Giv­en that a report­ed 90 per­cent of a mobile user’s time is spent with­in apps, it’s no won­der mar­keters have dou­bled down on app adver­tis­ing invest­ments, with app spend­ing out­pac­ing that of mobile brows­er near­ly 3‑to‑1. These invest­ments are jus­ti­fied when data shows that almost 1 in 3 clicks on a social ad for a mobile app turn into an app install. Not only are bud­gets increas­ing, but new adver­tis­ers are also enter­ing the space as app adver­tis­ing has proven to be valu­able, bring­ing more com­pe­ti­tion to the mobile app are­na.

2016 is poised to be a ban­ner year for apps. As more brands make the invest­ment, it will be essen­tial for mar­keters to max­i­mize these efforts. Those who plan to lever­age app ads should keep the fol­low­ing five lessons in mind.

1. Invest In Installs But Optimize Toward Lifetime Value

In the world of apps, get­ting an ini­tial down­load from a user is only half the bat­tle. In fact, the jour­ney with your cus­tomer is only just begin­ning after the install as many apps go unused after the ini­tial down­load. Con­tin­ue to cast a wide net to attract new users into your brand’s app, but don’t ignore the post-con­ver­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­tin­ue to grow the rela­tion­ship and build loy­al­ty. Take advan­tage of the abil­i­ty to dri­ve re-engage­ment by deep link­ing to spe­cif­ic areas or actions with­in your app. Don’t sole­ly fix­ate on cost per install met­rics; invest in mobile app mea­sure­ment tech­nol­o­gy to bet­ter account for the actions you want users to take with­in your app and opti­mize to dri­ve those results. For exam­ple, Amwell, the con­sumer brand of Amer­i­can Well, sought to dri­ve mobile app enroll­ments and online doc­tor vis­its through search mar­ket­ing while enabling onsite and in-app event track­ing. By opti­miz­ing toward both cost-per-enroll­ment and cost-per-vis­it goals, the team was able to bet­ter under­stand the life­time val­ue of enrollees and vis­i­tors.

2. Create Immersive Experiences

With com­pe­ti­tion on the mobile can­vas grow­ing, it’s increas­ing­ly impor­tant to focus on strong cre­ative and engag­ing con­tent. Video is an excel­lent option to demon­strate what your app expe­ri­ence is actu­al­ly like for the user. This is the for­mat music app devel­op­er Smule opt­ed for to dri­ve installs of its Sing! Karaoke app in cost-effec­tive yet high­ly engag­ing way. A few tips: for auto-play ads, ensure your mes­sage is clear and eas­i­ly under­stood, even with­out sound; oth­er­wise, be sure your still image is cap­ti­vat­ing and that the first few sec­onds of the video hook view­ers.

3. Understand The Nuances Between Devices, Publishers

When plan­ning your app strate­gies, remem­ber that there are lots of evolv­ing fac­tors to con­sid­er in your approach for your tar­get­ing and bid­ding. Between device plat­forms, iOS has demand­ed a pre­mi­um over Android, but over the past quar­ters, we’ve seen that gap nar­row. Ken­shoo analy­sis also showed that Android users are more like­ly to click on a mobile app ad, but once they click, iOS users are more like­ly to install an app. There’s also ver­ti­cal and coun­try to keep in mind. Gen­er­al­ly, cost per install for con­sumer apps comes in sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than that of gam­ing. Depend­ing on the coun­tries you’re tar­get­ing, be pre­pared to spend with­in the U.S., where there’s more com­pe­ti­tion for clicks. Also, stay attuned to indus­try changes. Major pub­lish­ers are con­stant­ly recon­fig­ur­ing pric­ing mod­els and ad for­mats to bet­ter serve adver­tis­ers’ needs. Face­book, recent­ly adjust­ed their pric­ing mod­el to bet­ter define click val­ue, for exam­ple; this is like­ly to have an impact for adver­tis­ers in terms what they pay and when.

4. Diversify Your Marketing Tactics

Face­book has been a promi­nent pub­lish­er to help dri­ve app activ­i­ty for mar­keters, but new avenues of app pro­mo­tion have emerged over the past year. Test and learn new for­mats and chan­nels to main­tain your com­pet­i­tive edge and under­stand the mar­ket­ing mix that works for your brand. If you have an Android app, for exam­ple, try mon­e­tiz­ing via Search Ads for Google Play, where you can aid the dis­cov­ery of your app amidst the sea of the 1.6 mil­lion that are avail­able. There are also oppor­tu­ni­ties across Insta­gram, Yahoo Gem­i­ni, and mobile net­works to con­sid­er.

5. Provide Utility, Value

Last, but cer­tain­ly not least, under­stand that all the adver­tis­ing in the world won’t make users stick around if they don’t find some form of val­ue in your app. The key to suc­cess is to make your app a part of a consumer’s reg­u­lar mobile rou­tine and prove your worth to keep con­sumers com­ing back.