How To Make A Mobile Game App
Once upon a time, game apps were solely in the realm of large companies such as Nintendo, Playstation and more recently, Microsoft. Now, let’s fast forward to today. Games are no longer solely played on dedicated hardware. People play games on their computers, directly on their TV’s, their smartphones. But…an idea is not enough. In this article, you will learn all of the steps needed to get your next big game idea off the ground. Are you ready?
What Do I Need to Get Started?
Well hold on now. Before we begin discussing the nitty gritty, we need to make sure a few ground steps are covered. To get started in App development, there are a few things required for even the most simple game app. Let’s get started!
You Will Need:
- A Computer
- Can’t move forward without this most basic of hardware. You will be designing and programming on this guy. But since you’re contemplating a game app, I’m sure you already have this one.
- Graphic Design and Programming Knowledge
- You will at least need some preliminary knowledge here. Can’t make a game without a great design and awesome gameplay.
- A smartphone
- Your going to need a way to test your game, right?
- An Idea
- Arguably the most important step of all.
What Is The Average Cost to Develop A Game App?
The honest answer is, the costs can vary wildly. You can save a good chunk of change if you already possess graphic design skills and / or programming knowledge. Even more importantly, you will need A LOT of time, as this is something you would be tackling on top of your current responsibilities. But, let’s also be realistic. If you expect to make money off of your app, it’s going to have to look pretty awesome and have great game play. If you are not able to do this, it’s time to think about hiring costs.
One way to make an estimate is to break it down by the hour. Apps can take hundreds if not thousands of hours to design, develop and deploy. As a shortcut, you could always try app-builder software. But with this route you risk having an app with design as well as gameplay limitations. Not to mention risking ownership.
The hard to swallow answer is, an app can run you from almost zero to infinity. It really depends on your budget and risk tolerance. If pressed to an estimate, I would say a fairly simple game app could be created for as low as $10,000. However, more realistically speaking, the games you play and love more likely ran in the thousands to hundreds of thousands to create.
This is not to discourage you in the least, but to set expectations. If you have a simple game with limited graphics required you can lean towards a lower upfront cost. And again being able to help with designs or programming could help bring down the cost immensely as well. But before we drown in the numbers, let’s take a moment to think about the kinds of games to make.
What Type of Game Should I Make?
According to Lifewire the major game categories include:
- Action
- Adventure
- Card
- RPG
- Sports
- Strategy
The most popular games year over year tend to fall into these exact categories. When you have an idea, you should think about your intended audience. Who is the audience for an RPG that takes a very long time to play vs a quick strategy game? What ages will your game appeal to? The perfect combination of audience to category creates an app store hit.
How to Make A Game App ?
Now we are ready to get to the nitty gritty. What are the actual steps involved in making a mobile game app?
Step 1: Develop an Idea
You cannot start this process without the great idea. Take time to think out your idea. Feel free to ask friends and family what they think of an idea, but hold off on asking too many people at this stage. Remember, this is your idea and you will want to capitalize on it before anyone else.
Step 2: Create a Mockup
Next you will need to take the time to draw out the design and basic gameplay. You are creating a blueprint to work from.
Step 3: Choose A Platform & Development Tools
Time to decide which platform your game will be played on. The most popular is Android and iOS. But you don’t need to be on both in your initial stages. Once that is decided you will know which tools are required to bring your game to life.
Step 4: Define the Functionality of your App
When you created your mock-up, you jotted down some basic game functionality. It’s time to expand on that. You will need to go through your entire idea and write down/implement your gameplay strategy.
Step 5: Monetize Your Mobile game App
Decide if and how you want to make money with your app. A few popular ideas are pay for play and ad-based revenue.
Step 6: Upload Your Game To App Stores
Congratulations, your app is done! You are now ready to upload to the app store.
Step 7: Optimize Your Game App for Maximum Performance
Time to think about upkeep. You will need a plan to keep your app at peak performance and someone around to iron out any bugs.
Creating a game app can be an exciting proposition. Hopefully this article helped you to get a basic understanding of your options. Good luck on your adventure!
If all these steps seemed somewhat daunting, the best part of all is you can always simply hire an experienced team such as Buildinary to help bring your great idea to reality. Whether you try it out on your own, or hire a great team, we are now ready to move forward and begin to think about the costs involved.
Why You Should Adopt PPC Advertising for Your Small Business
Many small businesses are typically wary of trying out new marketing techniques because of the belief that doing so could dig a hole in their pocket and strain their marketing budget. However, toeing the line of some of these marketing strategies could turn out to be effective at driving results.
