The mobile performance marketing agency AdQuantum and ad intelligence platform Social Peta teamed up to create Global Report on App Marketing for H1 2022. The report shared valuable information on the state of mobile game and app markets, including market trends, UA strategies, ad approaches, market leader comments, and top paid traffic sources.
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The duo indicated that the report derived from a comparison between H2 2021’s data and new findings from H1 2022. Topics such as finance, health, casual games, education, books, and photo & video were the report’s primary focus for detailed analysis.
Key takeaways from the report
Seven key takeaways were indicated in the report, as the companies explained that ad creative quality would be even more dominant compared to quantity in the future. A recommendation was made to use Twitter as an add-on source of traffic, as the platform is expected to grow both in 2022 and the following year.
CPIs were already rising and are predicted to increase even more, as AdQuantum and Social Peta comment that this will necessitate a more thorough budget check for marketers. The duo added that ad creatives that show simple gameplay mechanics or easy-to-use apps have been determined as the keys to success.
Predictive analytics and BI are highly suggested as tools of support for lifetime traffic analytics. The companies also stressed the necessity of keeping up to date with Apple’s SKAdNetwork, along with turning to Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets that are worth attention in the mobile app scene.
Asia Pacific shows growth despite the total market’s decrease
Per the report, advertisers saw a 10% year-on-year increase in emerging markets such as the Middle East, South America, and South Asia in the first half of 2022. In the same period, the total number of advertisers decreased by 2%, and ad creatives saw a decline of 27.83%.
Adjust’s Elena Ivanova comments that mobile gamers in the Asia Pacific region have a 70% pre-register rate for new games. This indicates that the area is booming as Adjust expects further growth as investments in localization increase.
The report shared a 6.24% year-over-year decline in advertisers, as Europe, North America, and Oceania all had drops compared to last year. Excluding Mainland China, the Asia Pacific region saw a 37% increase year-over-year in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan alone.
Quality over quantity needed for ad creatives
AdQuantum and Social Peta stated that the decline in ad creatives was caused by companies choosing quality over quantity in order to gain an audience that will eventually be willing to spend money in-game. The number of creatives in H1 2022 was 15.8 million, which amounts to a decline of 30% year-over-year.
Casual, puzzle, and RPG genres were determined as the top three for game creatives. Although casual and puzzle saw growth in the number of creatives compared to last year, RPG creatives saw a decline of 1.5%.
Shopping, tools, and lifestyle genres were ranked with the highest percentage of ad creatives for H1 2022. Shopping creatives declined about 2% but still had a healthy lead over others by at least 6%, if not more.
In the games, finance, and health categories, the share of UGC-like (User Generated Content) creatives increased by 50% in a year-over-year comparison. These creatives, according to tests, are particularly common on TikTok and are capable of competing with motion videos as well as diversifying marketing strategies.
The report also noted a tendency of ad networks to move further towards automation, partly because of the easing of targeting options. The duo predicts that over the second half of the year, the bulk of ad platforms will continue to concentrate their efforts on automated campaigns.
Android is the focus after Apple’s privacy changes
Since Apple’s privacy changes, the number of creatives and marketers in the iOS market has decreased by about 12% in a year-over-year comparison of Q2 2021 and Q2 2022. Android experienced a significant climb instead, taking over 72.5% of creatives and advertisers in Q2 2022.
The report comes to a conclusion with valuable comments from market leaders, with names from AppsFlyer, Asodesk, Adkomo, and SplitMetrics, about the future of the mobile app and games scene. The full report contains a myriad of detailed information about the future of the mobile game and app industry. You can access the full report here.
