What are the top app marketing trends for 2024?

Marketing Industry has undergone massive changes. To get a better hold, understanding mobile app marketing trends of 2023 is must!

Mobile app marketing takes a lot of patience, effort and hard work. However, to make it easier new mobile app marketing trends emerge.The key is to keep a close eye on the market every moment and notice the changes before someone else points them out to you. Nowadays Mobile app marketing is the best way to bring engagement to your app.

However, that’s easier said than done have what It takes to become a fox chasing its prey, but have a potential team that can catch up with the ever-growing market speed, takes a look at the top mobile app Marketing trends for 2023, curated by the tech geeks of the world, keeping in mind the latest predictions regarding mobile app marketing. 

Mobile App Marketing Trends That Will Take Lead In 2023

By Oct 2022, almost 97 thousands apps were released via Google Play Store and the number is growing till date. According to a report by Gartner, more than half of the total number of consumers will be using their mobile devices first for any requirement Online. For example, reading a product review, ordering groceries online, or binge-watching a TV series.

Another report by Comscore, mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets) dominate the total time that is spent online by users. For instance, in the USA, approximately 71% of total digital minutes come from mobile devices while in Indonesia, this statistic reaches 91%.

One can follow an app marketing guide but following the mobile app trends diligently gets more marketing juice. Therefore to further help you with the topic, here is our list of app market trends.

1. Influencer Marketing: For True Capitalization

We are currently living in a world where social media strategies play a very important role in spreading news or promoting different products and services. Social media influencers are the ones who rule platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Another name that is very popular amongst the list is quora for app marketing. As the name suggests, the influencers are the people who use the power of their social media profiles to influence the user base that follows them.

Today, major brands are adopting the means of collaborating with top influencers of their respective industry vertical as a means of marketing, this is known as influencer marketing. This marketing strategy has yet to achieve its full caliber so it will be interesting to see how influencers will contribute to marketing a company's the product/service to the targeted audience.

Example of Influencer Marketing: The brand can hire an influencer to market a mobile app, brand's services and posting your opinions on social media platforms in the form of a YouTube videos, a testimonial or a blog. Apart from this, there are also a video makers such as Swish Video App used by small business owners and budding influencers.

2. Fraud Protection: Spreading Awareness

It's 2023 and one of the most prominent factor that is giving the web and mobile app development firms a hard time are digital fraud that is happening so often. Everything that you see on the internet is not true like many news stories turns out to be hoaxes and some eye-catching deals can be hazardous for the user's mobile device as well as personal data.

In the last two to three years, incidents of security breaches, valuable data compromise, and software hacking have escalated to a level of worry. And this is the reason why mobile app users want the surety that the service that you are offering is secure and doesn't have a potential risk to it turning it into a new marketing trends that is being followed rigorously.

3. Marketing Ecosystem: Simplifying the Complications

Another trend that is likely to be among the top mobile application marketing trends is the evolution of the marketing ecosystem. This can be referred to as focusing on a wider ecosystem that doesn't revolve around a single aspect of marketing. Smartphones are much more than just mobile and web apps, as they can be transformed into a solution for almost every problem. For example, on-demand solutions like healthcare, retail, transport and many more.

Today, mobile engagement involves several channels like mobile wallets, push notifications, messaging with extra conventional facilities such as chatbots in messaging applications. Businesses need to focus on targeting users with a customer-centric mobile app marketing plan where products and media are not at the center of the whole process. With these customer-focused strategies, the organizations will be able to bridge the gap between the companies and the customers.

One key point to remember here is that customers are no longer the responsibility of just the marketing department of a company now the customers are the biggest concern for the entire organization.

4. User Targeting: Customer-Centric Approach

An effective marketing technique is the one where a specific user target approach is implemented and that can be achieved by using the STP model.  STP is the most followed mobile app marketing strategy used often by many companies. The term STP stands for Segmentation, targeting and positioning, which is an approach that is gaining popularity as a mobile app advertising trend. This model comes in handy during the process of creating marketing communications plans as it also helps in prioritizing the development propositions to engage with various user bases.

The above image shows the working process of the STP model which starts with the segmentation of the market to target one or more targeted segments. Once the target segments are finalized, then the user needs to develop a marketing mix with a product positioning strategy for each segment that was selected earlier.

The STP approach is a great choice for those businesses who are looking forward to adopting some modern marketing tactics. It is also very relevant with respect to digital marketing as it can help in creating much more relevant digital communications using an audience segmentation approach.

5. Ad Monetization: For Incremental Revenue

As we have also stated in one of our previous articles on mobile app monetization, ad monetization is the future of how free apps will earn money. Ad monetization is bound to grow as well as drive incremental revenue for companies in the next few years. This has also led to the rise of freemium apps in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store which has now become essential for marketing a mobile app.

6. Data Optimization: Adopting a Creative Way

Another major app marketing trend that we are likely to witness this year is the optimization of data in a creative way. This creative data optimization will also help in increasing the return on ad spending as well. These are the two things that are focused on:

• Better optimization of brand campaigns to reach expected revenue goals rather than CPI (Cost-Per-Install) goals.
• To run creative ads that can lead to more genuine and long-term users that contribute to overall revenue profits.

