HitFox today announced that its mobile game marketing platform AppLift raised $13 million from venture capital and growth equity firm Prime Ventures. This is AppLift’s second round of funding, after recieving its first round of funding from HitFox, an incubator focused on investing and acquiring game distribtuion and user acquisition startups.

AppLift co-founder and U.S. general manager Hanno Fichtner told Inside Mobile Apps that AppLift is generating more than one million installs per game a month for their top publishing partners. He adds that one game in the top three on the top grossing apps chart from a particular publisher, which wasn’t named, is receiving the most installs from AppLift, even more than from Facebook or Google referrals. When we last heard about install figures from AppLift, the service was driving 10,000 installs per game a day, which is approximately 300,000 a month. (more…)

Next week, you’ll have the opportunity to hear the secrets to mobile monetization from industry experts, learn about the latest trends lighting the app world on fire, and showcase your app or brand in front of top talent and investors. The action is all happening at the Inside Social Apps Conference & Expo on June 6-7 in San Francisco.

Leading developers, executives, marketers, and strategists representing top companies such as Facebook, King, Applift, and PocketGems and will explore best practices for distributing, designing, and building a community for your app. Featured sessions include:

• Platform Opportunities for Social Apps
• Solving Mobile App Discovery with Facebook’s Doug Purdy
• Developing Cross-Platform
• International Opportunities: Asia, Europe and the Middle East
• Monetization and Payments in Non-Game Apps

View the full program here.

Additionally, you’ll be able to connect with other industry innovators during sessions, coffee breaks, exhibit hall hours, and an onsite cocktail reception.

Time is almost up, so don’t delay: Save $200 when you register by Wednesday, June 5. The Inside Mobile Apps staff will be on site—we hope to see you there!

App monetization platform Burstly today announced that it has restructured the company into an end-to-end mobile app development solution for developers. Now Burstly, which was founded in 2009, will be offering its app testing platform TestFlight, app analytics tool FlightPath and app monetization service SkyRocket (formally the Burstly monetization platform) to all developers, not just for some of the largest apps in the world.

“For the first time, we are our opening up our monetization platform to all mobile developers and publishers through the launch of SkyRocket,” said Evan Rifkin, CEO of Burstly, in a statement. “With Burstly, developers now have the option of using a full suite of integrated services which are incredibly powerful when mixed together, or the flexibility to use each service on its own.”

With the opening of its products to all developers, the Santa Monica, Calif.-headquartered company, which is used by some of the top mobile publishers including Electronic Arts, Rovio, Zynga, and more, will be allowing developers to now create custom segments of users in FlightPath and then using those segments to create different monetization experiences in SkyRocket. For example, developers can choose to not display ads to valuable users, or apologize to users which have experience an app crash by giving away virtual currency in a game. Burstly is now becoming a service that can possibly compete on a level with the likes of Tapjoy, PlayHaven, Millennial Media and more.

Before today’s announcement, Burstly was last making news when it opened its TestFlight for Android private beta to all users, and in just 45 days of closed beta, 5,000 developers uploaded 4,500 apps which have seen more than 50,000 downloads. Burstly also recently announced the private beta launch of FlightPath, its mobile analytics service for mobile app developers, featuring real-time data that can be customized and segmented to the developer’s liking.

At Google I/O today in San Francisco, head of search and discovery for Google Play Ankit Jain detailed how developers can get their apps discovered through search and other mechanisms on the Google Play app store.

“We’ve never discussed our search for Google Play until today,” Jain said.

Jain first explained major install sources for apps including browsing discovery features and search queries. Some browsing discovery features were charts (Editors’ picks, top free apps, etc.), personalized recommendations (a feature announced at Google I/O 2012), and related/cross-sell (“users also viewed” and “users also installed”). Jain then detailed two kinds of search queries — categorical and navigational. Categorical queries are broad search terms such as “free games,” “train schedules,” and “multiplayer games,” while navigational queries are exact search terms like “Angry Birds,” Hotel Tonight,” and “Beautylish.”

“For the average app, search actually makes up the vast majority of installs,” he added.

To follow up his statement, Jain reveals some Google Play search data for the first time. He said 12 percent of daily active users (DAU) search for apps daily, 50 percent of DAU search for apps weekly and Google sees six million unique phrases searched monthly. (more…)

Every marketer uses Twitter to engage with customers. But there’s more to a successful campaign than simply gaining new followers and increasing your number of tweets.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Inside Network product family: the AllTwitter Marketing Bible.

Whether you’re a first-time user of Twitter for business or an experienced social media marketer, the AllTwitter Marketing Bible is designed to help you build your audience, increase engagement, and improve conversions and customer loyalty.

This comprehensive subscription product is updated weekly with valuable how-tos and best practices, informative case studies, and detailed provider comparisons. This content will help you stay up to date on the latest platform trends and discover great ways to optimize your current Twitter strategy.

Want to learn more? You can sign up for a free trial to get a sneak peak at a few articles, or subscribe to a monthly, quarterly, or annual account for full access.

Fiksu today reported a steady landscape for daily download volumes and mobile app marketing costs in its March 2013 Index. The user acquisition and marketing company also announced that its Fiksu Mobile App Marketing Platform has now registered 100 billion app user actions and driven more than one billion app downloads.

