The Skai 5: Five Reasons to Boost Your Apple Search Ads for the Holidays

Even though this year has been one that many industries would rather forget, 2020 has been especially good for Mobile. Time spent, total users, total downloads…all up. Almost every category—including shopping, grocery, gaming, and dating—are seeing these big gains. 

With app usage up, the value that an app can have to the enterprise is increasing as well. That means more competition and a more crowded space. For app developers trying looking to promote their app, it’s hard to imagine any better option than Apple Search Ads when 65% of iOS App Store downloads happen after a search on the store.

5 Reasons to Boost Your Apple Search Ads for the Holidays

With the holiday season quickly approaching, there are a few big trends that app marketers should know which may encourage them to consider increasing their investment with Apple Search Ads. In today’s post, we review some of these trends and it might be the perfect time to leverage this mobile paid search channel for the holidays. 

Apple Search Ads for the Holidays Reason #1: Apps are having their moment in 2020

2020 has been a huge year for mobile apps due to the pandemic. Consumers are spending more time at home and trying to accomplish everyday tasks through their mobile devices such as grocery shopping, staying fit with exercise classes, and going to the doctor. But, also, gaming and entertainment apps have seen an uptick in downloads and usage as people simply try to fight the boredom.

Mobile app usage grew 40% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020—even hitting an all-time high of over 200 billion hours worldwide in April. 

They say that advertisers follow eyeballs and the eyeballs are definitely moving to mobile. 

Apple Search Ads for the Holidays Reason #2: App usage spikes during the holidays

Mobile apps installs and usage tend to go up during the holidays. With days off from work and school, people turn to mobile apps for all sorts of things. Dating, gaming, news, and especially shopping apps all see increased activity at the end of the year.

And this holiday season is going to be historical as some experts predict that users inQ4 2020 will spend 1 billion hours on Android devices alone, a sharp, 50% increase from Q4 2019. 

If app marketers ever wanted to maximize their advertising investment, it would seem that the next three months are going to be the time to do it!

Apple Search Ads for the Holidays Reason #3: It’s going to be the biggest ecommerce shopping season ever

McKinsey reported recently that earlier this year, in just 3 months, ecommerce penetration in the US grew the same amount as the previous 10 years. Even though most stores are now open across the country and essential items are readily accessible, this shift in consumer shopping persists. Of course, ecommerce had already been on a rather strong trajectory pre-COVID, but it seems that once people discovered just how easy it was to order groceries and other household items from their couch, that this behavior has stuck.

According to eMarketer, retail mobile commerce sales alone are projected to reach $314 billion this year—44.3% of total retail ecommerce sales. 

During the holiday season, retail sales spike. If you’re an app marketer and aren’t maxing out your Apple Search Ads—why not? 

Apple Search Ads for the Holidays Reason #4: Stores closing on Thanksgiving will drive shoppers to apps

While Thanksgiving has traditionally been one of the biggest in-store shopping days of the year, it looks like this year is going to be a bit slower than usual. If consumers are not so keen on going to physical stores during an average day of the pandemic, it seems highly unlikely that they’ll want to brave crowded brick & mortar locations this year. 

In fact, some of the biggest US retailers are already taking precautions and announced that they are closing their stores on Thanksgiving including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Ulta, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

While this may seem risky, the truth is that these companies know that ecommerce can carry the weight based on the performance numbers so far this year. The Skai white paper, Mind the (Data) Gap: What CPGs need for retail-intelligent advertising and ecommerce success reports some this evidence:

“Target’s digital sales increased by 275% in April, with some weeks topping seven times the typical volume. And Walmart’s grocery app was the top download among all retail apps downloads in April up 460% vs. its daily average in January 2020.”

Many of those Thanksgiving shoppers will be turning to mobile apps this year to find what they need when the stores are closed. App marketers may want to go really big with Apple Search Ads in the days & weeks leading up to the national holiday. 

Apple Search Ads for the Holidays Reason #5: Because they work

Apple Search Ads work for the same reason that paid search works—because they reach users at the very moment with highly relevant ads when they are looking for something. 

According to Apple’s own data:

If you’re an app marketer, Apple Search Ads are one of the most valuable channels in your media portfolio. It’s less about why and more about how much to spend when it comes to this ad format.

Apple Search Ads + Skai Apps

Reach your best mobile users and drive acquisition with the only complete mobile advertising platform. Skai Apps is the all-in-one mobile advertising platform, designed for app marketers to reach their best customers, drive the install & continue user app engagement across all of the publishers that matter.

Not only will you be able to maximize your Apple Search Ads investment, but Skai Apps also is integrated with Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat so you can manage your entire app marketing program.

For more information, contact us to set up a quick demo so that you can see everything that Skai Apps has to offer.