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Over the years, app marketing has become the mainstay for most brands, and this trend has further received a boost by the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 was a milestone year for this industry, as an increasing number of users turned to apps for entertainment, information, and completing essential daily tasks. This shift in consumer patterns was also brought on by sustained lockdowns and social distancing protocols that led to them being cooped up in their homes. On the downside, new challenges such as user privacy, spearheaded by the rollout of iOS 14.5, took centrestage.

What’s interesting is how the app marketing industry navigated through these challenges and delivered big. The statistics are proof of this success — in 2021, the consumer spends on mobile apps reached US$170 billion, marking a 19 percent increase from 2020. Further, ad spends also reached a record US$288 billion and is predicted to grow to $336 billion in 2022. This reflects the agility and adaptability displayed by advertisers and marketers.

To understand this better, leading mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust has released the ‘Mobile app trends 2022: A global benchmark of app performance’ report that provides expert insights on the global and regional developments of the mobile marketing ecosystem over the past year.

Based on data from Adjust’s top 2,500 apps, the report highlights top trends and benchmarks across the fintech, e-commerce, and gaming verticals, providing advertisers and marketers with actionable insights to drive app growth in 2022.

Here are some top takeaways from the report:

1. Installs have grown year-on-year in all verticals tracked. Fintech is up 35 percent, e-commerce by 12 percent, and gaming by 32 percent.

2. Stock trading and crypto apps make up 7 percent and 2 percent of all fintech app installs, respectively, but account for 17 percent and 6 percent of sessions.

3. Hyper casual make up the highest share of installs in the gaming vertical (27 percent), while action accounts for the largest proportion of sessions (30 percent).

4. Marketplace apps have significantly better retention rates than the rest of the e-commerce vertical (day 1 27 percent vs. 19 percent and day 30 10 percent vs. 7 percent).

To download the Mobile app trends 2022 report from Adjust,

Diving deep into the insights

The Mobile app trends 2022 report from Adjust dives deep into trends in installs, sessions, ATT opt-in rates, retention, re-attribution, and more, so that this data can be leveraged to understand the consumers better, and accordingly take action. Here are some top insights from the report:

Fintech

1. Payment made up the highest percentage of fintech app installs (57 percent), followed by banking (34 percent).

2. Crypto and stock trading are low on installs but make up for it in sessions.

3. March 2021 was the highest-ever month for fintech in-app revenue.

4. China is the global leader in mobile proximity payments, with an adoption rate of 87 percent. India sits at 40 percent, South Korea at 46 percent, and the US at 43 percent.

“Data privacy changes in 2021 have reinforced the need for marketers in verticals like fintech to extract value from their own first-party data. While our machine learning engine provides marketers with performance against key metrics, transparency, and actionable insights, partnering with a mobile analytics partner like Adjust is critical to help app publishers make further strategic decisions to drive their mobile growth,” shared Kezia Vere Nicoll, Senior Digital Director, Moloco.

E-commerce

1. Mobile e-commerce boosted its presence in markets worldwide, with sustained lockdowns and stringent COVID-19-related protocols.

2. It was May 21 that proved to be the biggest month ever for e-commerce in-app revenue.

3. What’s more, in 2021, 55 percent of people who shopped on their smartphones made a purchase after seeing a social media ad, reassuring advertisers and marketers that the future is more promising than ever.

4. The two most notable markets for growth were EMEA and LATAM, where there was 18 percent and 14 percent year-over-year growth, respectively.

Gaming

1. Installs of gaming apps in 2021 were able to hit the heights of pandemic-fuelled growth in Q1 2020 — and maintain them; they increased by 32 percent year-over-year.

2. January and December 21 turned out to be the biggest months ever for gaming in-app revenue.

3. Mobile gaming made up 52 percent of consumer spends on gaming globally in 2021, a figure that reached $93.2 billion, and represents a 7.3 percent increase year-over-year.

4. Ad spends on mobile games saw 23 percent year-on-year growth in 2021, reaching $295 billion, and is predicted to reach $350 billion in 2022.

The impact

“The traditional paradigms around mobile advertising have been disrupted this past year with an accelerated embrace towards privacy. While privacy has always been part of Snap’s DNA, it has catalysed a fundamental shift in our approach to measurement, made possible by partners like Adjust. Despite these headwinds, Snap has seen a 50 percent YoY growth in our App Install objective in Q4’21, proving yet again how resilient the app ecosystem can be,” revealed Sheila Bhardwa, Measurement Partnerships Manager, Snap Inc.

For a complete analysis of the app marketing industry and to download Mobile app trends 2022: A global benchmark of app performance,