The digital pulse of Nigeria beats fastest on mobile. With NGN 1 billion projected in app usage and purchases for 2025 across the continent, marketers in Nigeria cannot afford to ignore this wave.
At Google’s recent “Appcelerate” summit, top industry voices explored the central role of mobile apps in today’s marketing strategies.
The takeaway was unmistakable: Nigerians spend over 4 hours daily on mobile, with 80% of that time in apps.
Apps have moved from being optional extras to becoming the core of customer engagement, business efficiency, and innovation.
Smartphone access is set to reach 880 million across Africa by 2030. Monthly mobile data use is expected to triple.
Nigeria is leading this digital surge, ranking 6th globally for app downloads, with a 320% rise in just two years.
This growth signals more than user numbers, it shows a market with deeper engagement, higher loyalty, and richer opportunities for businesses that tap into the app-driven economy.
For marketers and business owners, apps are now a key growth driver. The path forward is clear: understand what makes apps work and how to maximize their impact.
1. Treat the Customer Journey as Unified
Forget dividing your audience into “web customers” and “app customers.” Nigerian consumers move seamlessly from browser to app and back again, often in a single purchase journey. For example, someone might discover your brand via Google Search, browse your site, get distracted, then see your ad again.
If they have your app, a click can bring them right back to their cart inside the app, ready to buy.
Your marketing needs to reflect this reality, ensuring that the brand experience is integrated across all digital touchpoints, making it easier to convert potential customers wherever they start or finish.
2. Focus on Profitable App Engagement
App users are your most valuable customers. They engage more, show higher loyalty, and tend to spend more than those who stick to your website. The numbers back this up, app purchasers often buy beyond their original intent.
By making it a priority to acquire and retain app users, you are building a strong foundation for business growth. Think of a local food delivery app: regular users order more, try out new offers, and use app-exclusive deals, all of which drives up their lifetime value.
3. Use Apps as a Goldmine for First-Party Data
With digital privacy in sharper focus, apps give marketers a chance to collect direct, consented customer data.
People are more likely to share information in trusted apps, giving you deeper insight into their habits and preferences.
This data is critical for building profiles and running personalized campaigns. For example, a fintech app can track user spending, preferred services, and savings goals, then use these insights to suggest relevant products and build stronger relationships.
4. Measure Holistically Across Web and App
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Marketers need to see the whole picture, not just fragments, so a cross-platform measurement strategy is a must.
Tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) let you track engagement and conversions across both web and app, tying user behavior together for a complete view of the journey.
For example, a travel company can see when a customer searches for flights on their website and later books a trip through their app. This full-path insight helps marketers optimize spend and improve results.
5. Turn Web Campaigns into App Conversions
When your analytics are set, guide your web users to your app. For those with the app installed, deep links can take them from a web ad right into the app, straight to the content they want.
Google’s Web to App Connect in Google Ads makes this easy. If a user searches for “affordable smartphones” and clicks your ad, they can be taken directly to that section in your app, making the buying process smooth and fast.
This frictionless experience boosts conversion rates and increases satisfaction.
6. Drive Growth with Google Ads and App Campaigns
Growing your app’s user base takes more than organic buzz. Google Ads offers App Campaigns designed for this moment, reaching billions of users across Google Search, Play, Gmail, YouTube, and more than 2 million sites and apps on the Display Network.
App Campaigns use machine learning to find the right people for your app at the right time, helping you not only drive installs but also meaningful engagement.
To date, these ads have delivered over 10 billion installs worldwide, proof of their scale and effectiveness. Nigerian developers and marketers can use this approach to efficiently build a high-value audience, whether launching a fintech app or driving engagement for a new delivery service.
7. Make YouTube Your Discovery Engine
When it comes to discovering new apps and products, few platforms rival YouTube. With nearly 2 billion logged-in users every month, YouTube reaches audiences at scale, and it’s where people spend more than a billion hours each day watching video.
Importantly, over 70% of YouTube’s watch time is on mobile, which fits perfectly with Nigeria’s mobile-first population.
YouTube is a go-to destination for Gen Z, especially gamers and creators, looking to connect with communities and discover new apps. In Nigeria, YouTube watch time grew by 55% in the past year, signaling a prime opportunity for app marketers to reach engaged, mobile-first audiences and boost visibility.
For Nigerian businesses, the path to sustained digital growth and profitability is now closely tied to leveraging platforms like Google Ads and YouTube.
By adopting an integrated digital strategy that measures comprehensively with GA4, optimizes with Web to App Connect, and grows through AI-powered App Campaigns and video discovery on YouTube, marketers can unlock new levels of value and engagement.
The opportunity is wide open for any brand ready to meet customers where they are, on their phones, in their apps, and in their favourite videos.
*Olumide Balogun is the director, West Africa at Google
