Metaps: We can measure the effectiveness of app promotion on TV

Japanese companies Metaps and Hakuhodo Inc. announced a collaboration in which Metaps was able to assess the impact of television advertising on mobile app downloads.

The purpose of the deal for both parties was to improve the existing methodology for calculating the performance of television advertising campaigns by calculating the correlation between ad impressions and downloads, as well as other activities within the applications (new users, refunds, conversions, and so on).

In connection with this announcement, we contacted Metaps and asked a few questions regarding their cooperation with Hakuhodo Inc. Metaps Marketing Director Dan Castellano answered our questions.

Did we understand correctly that Metaps can now measure the effectiveness of TV advertising in promoting mobile games?

Yes, that’s right. By integrating the data obtained from Hakuhodo Inc. into our analytics system, we can now measure the effectiveness of promoting applications on TV in parallel with other launched advertising campaigns.

In this regard, the question is: how significant is the impact of TV advertising on mobile downloads in the USA and Japan?

We found that using TV ads to promote mobile apps is a widespread practice in Japan. One has only to look at the box office Top 20 of the App Store or Google Play, so it immediately turns out that at least 9 out of 10 apps that hit the chart were advertised on TV.

This is an extremely effective way to increase the reach of the audience within the campaign and, despite the high cost, television advertising has proved its worth to game developers in the Japanese market.

Let’s imagine that I, for example, want to get 1 million downloads in Japan. How much will it cost me if I use only TV, and how much if I want to do only mobile advertising?

This is difficult to calculate, since the answer will depend on the goals of the campaign and the type of application we are discussing. GRP (Gross Rating Point – marketing indicator reflecting the scale of advertising impact) from the purchase of TV advertising includes not only the advertising itself, but also the program in which it is shown. There is also a dependence on whether large markets outside Tokyo, for example, Osako, Nagoya and Fukuoka, are affected by advertising. Be that as it may, no matter what kind of advertising there is in Japan, we do not see anything similar to the Super Bowl in the USA, in which advertisers spend a significant part of their advertising budget on one event.

Thanks for the interview!