2020 was a year like no other for app marketers as COVID-19 took hold and shifted the social landscape – from physical to digital. Millions of users worldwide were now turning to their mobile devices for entertainment and comfort as world news on COVID continued to change.  With more users that ever driven to mobile, app downloads were at an all time high alongside hours spent in front of the screen which in turn led to a spike in organic growth and ads. 

Yet as the vaccines start to roll out, the landscape is beginning to shift once again and app marketers need to absorb key lessons from measuring success to connecting with target audiences:

When the world went into lockdown, app marketing teams everywhere went into panic mode – the need for creative agility had never been greater. As the global situation changed so did the need for more and better ad creatives – many existing batches would prove no longer relevant in the current climate. Add to this the ever increasing pace of COVID updates and trends, and you’re left with a plethora of brands quickly changing ad creatives to make more sense in our latest reality. 

It’s important to take a creative lesson from this- as we slowly emerge from lockdown, it would surely be foolish to return to business as usual. Emotions are heightened and ad creatives need to reflect this. Indeed, the more creative assets you can feed the AI engines the better, as determining the winning combination is proving not so easy as we continue with life after lockdown. For those struggling to churn out an increased amount of creatives we’d always recommend to bring in specialists who can handle this type of output.

As we continue forward on the path to a COVID ‘free’ reality (relatively speaking) it is critical to revise targets and KPIs frequently and keep them in line with trending marketing conditions. It’s important to stay on the pulse when it comes to post lockdown targets, particularly when considering performance over the past 12 months. For example, we saw a volume of available programmatic inventory soar when the world first went into lockdown, yet numbers proved volatile and sharp surges and drops (engagement and programmatic bid requests) came as if from nowhere and results varied per location. Based on this, it is critical to create stronger segments per GEO. Success in one country could mean failure in another dependent on how they navigate the current climate. 

COVID has wreaked economic havoc on all industries and the app ecosystem is no exception. Where some apps saw a surge in spending, many others saw a significant drop, spending shifts are constantly and rapidly changing so it might make more sense not to have revenue as a primary success KPI. Placing engagement at the forefront of your goals is a safe bet for turbulent times. If consumers are not able to buy, they can certainly engage which could place them in a position to spend further down the line. Mobile retention by way of initiatives such as in-app rewards could be a strong way to hold onto users and keep them on ice until we can get closer to what we once considered the norm. 

“It’s so tempting to treat 2020 as a blip and to never look back, yet it would be foolish to abandon core lessons learnt, particularly as COVID continues to rumble on.” NAME, COMPANY

With so much continued uncertainty in the post COVID app ecosystem, the one thing that holds true is that mobile devices will remain an integral part of consumer life – usage may shift yet the demand will always remain. In addition to bringing in an expert like Liniad to help navigate these uncertain waters, remain cautious, pay close attention to trends and review your data with an open mind as we steer towards calmer waters ahead. 

COVID has wreaked economic havoc on all industries and the app ecosystem is no exception. Where some apps saw a surge in spending, many others saw a significant drop, spending shifts are constantly and rapidly changing so it might make more sense not to have revenue as a primary success KPI. Placing engagement at the forefront of your goals is a safe bet for turbulent times. If consumers are not able to buy, they can certainly engage which could place them in a position to spend further down the line. Mobile retention by way of initiatives such as in-app rewards could be a strong way to hold onto users and keep them on ice until we can get closer to what we once considered the norm. 

With so much continued uncertainty in the post COVID app ecosystem, the one thing that holds true is that mobile devices will remain an integral part of consumer life – usage may shift yet the demand will always remain. In addition to bringing in an expert like Liniad to help navigate these uncertain waters, remain cautious, pay close attention to trends and review your data with an open mind as we steer towards calmer waters ahead.