The 4 iOS Finance App User Behaviors to Watch Out for in 2024

In the digital finance era, finance apps are essential for individuals across generations, from Gen Z and Millennials to middle-aged and senior citizens. Managing finances digitally has become a norm, with apps catering to various tasks like tracking expenses, investments, bills, savings, budgets, and taxes. The rise in finance app adoption can be credited to various factors. A shift in user behavior, opting for mobile devices in daily tasks due to their convenience, is a notable contributor. Additionally, the continuous evolution of technical standards, combined with changing regulatory norms, significantly shapes iOS finance app user behaviors. With numerous apps competing in the market for the same audience, the finance category is fiercely competitive. Consequently, iOS finance app acquisition is crucial for app marketers, ensuring they target the premier customer base using iOS devices.

Understanding iOS user behavior is essential for aligning app acquisition strategies with customer expectations. Tailoring acquisition strategies to match customer purchase behavior ensures the effective acquisition of customers.

Behavior 1: Users are young millennials and GenZ: 16 - 34

According to a recent survey conducted by American Express, personal finance is identified as the top priority by 57% of individuals from the Gen Z and Millennial generations. The younger generation consistently embraces challenges with well-defined goals. Growing savings ranks high among their priorities, with a keen interest in high-yield savings accounts. Paying off debt follows closely, given the current landscape of escalating interest rates. Lastly, organization and budget planning stand out as critical goals for this generation. Every millennial and Gen Z individual aims to cultivate the habit of tracking expenses and maintaining a precise budget. These aspirations align with the evolving iOS finance app user behaviors, emphasizing the role of digital tools in achieving financial goals. This young audience depends on apps almost every day-  tasks like budgeting, checking credit scores, creating goals for savings, splitting the bills, watching the investment trends, and many more. 

The adoption of finance apps has surged, particularly with 35% of millennials and 31% of the Gen Z audience utilizing iOS devices. It's crucial to understand how these iOS users behave with finance apps. With many app choices, younger users, who are good with technology, can quickly switch between them. The finance app market is very competitive, and these users often switch brands or apps instantly. It's vital to reach the users at the right time when they are looking to download an app that fulfills their financial needs. Keep up with these users' changing preferences in this competitive landscape to reach the audience at the right time.

In this situation, it's crucial to pinpoint people genuinely interested in your finance app, aligning with what you offer. Custom Product Pages (CPP) in Apple Search Ads prove invaluable in this pursuit. Newton's experience with CPPs in Apple Search Ads demonstrated significant traction and increased Lifetime Value (LTV) for app users. Crafting tailored search ads with specific messaging and images for diverse audiences directs users to custom product pages on the Today tab, ensuring a personalized experience. This approach enhances user understanding, reducing instances of dissatisfaction and negative reviews. Strategically using Apple Search Ads with Custom Product Pages addresses the challenge of retaining choosy iOS users by delivering targeted messages to the right audience.

Behavior 2: iOS users spend more

An iPhone user spends 7 times more than an Android user. This purchasing behavior of an iOS user could be because of multiple factors like availability of excess disposable income, willingness to spend, etc.  

Finance apps can leverage this trend by prioritizing iOS user acquisition. KreditBee, a leading fintech app achieved 2000% ROAS through Apple Search Ads, showcasing its effectiveness for iOS finance app user behaviors. In a market saturated with finance apps, differentiation is crucial. While iOS users spend nearly double, their limited numbers pose a retention challenge. To attract and retain users successfully, aligning customer expectations with app offerings is paramount. 

Apple Search Ads become the go-to solution with its search intent marketing. This method precisely targets the right audience who are actively searching for your app or apps similar to yours. For instance, if someone searches for "Money management", it makes sense to bid for that keyword if your app is about managing money. If it's related to insurance, avoid bidding on this keyword. Emphasize using specific, detailed long tail keywords that mirror the needs of iOS users specific to your app.

Behavior 3: The average millennial uses approximately 4 different finance apps

In the dynamic landscape of digital finance, the demand for versatile apps to streamline various financial tasks is evident. With millennials leveraging multiple finance apps for payments, investments, savings, bill splitting, loans, and budget planning, the challenge for iOS app marketers lies not just in acquiring users but in retaining them amid fierce competition.

Users are enticed by apps offering added advantages and promotions without compromising service quality, leading them to try multiple apps before settling on one. However, this diversity introduces risks such as cyber fraud, loss of expense tracking, and platform fees.

