Singapore – The latest joint data from measurement and analytics suite Adjust and mobile data analytics provider data.ai revealed that in-app spending amongst Japanese users for this year’s first quarter has ballooned up to $4.65 billion–an increase of 13% compared to the previous quarter. The data also notes that this expending is expected to exceed $17.7 billion in spend this year.

In terms of mobile gaming, Japan is making a slow but steady comeback in 2023 with 12% and 6% increases in installs and sessions, respectively, from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023. In Q1 2023, Japanese mobile gamers increased their spending on gaming apps significantly, with a 13% increase over Q4 2022. Puzzle games are extremely popular in Japan, accounting for 19% of all gaming sessions.

Meanwhile, Japan’s progression toward a cashless society continues with digital payment apps capturing 77% of install share and sessions increasing 7% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022. Meanwhile, crypto apps have exploded in popularity with significant growth in both installs and sessions, with a captive audience leading to a day 1 retention rate of 28% in Q1 2023. Overall fintech app sessions increased by 17% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022.

Lastly, e-commerce apps have showcased remarkable resilience, with deal discovery apps growing 24% YoY in 2022 and another 11% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022. Notably, marketplace apps achieved an impressive day 1 retention rate of 28% in Q1 2023, highlighting their strong appeal and user engagement. Although there was a dip in installs of e-commerce apps in general, sessions increased 5% YoY in 2022.

Toby Torii, territory director for Japan at data.ai, said, “As the industry continues to grow and user behavior shifts, building strong partnerships, leveraging innovative technologies and staying ahead of industry trends are key factors for unlocking tremendous growth opportunities. With the right approach, mobile marketers can take their campaigns to the next level and capitalize on this exciting market’s enormous potential.”

In addition, connected TV (CTV) is already a large part of mobile users’ journey. Currently, 70% of Japanese TV viewers have a CTV device, and CTV and OTT devices are expected to be owned by 30 million Japanese households by the end of 2023. This presents a wealth of opportunities for advertisers to reach new and engaged audiences, and to drive users from CTV apps to mobile devices or back to CTV apps themselves. 

Gijsbert Pols, director of connected TV and new channels at Adjust, said, “CTV campaigns are set to become a fixture in app marketers’ user acquisition strategies, and early movers in Japanese CTV advertising stand to benefit greatly. CTV offers better ad quality, a more captivated audience, precise targeting for users interests, measurement and optimization for engagement rates, impressions and click-through rates.”

Bangalore, India — Mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust has launched Adjust Datascape, a new advanced analytics solution designed to deliver business-critical KPIs and performance metrics faster and easier. With the new solution, Adjust aims to provide mobile app marketers with unified data and expanded visual context in order to extract meaningful insights and make smarter strategic marketing decisions in real-time. 

“Agility is more important than ever as app marketers are tasked with analyzing campaign data from an ever-increasing number of sources and acting on it immediately,” said the company.

Adjust believes that Datascape helps solve the said challenge by providing marketers with access to all of their data from network APIs, attributions, consented AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) installs and SKAdNetwork (SKAN) campaigns in one place — which it deems to be a unique approach among mobile measurement partners.

“A mobile app’s success in this dynamic industry depends on smart and fast decision-making,” said Simon ‘Bobby’ Dussart, the newly appointed CEO of Adjust.

“As an enterprise-ready solution, Datascape solves marketers’ needs to easily view and analyze what’s working, or what isn’t, across multiple campaigns. Having this overview of their business performance and this level of insights, all in one place, allows marketers to optimize their strategy and focus on growth,” adds Dussart.

Datascape enables marketers to customize dashboards and reports to visualize user growth and cohorts, summarize extensive data sets, and analyze SKAN data, and includes performance marketing metrics at a glance, compare and contrast filters to view results across all apps as well as a SKAdNetwork dashboard to learn which campaigns targeted to users acquired through Apple’s SKAN framework are driving the most installs.

The analytics solution also features side-by-side network, attribution, SKAN, and ATT data in different combinations in a single view as well as a monetization dashboard with full visibility of profit and revenue metrics through numerous partner integrations and data sources. 

California, USA – Global mobile marketing analytics platform, Adjust, has elevated Simon (Bobby) Dussart, its former chief customer officer (CCO), to be its new chief executive officer (CEO). The elevation comes after Adjust’s co-founder and former CEO, Paul H. Müller, steps into an advisory role capacity.

