A Sensor Tower analysis of Q4 2024 performance for Sephora, Nocibé, and Notino in France's beauty retail sector reveals distinct digital strategies. Sephora's website visits peaked at 42M in December, with steady app growth to 1.4M MAU, despite a decline in ad spend to $650K. Nocibé maintained consistent web visits around 6M and app MAU near 600K, with stable ad spending of $424K.
Notino saw a November web peak of 11M visits and a doubling of app MAU to 148K, accompanied by increased ad spend to $164K on Instagram. These trends highlight the importance of cross-platform engagement and targeted ad investments.
Mobile users spent $150B on App Store and Google Play in 2024, up 13% YoY. APAC publishers dominate the top 100 highest-grossing mobile publishers globally. Key trends: short drama apps and hyper-casual games thrive; AI boosts productivity in education; mobile apps enable cross-border communication. Sensor Tower APAC Awards 2024 highlight standout games and apps from the region, recognizing innovation in user experience and market insights.
First-party data, collected directly from users with consent, is crucial for marketers due to privacy regulations limiting third-party data. It enables accurate personalization, compliance, and cost savings. Key steps include ethical collection, maintaining clean data, and using it internally for product/marketing optimization and externally via commerce media networks.
The mobile advertising industry is optimistic heading into 2025, with 80% of marketers expecting the year to be as strong or stronger than 2024. Non-gaming apps are driving growth, with downloads up 12% YoY and IAP revenue increasing 20%+. Marketers are prioritizing profitability and ROAS, with over half reporting more aggressive KPIs. Generative AI is already benefiting creative production and optimization. iOS re-engagement remains underleveraged, and most marketers are still adapting to SKAN. Budgets are increasing, with a focus on ad networks and self-attributing networks.
Ramadan 2025 presents a crucial opportunity for app marketers, with 75% of consumers noticing more ads during the season. Key trends from 2024 include a 28% surge in shopping app installs across METAP, a 126% increase in the UAE, and 18% growth in finance app installs. High engagement windows occur post-Iftar and late at night. Actionable strategies include optimizing campaign timing, leveraging personalization, building omnichannel experiences, and focusing on value-driven promotions. Adjust's measurement tools can help track and optimize campaign performance.
Adjust's Halloween 2025 data across six weeks shows the holiday window opens well before October 31 and differs by category and market. Entertainment installs peaked the weekend before Halloween (up 42–44% vs. summer baseline), with OTT/streaming and video content installs up 120% on October 25 and 300% YoY. Photo and video sessions instead spiked on Halloween night itself (+6% global vs. the four prior Fridays; Canada +15%, Germany +13%, U.K. +11%, U.S. +9%, Mexico +7%). Single global send dates miss market-level peaks, so ad ops should time creative, push, and budget shifts per market—especially in Mexico, where activity runs through Día de los Muertos.
Preload campaigns are critical for UA in 2025, offering early brand presence, higher trust, and cost-efficient growth. Key benefits include increased visibility, engagement, and LTV. Practitioners should leverage advanced segmentation, automated recommendations, predictive analytics, extended attribution windows, and incrementality testing. Partnerships with OEMs and platforms like Appnext, Aura, AVOW, Digital Turbine, and InMobi can drive significant results, as seen with Magalu's 100k+ monthly installs and 4x ROAS.
Puzzle and match 3 games remain a profitable segment, with 9.7 billion downloads in 2024 and 14% YoY IAP revenue growth. Key opportunities lie in LATAM and MENA, where session growth is high. Rising CPI and CPM emphasize the need for efficient UA. Incrementality testing and predictive LTV are critical for optimizing ad spend, ensuring budgets target high-value users. Adjust's tools—Measure, InSight, and Recommend—provide attribution, incrementality testing, and pLTV modeling to maximize ROI.
Retail beauty ad spend rose 23% YoY, with December and April peaks. Sephora (35% share) and Ulta (18%) dominate, but Amazon grew fastest (+61%). A key split: beauty-specific retailers prioritize social—Sephora puts 25% on Instagram, Ulta 20% on Facebook—while Target, Amazon, and Macy’s favor OTT for reach. Instagram (+57%) and OTT (+52%) led channel growth; TikTok slipped 1%. Sephora and Ulta account for 88% of ChatGPT beauty ad spend and most unique creatives. Pinterest drives high creative volume despite only 10% spend. For ad ops: align channel mix to discovery vs. reach, and test emerging surfaces (ChatGPT, Pinterest) with agile creative volume.
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