This post -- written by our Craig Palli -- originally appeared on Boston.com.

With more than 1.5 million apps in the Apple and Android app stores, mobile app marketers face the enormous challenge of achieving discoverability, sustained user engagement and, ultimately, monetization. Successfully marketing your app requires more than strategic mobile media buying and compelling, creative advertising. High-performance mobile app marketers have a laser-like focus on targeting and acquiring loyal users – those who take a specific action, such as an in-app purchase or registration. It's these loyal users who become repeat customers, word-of-mouth advocates, and deliver real, ongoing ROI.

The following eight tips for marketing your app are focused on driving more of these loyal users. They're based on more than 70 billion user-based app actions, including launches, registrations, and in-app purchases, as well as real time bidding requests recorded on our platform, and they're proven marketing tactics for putting your app ahead of the competition:

1. Establish goals for loyal users. Exactly what constitutes a loyal user will vary from app to app – perhaps it's opening the app a certain number of times or completing an in-app purchase or registration – so define that metric before launching any acquisition campaigns. You'll also need to determine your lifetime value per user so you can set cost-per-conversion targets (i.e., determine how much to pay for different traffic volumes to deliver the best possible ROI).
2. Promote your app across several traffic sources. There are several types of traffic sources for mobile apps: ad networks, real-time bidding exchanges, incentivized download networks, and more. Using just one source – or even one from each general type – gives you too small a universe to be successful. You'd be missing out on valuable opportunities to identify the best sources for large volumes of loyal users. In fact, working with several traffic sources can improve loyal acquisition results by up to five times.
3. Track post-download activity. As your mobile ad campaigns are running, it’s critical to track users’ post-download activities and tie this data back to its traffic source, ad creative, and other campaign variables. This helps to pinpoint which specific traffic sources and campaigns are driving your most loyal users – not just the most downloads.
4. Optimize ad campaigns in real-time. By analyzing real-time data, it’s possible to eliminate inefficient ad spending and shift budget to those traffic sources and campaigns that are delivering loyal users.
5. Employ a campaign optimization solution. Optimizing advertising campaigns based on post-download actions is challenging but there are automated solutions available. Instead of managing a huge matrix of ad networks, costs, creative, downloads, and conversion rates, it's worth investigating a solution that incorporates everything and adjusts your campaign spending on the fly.
6. Conduct ongoing closed-loop analysis. Continuous analysis of marketing campaign performance, post-download usage and revenue return helps you understand, at a granular level, what's moving the needle. It’s important to dive into these analytics frequently to fine-tune campaign planning and align with marketing objectives.
7. Conduct a loyal user acquisition test. Not convinced that the concept of marketing specifically to bring in loyal users will produce results? It's easily testable. Assign a portion of your marketing budget to a test that employs the above-recommended strategies. You’ll gain valuable insights into how a loyal user acquisition strategy can directly impact your bottom line.
8. Benchmark performance against industry averages. The best way to improve your mobile marketing results is to more precisely understand the competitive landscape you're pouring your budget into. By benchmarking how your mobile app marketing stacks up against industry averages, you’ll gain a larger, more accurate picture of the trends impacting your business goals, allowing you to adapt and plan with more agility.

Mobile app marketing shouldn't require guesswork. By deploying these tested strategies and tactics, mobile app marketers can achieve high-performance results that not only drive business objectives, but also acquire large volumes of loyal users.

• As the holiday season quickly approaches, Google is encouraging developers to build tablet-optimized Android apps.
• According to a new study, nearly half of major brands are displeased with the progress of their current mobile marketing efforts.
• “The Force” will soon be colliding with a flock of bitter birds in the new Star Wars-themed Angry Birds mobile game.

“Tech critics and gadget reviewers have long complained that there simply aren’t enough good Android tablet apps out there,” writes WIRED’s Nathan Olivarez-Giles. But now, Google is pushing to change this by urging developers to build tablet-optimized Android apps. On Oct. 8, Google posted a best-practices blog post series about publishing quality apps to its Google Play store, as well as three successful developer stories that illustrate how apps can take advantage of the tablet’s larger-screen formats. “With the holiday season now approaching, we’re creating even more ways for great tablet apps to be featured in Google Play — including a series of new app collections that highlight great apps specifically for tablet users,” Google said in a developer blog post.

