U.S. App Audience Now on Par with Laptops and Desktops
Flurry released a report yetserday that revealed “the numbers are close than you think”. In the report, Flurry went into what it takes to reach comparably sized audiences across different media like television, print, online and mobile apps. They also drilled down on the size and engagement of the mobile app audience that varies across days of the week and hours of the day, as well as how it presents unique opportunities.
To start..
Let’s look at the times that people use their devices the most. The chart below illustrates that for 1) weekday and weekend smartphone activity is relatively close. 2) Peak usage times (for both) are between 6pm and 10:30pm at around 52million consumers.
This is good to know if you’re a mobile marketer because it allows you to determine and decide whether or not you want the people you’re reaching out to to open it on their devices, or on their desktops/laptops. Not that these figures account for EVERY single person, it doesn’t count for a lot.
Weekends however do have a bit more of a spike in the morning beginning at 7am, all the way until 2pm where the curve flattens out a little, and then goes back up at 6pm.
Breaking down the image above, there are some important insights to pay attention to.
- Apps has achieved critical mass.
- And, although this is true – there is still fragmentation to deal with in comparison to more traditional advertising. It is however, far more affordable to reach an audience on mobile versus Print or TV.
When looking at the app audience vs laptop/desktop audience, Flurry measured 224 million monthly active users of mobile apps in the United States in February of this year alone. During this same period, comScore recorded 221 million desktop and laptop users of the top 50 digital properties in the United States. Based on this data, Flurry ha concluded that the U.S. audience that is reachable through apps, while more fragmented, is now roughly on par to those who can be reached on laptops and desktops.
Finally.
While mobile ad networks increase their ability to deliver the right combination of reach and targeting, this will continue to make things easier for advertisers to invest in mobile to leverage everything it has to offer. One of the cool things about mobile is that you can deliver different ads to different users within the same app or the same ad to similar types of people across different apps, (user segmentation makes this possible).
Kevin is an Online and Mobile Marketing Strategist who has worked with companies of all sizes over the last 6 years. You can follow Kevin on any of the social platforms below.
