App Marketing Costs at Highest Level Since 2011, says Fiksu

The cost to acquire a loyal app user reached $1.80 (£1.16) in July, according to data from Fiksu, up 20 per cent from $1.50 – and the highest cost since December 2011.

Fiksu attribute the increase to two trends: the surge of brands using Facebook’s mobile app advertising platform, and Apples changes to the App Store Charts, which incorporated ratings into the ranking algorithm.

“There’s a major sea change underway, now that Apple’s ranking algorithm appears to favor highly-rated apps and penalize others. App marketers must now work even harder to generate positive ratings from engaged users, since user acquisition costs for apps without stellar ratings will now be more expensive,” said Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO. “With a new iPhone just a few weeks away and the holiday season coming up, delivering quality app experiences has never been more critical for app marketers seeking to climb rank and meet monetization goals.”

Downloads were also up, with the App Store Competitive Index – which measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free US iPhone apps – reaching 5.8m, an increase of four per cent on June.