It’s Getting More Costly for iPhone App Makers to Get Loyal Customers

Mobile app developers spend quite a bit of money to win new customers — even for free apps.

And after four consecutive months of declines, that cost went up significantly in November, as iPhone app makers geared up for the holidays.

The cost of getting a new loyal user for a free iPhone app, as measured by mobile app marketing firm Fiksu, rose to $1.38 from $1.06 in October. The October figure marked the low for the year.

“We can chalk November’s dramatic surge in mobile app marketing costs to increasing — and anticipated — holiday season spending, combined with a drop in organic downloads in the aftermath of the iPhone 5 launch,” Fiksu CEO Micah Adler said in a statement. “We can expect costs and download volumes to climb through December, much like last year, as marketers spend heavily in preparation for the flood of new devices and rush of user activity and app discovery around Christmas.”

Indeed, numbers released on Thursday by Flurry showed that there was a significant jump in activity this month, including a record Christmas spike.