Data from over 500 app marketing professionals finds 58% of marketers are chasing more aggressive KPI targets, while 80% expect their ad spend to stay the same or increase in 2024

Liftoff, the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, has published the findings of its 2024 App Marketer Survey, which analyzes responses from app marketing professionals across a number of top companies worldwide. It compiles input from more than 500 marketers working with monthly ad budgets ranging from $50,000 to over $1,000,000 across multiple regions and app verticals.

The 2024 App Marketer Survey provides a preliminary look into how app marketing professionals are responding to pivotal challenges to the mobile ecosystem, such as user privacy, cost, and macroeconomic factors. It also reveals future ad spend expectations and perceptions of channel and ad tech innovations, while additionally offering a comprehensive look at campaign performance in 2023.

Key findings include:

KPIs are more vigorous due to an uncertain economic climate 

Nearly 60% of respondents are chasing more aggressive KPI targets compared to 12 months ago, and 42% of respondents are working with a larger number of partners to reach those KPIs. That said, 47% of respondents said they are reaching or overperforming KPI targets, an increase of 6% from last year’s survey.

Budgets and resources are growing to meet these KPIs

43% of respondents based in EMEA and 44% of respondents in APAC said their budgets have increased, compared to just 35% in the Americas. Overall, 80% of respondents said they expect their ad spend to stay the same or increase next year, with self-attributing networks (SAN) and ad networks as their top spend priorities. Over half of respondents listed organic/viral and influencer as channels where they plan to increase resources.

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Despite a year of ups and downs, marketers are generally optimistic about the future

While growth is slowing, we found that app marketers are slightly more likely than last year to feel neutral or upbeat about the industry’s current state. 60–70% of respondents in all regions feel ‘the same’ or ‘better’ than 12 months ago when asked about their outlook for the industry in 2024. That said, there are still challenges in gaming, with 38% of game marketers saying they feel ‘somewhat’ or ‘significantly’ worse than 12 months ago.

Challenges from ATT still loom – but marketers are adapting 

In Liftoff’s 2022 App Marketer Survey, 64% of respondents reported a negative impact from ATT on their UA efforts, and only 12% reported a positive impact. This year marked a notable difference, with only 44% of respondents reporting a negative impact and nearly 25% of respondents reporting a positive impact. When asked about the common challenges ATT presented, 42% of respondents were neutral or disagreed about ATT causing rapid changes to strategy, a sign that marketers may be adapting to the challenges posed by ATT.

Over a third of respondents are unfamiliar with SKAN 4

When we asked respondents in last year’s App Marketer Survey about how familiar they were with Apple’s spec for its SKAdNetwork (SKAN 4), only 47% of app marketers reported they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ familiar with it. This year’s survey marks an improvement, with 66% of respondents reporting understanding – but it still means over a third of respondents aren’t versed in SKAN 4!

Joey Fulcher, Global VP, Accelerate at Liftoff, said:

“The app marketing industry has faced unprecedented challenges in the past two years, but we’re also seeing innovations in tackling them. Our 2024 survey offers an indispensable look at how mobile marketing professionals are responding to industry changes and where they plan to allocate ad spend in 2024.”

Methodology

The Liftoff 2023 App Marketer Survey is based on over 500 responses from global app marketing professionals across gaming (54%) and non-gaming (46%) app verticals, with respondents based in APAC (27%), the Americas (32%), and EMEA (41%). Respondents work with monthly advertising budgets of from $50,000 to over $1,000,000.

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