Mobile marketing costs spiked in Nov.; app downloads dropped

USA: Fiksu Inc., developer of the award-winning Fiksu Mobile App Marketing Platform that combines advanced media optimization technology with the world's largest app media inventory, revealed that the start of the holiday season drove mobile app marketing costs up by 30 percent in November as the volume of mobile app downloads dipped.

For November, the Fiksu Cost per Loyal User Index shot up by 30 percent, or 32 cents, to $1.38, compared to October's $1.06. This marks a sharp change in the Index's trajectory, which steadily declined during the preceding four months, hitting a low for the year during October when the iPhone 5 launch prompted heightened organic searches and more cost-efficient marketing spends.

November's spike brought marketing costs remarkably close to last year's level in November 2011 – a month that also mirrored the impact of the iPhone 4S launch followed by the holiday rush.

The Fiksu App Store Competitive Index (which measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free U.S. iPhone apps) decreased to 4.57 million daily downloads in November, down 15.4 percent from October's 5.4 million, which had been a seven-month high, driven by enthusiastic new iPhone 5 owners.

"We can chalk November's dramatic surge in mobile app marketing costs to increasing – and anticipated – holiday season spending, combined with a drop in organic downloads in the aftermath of the iPhone 5 launch," explained Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO. "We can expect costs and download volumes to climb through December, much like last year, as marketers spend heavily in preparation for the flood of new devices and rush of user activity and app discovery around Christmas."