How Mobile Commerce Community Marketing Drives Higher ROI Than Traditional Channels

A report prepared by Sensor Tower, Adjust, and Reddit has mapped the current state of the mobile market. It shows that community environment has the greatest impact on retention, revenue, and long-term growth of applications.

A user who makes decisions based on community recommendations is more loyal, engaged and usually more profitable too.

Mobile as the primary battleground for customers

In 2024, mobile application usage reached a new historical peak. Users spent a total of an incredible 4.2 trillion hours in them, with average time devoted to apps exceeding 3.5 hours daily per person. This intensive interest was also reflected in consumer spending – applications achieved a turnover of $150 billion on iOS and Google Play platforms alone, representing a year-on-year increase of 13%. Mobile has thus confirmed its position even more prominently as the main communication and commercial channel of today.

If a brand wants to maintain customers’ attention, it must reckon with the fact that mobile is now the primary place where business decisions are made.

What Currently Influences Customers’ Digital Behaviour?

1. AI Apps Dominate

Applications that utilize (or at least communicate the use of) AI recorded 17 billion downloads – more than 13% of the total volume. Generative AI has entered education, productivity, and finance. Applications like ChatGPT or Duolingo have significantly increased revenues precisely thanks to AI functions.

AI has become a commercially powerful element that can increase interest in an application – and not only amongst technically savvy users, but also in the broader public. For companies, this means that if their app (or even web service) has some AI functionality, it’s worth actively communicating it. It can actually influence customers’ decision-making right from the selection stage.

2. Growth of Non-Gaming Applications

Users’ spending is increasingly shifting outside of games. Applications from areas such as productivity, photo & video, or finance recorded growth of 25% annually. Developers who know how to monetize services directly within the application are profiting more today than traditional gaming giants.

3. Return of Crypto

After the collapse caused by FTX’s fall, crypto applications are recovering. In 2024, the number of interactions rose by 37%, and with them, confidence in this segment. For fintech startups or investment apps, this means a return of interest and new opportunities.

Community Marketing as the Channel With the Highest Return

Adjust research compared the performance of users acquired from various advertising channels – including Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit. It emerged that users from community environments are more valuable for applications across several metrics:

• Higher engagement: Redditors spent up to 103% more time in applications than the average user from another channel (after 30 days from installation).
• Higher retention: After a month, 15% more users from Reddit return to the app than from other platforms.
• They spend faster: On installation day, their expenditure was up to 159% higher than users from traditional digital media.

A user who makes decisions based on community recommendations is more loyal, engaged and usually more profitable too.

What Does Mobile Commerce Community Marketing Mean for E-commerce?

You shouldn’t underestimate the community context. The way people talk about your product in communities – often without your direct participation – has a fundamental impact on decision-making and conversions. Authentic experiences of other users play an increasingly large role in building trust, regardless of whether you’re selling a physical product or digital service.

Even if you don’t have your own application, the principle remains the same: people verify what works and what doesn’t within discussions they consider trustworthy. It’s therefore important to actively monitor discussions. What’s being said about your brand on Facebook groups or on forums where topics that fall within your segment are discussed?

You don’t need to engage in every debate, but you should certainly listen. Participation – whether active or passive – is key to being able not only to monitor trust, but also to build it.

While e-commerce has been dealing mainly with performance campaigns in recent years, 2025 shows that long-term growth will come through trust and community. Trust isn’t just about the brand but about where and how it’s talked about. And mobile is precisely the place where trust translates into money.