App Marketer Survey

Jan, 2023 App

Marketer

Survey

A Liftoff Report | 2022

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Contents

Taking the Pulse of

500+ App Marketers

Survey Highlights

Introduction & Methodology

Mobile Marketing Challenges

Becoming a Privacy-First Industry

Growth Opportunities

Survey Summary

2

3

4

7

14

22

29

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Survey Highlights

3

How do app marketers feel about the past year? Almost

60% have a positive or neutral view of 2022.

A majority of industry professionals (59%) have more

aggressive KPIs than they did in 2021. But a little less than

half (48%) of respondents are struggling to reach those

targets.

Privacy is the central theme of this report—43% of all

respondents cite user privacy as their top challenge of

the past year, and the biggest issue of 2023.

Marketers are planning to spend more in 2023: 52% say

they will increase their overall ad budget. Only 12%

anticipate a reduced ad budget in the next year.

Our survey reveals a divide in expectations about the

future. 37% have a positive outlook, just one percentage

point more than those who feel negatively (36%) about

the year ahead.

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Introduction &

Methodology

4

What will advertising be like in 2023? What are my—and my

competitor’s—biggest challenges? And what do we make of new privacy

initiatives? We all have similar questions about how the industry is doing, and

it’s rare to find a resource that offers any real, deep insights into the app

marketing world at large.

eMarketer

tells us mobile ad spending worldwide will be $452.26 billion by the end of 2022,

and
Sensor Tower

predicts in-app spending will reach $233 billion by 2026. While bird’s-eye

views like these are helpful, they can also feel far above the day-to-day issues most

marketers face. And while they’re easy to cite, these statistics lack the nuanced perspectives

that only industry professionals can provide.

To take the pulse of the mobile marketing industry after a momentous year, we conducted

our first major survey, compiling responses from over 500 mobile marketing professionals

globally. The resulting report offers a detailed look at what it’s like to run mobile marketing

campaigns for an app right now—and what marketers expect to happen in the future.

We asked marketers questions ranging from the impact of App Tracking Transparency (ATT)

to their knowledge of SKAN 4, to changes in ad campaign budgets. We were also curious to

know where app marketers are planning to spend their ad budgets next year.

Whether you’re running a one-person mobile marketing operation or managing a team with

millions of dollars to spend per month, Liftoff’s 2022 App Marketer Survey offers a rare

snapshot of what your mobile marketing peers are thinking—and doing—as they head into

2023.

This report is based

on data from:

500+

Survey Responses

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

About the Survey Respondents

5

15% N. AMERICA

10% LATAM

10-249

Avg. company size

5-9

Avg. team size

37% APAC

39% EMEA

Location

Job level

Monthly budget

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

About the Survey Respondents

6

App Category*

*Many respondents

work in multiple

categories

38%

Gaming

Only

Apps Published

Mobile

Marketing

Challenges

The State of App Marketing in 2022

KPIs and Budgets

How Are Marketers Buying Ads?

2023 Challenges

What Do Marketers Do Every Day?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Marketing has been made tougher

by a number of different factors,

and we wanted to gauge how

issues from privacy to industry

consolidation have affected user

acquisition experts. Our survey

started by asking marketers how

they feel about the state of app

marketing following a year of

dramatic change.

The State of App

Marketing in 2022

We found a roughly 60% versus 40% split

between positive and negative sentiment.

Although the highest percentage of

respondents (36%) feel that the past 12

months have been “somewhat worse,” 58%

of marketers felt their job had stayed the

same or improved in the past year.

8

“Compared to 12 months ago, how do you feel about the state of app marketing?”

(All respondents)

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

A breakdown by app category

reveals that non-gaming

marketers are feeling more upbeat

about the previous year. A sizeable

65% of non-gaming respondents

reported a positive or neutral

outlook on 2022.

9

“Compared to 12 months ago, how do you feel about the state of app marketing?”

(Gaming vs. Non-gaming marketers)

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Every company uses key

performance indicators (KPIs) to

measure their success, but do

marketers think they’re on target, or

have their objectives adjusted in the

past year?