One such strategy is known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC). According to stats, 45% of small businesses are actively investing in PPC advertising to grow their business operations. To further highlight the rate of adoption by other brands, we should note that 74% of small businesses with more than 50 employees are also investing in PPC advertising.
Some small businesses are solely dependent on SEO and organic search rankings because they feel adopting PPC advertising might be too expensive. However, they don’t understand the full scope of the benefits and advantages that PPC brings to the table. The advantages it presents outweigh cost by far. Also, it isn’t as expensive as many rumor to be.
Since your payment is limited to only those instances your ads are clicked, it shouldn’t be too challenging for your marketing budget. In fact, you can bid for less competitive keywords that still rank as one of the most searched keywords to cut on your cost-per-click.
The ultimate goal of this advertising model is generating a particular form of user action. Examples of such actions are registering on your website or buying a product from you.
Of all types of PPCs, Google Ads is the most common, and the reason is not far-fetched. Google-powered campaigns reach more than 90% of internet users globally, and the search engine owns more than 73% of the search market, including both paid and organic search results.
Owning a small business usually limits your reach to your local area and customers who become acquainted with your brand through word-of-mouth. However, thanks to the internet, this is now a thing of the past. Even if you have explored other marketing strategies with no results, using Google Ads or any other PPC strategy increases your reach and attracts new customers.
Google Ads alone reaches a network of more than two million websites and apps, which means it could help you to expand your audience significantly. But this is not the only benefit of using PPC marketing. Here’s a concise list of other advantages of using this marketing channel.
Complete Control
In the world of digital marketing, there are only a few marketing channels that can boast of complete control over their progress, and PPC is a good example of such a channel.
For example, you gain full control over your budget by setting a daily limit on your ad spending. Furthermore, PPC campaigns give you the freedom to control when your ads are displayed.
Its advanced targeting options make it easier to maximize ROI because it gives you the ability to choose your specific target audience.
It’s Measurable And Trackable
The best part of PPC advertising is perhaps the fact that you can measure the success of your campaign by utilizing data that various analytics tools provide. You could use tools like Google Analytics and Google Adwords to identify which paid ads are working best. With the results obtained from these tracking tools, you can take an iterative approach to your PPC campaigns.
The results come in the form of numerical data making it very easy for you to calculate, compare, and measure progress and failures. With the analysis of these results, you can easily monitor which components work and which lag behind. You can measure keywords and ads, clicks and impressions, visits, leads, and sales.
Since these results are measurable, you are given clear hints on whether to continue with the ads or not. It is possible to determine the underlying factor for the poor performance of your ads.
Cost-Effective
There is a growing misconception amongst small business owners that PPC advertising is expensive. If you’re one of them, you should understand that this is not the case. Running a PPC campaign is cost-effective if you design and implement it properly.
Let’s check some quick tips on how to make your PPC campaigns worth every penny.
- Lower your CPC costs. Lowering your cost-per-click could help you achieve more. You could do this by adjusting your bids based on factors like location, rotation, and devices or switching on to manual bidding.
- Perform competitor analysis. When creating a new PPC campaign, you must have a look at what your competitors are doing. Identify the audience they are targeting, the keywords they are using, and how much they are spending, among other things.
Enhances Brand Recognition
For new businesses or startups, PPC campaigns help improve brand awareness in the digital world. It could give them the spark they need and boost their online visibility so that people can establish a relationship with the brand.
Using PPC to target keywords related to your niche means that internet users who search for those keywords will most likely see your ad. Increasing your visibility can soon help you establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
Did you know that you could also improve your brand’s visibility online by targeting your competitors’ keywords?
Final Note
PPC distinguishes itself as one of the must-haves for any small business that wants to place itself on the world’s digital map. Did you know that there are more devices connected to the internet than there are people on earth? PPC advertising widens your scope.
If you are still not taking advantage that PPC advertising presents, you are missing out on opportunities to enhance your growth online.
33 Captivating Statistics That Could Change Your Marketing Strategy
Digital Marketing strategy is of utmost importance today. With the plethora of tracking tools available such as Google Analytics or even paid services, it is important to follow the success of your campaigns so you can know when to put more effort into one thing and less effort into another. No matter if you are new or even if you already have an established marketing strategy, the following statistics should help you fine tune and tweak your campaigns to take them to the next level.
Before we get to the FACTS, let’s briefly discuss what questions we need to answer.
How much time is spent on social media? How many devices are connected to the Internet? Do people understand visual data?
These numbers help you gauge why it would be a good idea to invest in digital marketing.
How much time are people on social media? What devices are they using to access it? What kind of information are they looking at? How does Social Media help spread information?
This data helps you understand Social Media trends
How much do people spend after leaving Social Media sites? How much ecommerce spending are they driving?