In 2023, marketers will surely take progressive steps to increase the post per install conversation as well as deep funnel action. This will be done by including more platform tools that are specially designed to target deep funnel action and its value.

7. Content Formats: Dynamic and Engaging

Advertisements have now become the ultimate source of revenue for many online businesses and that means if not used properly, these ads can either make or break your major income goals. And this is the part where the ad formats come into action because you can't just place ads in your mobile app and then expect it to make a large amount of money.

There are several types of digital ad formats like content/native, video, social, display, and search ad formats. The reason you need to choose the ad formats for your app wisely is that in the upcoming years, ad formats will be required to become more interactive, dynamic and engaging.

According to a recent report by Smart Insights, it was stated that video, social, and display are the three main digital ad formats that have the highest annual growth. You can read about how video marketing can greatly benefit small and local businesses.

Another thing that will play a crucial role in these ad formats is AI i.e. Artificial Intelligence, we will be discussing the role of artificial intelligence in more detail in the next trend. Marketers will integrate AI concepts to find out what types of content should be placed inside different types of ad units

8. The Imposition of A.I.: Optimizing Media

Artificial intelligence marketing a.k.a. AI Marketing is an advanced method followed as marketing trends of 2023 that is used for leveraging user data with the help of various AI concepts like machine learning. This method is mainly used to predict the next move of your target user and thus, improve their user experience.

9. Geolocation Optimization: For Impactful Performance

Geolocation marketing is another top marketing trends of 2023 that needs to be put forth in the forefront. The term geolocation marketing can be defined as a marketing approach that is mainly based on the consumer's physical location (i.e. geolocation). This information about the location is provided through the means of GPS satellites, for instance, when you open the Google map and zoom in to see the accurate location represented by a blue dot.

Some of the main reasons why we should use geolocation marketing are to send location-targeted communications, to deliver personalized as well as contextual content, and to maximize the overall business revenue.

These are the different techniques that can be used to employ geolocation marketing:

• Geo-targeting
• Geo-fencing

10. App Stores: Domination Tactics

The curation of app stores is another marketing trend of 2023 that is claimed by many marketing experts to take over in the upcoming years. The two app stores that hold the majority of the web and mobile application shares are Google play store and Apple app store. In total, there are millions of apps in these app stores but only a couple of them end up being successful. The issue that arises here is to find an appropriate app that matches the preferences and requirements of the user.

To resolve this issue, both Google and Apple came forward with the app store curation that consists of editorial curation. Even though the app store curation is still in its initial stages, many believe that this current marketing trend will have a significant impact on the app monetization models.

11. 5G Technology: Taking Wireless To Another Level

5G technology has been in the news for the past few months now and it is estimated that the 5G networks are going to disrupt the mobile industry by offering a network that is a lot faster than ever with excellent internet speeds and extremely reliable connections. As per the stats, 5G will elevate the downloading speed almost 20 times faster than that of 4G network, with a minimum peak download speed of 20Gb/s.

12. Blockchain Technology: Tightening The Security

We are well aware of the fact that data is a vital complement that connects everything in the digital world and app marketers need to embrace this fact and act on it. With the help of accurate data, mobile app marketers can target a relevant audience and develop products as per their requirements.

Another new mobile marketing trend is where blockchain technology comes into play as an alternative means of service, digital products or data in general. This transfer of information is private, decentralized, and highly secure in nature.

13. Augmented Reality: Marketing through Simulated Reality

People from the marketing community try to find new ways to market their product. Augmented reality is another very powerful tool and a great current marketing trend. It lets the customer try the product before purchasing it by artificially creating a simulation in the real world.

Here are some way augmented reality is used for marketing:

• Online cloth shopping stores allow customers to virtually try a product before purchase.
• Cosmetic brands let the user experience the end result of their makeup.
• Furniture brands let the user envision how the product will look with their home decor.
• Simulated tour for an automobile’s interior.

In fact, now companies are creating QR codes that once scanned show a simulated 3D reality to the user. The best part about this mobile app advertising trend is that it doesn’t require a dedicated app.

14. Interactive Marketing: To Gain more Engagement

Marketing has always been interactive, yet the level of content produced for engagement has changed. Right now, a majority of marketers are trying to push their product by creating relevant interactive content. It is a growing way of marketing a mobile app or a product or a service.

Some common types of content are seldom used in this type of marketing are:

• Surveys, quizzes, and polls
• Calculators for costs, estimation, revenue creation, savings post implementation, etc.
• Interactive 360 degree videos
• Content based on behavioral pattern of the customer
• Stories with GIFs, videos, clickables, infographics, etc.

Interactive marketing has multiple benefits such as it increases the conversion rates, creates more engagement with the audience, and most importantly often provides feedback almost instantaneously.

