When marketing an application, you must ask yourself several questions about which acquisition channels to choose. What is the quality of users from each of those referral sources? Are they the right type of users? Do they truly engage with your app? Do they monetize effectively? Is their Life Time Value greater than their Cost of Acquisition?

One of the earliest and most telling signs indicating the quality of those users – and a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your various marketing channels – is the re-open rate. Many users try an app once and decide it’s simply not for them. If, however, a user re-opens the app within 30 days after it’s been downloaded, that’s a positive sign that they are engaged with your app and it’s likely to translate to revenue generation down the road.

We analyzed a subset of apps within our network on the Android platform – apps that only acquire users through Tapjoy or organically via Google Play – and discovered that the re-open rate among new users acquired through Tapjoy are in some cases equally or more engaged compared to users acquired organically.

Our analysis showed that the re-open rate among users acquired organically is around 45%. By comparison, the re-open rate of users acquired through the Tapjoy network is around 40%. And in the chart below, you will notice that some of the apps even show a greater re-open rate by Tapjoy acquired users as compared against organic users. This proves that Tapjoy drives highly engaged users who are genuinely interested in the apps they select.

It makes sense. After all, the similarities between the manner by which users discover an app in Google Play and through the Tapjoy network including the Tapjoy Marketplace are numerous. Just like there is a browsing, discovery and ultimately a self-selection process in Google Play, the Tapjoy Mobile Value Exchange model allows users to browse through hundreds of applications and select an app that best suits their own personal style and tastes.

Again, this all comes back to the self-selection component of the Mobile Value Exchange described in detail by Tapjoy’s CEO, Mihir Shah, in his article on the subject published by VentureBeat. Tapjoy does not force or even steer a user to download an app that we don’t believe they’d like. We’re staunch believers that apps should address consumer needs – whether they’re entertaining or informational – so our advanced targeting algorithms rank the apps that each individual user is likely to be interested in based on a number of factors including which apps they’ve downloaded in the past, what kind of apps they are currently playing, and more. We offer up hundreds of apps for users to choose from that are then sorted and organized in a way that places the most relevant apps higher up in the rankings, providing the optimal value for users.

The numbers below showcase that the Tapjoy method for presenting applications and helping users discover cool, new, personally relevant apps seems to be working—as well as, or even better than, organic discovery.

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