Adjust has released updated H1 2019 data relating to the app landscape as part of its Global Benchmarks 2.0 report series. The insights in the report are based on Adjust’s aggregated database, with more than 7,000 apps analyzed.

The report finds that, with low retention rates unchanged, keeping loyal app users remains a challenge for mobile marketers. The retention data underscores how critical the battle for a good first user experience is, with 79 per cent of an app’s users churning by day two.

Conversion from click to install has also grown to 2.4 per cent. Once someone clicks on an install link, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll go on to download the app. Most of the time, users drop out of the process at the last minute. Adjust suggest that the rise in conversion rates could be attributed, to increasing focus on finding the right creatives and messaging to best attract users.

The report also takes a close look at fraud. It finds that fraud rates have dropped, but this doesn’t mean that less fraud is taking place. Rather, fraudsters have stopped attacking well-protected app publishers and are focusingmore heavily on apps that don’t use fraud prevention tools.

The data also shows that Click Injection now accounts for almost half (47 per cent) of all fraud, followed by Click Spamming (28%). To counter this type of fraud, Adjust recently introduced Click Validation Through Proof of Impression. This is based on the simple premise that for every click, there must be a corresponding impression. The methodology requires ad partners to share this impression data with attribution providers, allowing them to check if there is a matching impression within a reasonable timeframe made by the same device.

The validation requirement dramatically increases the workload for fraudsters seeking to steal brands’ and advertisers’ ad budgets, significantly hampering Click Spamming, Click Injection and other forms of ad fraud.

SDK Spoofing rates hover around the 12 per cent mark. To avoid falling prey to SDK Spoofing, Adjust recommends regularly updating the app’s SDK.