This data assists in knowledge of social spending
How much data is re-shared on Social Media? What type of content is it? What is the most popular content? What is the demographic?
Information to help understand where the shared data is originating
How do different platforms drive results? How many people are using it? How often? Where are they located?
Knowledge of different types of Social Media reach
The fun infographic you see here will help answer these questions and more. After going through it you will have all the information you need to either startup or help change up your marketing strategy for the better. Are you ready to take your strategy to the next level?
Why You Need A Mobile App
Staying competitive and relevant in today’s market has become crucial for just about every business to not only thrive but survive. Marketing plays a vital role for businesses to drive sales and enhance brand visibility. With the kind of success and results that online marketing provides, it became natural for most companies to design, develop, and maintain a business website. Websites showcase the company’s products and services as well as act as a virtual venue for customer engagement and service. However, the increasing usage of smartphones by people for just about everything has redefined the marketing world and compelled the businesses to not only rely on having a website but also develop an interactive and fluid mobile app.
Starting from managing finances to organizing a to-do list and from shopping your groceries to ordering food, there is a mobile app for just about everything these days. It is because the attention of the people have shifted drastically to the mobile realm in the past few years, and the trend shows that it would continue to move in this direction going ahead. Not having a dedicated mobile application today is similar to not having a business website a couple of decades back. It would make your business look outdated, give your competitors with mobile app an added advantage, and fail to connect with the end users in a medium they prefer. It all boils down to losing business and sales and failing to stay relevant and competitive. Here are the few reasons as to why your business needs mobile app development:
Provide Better Value to Customers
Customer engagement and interaction would reach a new high with the help of a mobile app. Having special offers as well as a loyalty programs for customers using the mobile app can help boost sales and revenue considerably. There are many companies, for example, Starbucks, which has an app-only loyalty program. Such loyalty programs help drive sales and boost customer awareness.
Brand Visibility
In a world where just about every person in the world has a smartphone and spends about two hours on average on it, having a dedicated mobile app would strengthen your brand visibility. Having an app would improve communication with the end users and foster trust among the customers for being easily accessible. It gives a reason for people to trust you that can eventually convert to loyalty and sales.
Customer Service
The mobile app is not only geared towards making sales, but one of its core functions is to improve customer service as well. It will make your customer service efforts more integrated, making your brand more accessible and user-friendly. Improving the customer experience is one of the driving factors why more and more companies are integrating technology with their business machinery, and having a mobile app would contribute vastly to that.
Drive Traffic to Your Website
The website plays a different role than a mobile app, and one cannot substitute the other. While the use of the mobile app is encouraged, the relevancy of a website doesn’t diminish completely. The mobile app and website can work hand in hand to complement each other, and most of the adequately optimized mobile apps help drive traffic to the parent site. Similarly, the website encourages customers and visitors to download the mobile app from the app store. Mobile apps assist with targeted lead capturing that contribute positively to the overall marketing campaign.
Customers’ Feedback and Insights
Mobile app helps in gathering valuable data from the customers and helps draw a clear picture of your growth and sales trajectory. It would identify the products that are doing good compared to the ones that are not, the regions that have emerged as the star performers, customers’ need, feedback and suggestions, and a range of other statistical data. It can help modify your marketing campaign and make it more focused for better results.
Social Media
Most of the mobile apps allow users to sign in through their Facebook or Google credentials and it automatically engages the end users to the company’s social media channels. It would help you stay connected to your target audience. As most people are active in social media, it is essential to make your brand visible on various social media platforms to stay relevant and spike loyalty among the end users.
Progressive companies are not afraid of change and embrace innovation as it is what holds the key to success in the future. With close to three billion smartphone users worldwide, it would be a mistake to rely solely on a portfolio website to drive sales and improve brand visibility. Having a mobile app for your business can contribute heavily to achieving your business goals and undermining its importance can be disastrous in the long-term.
The Importance of Website Loading Time
Have you ever attempted to open a site and it took a long time to load? I bet you weren’t pleased with the experience. A slow-loading website can be frustrating to work with. In fact, based on data from March 2016, Google revealed that as much as 53 percent of users are likely to abandon a mobile site if it takes less than three seconds to load. According to the Google Webmasters Blog, the acceptable loading time for an e-commerce site is two seconds. Therefore, if your site takes several seconds to load, you may be losing customers.
In the quest to create the most stylish site, sometimes we sacrifice on performance. But this is a wrong approach and affects your business in different ways. Did you know that Google factors in site speed into search engine ranking? Yes, the American multinational added site speed into its metrics for search engine ranking in 2010. So, those few seconds that it takes your site to load could actually be the reason why your business is slacking.
