In-App: Global Mobile Marketing Blog

👨‍💻📱More Apps, Same Attention: The AI App Boom 2026 Report by a16z 👈

AI makes it much easier to create apps, so the number of apps is growing very fast in 2026. But people’s time, money, and attention are not growing at the same speed.

Some interesting insights from the data:

📈📉AI creates many more apps, but demand is not growing
The number of new apps on iOS, Android, and Chrome has grown 2–4 times. But the number of downloads and ratings has stayed almost the same

💵 More apps do not mean a bigger app economy
According to Sensor Tower data, total app revenue in the US grew only about 2% over the last year and a half. At the same time, the total time people spend in apps grew about 7%.
This means that a big increase in the number of apps did not create a big increase in the app market

🧠 AI apps are an important exception
AI apps are popular, but apps made with AI are often not popular. Productivity is one of the fastest-growing app categories

👨‍💻👨‍💼Paid consumer AI is still at an early stage
AI is very popular, but only about 3% of consumers were paying for AI products according to the data in the article

🦄AI may be creating a new type of unicorn
New billion-dollar startups are becoming younger. The median age of new unicorns is now just over 4 years. This is about 37% lower than in 2023.

🔄Older tech startups focus more on profit
Before, companies focused strongly on fast growth. Now they focus more on efficiency and profitability. Median growth fell from around 40–70% to 15–30%, while profit margins improve

🚀 Google Ads: New Data and Measurement Updates 🔍

Google has announced new tools for data and ad measurement. Here are the main updates 👇

🟣 Data Manager is getting bigger

Google Data Manager now has deeper integrations with Google Analytics and Display & Video 360

Advertisers can connect CRM, offline, app, and other first-party data and use it to measure and improve campaigns

According to Google, advertisers using offline and app data through Data Manager saw an average 26% increase in incremental ROAS.

🟣 Enhanced Conversions in GA and DV360

Google is expanding Enhanced Conversions to Google Analytics and Display & Video 360

This technology helps advertisers measure conversions that can be missed because of cookie and browser limits

Google says Enhanced Conversions can help measure 11% more Search conversions compared with standard conversion imports

🟣New metric: Data Strength Uplift

Google Ads will show how many extra conversions were measured because of better first-party data setup

This makes it easier to understand the real value of better tracking

According to Google, advertisers using Google Tag Gateway saw around 14% more measured conversions on average

🟣 New Data Manager API

Google is also developing one API for first-party data

New diagnostics will help advertisers find data problems before they have a strong impact on campaign performance.

🟣 Updates to Meridian

Google is improving Meridian, its Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) tool

Advertisers can now use brand signals, such as branded Google searches, to better understand the long-term impact of YouTube, TV, and other upper-funnel channels

Meridian GeoX is also now available globally. It helps advertisers run geo experiments and measure the incremental impact of advertising

📣 AppsFlyer added attribution to organic AI-driven traffic 👈

AppsFlyer now attributes both: organic search attribution, expanded to cover AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), covers the earned side across 8 AI engines and 13 search engines

The supported AI platforms include ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Manus, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek

It supports both re-engagement for customers who already have your app, and install attribution for those who don’t (via OneLink and Smart Script)

📈 Sensor Tower: State of Digital Advertising 2026

Table of contents:
🟣AI Reshapes Advertising in 2026
🟣Advertising Ramps Up for the Holiday Season
🟣Major Sports Events Create Unique Opportunities
🟣Digital Advertising Overview
🟣Social Advertising Trends
🟣Over-the-Top (OTT) Advertising Trends
🟣Retail Media Advertising Trends
🟣ChatGPT Advertising Trends

🎨 OpenAI added view-through attribution to ChatGPT Ads ⚡️

It released quietly in the developer documentation only

🍏 Starting with iOS 27.2 developers can use a new version of the ATT permission prompt in the EU 🇪🇺

The alternative version of the App Tracking Transparency system prompt has modified formatting and language and provides you the option to use a text button labeled “Additional Information

⚡️Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2026 by Category ♾

WordStream’s 2026 Facebook Ads benchmarks are based on real advertising campaign performance data from U.S.-based advertisers. The dataset includes approximately 1,800 campaigns, analyzed separately by campaign objective and industry

📉 Why do users cancel after the first subscription period? 📱

A new RevenueCat article explains why the first renewal is important for subscription apps

Benchmarks are serious:
🔴 Weekly plans can lose 42..65% of subscribers
🔴 Monthly plans — 39..58%
🔴 Annual plans — 60..77%

The main idea is: users need to understand the value of your app before the first renewal. Good onboarding is not enough. Users need to get a real result, use the main features, and have a reason to come back 💡

🏆 Top 10 App Attribution SDKs👈

🎨 ChatGPT Ads now has new Platform Targeting options 📣

This feature is available for both Standard and Shopping campaigns

Advertiser can now choose between:
📱 Android App
📱 Android Web
💻 Desktop Web
📱 iOS App
🖥 iOS Web

📱 Amazon Ads has announced a partnership with OpenAI to support advertising in ChatGPT 🎨

Amazon Ads announced that selected U.S. advertisers can test ChatGPT Ads through a new pilot program

Through this integration, advertisers will be able to reach customers while they use ChatGPT to explore options, compare different choices, and make decisions

#advices from 📱

♾ Today I am sharing some tips about setting up iOS Web-to-App tracking for Google Ads with AppsFlyer — and measuring the impact of Custom Product Pages by Juan David Gutiérrez Olarte

Here’s the setup that worked for us:

1️⃣ In AppsFlyer, use Google Ads Web, not the standard Google Ads integration.
2️⃣ Authenticate with a Google account that can access both the ad account and its manager account.
3️⃣ In Google Ads, create Import from clicks conversions for First Open, Registration, Trial Start, and Purchase.

