Competition is rising, installs are not—retention is how you stay in the race, and retargeting is the fuel that keeps you ahead.
In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games surged to $127 billion, marking a 15.7% year-over-year increase. Yet, this growth isn’t fueled by new users—app installs are declining. Globally, total app installs fell by 2.3% YoY, signaling market saturation.1 Gaming installs declined even further, down 6% since 2021.2 In developed Tier 1 markets like the US, rising user acquisition costs are outpacing slowing user growth.
The challenge isn’t just acquiring users—it’s keeping them engaged and bringing them back. This challenge feels even greater when users are considered ‘churned.’ Retargeting is the solution to this, but at Aarki, we take it a step further—analyzing how users move across the app ecosystem to uncover smarter, more effective retargeting opportunities.
Winning retargeting with a holistic App Hive view
Users don’t interact with apps in isolation. They fluidly move between apps—switching from a fitness app to a food delivery service, then hopping to a mobile game or social platform.
On average, smartphone users explore 40 to 100 apps per year, but only 10 to 15 apps make it into their daily routine. We call this the App Hive—a dynamic, interdependent space where every app plays a role in shaping user behavior.
To maximize retention and stand out in a crowded ad ecosystem, marketers need a data-driven understanding of where users go next—then re-engage them with tailored retargeting strategies. This is where Aarki’s App Hive Analysis provides a game-changing advantage, leveraging deep AI-powered insights.
Smarter retargeting starts with the App Hive Analysis
Understanding where users go next is the key to smarter retargeting. The App Hive Analysis takes this insight to the next level, grouping users based on their real-world app behavior.
By mapping cross-app movement patterns, we create data-driven ‘Synthesized Cohorts’ that help advertisers reach users most likely to engage, convert, and retain.
How AI and massive data infrastructure help build Synthesized Cohorts
At the core of our approach is massive-scale ad signal processing and advanced AI modeling, designed to uncover the connections between apps in the App Hive. Here’s how we do it:
- Global-Scale Data Processing
Our infrastructure processes 220 billion daily bid auctions. This unparalleled visibility into the adtech ecosystem enables granular cohort creation across all app categories. - Deep Neural Networks for Behavioral Analysis
Aarki’s AI models, powered by Deep Neural Networks (DNN), detect patterns in session frequency, app-switching behavior, and engagement trends. These multi-layered insights go beyond traditional segmentation, helping advertisers identify where high-LTV users are most likely to engage next. - Synthetic Data for Enhanced Precision
To refine our calibration models, we leverage synthetic data that pre-generates positive and negative samples to reduce cold-start inefficiencies for retargeting campaigns. This improves prediction accuracy, minimizes campaign budget wastage and accelerates ROI.
From insights to actionable targeting
With Synthesized Cohorts, advertisers gain a predictive edge. Analyzing your app category’s cohort helps in identifying complementary app categories for cross-app engagement.
To take this further, our App Stickiness Index explores how different app categories retain users over time, offering another layer of insight into long-term engagement trends.
Let’s take the Synthesized Cohort of Fintech apps as an example. Fintech users frequently hop to various app categories, with gaming apps standing out as a key destination. This insight is very valuable for retargeting strategies, enabling advertisers to tailor ads—such as gaming-themed creatives—to align with user behavior.
Get deeper insights across app categories
This is just one example of how Synthesized Cohorts unlock valuable cross-app insights. In the Aarki Retention Radar 2025, we’ve conducted a comprehensive App Hive Analysis across multiple app categories—both gaming and non-gaming—revealing key engagement patterns that help advertisers refine their targeting strategies.
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