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Unwrapping Seasonal Strategies
Strategic insights for app marketers during the 2025 holiday season
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The 2025 holidays are stacking up to be the most competitive yet. Yes, the ecosystem is more crowded than ever. Yes, user behavior is as unpredictable as ever. But when smart planning and sharp insights meet precise execution, savvy app marketers stand to gain more valuable, more engaged users during this critical time of year.
These interactive dashboards give marketers the intelligence they need. Explore 2024 user behavior and marketing trends by vertical and country, then compare them against 2025 data that will be updated weekly throughout the year. Smart marketers can use these insights to spot opportunities others miss and capitalize on the year's most critical growth period.
The Dynamic Holiday Season
The holiday period isn't a single event—it's a dynamic sequence of distinct opportunities, each with different competitive dynamics, user behaviors, and performance characteristics. The marketers who win are those who adapt their approach to match each phase's unique conditions.
Select a Vertical to Begin
Select the vertical that aligns with your business for a deep dive into user behavior and marketing trends. Refine your analysis further by selecting a specific subvertical.
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User Behavior Trends
While certain holiday patterns are predictable, like gaming's Q5 lift from new devices or ecommerce apps' Black Friday peak, every holiday season brings unexpected shifts in user behavior and competitive dynamics. Add in the fact that these trends vary significantly by country and vertical, and it becomes clear: monitoring how 2025 actually unfolds, rather than relying solely on historical patterns, is critical to unlocking performance.
Understanding how your target audience behaves is critical for holiday season success
Compare year-over-year user behavior trends by country and OS
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Year
Past (2024/2025)
Current (2025/2026)
VIZ user behavior HERE
Source: Sensor Tower estimates using custom vertical classification.
Downloads (Installs), Revenue (IAP & Subscription $ USD), Time Spent (Hours).
Sensor Tower time spent estimates have a two-week lag from the date report was last updated.
Downloads (Installs), Revenue (IAP & Subscription $ USD), Time Spent (Hours).
Sensor Tower time spent estimates have a two-week lag from the date report was last updated.
Marketing Trends
Just as consumer behavior shifts throughout the holiday season, marketing dynamics are equally fluid. The chart below, based on Moloco’s proprietary data, shows indexed metrics that reveal how the marketing landscape ebbs and flows across pre-holiday, peak, and post-holiday periods. Track ad opportunities, CPM, CPI, ROAS, and ARPPU to see exactly when opportunities may arise.
Monitoring the marketing landscape reveals opportunities throughout the holiday season
Compare year-over-year marketing trends by country and OS
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Year
Past (2024/2025)
Current (2025/2026)
VIZ Advertiser Trends HERE
Source: Moloco Internal Data, September 2024 - October 2025. Performance indexed to the first week of October for 2024 and 2025 (or first period where data present). All benchmarks are created at a cohort level with minimum thresholds; if the minimums are not met, data will not be shown.
Plan Your Unique Seasonal Strategy
The ultimate key to holiday performance lies in understanding how user behavior and marketing activity interact—and diverge. The chart below lets you dynamically compare metrics like time spent vs. CPM, revenue vs. ad opportunities, or downloads vs. ROAS to reveal opportunities throughout the holiday season. Monitoring these dynamics can help you identify precisely when to lean in, whether it's capitalizing on efficiency windows where user engagement is high but marketing competition is low, scaling investment when user activity surges, or adjusting your approach as marketing and user patterns evolve.
Use the interactive chart below to test your own hypotheses or explore periods that best benefit your business.
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Comparing user behavior against marketing activity uncovers hidden opportunities
Select any combination of user and marketing trends to identify efficiency windows by country and OS
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Select user metric
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VIZ User & Advertiser Trends HERE
Source: Sensor Tower Estimates, and Moloco Internal Data, Sep 24 - Oct 25.Performance indexed to the first week of October for 2024 and 2025 (or first period where data present). All benchmarks are created at a cohort level with minimum thresholds; if the minimums are not met, data will not be shown.
Post-Season Playbook:
The Q5 Opportunity
Peak Holiday Season has arrived, and we’ll soon be shifting into the Post-Holiday Season—often referred to as “Q5”—the period between Christmas and early January, where auctions relax and efficiency abounds.
After the Black Friday surge, costs ease throughout December, making today through Q5 the most efficient stretch for user acquisition. In the United States, CPIs fall 21% for gaming apps and 37% for consumer apps from Black Friday through the year-end. The pattern repeats globally, with both CPI and CPM declining more than 25% over the same period.
What can you do to make sure you are prepared for this opportunity?
Seize the current efficiency window in Gaming
Gaming is seeing a unique 'efficiency pocket,' most notably on iOS. CPI has dropped 2% with a 9% lift in ROAS over Thanksgiving. Don't wait for Q5 to throttle Gaming spend up; lean in immediately while efficiency lasts, keeping bids flexible to capture high-value users now.
Play defense on consumer apps until prices cool
Consumer app auctions are running hot, with CPMs up 25% on iOS and 13% on Android. Optimize margins with stricter ROAS floors or CPA caps, focusing spend on highest-value users. Reserve 25-30% of budget for post-Christmas when auction prices drop and acquisition becomes most profitable.
Prepare for the “Q5” acquisition opportunity
The biggest acquisition opportunity lies in the days immediately following Christmas and into the new year. Auction pressure eases significantly in late December as advertisers pull back and new devices enter the market. Shift from controlled acquisition to scale—relax bid caps and widen targeting.
Reach out to the Moloco team for expert guidance and custom recommendations for your 2025 holiday season.