Dussart joined Adjust in 2014, as one of the company’s early team members, and has played an instrumental role in Adjust‘s transition from being a standalone mobile measurement partner (MMP) to the platform that powers marketers’ decision-making, while becoming a go-to for clients as CCO. He has also held several roles during his eight-year tenure, including serving as the head of solutions and integrations and as vice president of support. These are all laser-focused on supporting the platform’s customers and understanding the intricacies of Adjust‘s products to ensure they meet marketers’ evolving needs.

Prior to joining Adjust, he also held positions in software development at LaCIME Research Lab and BonGo Innovations, amongst others.

Commenting on his elevation, Dussart said “I look forward to this next chapter as we continue to develop innovative solutions that continue to address the needs of mobile marketers today — bringing added value to even more businesses across the globe, including accelerated growth in China and Southeast Asia, and continued leadership in EMEA and Japan.”

Adam Foroughi, the co-founder and CEO of AppLovin, which acquired Adjust in 2021, shared that Dussart started with Adjust very early and has been fiercely dedicated to the product and its innovation of it ever since. 

“He is passionate about meeting customers’ needs — keeping them at the centre of everything Adjust does — and has natural leadership ability. All of this makes him the perfect person to lead Adjust in this next chapter,” said Foroughi.

Meanwhile, Müller commented that Dussart has been a valuable and trusted partner since the formation of Adjust, with his unique mix of expertise at the intersection of technology development, customer success, and operational management.

“He has an acute understanding of clients’ needs, why they choose to Adjust over other MMPs, and how Adjust’s products are actually built, making him perfectly positioned to execute our vision of becoming the single set of solutions that empower mobile marketers in every aspect of their job,” said Müller.

Singapore – Global mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust has extended its current connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) service offering to include connected TV ad to its mobile measurement tool. The feature gives advertisers a complete view of the user journey from CTV ad view through to mobile app install, providing cross-device insights to help optimize campaigns and drive growth.

The addition of Adjust’s CTV to mobile measurement feature brings attribution data for mobile marketers into one place, enabling them to assess the performance of their marketing campaigns across all channels, including CTV and OTT. By leveraging Adjust’s multi-touch attribution, marketers can see the full impact of CTV advertising on their overall user acquisition strategy, helping prove return of investment (ROI).

The company’s latest feature complements its Connected TV App Measurement solution launched last year. Focused on helping marketers maximize the adoption of their OTT and CTV apps, CTV App Measurement includes integrations for all major CTV platforms including Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku.

Gijsbert Pols, lead product strategist at Adjust, said that the company remains committed to helping apps meet their users where they are, empowering them to serve engaging ads that can be confidently measured and attributed.

“As CTV grows, so does its influence as an advertising medium — transforming what’s broadly been thought of as an awareness tool into a key performance channel. It has become essential for marketers and developers to understand CTV’s role in the user journey,” Pols stated.

He added, “Historically, television has been an expensive advertising channel with ROI difficult to prove. However, with holistic CTV measurement, teams with leaner budgets can enter the space and spend efficiently, while also maximizing an innovative new channel.”

Singapore – The pandemic has paved the way for people to opt out utilizing digital experiences, including the usage of mobile applications. Under such categories are health and fitness apps, to which its digital lifestyle solutions have made their app sessions increase by 31% during H1 in 2021 globally, the latest insights from mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust shows.

The increase in app sessions are noted despite the gradual re-opening of gyms and fitness centers globally due to eased pandemic restrictions. Yet, health and fitness app installations have dropped by 24% during H1 of this year.

This is a large contrast with the previous Adjust statistics that showed that the aforementioned app installs of apps under that category saw a spike by 67% by March 2020, and sessions boosted by 48% during May 2020, an indication of online activity in these apps due to existing pandemic restrictions back then.

In terms of workout and fitness frequencies on these apps, the insights noted that Sunday was the most preferred day to workout during the week, with Friday being the least favorite. Meanwhile, in terms of peak weak performance, health and fitness global sessions were at peak during the first week of March last year, 9.1% above the H1 average.

“Although installs are not as impressive as last year, sessions are trending upward, suggesting that users are sticking with apps since adapting to taking care of their mental and physical health from home. The growth is expected to continue, but the key challenge for apps is to gain the competitive edge and acquire more high-LTV users,” according to April Tayson, regional vice president for INSEA at Adjust.

The pandemic has interrupted face-to-face social interactions, but it did not stop people from wanting to have social connections. Tinder recorded more than 3 billion swipes on March 29, 2020, which sets the highest single-day record in the history of the dating app. For Bumble, video and voice call usage has increased by 21 percent during the pandemic. As people stayed indoors due to state-imposed lockdowns, users are leveraging the messaging and video calling features of online dating apps to meet new people and expand their social circle.