The pivotal concern for iOS app marketers is not solely boosting app install rates but ensuring user retention. In this scenario, marketers must not only emphasize the app's utility but also actively engage users. In-app engagement plays a crucial role in sustaining user interest and satisfaction.

Apple Search Ads emerges as a powerful tool for both acquisition and retention. Leveraging multiple ad placements, including the Today tab, search results, and product pages, enhances brand visibility and recall. Recognizing that users often install apps and forget to use them, running ads on the Today tab serves as a reminder. Strategic placements on search results and product pages capitalize on users actively exploring finance apps, increasing brand exposure.

iOS app marketers must prioritize not only acquiring users but also retaining them by actively engaging through in-app experiences and leveraging the strategic placement capabilities of Apple Search Ads. This approach, coupled with data-driven insights from MMP integration, ensures a competitive edge in the dynamic finance app market.

Behavior 4: Special events trigger downloads

There are high and low times in the market, most of the time it is an event that triggers an app download. For example, during Q3 the finance app downloads suddenly spiked, and there were other events where the finance app downloads increased like the taxation season, the festive season, etc. It is during the festive season that all other apps promote their products with exclusive offers and discounts. This period is when finance apps come into play and offer special loans and credit card offers to capitalize on this increased purchase behavior. 

Every other iOS finance app tries to garner its share of voice (SOV) during the peak seasons. All the finance app wants to take advantage of the increased spending and goes all in with multiple keywords ranging from branded, competitor, and generic keywords. During this period a lot of iOS finance apps compete for visibility for the same keywords, and the bids for keywords increase along with the competition for share of voice(SOV).

Now it is the app marketer who has to find ways to optimize reach, visibility, SOV, and installs while keeping the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) under control. There are multiple ways to tackle the ever-increasing bids during the festive season. Going with specific iOS audience targeting is one way of making sure only the right audience taps into the apps in the app store during such peak times. Another predominant way team Newton uses is to tap into very specific long-tail keywords to streamline the audience. We also leverage multilingual keywords from our GenAI tools to identify as many geography-specific keywords as possible to localize our campaigns for the perfect audience. Localizing the custom product pages is also a useful way to showcase the iOS app’s offerings in the best possible manner to the right audience.

Optimizing campaign efficiency around iOS finance app user behavior

Every iOS finance app has specific goals and aspirations when it comes to acquisition, retention, and expansion in the Apple ecosystem. Apple Search Ads facilitates all of the specific purposes precisely, catering to the unique iOS finance app user behavior. Optimizing the campaign for your goal is important for quantifying the benefits and taking corrective actions. In this era of artificial intelligence, it becomes very important to use generative AI tools for optimizing campaigns, especially considering the nuances of iOS finance app user behavior. We at Newton use our own GenAI keyword recommendation tool to identify localized iOS finance keywords that are specific to the markets where we want to expand.

To further refine strategies, Newton integrates Apple Search Ads with Mobile Measurement Platforms (MMP). This integration enables a full-funnel analysis of the user journey, facilitating the streamlining of pre and post-install nurturing for high-quality audience segments.

iOS finance app business case study

Take a look at one of India’s leading fintech apps in the insurance sector that achieved success with Newton by aligning with iOS finance app user behavior. We were able to help them diversify their portfolio with multi-geo keyword-optimized campaigns tailored to iOS finance app user behavior. With MMP and Apple Search Ads integration, we set the goals right and optimized the campaigns for the success of their iOS finance app with control in CAC.

Apart from this, managing a portfolio with an extensive list of 2000 iOS finance keywords was difficult, but Newton’s auto-bid optimization helped in automating the task. They achieved a 55% MOM growth in impressions and in-app engagement, showcasing the effectiveness of aligning strategies with iOS finance app user behavior.

Summary

Ready to scale your finance app growth in alignment with iOS user behavior? Explore the evolving iOS finance app user behaviors in 2024, from the preferences of young millennials and Gen Z to the spending patterns of iOS users. Understand the challenges of retaining users who use multiple finance apps and discover the impact of special events on app downloads. Learn how Apple Search Ads, customized product pages, and strategic placements can optimize acquisition and retention, with insights from Newton's successful campaigns.

Newton's expertise in leveraging Apple Search Ads and innovative strategies can propel your app to success. Contact us today to tailor your acquisition and retention approach for the dynamic iOS finance app market.