By collecting behavioral data from top customers, marketers can more effectively test a number of marketing approaches to better engage dependable users. This data can help deliver the right messages to the right customers at the right time.

Whether a brand or retailer is already active in the mobile application space or is preparing to embark on such a journey, the world of apps is a competitive place. While not every brand can establish a successful presence on an app, Gallop believes that marketers can spend their budget in certain ways to ensure success in engaging its users.

Gallop believes a few of the main challenges that marketers face include the lack of tools to maintain a community of users and keep them engaged, and a failure to effectively use customer data that is collected to better target those users.

Furthermore, mobile search is fundamentally broken, according the report, and while search may be a crucial tool for marketers to use for customers searching in app stores, it cannot be the sole approach. While URLs and HTML-based capabilities are not offered via apps, users are often prevented from discovering other app experiences, which should lead marketers to use other channels, such as social media sites Facebook and Twitter, to recruit high quality users.

Marketers also face pressures of personalization, as users? expectations are greater than ever. Users want to be personally connected to a brand, which means marketing efforts must possess a custom design.

Gallop performed a case study with music messaging app Rithm, which attempted to establish a community of users who enjoyed sharing their favorite music. The study located specific behavioral aspects of a core group and began targeting them with numerous ads. The successful ads were set aside from the less successful ones to keep those users engaged.

The results from the study showed 34 percent reduction in cost per install in less than four weeks and an 18 percent growth in monthly active users. There was a 25 percent increase in customer lifetime for users acquired through Facebook, given those users are likely already established in the social space and are usually drawn to share other content.

Fifty-three percent of Rithm?s Facebook-acquired users return the next day versus users gained from other channels. TPeople who discover Rithm through Facebook are likely to become four times more active customers.

Gallop?s methodology has been used to save a mobile gaming app 33 percent and a content reading app 41 percent in cost per install (CPI). The content reading app saw 400 percent growth in installs in less than seven weeks. A social word gaming app saw a 14 times increase in ROI generated from Facebook mobile install ads, all according to the report.

The entire report can be found here.

Daily newspaper the New York Times has implemented targeted advertising through Gallop Labs using social channels to take mobile application users back for more via a collaboration with data collector Gallop Labs in an effort to further engage with users. 

Frequent users of the publisher's app can now see targeted ads on social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, as executives are looking to not only deliver the most personalized content to users but also the most targeted ads elsewhere. The strategy is one of the many ways that the New York Times is ramping up its mobile strategy this year (see story). 

Gallop?s data capabilities continue to grow, and brands and retailers active in the app space will need to be very personable with its users to continue engagement. 

?Gone are the days when a campaign is run and nothing is changed based on in-market performance,? Ms. Nasser said. ?Now there is data is available for marketers to use in intelligent ways using prescriptive intelligence to spend their budgets much more efficiently and attract the right types of users that will drive revenue for their company.?