Twitter has the potential to become a valuable platform as the app promotion space becomes more mature, according to Oliver Clark (pictured), director of sales for the EMEA region for app engagement company Fiksu.

Speaking to Mobile World Live, Clark said the app marketing space has “matured a little bit”, and the next phase for a growing proportion of brands and marketers is retargeting and optimising advertising spend.

It is also becoming more goal-dependent, with cost per loyal user and cost per complete view metrics prevailing over the more basic cost per install, with marketers no longer prepared just to display a video advert.

“There are many deeper metrics we can get which are more relevant,” he noted.

Regarding Twitter’s role in this, Clark explained that the microblogging service has a greater proportion of active users than Facebook and sees different kinds of usage — for example as a second screen when watching television.

And while Twitter is more expensive for advertising than normal ad networks and Facebook, it has a higher proportion of connected users, meaning campaigns can get a good return.

“They’re more expensive to begin with but they deliver that value,” Clark noted.

One benefit of using Twitter is that enables better use of contextual information, which is useful in creating loyal users.

For example, if a user’s phone, together with the Twitter app, detects that they are attending a music concert, a Spotify ad could be placed in their timeline with a link to the artist they are seeing.

“That kind of audience targeting is going to get really big,” Clark said, adding that the next stage of mobile marketing will see brands engage with consumers at a more personal level.

“Twitter is at the forefront for enabling what companies like Fiksu do,” he added.

As part of its efforts to better target content, Twitter recently announced it is to start monitoring the apps users have on their smartphones.

Back in April, Clark discussed how Facebook has become one of the most effective channels to promote mobile apps, providing higher conversion rates and better return on investment than other approaches.