Shifting Targets

and Squeezed

Budgets

By asking app marketers how they are performing, how their KPIs have shifted, and if their

budgets have increased or decreased, we can better understand how the industry is

weathering the times.

10

●
Despite recent dips, it’s noteworthy that the majority (59%) of industry professionals

have more aggressive targets than the previous year.

●
KPIs grow along with budget size—65% of respondents with budgets over $500K say

they have “more aggressive” goals.

●
While privacy changes add a layer of complexity to reaching KPI targets, app

marketers seem confident in their ability to achieve their goals.

KPIs

KPI Performance

Budget

56%
have more

aggressive KPI

targets

17%
have less

aggressive targets

33%
are reaching

their KPIs

46%
are close to

hitting their KPIs

31%
have a larger

budget than last

year

37%
have a smaller

budget than last year

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

We wanted to understand how

user acquisition professionals

approached ad space in the past

year. Given combined budget

constraints and more aggressive

KPIs, we predicted that marketers

would be working with fewer

partners.

How Are Marketers

Buying Their Ads?

However, 81% of those surveyed report

that they’re using the same amount of

partners or more.

This consistency could be a direct

response to privacy changes.

Self-attributing networks (SANs) appear

to have been impacted the most by ATT

coming into effect. App marketers are

responding by either continuing to

spend at pre-ATT levels or by

diversifying, spreading their bets across

multiple channels.

11

Ad networks are currently the place where most marketers purchase their ads, with 69% citing

them as a top priority.

Broken down by ad budgets above and below $500K, advertisers with over $500K per month

to spend view demand-side platforms (DSPs) as their second-place priority. For marketers

with less budget, SANs are the second-tier priority.

How has the number of partners changed in

12 months? (Overall)

How do you currently buy advertising?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Every day could bring a new

challenge for mobile app

marketers—at least, that’s what it can

feel like. For example,

industry-changing updates to user

privacy continue to roll on, and a

global recession could be on the

horizon. We asked industry players

what they think will be the main

challenges for the year ahead, out of

seven different categories.

Ranking Industry

Challenges

12

●
A total of 43% of respondents select user privacy as their top challenge.

●
Macroeconomic factors (29%), acquisition costs (27%), and SKAN adoption (25%) all

group closely together as mid-tier issues.

●
Ability to scale (17%), web3 (12%), and industry consolidation (10%) rank as low-tier

challenges for the industry.

How do you rank these industry

challenges by importance?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

App marketers have a varied to-do

list. To determine which tasks are

getting the most attention, we asked

what app marketers prioritize on a

weekly basis.

What Do

Marketers Do

Every Day?

13

●
35% of respondents say campaign analysis is their top focus.

●
Campaign management is the second highest priority for 31% of respondents.

●
Creatives receive less attention, with 14% of respondents choosing “designing ads” as

their most important priority. Only 9% pick testing as their top priority.

Due to ATT and other privacy initiatives, user acquisition managers are trying to understand

the effectiveness of their campaigns with limited data. In this context, increased focus on

ongoing management and analysis is no surprise.

However, we think marketers should put more focus on discovering new creatives, as do

Mobile Heroes. Read
Danika Wilkinson’s
, Product Manager at Socialpoint, blog,
“Making Ad

Creative the Core of Your Mobile Marketing Strategy”
to learn why.

How do you rank your weekly tasks in order of priority?

Becoming a

Privacy-First

Industry

Effects
of Privacy Changes

App Tracking Transparency

SKAN 4

GAID

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Mobile marketers have had a lot of

time to digest the recent user privacy

push by both platforms and

regulators, but evaluating the effects

of these decisions is a relatively new

prospect. To uncover current

sentiment around how privacy is

changing the industry, we asked our

audience to what extent they agree

or disagree that privacy changes

have been a good thing for both app

marketers and app users.

Gauging the

Effects of Privacy

Changes

15

How strongly do you agree or disagree that recent privacy changes (e.g. ATT)

have been a good thing for marketers/users?

●
Respondents report a clear split between what’s good for marketers and what’s good

for users.

●
Only 25% agree that privacy changes are a good thing for app marketers.

●
Meanwhile, a whopping 59% agree that the changes have been beneficial for app

users.

