Click here to see article

Although our DB is advanced it is only updated every week or so as most of the data has to be hand coded by our DB provider. The data is simply coming in as Generic Android 4.0 until all the new user agent info can be mapped properly.

NOTE: This is just a theory not proven or confirmed

More importantly, one is left to wonder how this will affect your marketing campaigns. Surely if we’re having issues identifying individual phones, ad networks may be having the same problem.

Here are some thoughts:

• If you’re marketing to specific handsets you may see a drop in volume since many phones can’t be identified
• If you’re marketing to specific Android OS version you may see increase or decrease depending on Version # you’re after
• North American PSMS advertiser may see a dip in performance from their Android traffic

Anyone else seeing this?