• by Ben Frederick , Staff Writer @mp_benfred, July 13, 2016

As the western mobile market matures, users can become jaded and stubborn, only allowing a few select apps (one or three of which are most likely owned by Facebook) into their confidence, and using them heavily.

Time spent with new apps can sometimes be measured in minutes or hours, before they are remanded to the uninstall bin for eternity, never to harvest the rich datasets they were secretly designed to.

User acquisition is no longer the name of the game. As the HBO series “Silicon Valley” pointed out in its latest season, metrics like downloads are easily manipulated, and the real meat is located in the number of daily active users or the lifetime value of a user.

“Volume is dangerous,” says Vungle CEO Zain Jaffer. When approaching user acquisition, advertisers need to be able to identify those characteristics that align with a high lifetime value. And they need to capitalize on the creative.

Many in-app video ads can mislead the consumer about what the app does or how it actually works, which might attract them for a short time but will ultimately repel them. Jaffer says Vungle has developed modular ads that can mix and match various factors to deliver the best experience to the customer.

Brands need to be able to identify positive engagement and retention traits before an audience is purchased.

A lifetime can be as long or as short as an app or service needs it to be, as long as they understand their KPIs and why they’re spending what they do.