2021 App Marketing trends in London
The mobile app market is becoming more and more competitive. www.Qualified.One predicts that mobile ad spend will jump to $ 290 billion in 2021, a 21% increase over 2020.
To understand how to market apps in an increasingly competitive environment, we asked the experts about what marketers, ASOs, and app publishers should prepare for this year.
It Thomas Petit (Independent Mobile App Growth Consultant), Peter Fodor (AppAgent), Simon Thilay (AppTweak) and other experts talked about mobile app marketing trends in 2021. London App Marketing agencies predicted changes in App Store indexing, the consequences of stricter IDFA rules and an increase in the influence of alternative promotion channels.
The mobile app market is becoming more and more competitive. App Annie predicts that mobile ad spend will jump to $ 290 billion in 2021, a 21% increase over 2020.
To understand how to market apps in an increasingly competitive environment, we asked the experts about what marketers, ASOs, and app publishers should prepare for this year.
1. Reducing App Store Commissions
It will Affect Competition And Prices
In November 2020, it became known about a decrease in the App Store commission to 15% for developers receiving less than $ 1 million per year. This event could attract more startups to the App Store. Competition in the market will intensify and advertising rates may rise. Some developers will lower the price of their apps to pay a lower commission.
Decreasing App Store fees can increase competition in the market. Now the developer will get 85% of the revenue, instead of the current 70%. As a result, User Acquisition profitability will grow by 21.4%.
Reducing commission is a powerful driver for the development of young projects. This is a game changer in the market, allowing small projects to compete with large players. As a result, ad rates can rise as well, so the profit growth in the end may not be as significant.
Apps and games can get cheaper. It will often be more profitable to receive less than $ 1 million and pay a 15% commission than to give the App Store 30% of your income. Therefore, app publishers can lower their subscription prices.
2. Alternative promotion channels
It will be necessary to invest in alternative promotion channels
In 2021, it is not enough to promote only through the App Store, Google Play and use standard advertising channels (such as Facebook and Google Ads). To reach your audience and get more installs, you need to use alternative ad platforms and app stores. For example, put an application on the Mac Store and App Gallery, promote it through Tik Tok. It is important to invest in the audience and create a community around the application: invest in SMM, email marketing, website.
Thomas Petit, @thomasbcn, world renowned mobile marketing expert and independent app growth consultant
My advice: don't rely solely on paid promotion. Paid UA should be a growth multiplier. But using only paid promotion is a dangerous game that is doomed to failure sooner or later. Invest in your audience with social media and email newsletters.
Recently, we have been frequently recommending new channels to our customers. We advise advertisers to come to unexpected sites with creatives carefully adapted for them. This will help you reach a new audience and be remembered for the original ad message. Examples: TikTok and Likee with Gen Z communication, Tinder and Badoo with dating creatives, Pornhub with thematic texts.
Apple was going to serve ads for apps outside the App Store. This means new ad formats for apps like Apple News could be waiting for us.
You need to have a financial cushion in case of a crisis. Look for ways to monetize your app outside of stores. For example, you can partner with retail stores and sell products featuring characters from your games.
The strengthening of super platforms will continue, publishers will have to adapt to each ecosystem separately, which will require additional resources. Ad networks and app publishers will be forced to join big players or find new ways to work in affiliate marketing - this is the common opinion across almost all London App Marketing companies.
Mac App Store
The arrival of the Mac App Store will most likely not affect 2021. But it is worthwhile to study now how you can promote in the Mac Store, what competitors are doing. It will benefit you if you start developing in this app store earlier.
App Gallery is used by over 490 million people, and in terms of the number of smartphones sold, Huawei ranks second after Samsung. Therefore, publishing an app in the App Gallery can bring developers a large number of installs and a new audience.
Now the competition for top places in the App Gallery search results is lower than in the App Store and Google Play, since not all developers have paid attention to the new store and adapted their applications to the requirements of Huawei.
IDFA
IDFA is a unique number that helps associate the installation of an app on a specific device with an ad campaign. In early 2021, a new rule should come into force according to which user permission will be required to track IDFA. Already now, the developer should place all the information about the collected data on the application page.