Mobile apps in media buying is a vertical that encompasses many different offers: VPN, dating apps, smartphone cleaners, ad blockers, QR code scanners and other useful mobile apps. Zeydoo media buying team drives dozens of thousands of conversions every month and the manager team launches the best offers for mobile apps. As we also have exclusive offers in this vertical, we have lots of insights to share.

In this article we’ll talk about how much traffic there is for mobile apps, why it’s profitable to work with them and what can lead to losing money, types of offers that exist and where to find traffic to grow volume. At the end of the article you’ll find more tips and recommendations  from our media buying team. Let’s go!

Market volume and the vertical’s prospects

According to the data from Statista the market of mobile apps in Q3 2022 amounted to more than 5 500 000+ apps in stores: Google Play, App Store, Amazon Appstore. A big market for traffic, is it not?

To get a better picture above you can see some statistics on the use of different categories of mobile apps.

VPN

According to a research done by Surfshark, more than 1 200 000 000 users have VPN services installed (31% of all internet users). And the GEOs with the biggest volumes can be seen in the picture below. 

Mostly people use VPN for the following reasons:

You can use this information when choosing GEOs and making creatives to increase your CR. 

Ad Blocker

Backlinko claims that 42,7% of all internet users have ad blockers. And the list of countries where ad blockers are the most widely spread looks like this: 

And the reasons behind getting this kind of software are these:

Use these messages in creatives to get higher CR. Test different approaches for each GEO to find the most profitable schemes.

Antivirus

The world market of antivirus software has grown in size from 4,06 billion dollars in 2022 to 4,25 billion dollars in 2023 with the average annual growth rate at 4,5%. The experts predict unstoppable volume growth in the antivirus market with the same percentage of money turnover each year up till 2026. 

Mobile Scanners

6 billion dollars is the market volume of mobile scanners in 2021. The experts from IMARC Group expect that by 2027 the market will reach $9 200 000 000 showing growth rate at 7,4% in 2022-2027.

Traffic and mobile apps: advantages and peculiarities

The utilities market is estimated at billions of dollars and has its advantages as well as some peculiarities with driving traffic to them. Below we’ll talk about why it’s so profitable and what hidden rocks there might be.

Why mobile apps are profitable:

  • Low entry threshold. Usually the payout is around $0.01 – $10+ depending on the type of conversion and the GEO. It means that you can test several approaches and GEOs with a small budget. To get the most of out tests you’ll have to spend just around $100;   
  • Scaling worldwide. The majority of mobile apps have at least several GEOs available. Usually apps accept traffic from all over the world that promotes faster scaling with a working bundle;
  • Consistent projected ROI week after week with no extra manipulations with accounts, no redirecting traffic to numerous accounts daily. Just optimize the campaigns and get your profit;
  • More profit in the long term thanks to optimization of ad campaigns and lower prices for target action;
  • A great choice of different offers: dating, VPN, antivirus, ad blockers, mobile scanners, cleaners and other software. If you know how to work with mobile traffic, then you’ll be able to easily scale not just with GEOs, but with other offers;
  • Good CR with different ad formats from ad networks (push, popunder etc.). It means the simplest process of launching ads and being beginner-friendly for everyone trying media buying.

While working with mobile apps you need to know that payouts here are not as big as in gambling, NUTRA or other verticals. But you can have higher ROI and earn with bigger volumes much more. Especially, taking into account how much time it will take you to monitor the campaign everyday.

What’s more, gambling, NUTRA and crypto can easily get banned (and you have to redirect traffic to other accounts, spend more money on tests) whereas with mobile apps you just spend 30-60 minutes every day on optimizing your current campaigns and making decisions about tests. 

