• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 28, 2013

Power users accounted for 78% of the total time spent in apps in the first quarter, accounting for nearly five times more sessions per month than average users.

"Power users” are defined as the third of people responsible for the most in-app actions on its rewards-based network in the quarter, according to new data from mobile ad platform SessionM.

Through its in-app ad platform, SessionM promises to boost engagement rates by investing apps with game-like features that reward users with mPoints toward retail gift cards in return for completing actions like watching promotional videos or sharing content on Facebook. The company says power users complete 10 times more in-app actions per month than average, regardless of whether they collected mPoints.

Power users who were part of an in-app loyalty and rewards program completed 57% more actions per sessions that those who weren’t earning rewards through an app. Among the most avid users, 12% were using an app at any given hour compared to 8% of typical users. While SessionM periodically reports on the interaction rates of power users, the latest study looked more closely at usage by time of day.

Within the health and fitness category, for example, both average and power users tend to use these apps in the early evening. But the latter are starting to use them more in the late morning as well. 

Across all apps, usage for both types of users rose steadily throughout the day, peaking between late afternoon and 8 p.m. before falling off steeply after then. Using hourly visitation data, SessionM also suggested that developers could encourage higher usage during “off-peak” hours through rewards or promotions.

The first-quarter data showed that incentives drove up interaction among power users across the board, but especially within certain categories. Lifestyle apps with some kind of loyalty program, for instance, drove 31.3 actions per session versus 15.3 in apps without any offers. Similarly, utility apps with rewards among power users saw an average of 14.2 actions per session compared to 3.8 in those without them.