With the increasing internet penetration rate, the Asia Pacific (APAC) market is catching up with other regions in terms of dating app usage. According to market research, APAC will show the highest growth rate by the year 2025. While the opportunities for growth in the online dating industry are significant, companies within the sector must take steps to know what works for mobile marketing in this emerging and highly-competitive market. A strategy that focuses on user acquisition, monetization, and retention will play a vital role in determining the success or failure of a dating app.

Knowing the app users’ behavior is a critical step. Online dating apps should find the right technology and leverage the data that they have to reach their target audience, and provide a user experience that is fun, unique and responsive. Brands that make data-driven decisions are more inclined to see a remarkable difference in parameters such as the number of users, session lengths, and engagement.

Here are some tips for marketers to improve their online dating app’s overall performance:

1. Find the right time to engage with users 

Anonymized user data from mobile measurement company Adjust’s top dating apps for the year 2020 shows that installs and sessions are highest on weekends. Installs begin to pick up on Fridays and are seen to be at the highest on Saturdays. Time spent within the apps is also significantly higher on weekends as shown in the spike of session length on Saturdays compared to other days of the week. Finding the right opportunity to engage with the target audience and users is crucial in improving installs and increasing user retention rates. By looking at data, online dating apps can adapt a marketing plan that can help achieve the desired results.

2. Keep the interest high

Session length spikes early for dating apps, which suggests that users of the app start looking at matches and interact with potential partners upon download. When compared with gaming or news apps, the session lengths increase as the users become more familiar with the game or begin to appreciate the benefits of the news app. However, for online dating apps, the initial buzz can wear off quickly and session length starts to drop off towards day 30. Online dating apps need to consider this difference in usage patterns to improve user engagement. Personalized, impactful, and perfectly-timed push notifications are a tried and tested approach that encourages and motivates users to come back into the app. By leveraging data, online dating apps can effectively segment users and tweak the frequency of the message to achieve optimal results.

3. Understand what brought the users to your app

Subscription is the primary monetization model for online dating apps. Unlike gaming or news, dating app users’ motivations are very different since the goal is to find a partner and leave the app. Investing in event tracking can help online dating apps understand the user’s overall app experience. Brands can measure the entire subscription funnel and leverage this data to build accurate lifetime value models that increase investment returns. It is essential to analyze the entire customer lifecycle – from what brought them into an app when they have activated their trial and the detailed journey behind each subscriber until they cancel and even reactivate.

4. Protect your app users

On forums and social media platforms, users of online dating apps complain about having their experiences ruined by fake accounts. Using bots, fraud actors are generating fake accounts on a big scale to be used for fake likes, views, and comments, and lure users into scams. Fake accounts are also being used to spread spam linked to other sites. Bots can take automatic actions and stay active for extended periods in the platform, which can cause substantial damage by interacting with many users.

To protect users, online dating apps need to ensure that there is a function within the app to report if the users have interacted with a bot. By installing this feature, users are able to help out in cleaning the app’s user base. Behavioral biometrics is the gold standard for bot detection.

Machine learning models that analyze various biometric indicators are so complex that it is almost impossible for fraudsters to spoof. By separating the patterns and behavior of real users from those of bad actors, online dating apps can ensure that users are protected.

With the pandemic drastically changing how people interact and with the growing acceptance of online dating apps, the online dating industry presents numerous growth opportunities. Dating apps aiming to make inroads in a highly competitive market must invest in maintaining a positive user experience, as well as building and sustaining a good reputation.

The article was written by April Tayson, Regional VP INSEA at Adjust.

Adjust is a global mobile marketing solutions firm.

Singapore – As more and more people are stuck in lockdown during the pandemic, over-the-top (OTT) mobile streaming has garnered mainstream success, new study from mobile app analytics platform Adjust shows.

According to the recently published data, 52.5% of consumers worldwide have used smartphones to stream more video content, and 12% of consumers are streaming less — which means four times more consumers are mobile streaming. 

In terms of streaming frequency, China led the survey, with around 93.8%of users admitting to do mobile streaming at least once a day. This is then followed by South Korea (86.2%), Singapore (83.7%), Turkey (91.9%), United States (69.4%), Japan (57.2%) and the United Kingdom (45.7%).

South Korea led the study’s data on willingness to spend a sizable amount for streaming and on-demand entertainment services, averaging to US$42.68 a month, compared to its Western counterparts, the United States (US$33.58) and the United Kingdom (USD$34.82).