A new study from the CMO Council finds that 47 percent of major brands are unhappy with their present mobile marketing and mobile consumer engagement efforts due to limited resources and talent, according to MediaPost. Thirty-seven percent of brands are still evaluating their mobile efforts, and just 14 percent are happy with results from current activities. These findings, which stemmed from a survey of 250 global marketers, also revealed that only 16 percent of companies have formal strategies for using mobile as a major conduit for customer engagement. But the importance of mobile marketing continues to grow: 32 percent of organizations are allocating more budget to developing apps and other mobile content. Read the full study: "Engage at Every Stage."  

What do you get when you combine lightsabers, slingshots, and a pack of pilfering pigs? The Star Wars-themed Angry Birds mobile game, of course! Officially launching Thursday, Nov. 8, the latest Angry Birds installment is being developed by entertainment media company Rovio, and mobile users around the globe are eagerly anticipating the game. BGR has the full teaser video and image – complete with a bird holding a light saber. May the Force be with you.

According to industry data, mobile now trumps every other channel for media consumption. And a new study presents evidence that encourages app developers to increasingly incorporate custom ad experiences into in-app ads to bolster engagement. On the tablet front, Samsung has pulled out the big guns, unveiling its 2012 “hero product.” And two app brands in the jam-packed games category have found a way to crack the monetization mystery – and are reaping the benefits.

According to the latest InMobi data, mobile media consumption is through the roof, reports Mobile Marketing Watch. A new U.S. Q2 Mobile Media Consumption Report reveals that mobile now ranks first in overall daily media consumption, at 2.4 hours per day, outranking TV (2.35 hours) and PCs (1.6 hours).

A telling new report shows how advertisers can boost in-app engagement and click-through rates. MediaBrix has released results from its survey about what consumers like – and don’t like – about in-app advertising. The good news: Consumers like ads – 61 percent of smartphone users want free apps with ads – and they like the right ads, at the right time. “In-app advertising needs to acknowledge, embrace, and respect the user experience,” said MediaBriz CEO Ari Brandt in a VentureBeat report. The bottom line is that app developers must design custom ad experiences that are both innovative and integrated, and marketers must ensure their messages positively resonate with consumers.

In tablet news, Samsung began retailing the U.S. version of its tablet Galaxy Note 10.1. Although the company announced the device several months ago, it’s now “an entirely new beast,” according to VentureBeat. “The Galaxy Note 10.1 is being referred to as Samsung’s ‘hero product’ for 2012, and it’s evident from the constant retooling that the company was desperate to get this tablet right,” wrote reporter Devindra Hardawar.

Over the past few years, games have become the dominant category for mobile apps. Today, more than ever before, gaming app marketers are challenged to find ways to achieve monetization, the “Holy Grail” of gaming app marketing. This week, VentureBeat reported two mobile app companies that seem to have cracked the code. NaturalMotion’s iOS racing game, CSR Racing, generated a whopping $12 million in its first month of availability. And the Japanese gaming company Gree unveiled its North American revenue numbers for the first time, revealing the company grew 38 percent in the second quarter alone.

This week, Apple announced its third quarter earnings. Though the company missed Wall Street’s lofty expectations this time around, Apple still moved an enormous amount of iDevices over the last three months, TechCrunch reports.

The tech giant reported revenue of $35 billion and earnings of $8.8 billion (or $9.32 per share). That was up from the $28.57 billion in revenue and profits of $7.31 billion (or $7.79 per share) Apple reported last year during the same quarter. 

Apple once again saw strong sales for the iPhone – its best-selling device in Q3. The company sold 26 million iPhones during the quarter, up 28 percent from the same quarter last year. Additionally, the iPad saw a killer quarter, with a sales increase from 11.8 million in Q2 to a whopping 17 million in Q3.

"We're thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter," said Apple’s Tim Cook said in a statement on announcement day. "We've also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion [Wednesday], and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we've got in the pipeline."

According to Huffington Post, Apple’s average selling prices for its various devices declined to levels last seen in 2010. This was largely due to the fact that consumers opted for less expensive device versions in Q3, instead of upgrading to the latest models.

Additionally in Q3, the company “increasingly relied on sales from large emerging markets such as China, where the Apple name holds even more cachet than it does here,” observes CNET’s Josh Lowensohn.