Copy each ID from the ctId parameter in its Google Ads URL and map it to the event that actually appears in AppsFlyer. These may be standard AppsFlyer events or RevenueCat events.

4️⃣ In AppsFlyer:
• Disable Advanced Privacy
• Keep Advanced Matching Data Sharing disabled unless required
• Confirm the Google token is valid
• Make sure “Missing token” is gone

5️⃣ Add google.com and apps.apple.com to the AppsFlyer redirect allowlist. Enter domains only — no protocol or paths.

6️⃣ Add the AppsFlyer single-platform link to the campaign-level Tracking template in Google Ads.

It should include the campaign hierarchy, click identifiers, lookback window, af_force_transparent=true, and af_r={lpurl}.
Leave Final URL suffix and Custom parameters empty.

7️⃣ Use the direct App Store URL as the ad’s Final URL, including the CPP identifier:
?ppid=YOUR_CPP_ID

The final Google Ads test should show:
✅ Landing page found
✅ Tracking call successful
✅ Fallback landing page found

To measure the CPP impact, test:
• Control: Default App Store page
• Variant: Dedicated CPP
• Same targeting, keywords, ads, bidding, and conversion goal
• Only the Final URL changes
• Final URL expansion disabled

Compare first-open rate, trial rate, purchase rate, CPA, ROAS, and App Store conversion rate. A CPP can increase installs without improving customer quality. Select the winner based on purchase economics.

Special thanks to Ashley Black, whose work inspired me and guided this setup. I highly recommend checking out her work. Although this implementation uses AppsFlyer, Ashley and other Experts may also be a valuable resource for questions about other MMPs.

Now, to see the results..

📱 Google Play introduces new rules for Android apps

Starting in February 2027, Google Play will introduce new requirements for Android apps and games. This includes new thresholds across dynamic memory usage, bitmap usage, and code optimization to prevent unexpected on-device performance throttling and app terminations

Google will check how much memory apps use. If an app uses too much memory, it may have lower visibility on Google Play or face limits when publishing updates ⚙️

Another important change will come in April 2027

Apps with user accounts will need to support Zero-Tap Sign-In. This means that when users move to a new Android phone, they can restore the app and stay signed in - without entering their login and password again👤

📱 Snapchat has rolled out 'Unified' attribution globaly 👈

Snapchat can now feed MMP (Adjust/AppsFlyer) conversion data into its campaign optimization. It combines Snapchat’s platform signals with cross-channel performance data from MMP

😄 Reddit has launched a new 15-second Engaged Video Views goal for video ads 🆕

Advertisers will pay for meaningful views, with automated bidding options

For videos 15 seconds or shorter, a completed view counts as an engaged video view. For videos longer than 15 seconds, an engaged video view is counted once someone watches for at least 15 seconds

In alpha tests, advertisers saw an average:
📈 +51% in 15-second view-through rate
📈 +71% in video completion rate

🔍 Google Ads now lets you track how many new users your campaigns generate without changing your bidding strategy 📊

However, users report that this data is only reliable when the CRM information sent to Google is accurate and well maintained

👨‍💻 Meta pLTV optimization is now available on Meta ♾

With this feature, you can send Meta your predicted lifetime value for each customer

Meta can use a net_revenue value on your purchase events to focus more on people who are likely to bring higher long-term value

🎨 ChatGPT Ads massive updates 📢

Some important things:

• Conversion optimization for product feed campaigns
• Easier ways to create and copy oCPC campaigns
• Better tracking and measurement with dynamic URL macroses
• New integrations with Triple Whale and Hightouch
• More information for fixing Pixel tracking problems
• Automatic Advanced Matching to improve conversion measurement
• ChatGPT Ads are coming to Brazil and Mexico
• Testing a new product carousel, where several products can appear in one ad

📈 AppLovin reported $1.92 billion in revenue for Q2 2026, a 53% year-over-year increase

The company continues to move beyond mobile gaming and is putting more focus on e-commerce and consumer brands. According to AppLovin, advertiser spending from e-commerce reached a new record in Q2 🛒

Another important update: the self-serve platform is now open to all advertisers. This could help more brands launch campaigns directly, without working with AppLovin’s sales team

This shows that AppLovin is growing from a gaming-focused platform into a bigger AI advertising platform for different industries

🍏 Apple just dropped App Store asset best practices and resources 💡

Table of content:
• Overview
• Asset best practices
• Images and videos
• Design for every element
• Submit your assets

+ Product page header and Search result templates