“This drastic shift to routine mobile streaming around the world and across generations has created massive advertising opportunities and a new role for mobile analytics. By understanding how and when consumers stream, as well as which channels and campaigns deliver the highest marketing impact, the potential to build a large, loyal user-base with high lifetime value is virtually limitless,” said Gijsbert Pols, lead product strategist at Adjust.

The study also found out that more than three quarters (76%) of all respondents use their mobile phone while watching television, viewed as ‘second-screeners’, with this viewing behavior most pronounced in Singapore and China (both 85%), closely followed by the U.S. (83%).

Furthermore, social apps are the number one choice for second-screeners — favored by 65.4% of respondents, on average, followed by banking (54.9%) and gaming (44.9%). Second-screeners in APAC have a healthy appetite for food delivery apps, with use strongest in China (65.2%), Korea (36.6%) and Singapore (48.2%). 

Singapore – App marketing platform Adjust joins the TikTok Marketing Partner Program in order to optimize advertising visibility for advertisers in the short video-sharing platform.

The partnership includes integration of Adjust’s ‘Audience Builder’, enabling clients to export first-party data, such as audience groups, directly to TikTok from the Adjust dashboard. Adjust’s ‘Audience Builder’ helps advertisers retarget their campaigns based on focus groups such as age groups. As advertisers are armed with this data from audience segregation, marketers can run highly personalized campaigns to boost user engagement and loyalty, all while protecting their users’ data privacy.

The TikTok Marketing Partner Program is part of the TikTok for Business platform, and aims to provide marketing solutions designed to give brands and marketers the tools to be creative storytellers and be able to meaningfully engage with the TikTok community.

As a mobile measurement partner, Adjust enables advertisers create, optimize, target, and measure their ad campaigns on TikTok. To simplify campaign optimization, clients can link their TikTok account to view and edit TikTok campaign data directly in the Adjust Automate dashboard, another Adjust feature that allows advertisers to automate their mobile marketing campaigns. From there, advertisers can generate cross-app, cross-partner, and cross-network reports. 

“Finding and retaining the right users is critical, as many drop off after the first days of installing the app and competition for users’ eyeballs is fierce. That is why it is imperative for mobile advertisers to push the right messaging to the right audience at the right point in the marketing funnel,” said Andrey Kazakov, vice president of partnerships at Adjust

“We are excited to partner with TikTok to give marketers a simpler, more seamless way to segment their desired audiences, automate their campaigns, measure ad spend, and grow their apps,” Kazakov added.

In November last year, Adjust also joined Adobe’s Exchange Partner Program to boost its customer experience (CX) analytics.

Digital applications have been a key enabler in creating a connected digital life for consumers. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the adoption of digital applications and placing more focus on online shopping channels and digital payments, holiday shopping and Christmas rush might be a little different this year. As the holiday season approaches, we are seeing a fundamental shift in social interactions, digital entertainment and shopping habits.

Online shopping continues to grow year-over-year. In 2019, Forrester estimates that 56 percent of shoppers in Southeast Asia (SEA) will make their purchases online.

With mobile as the main channel used by shoppers, the same study predicts that 62 percent of online retail sales in SEA will come from mobile purchases. This presents opportunities for brands to reach more than 150 million online shoppers from various markets across the region including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Online shopping statistics

When developing a marketing strategy for Christmas, it’s essential to check online Christmas shopping statistics and know how this will impact your overall strategy. For instance, due to the pandemic, the latest Retail Sales Index and Food & Beverage Index from the Department of Statistics in Singapore shows a – 5.7 percent decline on total retail sales compared to last year. However, items under Recreational Goods, Furniture and Household and Computer and Telecommunications category have a positive increase in sales this year.

 Digital payments for frictionless shopping

Online shopping is also gaining momentum in the region due to the rise of digital payments. According to Deloitte’s report, Indonesians and Singaporeans are amongst the highest proportions of people who shopped online and retail shops that prefer digital payments. Digital payments are fast and frictionless. As more merchants adopt digital payment channels, e-commerce apps must also ensure that they leverage digital payment channels to respond to the demands of the consumers.

Here are some of the best practices to keep in mind when developing your e-commerce marketing campaign for the holiday season. 

1. Free shipping
Adding unexpected costs at the final stages of the user journey may frustrate your customers and cause them to churn. This is why free shipping may be worth the expense. Entitling your users to free shipping during the holiday season is an effective gift to shoppers, and may give you the edge over your competitors.

2. Bundles and gift guides
Creating bundle offers is an effective way to autonomously upsell to your customers while also giving them a good deal on grouped purchases. Bundles are also a smart way to turn inexpensive items into a more significant gift recommendation for your users. Alternatively, you can include a ‘recently bought with’ function on your website or app to encourage multi-item sales.

