Here is AppGrowing's analysis of the global mobile App advertising markets in March 2024, based on advertising data from 25 global media platforms in 50 countries/regions.
01 Advertising Trends
In March 2024, the weekly ad volume of global apps was stable, basically above 4M. App volume showed a growing trend, with close to 50K products in week 5. Creative volume has grown significantly compared to February, above 1M per week.
In terms of a single day, the peaks of App ad volume and App volume both appeared in the latter half of the month. The peak of ad volume was on March 18th at 3.45M+. The peak of App volume was on March 21st at nearly 50K.
By region, the Top 3 in ad volume this month were North America, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Western Europe also accounted for more than 20% of ad volume. Specifically, the Top 5 regions were the USA, India, France, Germany, and Brazil, the same Top 4 as in February.
In terms of categories, Shopping ranked No. 1 with 21.3% of ads and 10.8% of apps, also ranking No. 1. Tools followed with 11.9% of ads and 10.5% of apps.
On average ads for a single app, News remains No. 1, but dropped further to 321.3, followed by Shopping, Books & Reference, Entertainment, and Social.
According to AppGrowing's data, the Top 6 media are Facebook, Instagram, Meta Audience Network, Messenger, AdMob, and YouTube, with Meta Ads dominating. Specifically for the categories on Facebook, Shopping, Tools, Entertainment, News, Books & Reference are the main forces, with Shopping accounting for 14.6% of the ad volume.
In terms of developer regions, China's Mainland continues to be the mainstay, with 22.8% of ad volume in March, and the USA is still the Top 1 in terms of app volume, with a 5.5% share. In addition, Brazilian and Indian developers ranked high in terms of ad volume and app volume share. Brazil ranked No. 2 in terms of app volume, while India took the No. 3 spot on both lists.
Pinduoduo and SHEIN took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots among the Top 10 Most Advertised App Publishers in March. News app developer Particle Media returned to the Top 3. Other publishers from China's Mainland that made it into the Top 10 include Alibaba, ByteDance, NEW READING, and Stary.
02 Most Advertised Apps
Among the most advertised apps in March, leading shopping apps remained massive, with four in the Top 10. Among them, Pinduoduo TEMU held on to the top spot. Overall, the categories of apps on the list are mainly Shopping, News, Books & Reference, Social, and Entertainment, and most of them are the leading apps we commonly see.
This month AppGrowing has selected four categories: Books & Reference, Health & Fitness, Productivity, and Social - Voice Chat Room.
Most of the Top 8 in the Books & Reference category are well-known leading apps, with Stary's Dreame holding steady at No. 1. A notable one is No. 5 AI Quran Majeed: Holy Quran, a reading app dedicated to reciting the Quran, with AI as a selling point.
The Top 3 Health & Fitness apps are Health Tracker, Flo, and BetterSleep, with features in the areas of health monitoring, women's care, and sleep monitoring, respectively. The Top 1 app in the Productivity category is Adobe Creative Cloud. AIGC app ChatBot AI came in 2nd. The rest of the apps on the list mostly feature PDF reading. On the list of Social-Voice Chat Room, Litmatch, which focuses on "soul social", took the Top 1 spot, followed by SoulChill, a similar app.
03 Case Analysis
Case 1: Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker
Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker is an app from China that focuses on recording women's periods. Its top 5 ad regions in March were Germany, the USA, Canada, the UK, and Switzerland, focusing on the European and American markets. The type of creatives is mainly video, accounting for 84.4% of the total.
As an app targeting female users, Flo's creative content features many women's appearances. Combined with real-life scenarios such as periods and pregnancy preparation, the videos hit the audience's needs and introduce the features. For example, the video starts with a woman struggling to prepare for pregnancy, which resonates with the target users. The actress talks about the difficulties of preparing for pregnancy, leading to the app's quick monitoring features. Also, the rich science is the reason why it attracts women to download it.
In the following video, the live-action actress throws out the question, "What should I do if I have a late period". Then it switches to the recommendation screen to introduce the features. The rich facial expressions bring her closer to the viewers, while the answers to practical questions are shown to attract downloads.
Case 2: Litmatch
Litmatch is a " Soul Social " app by Chinese developer Construct Tech, which is mainly aimed at Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan of China, and is targeted at a younger demographic. Last year, the app began to enter the Latin American market, but the main base is still in Southeast Asia. According to AppGrowing's data, Litmatch's Top 5 advertising regions in March were Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan of China. The type of creatives is mainly video, accounting for 95% of the total.
Creatively, Litmatch focuses on "Soul Social", so the ads focus on the emotional needs of modern people. For example, the video starts with sentimental images and text to accurately attract users who have fallen out of love and are single. Then, the scene shifts to a man and a woman chatting through the app. Their mutual encouragement and healing attract users to download the app to find a future partner.
In addition, inviting local KOLs for recommendations is also an effective way to quickly reach users in the target market. In the following video, a local KOL in Taiwan of China recommends the social app. The line "I recommend it even if it's risky" strengthens the emotion and arouses viewers' curiosity. The video doesn't describe the features too much, but only attracts new users with the slogan "Make good friends".
