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Twitter has advantage in driving lifestyle app downloads

Twittter?s recent moves such as the launch of app install ads, the acquisition of TapCommerce and the introduction of Vine?s Loop Count point to how the social network hopes to put to rest concerns about its relatively smaller reach compared to Facebook and possibly gain the advantage with certain types of apps.

Twitter is coming off a big week during which its plans became clearer for  how it hopes to become an end-to-end marketing platform. These moves come at an important time as evidence of Twitter?s relevance for real-time engagements continues to mount, with a recent World Cup game breaking the record for the number of tweets during a live event with 389,000 tweets sent immediately after the deciding play.

?Unlike Facebook, Twitter?s ads will suit slightly different audience,? said Slaven Radic, CEO of Tapstream. ?While gaming will still be big, lifestyle apps will have a better shot on Twitter.

?Twitter?s advantage over Facebook is their well-developed interest graph which will enable marketers to target by interest, keywords and followers,? he said. ?This will be a powerful tool for productivity, sports, health and other lifestyle apps.?

App downloads
The mobile social space continues to heat up as competition grows between an ever-wider array of platforms.

 

While Twitter does not have the same volume of users as Facebook, its strengths from a marketing standpoint include having a very active audience, the ability to engage with users in real-time and a wealth of information about users that can be used for targeting purposes.

To build on these strengths, last week Twitter rolled out mobile app installs and engagements globally following a beta test announced earlier this year. The program enables marketers to take advantage of Twitter?s targeting capabilities, including interest, keyword, TV targeting and tailored audiences to pinpoint the users best suited for their app.

The results from the beta suggest that Twitter can be an effective way for marketers to drive app downloads. 

For example, playdots reports that it was able to drive over 1 million app installs for its TwoDots spin-off mobile game in a short period of time.

Ride-sharing service Lyft reported it was able to quickly reach its goals via Twitter for 30 percent below the originally targeted cost.

Mobile retargeting
Twitter also acquired TapCommerce last week, which points to the social network?s plans for enabling marketers to retarget users who have already downloaded an app and may not have opened it in a while.

With Facebook also having an active retargeting program, this is a quickly growing area of mobile marketing.


?The Twitter acquisition of TapCommerce validates what we already know at ActionX: mobile app and cross-screen retargeting is the fastest growing segment in the space and represents an enormous opportunity,? said Evan Schwartz, CEO of ActionX.

The other big news from Twitter relates to its video platform Vine, which introduced a Loop Count, giving marketers another way to measure the effectiveness of their mobile social strategies. 

Vine enables users to create six-second videos that run in a continuous loop. It has been embraced by a number of brands, including Toyota, Wendy?s and Dunkin? Donuts.

 

?The new loop metric is a twist that only could apply to Vine - and a handful of other competitors - and it won?t replace the number of views as the primary metric for advertisers,? Tapstream?s Mr. Radic said. ?But it will be a significant KPI to watch for certain types of campaigns as in a sense it speaks to the video?s engagement level with the audience, something we couldn?t measure quite as directly before.?

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