Today’s smartphone users are spending an ever increasing amount of their time and attention on mobile apps – it seems the demand for apps is unstoppable.

But although users clearly love apps, it is getting harder and harder for app marketers to get noticed in this highly competitive market.

In order to understand more about the dynamics of app discovery and engagement, Google ran a very interesting study on consumer app acquisition and usage behavior.

The latest reports of consumer app usage are quite impressive:

To delve into this more deeply, Google and Ipsos MediaCT ran a survey where over 8,000 respondents filled in an online survey. To be included in the survey, the consumer had to be a smartphone user and had to have used an app within the past 7 days.

A download link for the full study is at the bottom of this article, but here are a few of the interesting results.

App Discovery

People may assume that the main place for consumers to find out about new apps is the app store. However, quite surprisingly, most app discovery goes on outside the app store.

Ads for Apps

Mobile advertising is another strong way to influence the download of apps. According to the study, there is no overwhelming favorite type of ad for downloads, in fact many forms of mobile advertising perform just about equally.

Frequent App Engagement

Clearly the second major objective – once a marketer has convinced a consumer to download an app – is to have them continue to use the app frequently. This can be difficult, especially for retail apps where up to half of those downloading an app to make a purchase said they are likely to remove the app once the transaction is complete.

The key is to make the value of the app clear to the user. For example, “making my life easier” was an attribute that almost 2/3 of the respondents identified in the apps they use.

In addition, app users may need an extra incentive to reengage with an app that they have abandoned. The most popular incentives are seen to be discounts & coupons, as well as access to exclusive content.

The full study includes much more information including consumer views on app pricing, use of apps for making purchases, as well as some sector specific detail.