Over the past 12 months we have been working hard to make sure that our readers are kept up to date with the latest trends and developments in the industry and across different markets. We have talked about mobile marketing, app store optimization, user acquisition & retention, how to make it in the Asian markets as well as many other topics. We obviously always tried our best to give you as professional and extensive insights as possible, but some specific posts were slightly more successful than others, and we would like to put them, once again, in the spotlight.
Here’s our pick of the AppLift All Star insights!
1. Apple and WWDC14: A New Era of Analytics and Attribution
At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced several improvements and alterations to their products and newest features. During the keynote speech we were most excited by the news of the feature that would assist mobile marketers with discovery and conversion, such as the “spotlight searches” and “video clips”. While we were quite pleased we were still left wanting more. Concretely we wanted them to provide more transparency and more advanced analytical features for iTunes Connect. Luckily during the follow up session the following day they provided us with just that.
Read more on how we broke the news here.
2. User Retention: Yes, But Which One?
User retention is an incredibly important metric, especially in relation to lifetime customer value (LTV), for both freemium apps and free-to-play games. On the other hand, it seems to be rather difficult concept for all of us to agree on a universal definition. To clear up some of the ambiguity we wanted to tackle it head on and clearly explain the different variations of retention and their corresponding methods, illustrated through real life examples. If you are still confused about the difference between bracket-dependent return retention and rolling retention or if you would just like to see which is more important for your app, learn more here.
Learn more about which retention strategy works best for your app here.
3. The Asian Beat: The South Korean Mobile Games Market, One of the Most Active In the World
In 2013 Asia- Pacific proved itself as the largest mobile games region with over $5.9 billion in revenues. This year mobile marketing in Asia kept on exploding and we have been keeping a close eye on all the new developments. To provide you with an in-depth overview we decided to document these as a five part series: The Asian Beat. Discover the differences among the various regions and vertices. To get a summary of the best of The Asian Beat read our recap.
And in particular, as in 2014 we grew our Seoul office to close to 30 people, we thought it was quite fitting to start with an episode focused on South Korean messaging apps and mobile games.
Read more about Asia’s exciting and lucrative mobile games market here.
4. The Global Mobile Games Landscape RELOADED (infographic)
The mobile games industry keeps evolving and sometimes it is difficult to keep track of what is going on around the world. In October 2013 we published our first Global Mobile Games Landscape infographic in collaboration with the global game market research company Newzoo. As promised we have continued to update the infographic based on the latest reports. We understand that for game publishers it is highly valuable to know how the mobile game market differs across regions in regards to the average monthly user spending, the cost of loyal gamer acquisition, market growth and market values. In the latest version published in October 2014 we noted the significant growth of smartphone and tablet revenue and a world map of monetization potential, as well as a summary appeal matrix.
Learn more about the growth of the global mobile games market here.
5. App Store Stats Bonanza
Statistics are one of the richest commodities in the mobile gaming industry. Allowing you to calculate your costs for user acquisition, your revenue, user engagement and so much more. Therefore, we wanted to dig deeper and investigate the latest numbers from the iOS App Store. While these stats are from early August it represents a good overview for mobile games from July 2008.
Read more about the importance of statistics to measure the performance of your app here.
Our Honorable Mention for Funniest Guest Post
App Marketing: Five Reasons Running an App Is Like Running a Zoo
One would typically not make a comparison between an app and a zoo, but this article proves it’s possible. We guarantee that from start to finish you will read this with a wide smile on your face. Once again we would like to thank Mac Flavelle from TapStream for generously sharing this GIF-filled article with us and our readers.
Discover the similarities between running a zoo and running an app here.
This year we have also been working hard creating our very own eBooks to provide you with more in-depth information on specific topics that are the backbone of the mobile games industry. We deliver the knowledge in a manner that is not only insightful but also extremely practical and systematic. Download them for FREE.
5 Steps to Successfully Market Your F2P Mobile Games
7 Steps to Cracking Native Advertising on Mobile
Mobile Games Marketing in Asia’s Big 3
Comment below if your favorite didn’t make the list and let us know if you agree with our selection. Happy Holidays!