4appstoreIn the first quarter of 2013, nearly 13 billion apps have been downloaded, not to mention that Apple recently even announced the 50 billionth app downloaded.

These are impressive numbers and there are even some more: In Apple’s AppStore alone around 900,000 applications are available, the Google Play Store with 850,000 apps is the second largest among the more than 60 other providers, which just points out that the app market will continue to grow even more. Considering that Google Glass is coming this year as well, bringing a device on the market that seems to have enormous potential, it definitely will.

New possibilities for applications are opening up with the augmented reality glasses, but when is enough enough? Indeed, the AppStore has the world’s largest collection of mobile apps and is the leader in this field. However, Apple insists that it’s not just the number that’s impressive, but rather the kinds of apps users can find in the AppStore. Aside from that, iPhone apps offer a better experience because they take advantage of the technologies built into the device and Apple’s apps are in one place, so they’re easy to access, easy to search, and easy to download just by using the same Apple ID account used on iTunes. Thus, to no surprise, it has been a remarkably prolific five years for the AppStore which the company just started to celebrate recently.

But since countless new apps are added every day, competition gets tougher for any app developer. You can imagine that standing out of the crowd and being successful in business gets harder and harder, bringing strategy and creativity to the forefront.

Opportunities with social interactions

Social interactions through Facebook “Likes” in the AppStore offer, for instance, a good chance to be seen, because generally speaking, the more “Likes”, the more downloads and recurring users you get. If it has been pretty important in the past to have apps listed in the top 10, 25 and 50, as it always meant generating many organic downloads, but since the release of iOS6 this makes no difference anymore.

Nowadays, the importance of being among the Top 4 has increased enormously, as only these are displayed now in the visible area. Due to the numerical limit of just four visible apps, the search in the AppStore will gain in importance. In order to appear in the AppStore search as often as possible, it is recommended to adapt all meta-tags of the app according to SEO standards: Consider the AppStore tags which are the title, the icon, the keywords and the description.

App tracking opportunities

In addition, the discharge of the UDID as tracking identifier and improvements in tracking technology is giving hope and has a positive impact on app marketing. Due to better tracking capabilities, targeting has always been much better on the Internet than in the mobile space and has so far generated higher ROI for advertisers. Consequently, the demand for effective targeting and appropriate tracking is high in the mobile marketing world.

It actually seems as if cookie tracking is going to disappear, especially since Apple has already made announcements to no longer want to see it on the AppStore. For developers this means, however, that the existing tracking software has to be reviewed, adjusted or replaced if necessary.

In order to involve ROI more closely into marketing strategies, more user- and usage metrics must be analyzed. This could be achieved, for example, by exploring app usage, registrations, achievements of higher game levels, or in-app purchases. Then, different app download sources should be analyzed, and those with the highest ROI should be favored and expanded for future marketing activities to keep ROI high.

With the increasing number of new apps, it will be absolutely necessary for companies and developers to tackle app marketing in a creative and experimental way, because the most important factor for the success of the app is and simply will always be the quality of the app.

By Daniela La Marca