What Mobile Marketing Statistics Tell Us

Mobile marketing exploded with the astronomical growth of the internet and the worldwide accessibility of mobile phones. As this global trend continues, customer attention is shifting towards mobile. Businesses need to adjust their strategies accordingly, with a focus on:

• Providing a smooth omnichannel user experience across all devices and platforms
• Personalizing their communication with customers
• Keeping up with technology and new opportunities

But remember—it’s not necessarily a smartphone with a Wi-Fi or data connection that’s at play here. Any type of mobile device, including those that don’t have internet access, is still a potential business target point.

Understanding Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on targeting audiences on their mobile devices. Companies can reach them via websites, emails, text messaging, social media, and app marketing. According to Google, about 50% of B2B queries come from smartphones.

Mobile marketing helps brands create value and augment their products and services with mobile devices. The main challenges that mobile marketing campaigns bring are the needs for:

• Responsive designs
• Responsive apps
• Mobile-friendly website
• Mobile-friendly text messaging content
• Mobile-friendly ads and landing pages

Businesses can use mobile strategies as short-term plans until they decide what works best for them before dedicating a budget.

Steps to Take for a Short-Term Mobile Marketing Strategy

1. Create Mobile Buyer Personas

• Understand your audience
• Create a profile on demographics

2. Set Goals

• Create a marketing calendar and automation toolkit
• Define measurable KPIs
• Determine key audiences
• Develop cross-channel engagement
• Engage customers with mobile-responsive content
• Improve mobile SEO
• Optimize page speed
• Indicate clear CTAs

3. Monitor Results

• Use Google analytics or any metric database to monitor the mobile usage of your site or app
• Determine how your audience engages with content
• Indicate conversion rates
• Determine the quantity and quality of your traffic, including page views and bounce rates

Mobile Marketing Statistics You Need To Know

Here’s a general overview of relevant statistics from Semrush, Statista, and Udonis.

Mobile Marketing Size and Growth Statistics

• By 2025, the number of people who use the internet on their phones will increase by ten million to 86.7% of Americans
• Smartphones make up 77.5% of the global mobile device market
• In 2021, Android was the leading mobile operating system worldwide, owning a 71.93% market share
• The growth of mobile usage is thanks to affordable cell phones, compared to more expensive laptop options

Mobile User Statistics

• The main reason subscribers unsubscribe from a brand’s mobile messaging is an overload of messages and updates
• 69% of people use the internet while they’re on the go
• There were 5.22 billion unique mobile users in the world in 2021
• There are over 3.6 billion smartphone users worldwide. This number will grow to 4.3 billion in 2023
• An average user spends 4 hours and 10 minutes using a mobile device every day
• Daily time spent on mobile phones is growing rapidly year after year. In 2021, it increased by 20% from 2020
• Android users spent over 3.5 trillion hours using their mobile phones in 2020
• By 2025, 75% of worldwide users will access the internet using a mobile device
• In 2021, 55.7% of web traffic came from mobile devices.
• Gen Z, millennials, and baby boomers are spending more time on mobile devices by the year. The time spent on their favorite apps increased from 16% to 30%

Mobile Ad Demand Statistics

• In 2019, mobile ad spending totaled $189 billion and was expected to surpass $240 billion by 2022
• While mobile advertising has seen rapid growth over the last years, growth is expected to slow by 10.4% by the end of 2022
• By 2024, it’s predicted that the U.S. mobile advertising spending market will reach $145.26 billion
• The second-largest mobile advertising market was China, worth $72.2 billion in 2020
• In 2020, Thailand was expected to be the fastest-growing mobile advertising market globally, with an annual growth of 46%. India was the runner-up for the fastest-growing advertising market with a 42% yearly growth rate
• In 2019, Android accounted for 49% of monetized mobile in-app ad impressions, down from 67% in 2018
• Among retailers, 63% said that social media was the best place to run ads to get more people to their online store

Mobile App Usage Statistics

• Word of mouth recommendations heavily influence users regarding which app to download
• 76% of people use the internet browser the most out of every cell phone app they have
• With a 72.8% internet user share, YouTube was the most used mobile app in 2020. The Disney+ app was the most profitable in the iPhone Apple store in 2020, generating over $18.33 million in revenue from iOS users
• TikTok was the second most downloaded app of 2020, resulting in around 3.2 million downloads
• There were 218 billion new mobile app downloads in 2020
• By 2023, mobile apps are predicted to generate over $935 billion
• In 2020, the mobile app market's consumer spending reached $143 billion
• In 2021, 92% of all mobile time was spent using mobile apps
• The most popular messaging app in 2021 was WhatsApp, with 2 billion users. It was followed by Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users and WeChat with 1.21 billion users
• Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram take the lead in usage time. An average user spends 19.5 hours a month using Facebook, 19.4 using WhatsApp, and 10.3 hours using Instagram
• Tinder, TikTok, and YouTube were the top apps in consumer spending in 2021
• In 2020, Google Play generated $31.9 billion in gaming apps and $38.6 billion in non-gaming apps.
• In Q1 2021, gaming apps were the most widespread category in the Google Play Store
• In the Apple App Store, gaming apps are also the most significant category, making up 21.49% of active apps
• There were more non-gaming app advertisers (77%) than gaming app advertisers (23%) in the first half of 2021

Mobile and Social Media Statistics

• Mobile Facebook users spend an average of 769.16 minutes per month on the platform
• In 2020, 43% of Android users who installed WhatsApp used the app daily
• In 2020, adults spent an average of 24 minutes per day on mobile messaging apps
• In 2021, there were 4.20 billion social media users, which made up 53.6% of the total global population
• 98.8% of social media users access social media via mobile devices
• Facebook is the world’s leading social media platform with 2.74 billion monthly active users. The next biggest ones are YouTube (2.29 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion), and Instagram (1.2 billion)
• An average social media user spends 2 hours and 25 minutes using social media every day
• 44.8% of internet users use social media to search for brand-related information

Mobile and Shopping Statistics

• In 2019, mobile eCommerce spending reached $39 billion in the U.S. alone
• Out of the 57% of people who looked for products, 51% purchased a mobile retail app
• The most common reason people use mobile devices in stores is to compare product prices offered by different retailers
• The most significant reasons for not trying mobile wallets are security and not knowing which stores accept them

Mobile and Video Statistics

• 63% of mobile traffic was video traffic in 2020. This number is predicted to grow to 76% by 2025
• 75% of mobile video viewers prefer to watch videos horizontally, while 25% prefer vertical video
• Consumption of videos on mobile devices goes up by 100% every year
• 51% of Instagram and Snapchat users prefer video over static content
• Over 75% of all video views come from mobile
• 92% of users who watch videos on mobile share the content with others
• Using video content for advertising campaigns can help grow revenue as much as 50% faster than other types of content
• 70% of YouTube video views happen on mobile devices
• Users who watch YouTube on mobile spend more than one hour a day on the app
• 16% use mobile devices to stream movies, TV shows, and live events

Mobile and Commerce

• In 2020, 31% of US retail spending came from mobile devices
• 55% of young users and 59% of older users research products online before purchasing
• 57% of people say they searched for mobile retail apps for additional information on a product or service
• Time spent on Android shopping apps grew by 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year
• 40% of mobile marketers use shoppable video ads to promote their products