Scott Tomkins, Digital Turbine’s GM of US,recently sat down for an intimate chat (in front of an audience of 200 guests)at MAUVegas with Mike Brooks, SVP ofRevenue for the weather forecasting app, WeatherBug, to discuss theopportunities available to app developers from pre-loading.
Describing pre-loading as his “Secretsauce”, Brooks has an interesting insight into the channel, having previouslyworked with Digital Turbine as a network partner selling pre-loaded inventory atVerizon and now, representing WeatherBug actively buying that same inventory.With such a clear view of the opportunity from a vendor’s and a buyer’sperception, Tomkins was quick to highlight that they couldn’t hope for a bettertestimonial.
"I would challenge most people outthere that have sold some sort of inventory," says Tomkins. "If theyhad their own app how many of them would buy their old inventory to promotetheir app? It's a very unique perspective."
WhyWeatherBug Invests in Pre-Loaded Apps
Brooks explained there were multiplereasons why preloading works for WeatherBug but first and foremost was theopportunity to deliver a positive return-on-investment (ROI).
Typically WeatherBug can expect to see apositive ROI from any pre-loading campaign in around 5 months. While otherchannels might generate user engagement a little faster than this, they arealso more susceptible to fraud. Brooks knows exactly what he gets in return forhis investment in pre-loading and when this is likely to deliver an ROI.
FurtherReading: AreYou Losing 21 Percent of Your Ad Budget to Fraud?
Eyeballsand Engagement
In what is an incredibly competitivemarket, the WeatherBug app is primarily monetized by advertising. This meansthat eyeballs on the app is one of the most important metrics to Brooks.
Pre-loading the app on new devices means that it is ready and available to use from the moment a smartphone is unboxed and powered-up. This gives WeatherBug a competitive edge over other weather apps who might have to rely on users finding them in the Google Play Store or other marketing channels.
TargetingEveryday Consumers
This approach is a particularly powerfulroute to capture engagement from the vast majority of smartphone users whotypically don’t visit app stores and download new apps to their devices.
“For the general consumer, I look at mymother and father,” says Tomkins. “If you go and tell them to go search on theapp store, they don’t know what you are talking about. They use whatever newsapp or weather app is sitting on their device. I think what a lot of peopleforget is that is the majority of the consumers out there.”
FurtherReading: AppUsage through the Ages – Targeting Older, More Lucrative Users
LargeScale Opportunities
Being able to create opportunities at scaleis also incredibly important to Brooks.
"We are 30 people as an entirebusiness unit, 22 are engineers," says Brooks. "So it's eight peopleacross the business and that includes things like finance and accountmanagement. So when we think about user acquisition and we think about how weare going to grow, it has to be a few large partners, who we can determine whoare ROI positive and who we can invest on the long haul with.”
Having the ability to invest in a campaign,knowing that it will deliver a positive ROI, and then focus on other areas ofbusiness is vitally important to many app development companies where resourcesmight be equally stretched.
“One of the reasons why I like pre-loads isit allows us to focus,” says Brooks. “We know it’s a positive distributionchannel for us, we know its ROI positive, we know there’s a ton of scale and wealso know we have a ton of other work to do.”
PourSome Secret Sauce on Your Next App Marketing Campaign
To learn more about how pre-loading canhelp you drive engagement at scale, protect your marketing budget from fraudand successfully deliver a positive return-on-investment, speak with one of ourpre-loading experts today.
