Growth rapidly deteriorated across ecommerce, advertising, social, consumer tech, time spent with media, and a whole range of other metrics in 2022—and 2023 isn’t shaping up to be much better. There are a handful of silver linings and hidden gems that might have been lost in the gloom and doom. As it turns out, some digital economy metrics are still flying high.
If you own a mobile app store, the good times are still rolling. Mobile app install ad spending spiked by 24.8% last year, far outpacing overall digital ad spending, which increased by just 12.5%. This year, the gap will be smaller but still noteworthy, with mobile app marketers shelling out 15.5% more than in 2022, compared with overall market growth of 12.0%.
Apple is both driving and gaining the most from this trend. Mobile app install ad spending flows mainly to search ads in app stores and display ads within other mobile apps. With its affluent user base and dominant position in the US smartphone market, Apple is well positioned to both generate and soak up future demand in this category.