Looks like budget cuts have reached the e-commerce SaaS industry…
According to a new AppsFlyer report, ad spend for e-commerce apps went down by more than 50% globally compared to last year.
$6.1B spent by eCommerce app marketers on user acquisition worldwide from July 2021 to July 2022. However, this represented a significant 50% drop in spend year over year due to rising iOS media cost, post Covid relative return to normalcy, and other macro economic conditions.
Rise and fall: E-commerce app installs dropped 5% on Android and 4% on iOS worldwide. India was the only market that saw a spike in traffic.
Meanwhile, the iOS cost-per-install (CPI)—the main metric for app advertising—rose by 60% compared to last year and is now $4.20 on average. Ouch.
Android’s CPI fell during the same time by 15%.
Holding on: Despite higher CPI, iOS saw just a 5% decline in retention compared to Android’s 13%.
Why we care: Advertising e-commerce apps seems expensive these days, especially if you have a smaller budget.
Android appears to be cheaper than iOS, but that could indicate advertisers are moving away from Google Play due to less effective results.
Either way, now may be a good time to add new promotional channels… or get a bigger wallet.