As a new year begins, so do trends in the mobile app marketing world. With considerable disruption and emerging user needs, finance apps have experienced exponential growth. So, what’s next for the category? Our experts share finance app trends that will shape FinTech for the year ahead. We’ll also look at ways to apply these trends to your app marketing efforts.
The 2021 Year in Review for Finance Apps
So, how did the FinTech category perform in 2021? Let’s look at some stats from the AppsFlyer 2021 State of Finance App Marketing.
- Finance app installs increased by 20% over 2020 numbers.
- Markets with the highest installs were India, Brazil, Indonesia, the U.S., and Russia. Additionally, the U.S. was one of the fastest-growing markets. That’s likely due to changing consumer behaviors post-pandemic.
- Remarketing was a key area of investment by financial app marketers with positive ROAS.
- The global landscape for finance apps has become more competitive in the past two years.
With demand for finance apps still growing with no bubble bursting in sight, how will these impact your marketing?
Let’s dive into those financial app trends.
Trend One: Gamification: Drive Engagement
When you apply gaming to other industries, it can keep users highly engaged. It can also improve the user experience and keep people on your app longer. Adding gamification elements to your app can include:
- Quizzes about financial terms, which works well for those that are promoting financial literacy.
- Earning badges for completing activities in the app, which really gives the app a gaming feel.
- Cashback offers for completing certain events, which lends itself to CPE (cost per engagement) campaigns. An example would be rewarding a user with a cashback offer after completing a purchase. That could be a subscription or an in-app purchase (IAP).
Personalized rewards via rewarded advertising like an offerwall. The offerwall presents the user with a task to gain a reward. The task could be connecting a bank account, registering an account, or other action that drives engagement. The reward would be specific to that user, like a new feature or expert advice on planning a budget.
Trend Two: Chatbots with Conversational AI
Most finance apps have a chatbot to support users with simple questions and answers. However, they don’t really capitalize on the power of conversational AI. They only relay answers based on keywords. Conversational AI understands sentiment and intent.
By applying this, you can provide your customers with fast, accurate answers. It can also decrease the amount of incoming support communication. The key is to get people using it by making them aware of it.
The chatbot could be part of the tutorial. You can also remind people with pop-ups in-app or with push notifications. Leveraging this technology can be a win-win for all.
Trend Three: Security Is Top of Mind for Consumers
Everyone is more aware of cybersecurity. Media headlines about breaches and ransomware happen almost daily. When it comes to finance, consumers are on alert even more. Security should be a hallmark of your app, and you should constantly be communicating that to your users.
Some ways to show this is a priority for app include:
- Updating app profiles on the app stores to emphasize how secure your app is.
- Creating keyword UA (user acquisition) campaigns that include security focused verbiage.
- In-app messaging and emails about security updates.
- Reiteration of messaging and a continued commitment to security will provide peace of mind for users and keep them loyal to your financial app.
Trend Four: Integrations Provide More Features and Interoperability
Other finance app trends to consider is integrations. More apps are able to exchange information, providing users more features and quicker transactions. For example, business accounting apps may integrate with expense accounts. Digital banks may integrate with investment apps.
If you’re planning to integrate your app with others, make partnership choices based on what your audience most needs. They’ll tell you if you ask with surveys and reviews. After you integrate, be sure to update your profile pages. It might also be worthy of a CPE campaign touting this integration.
Trend Five: Freemium Apps Can Monetize via In-App Transactions
Many fintech apps have a freemium version. While you’ll always be optimizing campaigns toward a finance app subscription, not all will convert. However, you can still monetize them with in-app purchases. It’s kind of like an a la carte framework. They pick and choose what features they want and buy them at specific times. As a result, you earn income.
The best way to execute this monetization is to find out when those purchases happen. Looking at your data, you can determine what day of use had the most transactions. You might also find that they correlate to certain times. For example, if a person has a tax app that organizes deductions and receipts, a user may purchase the ability to download all this when it’s tax time.
Once you understand the insights behind the actions, you can develop CPE campaigns that are deeper funnel to take advantage of these ideal times.
Looking to Implement These Trends? Keep the Momentum Going with AdAction
These five trends will be critical in the year ahead. They offer new opportunities to engage, improve the user experience, and produce revenue. While there is a lot of saturation in the category, the demand for finance apps is still growing. Keep your app’s momentum going by consulting with our fintech app experts today.
