Financial management application Lemon recently used mobile ads and promotions that led to more than a 50 percent decrease in the cost of acquiring a loyal user.

Through mobile advertising, Lemon was able to get its app promoted in Apple?s App Store and Google?s Android market. Lemon is working with mobile marketing solution Fiksu on this initiative.

?There is lots of clutter of apps in the marketplace, and it is hard for users to find the right apps,? said Matthew Murphy, chief marketing officer at Lemon, Palo Alto, CA.

?Our goal was to break through the clutter and find loyal, daily users,? he said.

Fresh squeezed
Lemon is a mobile app that lets users manage their finances by collecting their receipts in the cloud and gives consumers recommended budgets.

Lemon launched on Android devices in July and became available on iPhone devices in October. The app is also available for BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and Symbian devices.

After trying small, in-house marketing initiatives, Lemon realized that it needed to find a way to better leverage its marketing efforts to get users.

Specifically, Lemon was interested in finding loyal users who would use the app on a daily basis after finding it.

The financial app company worked with Fiksu on initiatives aimed at putting the Lemon brand at the center of mobile ads.

For example, Fiksu revamped a Lemon mobile in-app and mobile Web ad that let users directly tap on the ad and download the app with a clear call to action.

By using the different app promotion tactics, the Lemon app was able to be prominently featured by Apple and Google.

The Lemon app moved from the No. 83 to the No. 31 spot in Google?s Android market in one week after beginning the marketing overhaul.

Additionally, the Lemon iPhone app was featured in the Apple?s App Store ?New and Noteworthy? section and was listed as a top one hundred free apps.

?Fiksu's solution includes more than 35 mobile ad networks, so by casting a wide net across mobile apps and sites, we can get a wonderful sense of where to target and get visibility of an app,? said Craig Palli, vice president of business development at Fiksu, Boston.

Cramped apps
Mobile apps similar to Lemon that are meant to help consumers manage their money are a huge trend in mobile finance and each app has its own claim.

Competitors to Lemon include Mint.com, Pageonce and BillTracker.

By using marketing efforts to bolster promotion of its app, Lemon made it easier for consumers to find its app.

Mobile advertising similar to Lemon?s initiatives can be used by marketers to increase the number of app downloads.

However, click-to-downloads ads are only effective if they are targeting the correct group of consumers, which is a challenge for how big the mobile app marketplace is.

?So far Lemon has achieved great success, but there is still room to improve,? Mr. Palli said.

?The more data we collect, the more efficient the mobile ads can be and will help Lemon over the coming months,? he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York