Due to the millions of sites in the virtual world, people can be finicky. It doesn’t take much to push users away from your website today. Slow loading time is one of the reasons why people shun a site. There have been many studies to show the adverse effects that a slow site can have on traffic and user experience. Apart from slipping below on search engine rankings, let us look at some effects of a slow-loading website on businesses.
The Effects of a Slow Site on Your Business
Poor User Experience
User experience is everything in the world of business. It can make or break your company. It is easy to assume that user experience only relates to the product or service you provide. Today, user experience also extends to your website and even response time on social media platforms. First impressions matter, and even more in the world of online business. Your website is usually the first point of call for people who are considering whether to patronize a company’s product or service. If you fail at providing an excellent user experience on your website, that same negative image will be extended to the products and services that your company offers.
A fast, highly responsive and easy-to-use site is an essential aspect of user experience. It adds to the overall positive image of your company. In the same way, a slow site puts users off and may prevent them from even engaging with your company to try your products and services. In fact, statistics show that one out of every four people will cancel a page if a site takes longer than four seconds to load. A fast-loading site presents an image of a professional company.
Low Conversion Rate
As indicated above, a slow-loading website can affect your conversion rate – this is especially true for e-commerce stores. No one wants to deal with a site that takes forever to load. Nearly 50 percent of Americans will give up trying to access an online store if it takes longer than three seconds to load. According to Amazon, a one second lag in the loading of its store costs the company up to $1.6 billion in sales annually. One second seems like nothing, but the effect compounds over time. Walmart was able to increase its conversion rate by two percent by increasing its loading time by just one percent.
In Akamai Technologies’ State of Online Retail Performance report in 2017, it was revealed that a 100-millisecond delay in the loading time of an e-commerce store could reduce conversion rate by up to seven percent. It is clear that a fast website is critical for success.
Negative Image
One of the most damaging aspects of having a slow-loading website is the long-term effect that it has on your company’s image. As indicated above, users are unlikely to take the time to engage with your site if it is taking a long time to load. What’s worse, this image lingers. Therefore, even if you realize the importance of rectifying the slow-loading time of your site and fix it, you would have an uphill task attracting visitors.
According to data from Akamai and Dynatrace, up to 79 percent of shoppers are unlikely to return to a site if they encounter issues like slow loading time. As many as 44 percent of shoppers will tell their friends and acquaintances about a website the bad experience they have with a site – even more disturbing they may do it on social media and reach millions of people. Also, up to 57 percent of people will not recommend a business with a website that loads slowly. But that’s not all. Your website is likely to rank low on search engine results and bloggers are unlikely to link to your content. Ultimately, this contributes to building a negative image of your business, nullifies your best marketing efforts, and keeping potential customers away.
Why is Your Website Loading Slowly?
There are many reasons why your website may be loading slowly. It may have to do with your server, the size and format of files on your site, the high volume of traffic you’re receiving, an old content management system or even too many file requests. Thankfully, there are ways to fix all of these issues. If you are not conversant with these things, consult a professional webmaster for assistance.
Conclusion
The advancements in mobile technology today means that smartphones are becoming faster. Therefore, you need a faster website to match that. The fact that your site was fast five years ago does not mean it is still fast today. You must make it a continuous effort to ensure the loading time of your website is on par with that of the top sites of the era. There are many tools to check the speed of your site including Google’s PageSpeed Insights, YSlow or WebPagetest.
UI Design – Tools for Designing A Mobile App
We live in an app-driven world. Consider how many mobile apps you use daily. According to eMarketer, the average US adult spent about 3 hours and 25 minutes on apps daily in 2018, and that time is expected to increase by 11 minutes this year. Apps account for up to 90% of the time spent on mobile devices. But what does this mean? Well, apps have essentially become the place we hang out virtually on our smartphones and tablets.
As a developer, if you want users to spend time on your app, you need to focus on creating a captivating user interface (UI). Thankfully, there are many app design tools out there that make the process easier. In this article, we’ll look at some of the best app UI design software out there.
Tools for Android UI Design
Adobe Experience Design (XD): Adobe XD was built for Android and Microsoft Windows 10. The app allows you to bring your app idea to life by creating a wireframe and a prototype. It is incredibly easy to use.
You can do a lot of things with Adobe XD. The tool shows you how your app will look on different screen sizes and allows you to adjust your design to suit these platforms. You can use Adobe XD to animate your design, create voice commands as well as add plugins and integrate other apps. Adobe XD is the perfect tool to breathe life into your app idea – from creating a basic layout to designing a full prototype.
Android Studio: This is one of the UI designing tools provided on the official Android platform. As you can imagine, Android Studio is used to create Android apps. However, you can run it on Windows, Mac or Linux.