What challenges you can face while working with mobile apps:

  • When you just launch new offers or GEOs you have to monitor closely if the campaigns are working. Since the price for target action is not that high, you can see the results of first traffic almost immediately without wasting large sums on tests and losing it. Especially with new ad networks you’ll have to monitor and blacklist some platforms during the first days of starting traffic:
  • Long holds are a common practice as the advertiser needs time to learn more about the quality of your traffic: how the users use the app, if they come back and make purchases. Usually after the first traffic to new offers comes through though and the quality of traffic is satisfactory, there should be no more strict restrictions or holds after that. 
  • Offers convert well in ad networks, but at the start without white and black-lists you’ll need more money on tests in this ad network. You might need up to several thousand dollars to form a good white list of platforms that will bring quality traffic.

Mobile apps are also great to work with since every day there are thousands more added to stores. And that means once you learn how to work with them, you can easily secure a new stream of income. 

Types of offers

Let’s have a look at some of the most popular mobile apps that can bring money with traffic from all over the world. 

Dating apps

Mainstream dating is one of the eternal verticals that is great with mobile apps. No complicated schemes. Usually these are just your ordinary apps for dating in stores. You can be paid for an install, SOI or DOI registration or for a purchase inside the app. 

VPN

These are mobile VPN-services that help the user change their location. Conversions usually fire after an install (CPI), registration or starting a trial. Less common is a purchase inside the app. 

Offers to work with now:

Cleaners

These are apps for clearing cache and other trash from your smartphone. They help free up some space in the gadget and make it work faster. 

Offer to work with now:

AdBlock

Ad Blockers are apps that allow you to hide all unnecessary ads on websites. The payout can be for app install or for buying a paid subscription plan.

Offer to work with now:

Mobile scanners

These are mobile apps for reading QR-codes and scanner documents into PDF.

If you want to test mobile apps or scale your campaigns, we in Zeydoo will be happy to help with a profitable start. Sign up here and we’ll get you the best deals and offers for your type of traffic.

Traffic sources

Traffic sources to use to work with mobile apps:

  • Ad networks (push notifications, popunder, other formats)
  • Teaser networks 
  • Facebook
  • In-app
  • Google Ads (КМС, UAC)
  • TikTok
  • SEO

Before starting traffic make sure to check the offer’s card on what formats are allowed. Or go to your manager that will check in with the advertiser if you can work with your type of traffic on this particular offer.

How to earn more with mobile apps without special effort?

To get at least 50% more ROI without increasing your spending or making more effort, you just need to start working with our newest feature – ZeyBooster. This is an internal feature in Zeydoo that helps our partners get profit with additional monetization.

Now you can get up to +50% more ROI thanks to customized pre-landers with built-in push data collection and traffic back and track down the whole process in your account with the help of our internal tracker. For more detail on ZeyBooster, message your manager.

The flow of launching offers is not different from a regular launch. You just choose an offer, take the tracking link and start traffic. ZeyBooster will do everything for you. Yes, that easy. 

Tips from Zeydoo’s media buying team

And, as promised, here are a few questions that will help make your traffic more profitable. Answered by media buyers from Zeydoo.

What traffic sources do you use for mobile apps? How many conversions a month do you get?

We work with UAC, in-app, Push, Pop. With all these sources we have more than 100 000 conversions a month. As an example, here is some statistics on working with different GEOs on Sweet&Meet from one of our buyers. In a month they managed to find a working bundle and now they scale it.  

How to influence the quality of traffic working with mobile apps? What insights can help get a higher rate from the advertiser?

We recommend making high quality individual creatives (pre-landers, videos, pictures) and not just take them from spy tools. New creatives give higher CR. And the second key component to higher quality is optimization. Learn more about the traffic source you’re working with and use all the features to optimize campaigns.

What’s the monthly average ROI you get working with mobile apps with big volumes?

Usually while working with mobile apps we can keep ROI at 40%.

Any trends for mobile apps in 2023? What GEOs or offers will convert in your opinion?

In 2023 VPN and cleaners will be growing, so we recommend starting testing now. We also recommend ZeyBooster because we got 30-50% more profit with pop traffic (depending on the campaign and GEO).

Mobile apps is a vertical with relatively small competition and low entry threshold for media buying. Register in Zeydoo, work with exclusive mobile apps and get at least two times more profit with no special effort.