AdMob debuts download tracking for iPhone apps

The service lets advertisers monitor App Store conversion rates – clicks on an ad that lead to a completed download of the advertised application – enabling them to measure their return from advertising on AdMob’s network.

AdMob has an unparalleled reach of more than 8.4 million unique iPhones and iPod Touch devices worldwide, as of December 2008.

“Advertisers have been clamoring to get more detailed information from the iPhone App Store and want to use it to maximize the value of their mobile ad campaigns,” said Jason Spero, Vice President and General Manager of North America for AdMob. “AdMob’s new iPhone Download Tracking gives advertisers the information they need to accurately assess marketing effectiveness, including the return from advertising spend.”

Advertisers can use Download Tracking to view and track multiple applications and drill down to look at conversion rates by specific ad and for specific dates. AdMob’s advertisers are already using this new information to write better ads, calculate their return on ad spend, tune their App Info pages, and develop better pricing strategies.

A limited group of iPhone applications began testing AdMob’s Download Tracking in December, and the aggregate data already highlights some interesting trends:  

·         Free applications have an average conversion rate of 10 percent, significantly higher than the average 1 percent conversion rate for paid applications.

·         Games generally have higher conversion rates than other categories of applications, up to a 100 percent improvement over non-game applications at similar price points.

·         The App Store is an effective distribution platform for free applications. The average acquisition cost for free applications is under $1.00, significantly less than average application download costs on the PC Web.

“AdMob's conversion tracking has solved a major problem for TapJoy. Previously we were playing guess-and-check with our TapDefense ad purchases; some ads did better than others and it was hard to know which was which,” said Lee Linden, Co-Founder of TapJoy. “With conversion tracking we now know exactly which ads to show, when to show them, and how much we can afford to bid.”

“We’ve had great success with our Urbanspoon application on the iPhone, but it has been challenging to precisely track the success of our mobile marketing efforts,” said Ethan Lowry, Co-Founder of Urbanspoon. “AdMob’s new conversion tracking allows us to truly analyze our marketing spend and increase the return on our investment for every mobile ad campaign.”

AdMob served its first ad unit on an iPhone in September 2007 and launched its new global iPhone ad marketplace, with ads specifically designed for the device, in July 2008.

In December 2008 AdMob ran campaigns for companies including JC Penney, Marriott Courtyard, and Sony’s Seven Pounds. AdMob’s iPhone advertising network has more than 700 sites and applications, including Flixster, Shazam, and Jirbo.

http://developer.admob.com/wiki/AppStoreDownloads.