You can use Android Studio to create a layout of your app and preview how it will look on different screen sizes. It comes with many other features including an APK analyzer, a code editor, an emulator (which can be integrated with Google’s ARCore platform) and much more. Android Studio provides all the tools that you need to make programming your mobile app UI. However, you need some programming knowledge to be able to use this tool.
Mockplus: This is another excellent app for designing your mobile app UI. It is designed to allow you to create an app mockup with ease. You can use this tool to develop both Android and iOS apps.
Mockplus is easy to use. It has a drag-and-drop design. There are thousands of icons and up to 200 components to choose from. It also supports fast testing. You just need to scan a QR code to test this app on your native device. Although this tool has a short learning curve, it comes with a lot of advanced features that give you control over the UI of your app.
Tools for iOS UI Design
Sketch: This popular tool allows you to design the UI of your iOS app and create a prototype. Sketch is a lightweight tool with simple functionality. You can export the codes and preset design of your app to another platform. While it does not support photo editing, it provides just about everything else that you need to get your app idea off the ground. You can add animations, choose from hundreds of plugins and bring your prototype to life with Sketch. This tool does not only allow you to create a basic prototype but an interactive one with proper content. You can even export your prototype to clients straight from the Sketch platform.
Proto.io: This is an iOS UI design tool, and it also works on Android. Proto.io was designed to allow you to create a high-fidelity prototype of your app. You do not need any coding experience to use it.
Proto.io is the right tool to take your app idea from the early stages to a clickable prototype. It can be used to develop apps for different platforms; from smartwatches and phones to desktops. It has a drag-and-drop design and a vast UI library to get you started. This tool supports animation. You can sync your work to Dropbox or Google Drive and even send it to your device for realistic testing. You can also share the app with colleagues and clients. Proto.io is one of the best tools for working out the UI ideas for your app and testing it.
Conclusion
There are many equally good UI designing tools out there. However, these are some of the most popular. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you start working on the UI design of your mobile app.
1. Take the time to develop the idea of your mobile app before you start building it.
2. The UI of your app must have a consistent structure and user-friendly design.
3. Take the time to test your app UI thoroughly before you release it.
Mobile App Advertising Rates (2018-2019)
Quick Links:
- Global Mobile Advertising Spending Forecast
- Global internet ad spending desktop vs mobile
- Country by country Global Mobile Advertising Spendings
- Advertising Spending by Format
- Various media of media ad spending & its portion
- Average CPC Rates
- CPC in Facebook
- Android and iOS eCPM Rates
- Facebook CPM Rates
e-Marketers say that approximately $101 billion was spent on mobile ads globally last year alone. This sum is more than 5 times bigger than the corresponding one from 2012. Digital advertising began its conversion from desktop to mobile in 2008 and ever since mobile APP advertising rates have been increasing day by day. Mobile ad spending got a remarkable lift in the 2012-2013 periods with the introduction of bigger screen smartphone models as well as when the tablet computer market began to mature.
Average CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand) is one of the core metrics for digital advertising, specifically in mobile app advertising. In a nutshell, it tells the advertiser how much a thousand ad impressions in a specific mobile app costs and in this way publishers can get an idea about how much revenue can be generated from every 1,000 impressions served. Among all digital ad metrics CPM, CPC, and CPA are the most important and reliable metrics for digital advertisers. CPA (Cost-Per-Action) is the most valuable to mobile advertisers because it measures the cost of a specific action that people take within a digital product.
Let’s have a look on Key Mobile Advertising Rates data points:
- 2017 global mobile advertising spending – $107 billion
- 2017 US mobile ad spendings – $83 billion
- 2017 China mobile media spendings – $31 billion
- 2016 mobile ad percentage of the total ad spendings – 16%
- In 2017 Google generated 32% of the total US mobile ad revenue
- In 2017 Facebook generated 25% of the total US mobile ad revenue
- Average CPC in 2016 – $.0.27
- The highest CPC by location is in Denmark – $0.51
- The lowest CPC by location is in Bulgaria – $0.03
- Average iOS eCPM – $5
- Average Android eCPM – $2
- Applovin eCPM for iOS – $10
- Applovin eCPM for Android – $2
- AdColony eCPM for iOS – $5
- AdColony eCPM for Android – $2
- Highest Facebook ads regional eCPM – $1.8 (Sweden)
- Facebook mobile ads CPM in Q2, 2017 – $5.7
- Average Banner ad format CPM – $1
- Average Interstitial ad format CPM – $3.5
- Average Video ad format CPM – $3
- Average Native ad format CPM – $10
Knowing these app ads revenue data points, we will analyze a few data points collected for the last several years.
