A mobile marketer’s guide to influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is now indisputably a measurable performance channel. In 2025, the global influencer marketing market size is expected to exceed $32.5 billion, with 86% of marketers actively running campaigns and 71% increasing budgets year-over-year. Influencer advertising spend in Asia Pacific (APAC) alone is forecast to reach about $47.2 billion by 2030.

Campaigns are shifting from brand awareness to performance outcomes, such as installs, conversions, and retention. This shift is supported by short-form video platforms, native commerce features, and more advanced attribution. Brands are also using artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with creator discovery, content optimization, and audience targeting. While driving traffic from influencers and choosing the right fit remains part of the challenge, the real complexity is measurement: many teams still struggle to track which creators drive results.

This guide focuses on how mobile marketers can structure, measure, and improve influencer campaigns.

Short-form video is the primary format for influencer content. In 2025, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts receive the highest share of creator marketing budgets. Engagement remains strongest on TikTok, where nano-influencers average over 10%, compared to 1.7% on Instagram.

Creator-led commerce is expanding. Platforms now support in-app sales through tools like TikTok Shop and Instagram Checkout. Marketers are using affiliate links and unique promo codes to attribute conversions directly to creator content.

While influencer marketing is relevant across all markets globally, APAC stands out as one of the highest-growth regions for mobile-first creator marketing, and Southeast Asia (SEA), Japan, and India are leaders in adoption. In SEA, for example, over 80% of consumers have purchased a product after seeing it recommended by an influencer. As with all content types, localized influencer marketing, matched to language, tone, and culture, will drive higher conversion rates than global content strategies. The influencers you work with should be highly relevant to the market you’re selling to.

Here are some examples that illustrate how apps have worked with creators to drive reach and engagement.

Garena Free Fire × BTS

Partnering with celebrities has long been a force in advertising, but drilling down into niches to work with relevant stars can be an effective form of influencer marketing. In 2022, Singapore-based publisher Garena partnered with K-pop group BTS as global ambassadors for its battle royale mobile game Free Fire. The campaign introduced BTS-themed in-game content and sparked widespread engagement across social platforms.

Dream11 IPL Influencer Campaign

During the 2023 Indian Premier League season, fantasy sports app Dream11 collaborated with 15 regional influencers and cricket creators to promote its app in multiple languages. The campaign reached over 41 million users. This example highlights the value of local language creators and live event tie-ins in driving measurable app growth in India.

TikTok Shop affiliate livestreams

In 2024, TikTok Shop became the most-used live commerce platform in SEA, with 75% of consumers engaging with livestream shopping content. Influencers on the platform participate in commission-based campaigns by featuring products in real-time livestreams. Using TikTok’s “open affiliate” model, creators earn an average of 9–10% commission per sale, while some top fashion and beauty products offer as high as 25–35% commission. This integrated model allows brands to offer performance-based payouts while influencers generate revenue through product reviews, real-time Q&As, and community engagement. It represents a scalable, data-driven approach to live commerce and performance influencer marketing in mobile-first markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Influencer marketing performs best when guided by clear goals, measurable actions, and consistent tracking. Use this checklist to plan and execute campaigns that connect creators to performance outcomes.

1. Define audience and goals

Identify who you want to reach and what you want to achieve. Goals should be specific and measurable, such as app installs, day 7 retention, revenue, or return on ad spend (ROAS). Clear objectives help determine which creators, content types, and platforms will be most effective.

2. Choose platform and influencer tier

Select platforms that match your audience’s behavior. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are best for reach and short-form engagement, while YouTube and Twitch support longer-form content and product education.

Choose influencer tiers based on reach and engagement:

• Nano (1–10K followers): These creators often achieve the highest engagement rates and are perceived as highly authentic by their audiences.
• Micro (10–100K followers): These influencers perform well within defined niche communities and can deliver strong conversion rates.
• Macro (100K+ followers): These creators provide broad reach across multiple markets and are effective for awareness-focused campaigns.

3. Identify target regions

Localization has a direct impact on performance. Tailor messaging to local languages, humor, and cultural norms to improve conversion. Regional creators often build greater trust than global influencers.

Effective influencer marketing depends on a balance between creator freedom, brand consistency, and continuous measurement. These practices help improve content quality and long-term performance.

• Let creators maintain creative control
  Influencers know what resonates with their audiences. Give them the freedom to present your product in their own style while ensuring accuracy. Campaigns that preserve creative control typically see stronger engagement and authenticity

• Ensure brand consistency

  Choose creators whose tone, values, and content align with your brand. Review previous sponsored content to confirm consistency with your messaging and visual identity. Alignment across creators reinforces credibility and brand trust.

• Test content formats

  Test multiple content types, such as short-form videos, livestreams, or tutorials, to identify which formats drive higher conversions. Use these results to refine creative direction and allocate budgets effectively.

• Measure and benchmark performance

  Measure all influencer activity in your analytics or MMP. Benchmarking performance over time helps identify which campaigns deliver sustainable results.

• Optimize for retention and revenue

  Look beyond installs to measure campaign impact. Evaluate user retention, purchase frequency, and lifetime value (LTV) to determine which creators attract high-quality users. Optimizing for long-term metrics ensures influencer campaigns contribute to sustained growth.

Influencer strategies differ by app category, but all aim to connect authentic content with measurable results.

Gaming

Gaming apps rely on influencer marketing to showcase gameplay and engage audiences through live streams and creator collaborations on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Streamers often receive early access or in-game rewards to create authentic content that demonstrates key features. Referral or deep links enable real-time tracking of user acquisition (UA) and engagement performance.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle apps perform best with creators who share relatable, everyday content. Campaigns use QR codes and deep links to drive installs from social, livestream, or connected TV (CTV) content. Long-term collaborations sustain engagement and retention. Some brands also use takeovers or giveaways to create variety and encourage direct user interaction.

E-commerce

E-commerce apps grow through social shopping and creator affiliate programs, where influencers demonstrate products via short videos or livestreams. Promo codes, creator-specific links, and product seeding (free samples or review items) connect content directly to installs and revenue. 

Finance and utilities

Finance and utilities apps use education-led influencer campaigns to build trust and explain features clearly. Trusted creators, such as finance educators or productivity experts, help audiences understand complex products. 

Influencer marketing delivers stronger results when performance is transparent and measurable. With Adjust, marketers can track installs, analyze post-install behavior, and optimize creator campaigns using accurate data and actionable insights. Each stage of the influencer journey, from link click to in-app activity, is visible within Adjust’s dashboards.

TrueLink, Adjust’s deep linking solution, connects influencer content to quantifiable results. It allows marketers to identify where users originate and links installs or in-app events to specific creator campaigns or channels. 

Once users install the app, event tracking provides visibility into what happens next. Registrations, purchases, and subscriptions are recorded as in-app events, helping marketers assess user quality and calculate ROAS for each influencer partnership. Cohort analysis can then be used to build on these insights by grouping users to reveal behavioral patterns. By comparing retention and LTV across acquisition sources and cohorts, marketers can determine whether influencer-acquired users sustain stronger engagement or monetization than those from other paid channels.

Finally, Growth Copilot brings these metrics together. Using machine learning, it analyzes campaign data to reveal performance trends and highlight optimization opportunities. For influencer marketing, this means pinpointing which creators, content formats, or regions drive higher ROI.

Ready to grow your app business? Request a demo today to find out how Adjust supports your goals.