With many of our customers reporting that mobile traffic now exceeds desktop traffic, the responsive design for mobile Web versus app debate is relevant and always exciting. Those still trying to make sense of this debate are not alone. But we have been looking at our own data to evaluate mobile web against mobile apps, and have found that apps are still essential for local media.

What does our data tell us? Apps are the crucial instrument for loyal audience engagement and absolutely crush mobile Web, responsive or not, when it comes to delivering pageviews and the opportunity for advertising revenue. The flip side: there is no substitute for mobile Web when it comes to discovering your brand. 

Before going further, I need to share that my company StepLeader is in the business of building apps and mobile websites. We have a stake in creating successful mobile websites, but do not build with responsive design.

The reason is simple: We focus strictly on mobile products and do not create desktop websites for our customers. We believe that responsive design, when done right, can be a logical strategy for any publisher to pursue. Having website content render intelligently across many different mobile devices makes sense. This is not an either/or, zero sum, winner-take-all game. Audiences need both thoughtful mobile websites for discovery and powerful apps for long-term engagement.

The data we are examining here is aggregated across all of our customers. The sample size covers roughly 7 million to 10 million apps currently in use.

As a producer of content that is key to serving a local audience, local media are thinking about the sheer number of people they can reach. We measure this traffic through unique visitors. Mobile Web wins here, driving 62% of our unique visitors, with iOS devices accounting for 26% of uniques and Android representing 12%. More people simply discover a local media company’s mobile presence through mobile Web. 

Media organizations working to convert mobile traffic into revenue are thinking about advertising revenue, or impressions, which correlates to page views. The story shifts dramatically here. Mobile Web only brings in a paltry 19% of page views, with iOS and Android delivering 44% and 37% respectively.

Here is the first indication that loyal users come to roost on apps, given how many more page views app users consume, which accounts for a total of 81% of page views. Conversely, while mobile Web drives the most unique visitors, it delivers the least amount of page views.

As the foundation for local content, local media companies want to be the trusted resource, the loyal brand, the destination where users come again and again. We measure this engagement statistic by evaluating monthly page views per unique user, marrying together our numbers from page views and uniques.

The typical mobile Web user only views nine pages per month. The average iOS app user visits an astounding 84 pages per month. Android users blow them all away, coming in at 97 page views per month per user. 

Why is app engagement skyrocketing and mobile Web engagement so comparatively lackluster? We believe that there are five factors at work here.

First, most people will initially find local content by searching for site in their mobile web browser. Through the use of smart banners that promote the app on a mobile website, first-time visitors to mobile web are prompted to download the app. They discover, then download.

Second, mobile Web traffic is looking for small bite-sized bits of information, as represented by receiving only 19% of mobile page views. Get the news, get the weather, get out.

Third, shifting audience behavior drives more engagement. People expect a local media company to have an app. The more they use it and love it, the more the app becomes their one-stop-shop for local news, weather and sports.

Fourth, using push alerts wisely drives users to apps to consume breaking news and critical weather updates.

Finally, a mobile website or app’s design is instrumental in delivering engagement. There’s a delicate balance between images, text, layouts, menus and speed. Today, apps deliver on this experience better than responsive design. They respond faster, seamlessly handle images and advertising and can take advantage of the phone's operating system. Thus they create a better user experience that keeps audiences coming back.

We’re still left with the question of whether or not responsive designed mobile websites will overtake apps. Most debates focus on the technical possibilities of HTML5 and responsive design versus apps. This approach has merit, but also a significant critical flaw: It ignores user behavior and preferences. 

The hurdle will never be about technology, but rather hinge upon app culture. Even if advances in HTML5 and responsive design websites bring them to feature parity with apps, massive adoption of mobile Web for engagement will take time.

Why? We are a global app culture that has become accustomed to looking for, discovering and using apps as a primary source of content, fun, and social interaction. Changing that behavior doesn’t happen just because the technology exists.

Local media need both a mobile Web and app strategy. Our data highlights that the best shot at monetizing mobile will not be from mobile Web traffic, but rather app page views. Responsive design should be a part of that discussion, but kept in context of what a company is trying to achieve with a mobile website: brand discovery and converting one-time visitors into loyal users. There is no substitute for apps when a company needs your audience to be loyal, highly engaged and returning again and again and again.