Here is how Indian app marketers can make the most of this festive season
With consumer spending seeing a huge surge on the back of the forthcoming Indian festive season, The Drum gets Sanjay Trisal, general manager of India, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand at AppsFlyer, to give an exclusive peep into how app marketers can make the most of the opportunity.
What is the game plan for app marketers this festive season?
The next few weeks are going to be marked by the hectic festive celebratory buzz and consumer spending in India, which is good news for the economy that had been on a tight leash in the past few months in the wake of the pandemic and several lockdowns. Companies and brands have been working hard to make the most of this ‘good time’ that has arrived.
With consumers having moved to the digital medium like never before, apps are the new buzzword – and also the chosen vehicle for most consumers’ daily transactions. To help marketers win in this highly-competitive marketplace, leading player AppsFlyer has launched the ‘Indian Festive Season 2021’ report, in collaboration with Facebook, to help app marketers plan their strategy well this festive season. The Drum shares some of the key insights and takeaways:
Key findings
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The report looked at 195 of the top apps across the two categories most relevant to the holidays – shopping and food & drink, with shopping subdivided into e-commerce, groceries and marketplace apps and focusing on specific sales and promotions during the festive season. 2020 festive trends and early trends from Q1 and Q2 of 2021 have been looked at to mine the future trends.
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Interestingly across these 195 apps during this period, more than 544m installs, over 23.8bn app opens, 1.76bn retargeting conversions and 681,000 pre-installs were registered. It is no surprise that the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for online shopping apps owing to their ability to provide products safely at home.
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There was a 72% increase in organic installs from February 2021 to June 2021.
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The number of users buying staples online as compared to pre-Covid-19 saw a 1.43x increase.
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49% of people think it’s essential to have information in their local language. In comparison, 27% of people want to see content in their local language from brands on Facebook/Instagram during the holiday season.
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During the 2020 festive season, Android’s market share for India was a whopping 92.2% and it continues to reign supreme in India. An interesting trend observed is while most shoppers continue to be on Android, iOS has also witnessed a significant climb, with Apple doubling its market share in India. As per the findings, iOS users spend 2.5x more than Android users, making it a substantial segment for marketers to focus on.
The expert speaks
The Drum gets Sanjay Trisal, general manager, AppsFlyer INSEA/ANZ, to share the key takeaways for the app marketers:
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Remarketing will be big. With the rise in new users, remarketing will emerge as one of the highest priorities for Android app marketers to retain users.
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Focus on branded campaigns and owned media. Branded campaigns improve ad recollection and provide marketers with a strong top of the funnel. Marketers can’t ignore owned media outlets when it comes to iOS. They should be more bullish about it.
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Find the right mix of owned and paid media. It will be critical for marketers to create the right balance between owned and paid media spend to drive high ROI.
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Local language strategy key for tier II and III cities. India is a language-driven market where the local language differs from one state to another, and marketers have to think hyper-local to engage with users across the country. Tier II and III cities nest most consumers during the festive season due to migrant population flow, and it will be critical to engage them with content in their local language. With tier II and III cities accounting for 86% of the total non-organic installs (NOIs), app marketers have a massive opportunity to leverage vernacular content to reach and create strong connections in this underserved market.