Global Mobile Advertising Spending Forecast, 2013-2019:
Mobile advertising spending has grown from $19 billion in 2013 to $133 billion in 2017. The fastest growth took place in 2013 and 2014, when year-over-year mobile ad spending grew up more than 100%. This year it’s forecasted that collectively, companies will spend $166 billion or roughly 25% up from the previous year.
Global internet ad spending desktop vs mobile:
When we look over desktop and mobile ad spending volume over time together, it becomes crystal clear that starting around 2015 desktop spending is in decline and mobile advertising spending flourished day by day. Companies were spending progressively more from $40 to about $100 billion from 2006 to 2015.
Country by country Global Mobile Advertising Spendings:
How much money is spent on mobile advertising by a country in a particular year reflects the size of that country’s economy.
Have a look at Global Mobile Advertising Spending Forecast, 2013-2018, by country.
Advertising Spending by Format:
The Zenith Optimedia agency report from Q3, 2016 compares advertising spending from multiple ad formats and here the result.TV ads presented 36% of the total ad spendings pie in 2016, this percentage is projected to shrink to just 33% in 2019, meanwhile, mobile advertising will almost double, from 15% to 27%.
Let’s have a look at Global Advertising Spending by Format, 2016 vs. 2019:
Various media of media ad spending & its portion:
According to data from March of 2016, the total spending in 2016 passed $192 billion and is projected to reach $234 billion by 2020. The overarching trend is that during the five year period, from 2015-2020, mobile ad spending is to more than double, from $32 billion in 2015 to $77 billion by 2020.
US Total Media Ad Spending, by media 2015-2020, $ billions:
Average CPC Rates:
CPC is equally important as like CPM in digital ad marketing. CPC stands for cost-per-click. Just like CPM, CPC also varies for different advertising platforms.
Let’s take a look at a chart of Mobile app install ads CPC trends, 2015-2016
Here is another chart of Cost per click by device in dollars, 2015-2016:
CPC in Facebook:
Facebook is the biggest advertising platform on the planet and it provides a broad spectrum of advertising tools to reach the targeted audience through its app on desktop and mobile, as well as on Instagram and via its Audience Network which serves thousands of app developers with target ads that match their app users interests.
Let’s have a look at Facebook cost-per-click in dollars.
Here is another chart which shows countywide CPC of Facebook
Android and iOS eCPM Rates:
So we know about CPM but what about eCPM? The difference between CPM and eCPM is that CPM (cost-per-mile or a cost of 1,000 impressions) defines how much ad impressions are valued before an ad campaign takes place. On the other hand, eCPM is calculated by advertisers after an ad campaign is finished and regardless of what buying model was used – CPM, CPC, CPA. Because of some over or under delivery by the ad network or the publisher, an eCPM price may vary from a CPM rate.
Now, to get an idea about average CPM, we will review the market research of top five mobile advertising networks (Chartboost, AppLovin, AdMob, InMobi & Admob).
For better understanding, let’s have a look at top mobile ad networks Android and iOS eCPM Rates, 2015-2017
Facebook CPM Rates:
In the realm of the mobile advertising market, Facebook is the biggest shareholder. Facebook ad rates are tied to the condition of the local economy as well as the size of a local digital market. Among a number of European, Latin, Asian and North America countries the highest CPM rates are in Sweden – $1.8, Denmark – $1.7 and Taiwan – $1.5.
Let’s have a look of few charts and table for better understanding.
Facebook Ad CPM Rates, by country in 2015:
US Facebook Ads CPM Rates, by industry in 2016:
Facebook CPM by ad format in Q2 2017:
Final Opinion:
The Mobile Advertising Market is flourishing day by day and it has become a major source of digital publisher’s revenue nowadays. Because of Mobile Advertising, the advertisers can reach their targeted audience more effectively. Mobile ad eCPM rates vary by industry, mobile OS, geo location and specific mobile ad network. Facebook and Google control the major part of the mobile advertising market together and this scenario aren’t likely to change anytime soon.
Best Practices for Mobile App User Engagement and Retention
Quick Links:
The mobile app industry is highly competitive. There are billions of mobile app users across the world, and thousands of mobile apps are released yearly. Although the potential for growth is high, mobile app creators need to do a lot more to succeed.
User engagement and user retention are crucial to success in the market today. A mobile app with low user engagement and retention is bound to fail. Active users are at the core of profitability with mobile apps. If you have a mobile app, there are some strategies that you can employ to boost your user engagement and retention.