Fiksu reported a cost per loyal user increase of 5 percent, or $0.07, to $1.36, from $1.29 in February’s Index. Marketing costs are up by approximately 5 percent year-over-year when compared to costs of $1.30 per loyal user in March 2012′s Index. The Boston-based company, which measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free iPhone apps in the U.S., noted a 4 percent decline in daily mobile app downloads, moving from 5.20 million daily downloads in February to 5.02 million downloads in March. Although daily download volumes remained steady month-over-month, volumes were up 12 percent year-over-year from March 2012′s figure of 4.45 million daily downloads.

“The ‘new normal‘ continued in March, which was good news for mobile app marketers,” says Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu, in a statement. “Inventory has increased but costs have held steady, reflecting a maturity in the overall quality of apps and their ability to engage users. Despite the last few steady months, marketers must always be prepared for the ebbs and flows that inevitably happen in the complex app ecosystem.”

For the purpose Fiksu’s Indexes, the company denotes a loyal user as a person who open an app three or more times. These reports are meant to help mobile app marketers gauge their performance against industry trends.

Looking for insider advice on social app development, marketing, and monetization? Discover how to take your app to the next level at the Inside Social Apps Conference & Expo, happening June 6-7 in San Francisco.

This event will showcase the industry’s most forward-thinking minds in panels, presentations, and fireside chats. You’ll also have ample opportunity to network with developers, marketers, investors, and managers in the app community.

Early bird rates end on 4/25; register by Wednesday and save $300 off onsite pricing.

Featured sessions include:

• Platform Opportunities for Social Apps: This keynote panel will feature developers from KIXEYE, HitFox Group, Glu Mobile, and DeNA. You’ll learn about which devices and platforms offer the most opportunity for growth and revenue.
• Maximizing Audience Engagement with Real-World Incentives: This session will focus on strategies to drive engagement by offering users real-world incentives earned through in-app activity. Panelists include professionals at AppGlu, Relevvant, Urban Airship, and Atomic Axis.

Featured speakers include:

• Deb Liu, Product Manager, Facebook
• Gabriel Leydon, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Machine Zone
• Wilson Kriegel, President and COO, Paltalk
• Josh Williams, President and Chief Science Officer, Kontagent

Check out the full program and speaker list for more details, and don’t forget to register soon.

We’re gearing up for the biggest social app event of the year: Inside Social Apps Conference & Expo, happening June 6-7 in San Francisco. Expert developers, marketers, analysts, consultants, and venture capitalists will lead sessions on key social app development, advertising, and investment opportunities.

You’ll also have plenty of opportunities to network with social app professionals during and after the event.

Featured sessions include:

• Going Social with Entertainment and E-Commerce Apps: This session will highlight social features that drive engagement in entertainment and shopping apps. You’ll hear from Ari Brandt of MediaBrix, Jeremy Toeman of Dijit Media, and Damon Brown of Quote Unquote App.
• Gambling Games: The Promise of Real Money: This newly-added session cover conversion and revenue opportunities for social gambling apps in light of recent legislation changes. Bret Terrill,  founder of 12 Gigs, will moderate.

Explore the full program and speaker list.

Don’t miss out on this great event. You’ll save $300 off onsite pricing when you register before April 25. We hope to see you in San Francisco!

The third annual Social Gambling & Gaming Summit is happening May 14-15 in Berlin, Germany. The event brings together industry leaders and indie developers of social casino games  and free-to-play mobile games for inspiring panel sessions on the future of gaming and gambling. You’ll save €235 ($300) off on-site prices when you register before April 6.

Attendees will learn how to create uniquely compelling games, deliver positive user experiences that keep players coming back, and take advantage of real-time predictive personalization.

Sessions include topics such as Ruling the Mobile World, led by professionals from SponsorPay, Microsoft Germany, and Fortumo. They’ll explore how developers are successfully monetizing on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8. View the full program here.

Speakers come from top-notch gambling and gaming companies including Chartboost, Bees and Pollen, vsOdds, Yazino, Applifier, Flurry, Plumbee, SOFTGAMES GmbH, Betsson, Jampp, InGaming, and GoPlay. Check out the full speaker list.

Take advantage of our early bird prices and register today.

In celebration of its 10 year anniversary, game company King.com tonight announced that it will be rebranding the company to just King as well as launching two new Saga games for Facebook (one of which will be coming to mobile soon).

As we noted yesterday, everyone at the 2013 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is talking about the success of King’s Candy Crush Saga game on mobile and social.

The first new Saga game coming to Facebook is physics-based Papa Pear Saga, which is based off King’s web-based Japanese Pachinko-like title Papa Pear. In the game, players are tasked with making each Papa Pear shot bounce on as many objects as possible before landing in each bucket. The title will be packed with 60 levels at launch as well as with three different game modes and several boosters to help users progress through the game. The game is now on Facebook, but will be “coming soon” to mobile for iOS and Android.

The second game King announced was Farm Heroes Saga, a match-3 game, with an item collecting aspect. Users are tasked with managing multiple components per level, like collection targets, special missions, boss fights, avoiding blockers and more. The game, which is currently in the soft-launch stage, features 70 levels, three game modes and multiple boosters that help users progress further into the game.

King also revealed some data for its games on mobile, social and online. The company says it now sees more than 108 million monthly players (49 million on mobile alone) and 12 billion gameplay sessions a month across its network of games on mobile, social and online.

“We have had lots of fun over the last 10 years making great games and we are honored to have acquired such a loyal fan-base,” said Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and CEO of King, in a statement. “The exceptional growth of our mobile, Facebook, and cross-platform audience is a testament to the care and craft that goes into our games. We’re pleased to announce two new Saga games on Facebook with Papa Pear Saga and Farm Heroes Saga. These games build upon our Saga portfolio with new concepts that players are sure to enjoy.”