You can also create curated gift guides to help shoppers with their search, combining best-selling items, surplus stock and discounted items.

3. Offer gift cards
Gift cards are a simple but effective way to generate revenue during the holiday season. For best results, gift cards should be purchasable and can be used digitally and in-store. This accounts for the preferences of all gift-givers and those who have received your gift vouchers.

4. Set up a themed landing page
Get your shoppers into the Christmas spirit by directing them to a Christmas-themed landing page – where you can share your curated gift guides and bundle options, and encourage customers to proceed with their purchases.

5. Branded hashtags
Using a branded, Christmas-themed hashtag across your social media channels is a smart way to raise brand awareness while also providing app users with a means to share their purchases on social media. Examples of Christmas-themed hashtags by brands include #SwishUponAStar (Lush cosmetics) and #BarbourChristmas (Barbour).

This also allows your social media team to gather user-generated content (USG), which can then be shared and retweeted.

 From a retailer’s point of view, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Despite the challenges of the year, the Christmas season is a great opportunity for e-commerce app marketers to boost sales, build their audience and reward loyal customers.

The author is April Tayson, Vice President for Adjust India and Southeast Asia. Adjust is an app marketing analysis platform, and provides services such as attribution and measurement, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, as well as automation tools for mobile apps.

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Singapore – The Asia Pacific region is seeing a surge on ad fraud cases this year, as fraudsters are increasingly faking organic metrics, a new report from app marketing platform Adjust shows.

From a general perspective, fraud rates in August this year have increased by 214.86%, compared to statistics recorded last year.

East Asian countries of China and Japan clocked a 65.6% and 60.7% rise respectively, with fake users or online bots emerging as the most prevalent type of fraud in their jurisdictions.

“It is absolutely vital that marketers can trust their data. Without having a clear view, it is simply impossible to make strategic, data-driven decisions. Ultimately, fraud is and will remain to be a challenge we see in the industry, however by implementing the right tools, we will be able to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters and ensure transparency remains a top priority,” says Andreas Naumann, director of fraud prevention at Adjust

A closer look into the Southeast Asian region reveals that 39.11% of the fraud was from software development kit (SDK) spoofing, and 18.95% of them were created by fake bots. By context, SDK spoofing is defined as the creation of legitimate installs of a certain software/app to consume the advertiser’s budget.

“It’s crucial that marketers implement solutions such as Adjust’s free-to-use SDK Signature, which combats this fraud scheme. The reality is that fraud prevention solutions are the only sure way to eliminate fraud, which is why in 2016, Adjust launched the first ad fraud prevention filters in the market and spearheaded the industry-wide movement against fraud,” stated April Tayson, regional vice president for Adjust India and Southeast Asia 

In a statement provided to MARKETECH APAC, Tayson notes that with the approach of the holidays, advertisers need to see the balance of spending ‘big’ on their advertising budget, and the actual data they gathered from customer analytics and attribution.

April Tayson, VP for India & SEA Headshot
April Tayson, Regional Vice President for Adjust India and Southeast Asia

“There are plenty of other best practices well worth incorporating into your Christmas marketing strategy, such as increasing your retargeting spend. By targeting users who have shown interest in your products, retargeting campaigns can be extremely effective when combined with attractive limited-time offers. A discount may be the deciding factor for users who have already clicked on a product page or abandoned their cart,” Tayson stated.

She also added, “Marketers should also be optimizing every step in the conversion funnel to ensure customers have a seamless user experience during the sales period. If a portion of customers are getting stuck in the user funnel, this will prevent you from optimizing your revenue. This is an important step throughout the entire year, but increased revenue opportunities during the holiday season make it a critical step at this time of year.”

Furthermore, Tayson stated that for companies strategizing their plans for 2021, brands would need to focus on both sides of their advertising strategy: saving advertising budget from fraud attacks and prevention of future frauds, not just detection.

Organic VS Paid Reject Installs
An infographic showing the comparison of rejected install statistics between organic and paid advertising campaigns (Courtesy of Adjust)

“Using fraud prevention filters is the only way to stop fraud in its tracks, helping you save your UA budget and keeping your data sets clean and reliable. From there, you’ll be able to acquire better and more valuable users while identifying your best-performing channels. It’s also important your fraud prevention filters are based on prevention and not just detection. Proactive fraud detection means this fraudulent traffic is cut off at the source, and you avoid having to trawl through your data to find the fraudulent installs and deal with chargebacks,” Tayson concluded.