App marketers will need to get creative about how they execute and measure user

acquisition campaigns going forward. Many cite a lack of data as a significant barrier, but

marketers also say they are up for the challenge and are actively exploring innovative ways

to attract new users.

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Since 2021, privacy changes brought

about by ATT have transformed the

industry. Allowing users to choose

what they share has substantially

limited the volume and variety of

data available to marketers. We

wanted to find out marketers really

think about this seismic shift.

App Tracking

Transparency

in Detail

16

When asked how ATT changes impacted user

acquisition campaigns specifically, a majority

(64%) of app marketers say that ATT has had

a negative impact on their user acquisition

campaigns. Only 12% report a positive impact.

●
For most, the lack of available data is the top concern. Without easily accessible

information, 73% of marketers report feeling left in the dark when making key decisions.

●
Equally concerning are the increasing costs associated with the lack of data. 72% cite

this as their biggest issue.

●
67% of marketers encountered a rapid about-face in strategic decision-making, but

only 55% of respondents changed their KPIs as a result.

What made ATT

challenging?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

17

●
ATT changes impacted spending on iOS campaigns far more than those on Android.

●
A striking 47% report increasing spend on Android since the rollout of ATT.

●
Only 20% report spending more on iOS, though 35% say they spend about same

amount on the platform.

Ultimately, marketers support the idea of increased privacy, even if the new conditions

created difficulties in their day-to-day operations.

We asked marketers whether they agree with the statement, “As an industry, we have

become too dependent on the granularity of performance data to accurately gauge

campaign success.” Well over 70% of app marketers either strongly or somewhat agree with

this statement. Just 10% disagree.

iOS

Android

“As an industry, we have become too dependent on the granularity of performance data to

accurately gauge campaign success.”

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

At the time of conducting the survey,

Apple had announced its plan to

release a new spec for SKAdNetwork

(SKAN 4). In anticipation of the

update, we asked marketers how

familiar they are with the update and

how they would rank SKAN 4 features

in order of importance to them.

What’s the Status

Quo of SKAN 4?

18

Only 47% of marketers report some level of familiarity with SKAN 4. The majority of respondents

have little to no familiarity with new developments. Many marketers may feel that they have

much to learn about the upcoming change, or they could be experiencing a sense of burnout

from multiple successive updates.

How familiar are you with SKAN 4?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

19

Marketers are unsure whether SKAN 4 will be helpful or not. Only 24% of respondents believe

SKAN 4 will have a positive impact on UA. 25% “don’t know,” and 26% remain neutral.

When asked to rank SKAN 4 features, marketers rated “Multiple conversions” and “Hierarchical

conversion values” equally as “very valuable.”

How will SKAN 4 affect user acquisition on iOS?

Which new SKAN 4 feature is most important to you?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

In March 2022, Google shared that

Android will deprecate its user

identifier for advertisers—the GAID

(Google advertising ID)—by 2024.

We wanted to know what marketers

thought about Google’s shift and

whether they felt prepared for it.

Are You Prepared

for Google’s

Privacy Changes?

20

How familiar are you with GAID changes?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

21

Are you preparing for GAID deprecation?

●
Familiarity with GAID is relatively high, with 62% being at least somewhat familiar with the

topic.

The majority (51%) of industry professionals agree that GAID developments will have at least

a somewhat negative impact on user acquisition. Only 12% expect a positive impact.

●
Despite anticipating that GAID changes will have negative effects, 70% report little or no

preparation at present. Only 4% report “significant preparation” and effort right now.

How will GAID deprecation affect UA?

Growth

Opportunities

How to Spend Your Ad Budget

The Future of User Acquisition

Which Channel Wins?

Final Thoughts on the Future

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Where are marketers going to spend

their campaign budgets? While 36%

plan to keep their ad spend the same

for next year, 52% say they will

increase their spend in 2023. Only 12%

expect to reduce their ad budgets in

the coming year.

How to Spend

Your Ad Budget

23

How do you anticipate your ad spend budget will change in 2023?

9%

We will spend somewhat less

3%

We will spend much less

9%

We will spend somewhat less

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

24

Analyzing spend allocation across media partnerships reveals that ad networks are

neck-and-neck with SANs for the top spot—each received 38% of votes for top priority.

