I already run UA. Why do I need retargeting?

The average app loses 77% of its DAUs within the first 3 days after install. Without implementing retargeting campaigns, 77% of that app’s UA budget is essentially going down the drain (Appsflyer study).

Do you provide creative services?

We offer custom creatives and custom pre-launch analysis. Our in-house studio can develop ads of any format but specializes in playable and video ads to maximize performance.

Why is retention important to growth?

Users try out a lot of apps but decide which ones they want to stop using within the first 3-7 days. The key to success is to get users hooked during that critical first 3-7 day period, and then keeping them engaged long term.

December 1, 2022

Trading apps report: Are you losing new installers?

By Margot Miller · 2 minute read

User retention is a hot topic for app marketers looking for solutions to Apple’s privacy changes, and we’ve got some good news for trading apps! We did a deep dive into the last few months of data and found that all metrics are providing the perfect environment to run retargeting campaigns.

The goals of the report

Our study set out to get a clearer understanding of how trading apps are performing, and how trading app users behave. Trading apps have seen an increased boost lately, and we wanted to find out how trading app marketers can best target these users. In addition, we were curious to find out if our understanding of trading app audience segments was correct, or if we need to make some adjustments to our strategies and assumptions.

Trends for new installers and MAUs

Interest in trading apps has been steadily increasing between September 2021 and January 2022. In fact, we saw a volume increase of 51% in monthly installs at constant scope for trading apps during this time period.

Graph depicting percentage of monthly install growth: 27 percent in October 2021, 15 percent in November 2021, 11 percent in January 2022

Not only are monthly installs increasing, but we’ve also seen a growing number of monthly active users (MAUs). MAUs grew by 36% between September 2021 and January 2022.

Graph depicting month over month growth of MAUs: 15 percent in October, 16 percent in November, 2 percent in December, 3 percent in January

Going along with the same trend, there’s a growing percentage of converters among this active user base. Users who completed a first-time deposit increased 21% between September 2021 and January 2022.

Graph depicting growth percentage of converters among active users: 1 percent October 2021, 4 percent November 2021, 12 percent December 2021, 2 percent January 2022

For trading app marketers, this boost in installs, MAUs and converters offers the perfect landscape to start ramping up retargeting efforts. It’s essential to take advantage of the current market trends in order to keep these new installers, and maximize the LTV of active users and converters.

New user findings

When looking at new users, half of installers who do convert make a first deposit on the same day they install the app. Re-engaging these users immediately could encourage them to continue engaging with the app and making deposits.

Line graph depicting that 51% of users make their first deposit the same day of install, 21% between 1-3 days, 10% between 4-7 days and 17% over 7 days

For active users who deposit again, they usually wait around 5 days to make their next deposit. With this information, marketers can determine when is the best moment to retarget active users and avoid poor timing that’s either too late or too soon.

Line graph depicting the number of days between first and second deposit, all the way to 9th and tenth deposit

Another reason trading app marketers should be looking closely at retargeting is because our churn findings weren’t terribly optimistic about the longevity of these new users organically. 58% of installers churn the day following the install. This means that over half of a trading app’s new users are gone the same day that they download the app.

Bar graph depicting percent of churned users per days past. 58% of users churn 1 day after downloading the app, up to 71% churn 14 days after downloading the app

Client insights: IQ Option

To help guide trading app marketers in their search for the best strategy, we reached out to some of our trading app clients to see what they’re working on to make the most of this boost in traffic. Trading app IQ Option was open to sharing some of their strategies, and here’s what they’re doing to take advantage of the trading app boom.

There are three main audience segments running at the moment:

Retain: this segment pertains to the retention of paying users.
No FTD: users in this segment are new installers who haven’t yet made a deposit.
High LTV: these users are the highest-value depositors in the app.

The goal for all three segments is the same: to return users to the app and incentivize them for repeat purchases.

The retain segment is the main focus at the moment, and the top geo with the highest investments in March was Brazil.

For IQ Option, CPA price is the main KPI, with the goal varying for each geo or geo group.

Where to go from here

The market for trading apps has been steadily growing over the past few months: the number of installs, deposits and active users are all increasing. Installers tend to be the most likely to churn after day 1, but with smart retargeting strategies they can be encouraged to continue investing. In addition, half of active users deposit more than once and wait about 5 days before depositing again. This offers an opportunity to target active users to increase the number of deposits.

Armed with this information, trading app marketers can make informed decisions about which audience segments to create and when to target them. Contact us to learn more about our recommendations for smart audience segmentation for trading apps, and what other insights trading apps need to boost user LTV and drive positive ROI.