With over 1.1 billion app-installs in sub-Saharan Africa, there’s a reason for the saying, “There’s an app for that”.1 From an app that allows you to pop virtual pimples to one that autogenerates excuses for you, it’s fair to say that even niche consumers are getting their needs met.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the smartphone market is set to reach 880 million units by 2030, which is more than double the American population. In 2025 alone, app usage and purchases are set to generate $1 billion in revenue for the African continent. How may brands with apps in the region earn a slice of this?
The latest Apps Flyer report, created in collaboration with Google, lays down the performance of app marketing in sub-Saharan Africa and gives marketers a peek into how to optimise their strategy for 2025.
In-app purchase revenue increase is an indicator of economic growth
This rise in in-app purchases directly reflects the region's growing economic power and increasing digital engagement.
In 2024, revenue from in-app purchases increased by 24% compared to the previous year.2 Additionally, non-organic app downloads — an app install coming from an ad — increased by 28% across sub-Saharan Africa.3
These numbers indicate that consumers are seeking value in shopping or spending. Finance and fintech apps have soared with a 34% year-on-year increase. Shopping apps alone saw a 15% increase in in-app purchases last year. Google Trends shows the shopping apps topic experienced a 110% uplift in search interest in South Africa. In Nigeria, in the meantime, fintech apps saw a 4.5X boost in search interest during the same period.
Takeaways for marketers:
- App marketers should use the region’s recent growth to connect with, and truly understand, their newfound audience. Adopting customer lifetime value (CLV) strategies is the key to retaining the spenders that keep on spending. Learn what they are looking for, what their goals are for using your app, how they prefer to engage with brands, and what they’d like to see in the future. This could involve using in-app surveys, analysing user behavior, and creating personalised offers via email.
- Using the above data, marketers for both fintech and shopping apps should share in the success of each category: fintech brands can steer their marketing to consumers interested in shopping since they know they are looking for value. Similarly, shopping brands can create targeted messaging campaigns to those who may have, at some point, dabbled in investing or trading. In this way, marketers for both app verticals benefit from consumers who have extra discretionary spending.
Full-funnel approach: The shift from pure acquisition
Direct acquisition spend for app-installs, or lower-funnel marketing, dipped by 7% overall in 2024.4 Despite brands spending less on lower-funnel marketing, rising in-app purchase numbers suggest that ad spend was shifted towards upper and mid-funnel marketing rather than direct acquisition.5
Some marketers make the mistake of thinking that only lower-funnel marketing is the way to achieve conversions, however, a full-funnel approach has shown to increase incremental sales by 52%.
This is significant because many marketers often discount the importance of awareness and brand consideration as it is assumed the earlier stages of the consumer journey are not revenue drivers. Some marketers make the mistake of thinking that only lower-funnel marketing is the way to achieve conversions, however, a full-funnel approach has shown to increase incremental sales by 52%.
Takeaway for marketers:
- Demand Gen campaigns are geared towards upper and mid-funnel marketing for brands who want to gain brand awareness as well as conversions. For example, a food retailer app may launch a campaign of videos on healthy breakfasts. This subtly promotes the app as a resource for healthy living. Marketers can launch awareness and brand consideration campaigns to reach consumers at the beginning stages of the consumer journey.
Nigeria outperforms in non-organic app downloads
Android's expansion in sub-Saharan Africa during the first half of 2024 was primarily driven by a 28% year-over-year increase in non-organic installs.6 Interestingly, app usage and adoption in the region was largely led by Nigeria, which experienced impressive growth in the first half of last year, with a 38% surge in non-organic installs.7
One of Nigeria’s most well-known fintech firms, FairMoney, who shared in the finance category’s 2024 growth, gave insight into their strategy:
“Our success in driving quality non-organic installs has been fuelled by a data-driven approach. We used on-device measurement and SKAN reporting, which is a privacy-preserving method to attribute app installs, to enhance attribution accuracy. Reporting also allowed us to refine our strategy based on real-time performance,” explains FairMoney’s Director of Growth, Shadi Kindsvater.
“Additionally, an Android app performance audit and app tagging audit helped us ensure accurate event tracking for our bid strategy which was tROAS (target return-on-ad-spend)."
While South Africa showed slower growth for non-organic installs, it did see a 31% jump in the third quarter of 2024.8
Takeaways for marketers:
- Bid strategies focusing on value, such as tROAS, optimise campaigns towards performance. Marketers who are looking to upgrade their strategy toward performance should change their strategy to tROAS or tCPA (target cost-per-acquisition) since these bidding strategies focus on gathering revenue.
- South Africa’s third quarter jump could be a sign for app brands to ramp up their marketing as they approach the holiday peak shopping season.
