Liftoff, the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, today released its 2022 shopping apps report in partnership with next-gen attribution provider Singular, analyzing key trends among mobile shoppers in the post-ATT (Apple's AppTrackingTransparency framework) landscape.
The report reveals that mobile shopping shows no signs of slowing down despite consumers returning to brick-and-mortar stores. According to the data, mobile continues to be a preferred source for many shoppers, leading to a steady increase in app installs derived mainly from paid traffic.
This data and methodology from Liftoff draws on more than 182 billion ad impressions and 2.4 billion clicks across 16.5 million installs between May 1, 2021, and May 1, 2022, to find:
ITA (install-to-action) shows a steady increase as more users embrace app-based purchases due to the pandemic
The analysis suggests that mobile marketers are achieving promising results with new audiences as the pandemic has made mobile a go-to channel for shopping. ITA purchases rose from May 2021 to early 2022 and have since stabilized around the 21% mark, showing that users continue to install mobile apps and make significant purchases.
“App-based shopping has become more prominent since the pandemic started,” said Jeremy Bondy, CEO of Liftoff. “Mobile shopping is the new normal and makes it easy for people to browse and buy from the comfort of anywhere. Despite the push to return to in-person retail, there is still strong momentum behind mobile shopping, and we will continue to see that trend for the foreseeable future.”
The post-ATT landscape: paid traffic drives new app installs, and Android user acquisition increases
The release of ATT in April of 2021 made it significantly harder for advertisers to target and personalize their campaigns on iOS ad networks, forcing mobile marketers to pivot and adhere to updated privacy tracking guidelines. In this new era, many marketers found success with paid traffic, as 70-80% of new app installs from high-growth apps came from paid traffic throughout 2021.
Typically, Android and iOS split user acquisition spend 40/60, with the lion's share going to Android. Liftoff and Singular's report found that in the two months immediately post-ATT, spending on Android increased to 65% and has dropped off in the months since.
“We're optimistic that our report, in partnership with Liftoff, will provide mobile marketers with the proper insights and tools to succeed,” says Susan Kuo, COO and Cofounder at Singular. “In the evolving mobile marketing industry, prioritizing engagement and relevance with users when ad targeting has proven to lead to high conversion and retention rates.”
Attention shoppers: shopping apps show more promise than food delivery apps
Undoubtedly, the pandemic changed the way users approach shopping and dining by increasing the demand for app-based solutions. As more people have begun returning to in-person dining, Liftoff's report reveals that shopping apps cost less to acquire and are more likely to convert compared to food delivery apps (19.6% ITA compared to 16.8% ITA for food delivery apps). The average cost per action (CPA) for purchases remained relatively low at $12.64, with conversion rates remaining high at 18.5%, showing that shopping ads are still reaching new audiences.
For more details on Liftoff and to download the full report, visit here.
Methodology
The 2022 Shopping Apps Report draws from Liftoff and Singular's internal data from May 1, 2021, through May 1, 2022—which spans 182 billion ad impressions and 2.4 billion clicks across 16.5 million installs to deliver key takeaways on shopping app engagement worldwide.
About Liftoff
Liftoff is a leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers and game developers scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps. With a suite of solutions including Vungle, JetFuel, GameRefinery and Tresensa, Liftoff supports over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries, including gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, entertainment and more. Liftoff is proud to be a long-term partner to leading advertisers and app publishers since 2012. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a growing global presence with offices around the world.
About Singular
Singular's next-gen attribution and analytics powers marketers to grow faster by uncovering accurate, granular, and timely performance insights. World class teams from brands like WB Games, Twitter, Lyft, Rovio, Airbnb, Activision, Homa Games, EA, LinkedIn and more use Singular to make smarter user acquisition decisions and analyze the impact of every ad dollar with full-funnel marketing analytics, best-in-class ad fraud prevention, and automatic loading directly into one's BI tools.
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