According to Adobe, smartphones accounted for the majority of digital shopping traffic during the 2018 holiday season with 51% of mCommerce visits from mobile versus 49% on desktop and tablets.

Now, research by programmatic mobile bidding platform Appreciate, has found that advertisers who ran multiple in-app ads across a wider range of app publishers noted a higher number of conversions.

Indeed, campaigns across five to seven app categories generated 45% higher engagement rates than those in one to four app categories.

The report also highlights that mCommerce campaigns which had at least seven to 11 creatives resulted in 128.6% more installs than campaigns with one to four creatives.

“Historically, we’ve seen that e-commerce campaigns with more diverse types of creative performed better, but that trend was even stronger this holiday season. In other categories, most notably games, entertainment, and utilities, the number of different creatives plays a smaller factor,” explained Shiri Lahat, VP Client Success North America for Appreciate.

Overall, in-app native ads generated more installs and a higher number of sales compared to other formats. Video formats resulted in higher cost per purchase, at an average 60% above in-app native ads.

“With App usage and penetration growing, we’re expecting those numbers to flip as apps will also dominate e-commerce sales,” added Shiri Lahat, VP Client Success North America for Appreciate. “Furthermore, our programmatic mobile bidding technology is well-suited for e-commerce apps seeking a transparent, relevant and cost-effective way to reach, engage and sell to prospective e-commerce shoppers.”

Mobile in-app banner ads were nearly as effective as native ads.

When it comes to conversion time, the findings suggest that 8pm to 11pm and 4.30pm to 8pm are the best times to convert with mCommerce apps. Weekends also tend to be perform more strongly with Saturdays best for app installs and Sundays better days for sales.

Source: Business of Apps