Smooth Onboarding
First off, you must make your app unique and attractive enough to make users check it out. In other words, it must play a useful role in their everyday lives. If you can achieve that, the next step is to ensure that users do not struggle to get a grip on how your app functions. The goal of your app design must be to make users operate it intuitively.
Failure to achieve this can result in user discontent and app abandonment. Usability must be at the core of your user engagement and retention scheme. A lot of thought and analysis must go into the design of your app. If the onboarding process is complicated, users are likely to uninstall your app or stop using it.
One way to make the onboarding process of your app simple is to avoid asking for too much information before giving users access. The goal should be to remove all the unnecessary roadblocks and allow users to get a taste of what your app offers. Some of the biggest apps today like Facebook use this strategy. Research shows that users tend to recommend apps they find useful to their family and friends.
Key Takeaway: The onboarding process of an app should be fun and straightforward.
Communication is Key
Communication is essential in strengthening the user engagement and retention of your app. Not just communicating with your users, but listening to their opinions. As a developer, you must take the views of users into account. Knowing what your users think about your app puts you in a better position to make the right improvements.`
Besides feedback, user data analysis is another way to gather valuable information about which features of your app are engaging to users. It will show also reveal the aspects of your app users do not like. Data analysis can go a long way to help you improve user engagement and retention on your mobile app.
There are many ways developers can get feedback from users. You can create a section on your app where users can drop their suggestions. Another way to find out what users think about your app is to read reviews. There are many platforms online where users write about their experiences with apps. For example, you will find lots of user reviews on App stores. The comment section of tech blogs can also provide some information about the experiences of users. Social media is another gold mine for unfiltered comments about your app. Surveys are another viable option to gather feedback. Polls are more specific and deliberate; you can ask what users think about particular aspects of your app. You can contract professionals like Buildinary to analyze your app and provide an expert opinion on how you can improve it.
Key Takeaway: Listen to your users.
Show Users you Care
To engender loyalty among your users, it is essential to build a sense of community. You must let users know that their suggestions are valued. As much as possible, respond to user’s comments. Responding to feedback from users is one thing, but you must also attempt to implement their recommendations where possible. Users feel more valued when they see that companies take their opinions seriously.
Key Takeaway: Work to build a relationship with your users.
Make It Personal
Anyone abreast with the tech market knows that personalization is one of the secrets to keeping users. It can go a long way to enhance user experience, particularly with mobile applications. The more personalization options that a mobile app offers, the more it is likely to engage users. You can harness data to personalize content for your users. Users are likely to find relevant content more appealing and would spend more time on your app. Some simple personalization options like making the name of each user appear on the screen or allowing users to choose a different interface can go a long way to make people fall in love with your app.
Key Takeaway: Give users options to personalize their experience on your app.
There are many other equally good ways to improve the user engagement and retention rate of your app such as offering discounts and adding social media features to your app.
The Importance of UX/UI in the Development of Mobile Apps
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User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) are central to the success of mobile apps. Without a proper interface, users may not be able to utilize the features of your app fully. Ultimately, a poor UX can result in low user retention and engagement. It is safe to say that all apps that have a high conversion rate invest a great deal of time and energy into improving their UI and UX. There is no way people will patronize an app if it wasn’t designed to be easily usable and provide an enjoyable experience.
Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of UX. In an interview with Fortune last year, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia explained the importance of considering customers when creating products. He described this as “design thinking.”
“Design thinking is another way of saying empathize with the customer,” Gebba said. “It’s consideration for the person you’re designing for…What it means is you’re going to spend the time and effort to understand the needs of the person you’re designing for such that you can create something that’s valuable to them.”
Why focus on UX
While user interface describes the outer/surface design of an app that users interact with to control it, user experience refers to every aspect of a users experience with an app. 
Therefore, creating a UI that users can operate intuitively is one of the elements of UX.
User experience is one of the underlying factors that separates successful apps from all the others. According to a study by Forrester, companies earn $100 for every $1 spent on improving their UX. And that’s not all. Research shows that users don’t mind paying more to get a better experience. A study by Walker concluded that by 2020, user experience would be the main factor that differentiates brands – not price. This means if you want to create an app that will be successful, UX must be at the heart of your design.
Apps and conversion
It is clear that apps are an excellent avenue to drive conversion. According to a report from Criteo, apps have a 120% better conversion rate than desktops and mobile sites.
One of the main benefits of providing great UX is conversion. It can be tricky to measure the conversion rates of mobile apps because each app is unique and may require different conversion actions. For example, on social media apps like Whatsapp, the conversion goal is to get users to interact with their friends through the app. However, for an e-commerce app like Amazon, conversion means viewing and buying items.
