OREANDA-NEWS. January's daily app download volume surged to 10.3 million, easily surpassing December's record of 9.2 million, according to the Fiksu Indexespublished today by Fiksu, Inc., the data-fueled mobile marketing technology company. The Fiksu App Store Competitive Index, which tracks the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free iOS apps, grew 12 percent month-over-month and a substantial 61 percent since January 2014 when app download volumes were at 6.4M.

Mobile marketing costs in January also broke records: the Fiksu Cost Per Loyal User Index (CPLU) reached an all-time high of \$2.90 in January, a 38 percent increase from December 2014. This represents a 61 percent year-over-year rise -- the cost to acquire a loyal user in January 2014 was \$1.80.

This four month pattern of consecutive new highs for downloads reflects the continuing surge in app usage, especially following the holiday season. Whether this is the new norm for app download volumes or if rates will start to decline remains to be seen. Even as app usage numbers skyrocket, it's clear that marketers are seeing greater success using more precise forms of targeting to reach the right users: those who will engage with an app over the long term. While this approach drives better overall results, it comes with a price tag, evidenced by January's rising costs.

"As we smash yet another milestone with 10.3M daily app downloads in January, it's obvious that the consumer appetite for apps has never been fiercer," said Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu. "But long term success for apps requires marketers to put data to work so they can target and acquire the most valuable users. While that does mean higher costs per user acquired, long-term results are significantly improved by bringing in users who are more likely to become ROI-positive."

The January Cost Per Install Index (CPI), which measures the cost per app installs directly attributed to advertising, increased to \$1.28 on iOS, a 9 percent rise since last month and 7 percent since last January. Similarly, the Cost Per Launch Index (CPL), which tracks the cost to drive a mobile app engagement, increased to \$0.26 on iOS; up 10 percent month-over-month and 60 percent year-over-year. The need for more sophisticated targeting is evident as costs rise steadily in 2015, particularly as channels that offer several layers of audience targeting, such as Facebook, Twitter and RTB, are becoming a larger part of marketers' toolkits.

Marketing costs are also rising on Android, as the CPL Index increased 58 percent since December and 14 percent year-over-year. The CPI Index was up 9 percent for the month, but showed a decline of 23 percent year-over-year at \$1.53, indicating that Android costs aren't quite at the historic highs that iOS costs are.

The Fiksu Indexes measure monthly fluctuations in competition for rank in the Apple App Store and the cost to acquire loyal users, helping mobile app marketers benchmark their performance against industry trends, remove complexity and guesswork and plan with more agility.