Meanwhile, DSPs received the largest share of second-priority votes at 30%.

How do you rank your media partnerships by priority?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Beyond strict user acquisition

channels, marketers can get the word

out in a variety of ways, from

influencer marketing
to community

building. We selected a few popular

channels to gauge where marketers

are putting their ad dollars now and

where they expect to allocate ad

spend in the future.

The Future of

User Acquisition

25

●
Currently, 68% of app marketers prioritize organic/viral alternative ad channels.

●
Influencer marketing is a close second, with 57% of marketers selecting it as their top

focus.

●
Community-building comes in at a distant third, at 34%.

Which of the following paid advertising channels are you currently using?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

26

Looking at future spend, social media is an increasingly important trend for UA managers:

●
Influencer (53%) and organic/viral (52%) are the top two channels that app marketers

plan to increase spend on in the coming year.

●
With 30% of marketers listing it as an area of investment for next year, community

building drops down four percentage points from current trends (34%).

●
Television and out-of-home are ranked equally in priority, with 18% of the votes each.

Which channels are you planning to increase resources for in 2023?

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Of all the channels marketers are

experimenting with, we looked at

three in detail: TV, influencer

marketing and web3. We asked

marketers what they expected

competitors to invest in and whether

they plan to match those efforts.

Which Channel

Wins?

27

●
We discovered that marketers are most focused on influencer marketing. Overall, 61%

of respondents agree that they and their competitors will spend more on influencers.

●
Latin America-based marketers are the most interested in influencer marketing: 76%

agree that competitors will increase spend on the channel.

●
Of all regions, North America is the most bullish about TV. 33% of marketers in the

region say they plan to increase spend on TV advertising. The average—25%—is

brought down by lack of interest in EMEA, where only 19% of marketers plan to increase

their focus on TV.

“I believe my competitors will
increase

television
spend through 2023 and

beyond, so I should too.”

“I believe my competitors will
increase

influencer marketing
spend through 2023

and beyond, so I should too.”

“I believe my competitors will
increase

web3 focus
through 2023 and beyond, so

I should too.”

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

We began the survey by asking

marketers how they felt about the

previous 12 months. To close, we

asked about their expectations for the

future.

What Does the

Future Hold?

28

Though seemingly optimistic, the results are essentially split. Positive sentiments (37%)

are just one percentage point ahead of negative ones (36%).

●
Few marketers have extreme opinions. Only 12% of total respondents believe the state

of marketing will be much better or much worse. Meanwhile, 26% do not expect

anything to shift at all.

●
Marketers are more positive about 2023 than about the previous year. In our first chart

of the report, only 22% said that marketing in the present day is better than 12 months

ago. But 37% think the future is bright for marketing, 15 percentage points higher than

when asked about the past year.

“As a marketer, I feel the next 12 months will be…”

2022 APP MARKETER SURVEY

Survey

Summary

29

If there’s anything to learn from our survey, it’s that the future of marketing is

still unclear. We know that app marketing is having a turbulent year—Covid-19

winding down, macroeconomic changes, and industry headwinds all

combine to make life more difficult for marketers.

But that’s not to say marketers are downbeat—our survey reveals that they’re becoming more

adaptive and rising to the challenge. Most respondents have more aggressive targets (59%)

than the previous year, and 52% will raise their advertising budgets in 2023. That spend will

also be distributed across various inventory types and channels, even as the industry

consolidates.

Privacy changes add another layer of complexity. Though most marketers favor improved

privacy for users—even if it makes their jobs harder—marketers do want more data. Without

readily available data, 73% of marketers report feeling left in the dark when trying to make

important decisions.

The industry may develop solutions in the next few years to deal with this data deficit. But, for

now, marketers are turning to less trackable channels, such as influencer marketing, to reach

new audiences. We’ll see in our next survey whether the switch is a long-term trend.

Marketers are split on what the future holds. The mobile app economy is evolving at an

accelerated rate. When marketers look back at this period, they will likely see a time of rapid,

unexpected change. Trying to predict what’s next isn’t easy—but increased pressure usually

gives rise to more innovation and, we hope, even better outcomes.

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