If the UX of an app appeals to users, the high level of engagement will translate to a high conversion rate. It is important to note that attuning the UX of your mobile apps to appeal to users is not a one-time thing. It must be a continuous effort. Essentially, putting users first should be part of the culture of your organization. Most app developers spend up to 20% of their budget on UX improvement.
In recent months, one of the main focus of UX improvement has been to add diverse emoji to social media platforms and other apps. Some of the biggest social media platforms on the market including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have updated their apps to support different emoji. Recently, Tinder has been calling for more emoji options particularly emoji for interracial couples.
This goes to show that it is not only the major features that count, but minor things like personalized greetings and emoji options can go a long way to improve UX. Every marketer knows the importance of giving users more options and keeping up with the trends.
Here are some ways to boost your app’s conversion rate by improving UX:
- Provide personalization options.
- Use push notifications and in-app messages to drive user engagement.
- Make your app easy to use.
- Harness user data analytics to discover which aspects of your app users are drawn to and give them more of that.
- Find different ways to enable users to complete your conversion goal. For example, Whatsapp started out as a text-based chat messaging platform. However, the developers of the app found more ways to drive interaction among users by adding voice and video calling functionality as well as status messages.
What Kind of Logo Should I Choose?
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- Wordmark Logo
- Monogram Logo
- Emblem Logo
- Abstract Logo
- Pictorial Mark Logo
- Mascot Logo
- Combination Mark Logo
A logo is a symbol used to distinguish a brand and give customers an idea of an organization’s personality. It is the number one representation of a business entity that the public interacts with. We see logos everywhere – from the middle of the steering wheel of your car to the back of your phone and laptop. Logos have never been as significant as they are today. A good logo can be the difference between recognition and oblivion or worse falling prey to social media jests.
Now, to the age-old question; how can I pick a good logo? Well, the answer to that is manifold. You need to start by deciding what kind of logo to select. There are seven main types of logo styles. Each one has its advantages and may be suited for particular situations.
Well Known Logos
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Wordmark Logo
Wordmarks logos are made with the name of a company. This type of logo is also known as “logotype.” Companies that have wordmark logos include Google, Dell, Microsoft, Twitter, and Canon. The focus is the company’s name. Therefore, the goal is to select a stylish font and use the right color to make it visually appealing. Wordmarks are one of the simplest types of logos. This type of logo can help to popularize a company’s name.
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Monogram Logo
Monogram logos (sometimes called lettergram) are very similar to wordmark logos. The only difference is that instead of the name of the company, monograms are made with the initials of a company’s name. Companies that have this type of logo include NASA, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Gucci, and KFC. Just like wordmarks, typography is the most important thing when choosing a monogram logo. Monogram logos are ideal for companies with long names.
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Emblem Logo
Emblem logos are one of the earliest types of logos. An emblem logo is made up of an organization’s name in a symbol. Emblem logos look very much like crests and badges. Some companies that have emblem logos are Starbucks, BMW, NFL, UPS, and Porsche. Emblem logos have an elegant appearance which makes them easily stand out.
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Abstract Logo
As you can probably deduce from its name, abstract logos are logos made with abstract images. This type of logo is quite popular. Some companies that have abstract logos are Mastercard, BP, Logitech, Pepsi, and Nike. Abstract logos can help to convey a particular feeling about a company. The specific imagery and the colors used for an abstract logo need to be chosen selectively.
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Pictorial Mark Logo
This type of logo is similar to abstract logos, but it is made with easily recognizable images. The goal with pictorial marks is to take an everyday image and convert it into a unique symbol that represents a brand. The main advantage of using a pictorial mark is that the public can easily relate to the logo. Some examples of companies that have pictorial mark logos are Twitter, Android, Playboy, Timberland, and the World Wildlife Fund. Pictorial mark logos can be a good way to let the public know what an organization stands for without using words.
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Mascot Logo
A lot of people tend to confuse a mascot for a logo, so why not just combine them? A mascot is a figure or thing that is used to represent an organization. Some people even believe that mascots bring good luck. Some examples of companies that have mascot logos include Michelin, Pringles, Wendy’s, Mail Chimp, and Kool-Aid. This type of logo seems to work well for companies that produce consumer goods.
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Combination Mark Logo
Combination marks are logos that are made with different logo styles. For example, a logo can be created by combining a pictorial and lettergram logo. The possibilities are endless with combination mark logos. Some companies that have this type of logo are Lacoste, Burger King, Target, Dunkin Donuts, and Doritos. Using a combination mark logo can be an excellent way to blend the best features of different kinds of logos into one. But be careful not to overdo it.
There is no hard rule for selecting a logo. Ultimately, it must represent the kind of image an organization wants to project, and it should appeal to its target market.
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