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Facebook ramps up mobile advertising strategy to drive app downloads

With strong initial results reported for Facebook?s mobile app installs ad unit, the social network is making the ads available to all developers for the first time.

The mobile app installs ad unit was launched in beta in August, enabling mobile app developers to drive installs and increase app discovery with ads in mobile users? news feeds. While reports suggest click-through rates are healthy, the key for developers will be if the ads can deliver a meaningful return on investment.

?Make sure you keep a close eye on profitability - nobody cares that CTRS are higher than on Facebook ads, and nobody cares that CPCs are "reasonable" - we're talking about $0.99 apps here, co controlling CPA is key,? Marc Poirier, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Acquisio, Brossard, Canada.

?It's an auction model with daily budgets so the advertiser has complete control on how much they spend and are free to pull the plug at any time," he said.

Non-social mobile ads
The mobile app installs ad unit is the first non-social ad unit from Facebook that is not triggered by a user?s or a friend?s activity.

Facebook is hoping to leverage its strength as a mobile application discovery platform with the mobile app installs ad unit. When a person clicks on one of these ads, if they do not have the app installed they will be sent to the Apple's App Store or Google Play to get it.

The strategy points to the pressure that Facebook is under to monetize its mobile audience, which is quickly growing. The lack of a strong mobile monetization strategy is one of the reasons why Facebook?s stock has performed poorly since the company went public earlier this year.

In early tests of the new app installs ad unit, Facebook reports that beta partner TinyCo saw 50 percent higher CTRs and significantly higher conversion rates compared to its current mobile channels, as well as a significant increase in player engagement.

Tracking is key
Some of Facebook?s performance ad network partners are also seeing promising results for the clients.

Ad Parlor saw consistent CTRs of one percent to twp percent from engaged users looking for iPhone and Android games that their friends were playing.

Additionally, Nanigans' clients achieved eight to 10 times the reach with Facebook mobile app installs ads compared to other mobile ad buys.

Nanigans is seeing mobile app install ad campaigns with average CPCs ranging from $0.18 to $0.60.

In some instances, Nanigans has seen CTRs on mobile app install ads that exceed three percent.

The results are better for some categories than others. With gaming apps accounting for over half of all time spent in mobile apps, Nanigans is seeing mobile app install ads generate 20 percent higher CTRs and 22 percent higher CPCs for gaming apps than achieved with mobile Sponsored Stories.

While mobile app install ads driving to game apps average 85 percent higher CTRs than those driving to ecommerce apps, mobile app install ads driving to ecommerce apps average 15 percent higher CPCs than those driving to game apps.

Facebook mobile app install ads are also performing better than Facebook desktop ads. Nanigans found mobile app install ads can generate 13 to 17 times higher CTRs than desktop.

?The key is to be able to track downloads and to be able to assign, with certainty, the rightful source behind the download,? Mr. Poirier said. ?Tracking app downloads can be tricky, but tracking how many people clicked out of your site to go to the download page in the Play Store or the App Store is easy with Google Analytics.

?Targeting is quite limited, so developers with general interest apps will fare better than those who have apps appealing to niche verticals only,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York