15. Data-driven decision marketing: Better Marketing Throughput!

The aspects of marketing are constantly changing. Marketing was always based on analysis, however, the facets have changed by huge margins. To further define it, data-driven marketing is the optimization of the marketing process based on consumer data. 

With data-driven marketing, marketers try to identify:

• A better understanding of the target audience.
• Anticipating and identifying customer needs and requirements.
• Identifying pain points.
• Strategies to solve those problems.

An older article by McKinsey from 2020 stated that 1 out of 5 customers changed to a different brand, 7 out of 10 tried out a new brand, and the retail sector witnessed 10 times more growth each month. Each of these things happened but the service providers didn’t had a clue why this happened. It is because the models used by them for understanding consumer behavior were outdated. Therefore, the use of data-driven decisions became a much followed mobile app advertising trend.

16. Marketing via videos: In in-app store listing

Videos are the most engaging medium to communicate hands down. Creators of apps and services create short videos of their products. This helps them showcase the value proposition of their product in a concise way, and is both engaging for the consumer.

Right now, marketers can post videos on both Apple app store and Google play store. It is one of the new marketing trends that is picking pace in the marketing spectrum.

17. Micro-user and User-generated Content: For Better Retention

These are two very important content strategies that are utilized in today's marketing world. With micro-user content, the content creators create short form content in the form of tweets, short videos, infographics, short lists, etc. It works because it is well-understood by marketers that consumers are bombarded with so much data in today’s time. To quickly showcase their product, and help the consumer understand it, marketers need short form content which is easy to digest and showcases much higher marketing value.

Adding to it, previously companies would hire celebrities or any renowned faces to market their product. It still happens but marketers realized instead of paying a premium for creating a 30 seconds advertisement, let’s utilize what the actual user has to say. These can be reviews, ratings, testimonials, or any other form of feedback received by the brand. It creates positive engagement because it is easier to trust the end-user’s experience rather than someone who may have hardly used the service. Combining these two has been a recent marketing trend that is becoming more mainstream day-by-day.

18. Customer Behavior and Experience: Changing Preferences!

Customers of today are privy and almost immune to traditional marketing tactics. With individuals watching ads after every 2 minute video, it is important to understand the change in the consumer’s perception and behavior towards a campaign.

The great thing is that there is a market for everything that has expanded globally because of the internet. What needs to be understood is the value the campaigns provide to help the consumer understand the USP (unique selling proposition) of the product. 

Adding to it, the ads should provide a great customer experience by creating more engagement. Also, it is not just about marketing in the awareness stage instead everything from the platform to the payment gateway should be sorted. Think about this, you created an excellent funnel, however, the payment failed at the gateway. Things similar to this defeats the entire purpose of marketing, and therefore understanding customer behavior & providing a compelling experience is amongst the new marketing trends that is here to stay.

19. Managing Digital Expectations

Possibly the best phrase we can come up with to explain it would be “Show & tell but don’t lie”. This can be divided into two segments. One would be the type of content that is pushed for marketing the product. And second as stated by Forbes, responsiveness towards the customer engaging on the online platform.

Majority of the company over promises during their marketing campaign. A great example of this would be the advertisement of metaverse vs the actual metaverse which created disappointment within the community. Therefore, companies are heavily focusing on relevant content that is centered around their product offering. On the flip side, responding to a customer that is trying to communicate online is an essential aspect too. 

Key Takeaways

Here are some of the most important takeaways from this entire article on the mobile app marketing trends of 2023:

• Social Media Platforms that have now become crucial for marketing purposes.
• With influencer marketing, a number of mediators are eliminated.
• Fraud protection can not only be recovered but also prevented.
• The STP model is the best option for modern-day user-centric marketing.
• There’s so much more in the marketing ecosystem to cover.
• Sponsorship, IAP, and crowdfunding are the best ad monetization models.
• In 2023, the data will be optimized in a more creative way.
• The ad formats & content will become dynamic and engaging.
• We will be witnessing high usage of AI Marketing.
• Smarter approaches will be adopted to eliminate obstacles.
• Geolocation marketing will be used for impactful marketing performance.
• The way we use app stores will be changed.
• With the help of 5G technology, we will achieve a new level of wireless advancement.
• Blockchain technology is here to provide you with secure, decentralized and private data transfers.
• Augmented reality can provide a real-life simulated environment for showcasing a product.
• Consumers engage more with interactive content.
• Companies optimize their marketing journey as per the customer data.
• Marketing via videos on mobile app stores provides higher value to the target audience.
• Take advantage of short form content and user generated data for marketing the product.
• Customer perception toward marketing strategies are changing, and it is important to keep customer experience in check.
• Be responsive to the customers that are approaching the service online.

Optimization will be the buzzword of the year as marketers will be focusing on upgrading their marketing strategies by integrating emerging technologies into their approaches. In addition to this, we recommend checking out some of the best app marketing agencies that will assist you in making the most of these mobile app marketing trends.

These were the latest mobile app marketing trends that are likely to be adopted in the year 2023. Hope that these valuable insights have answered some of the questions that you had in mind regarding the topic of app marketing.