In the past years, the growth of finance apps has led to a shift in the way people manage their funds, making financial tasks more accessible and efficient.
Trust in digital financial services has grown significantly with users relying on mobile apps with their most sensitive information, for all kinds of operations.
This shift is reflected in the number of global finance app downloads, which was up 8% YoY in 2024, exceeding 7 billion.
This article discusses the state of finance apps in 2025, highlighting key categories and exploring emerging trends and essentials. It also serves as a guide, providing user acquisition strategies and emphasizing the importance of retaining users in the competitive finance apps market.
- What are finance apps?
- Finance apps categories
- Finance apps: trends and essentials
- Optimize finance app UA campaigns
- Retain finance app users
- Conclusion
Finance apps are mobile applications designed to help users manage various financial aspects of their lives, either from their mobile phones or computers. These easy to navigate platforms streamline everyday financial tasks by facilitating their access to financial services, allowing users to both view and organize their finances effortlessly.Finance apps typically offer features for budgeting, investing, saving, tracking expenses and managing cryptocurrencies.
The average finance app user has three to four apps, a number expected to keep growing as digital financial services expand.
Since the finance app ecosystem encompasses various subsectors, some apps offer multiple functions that can overlap. However, finance apps are usually categorized based on their primary functions:
Digital Banking (and neobanking) apps
Digital banking apps are finance apps that provide users with real-time access to their bank accounts anytime and from any location, without the necessity of visiting the respective physical branches.
Neobanks, on the other hand, operate entirely online without having physical branches, and are becoming more and more popular thanks to their lower fees.
Both enable users to check balances, transfer funds, and even pay bills.
Money Transfer apps
Money transfer apps allow users to make quick, low-cost, or even free transfers between accounts, both locally and internationally.
The global money transfer app market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.26%, reaching USD 47.67 billion by 2029.
Personal Finance and Budgeting apps
These apps assist users in budgeting and expense tracking, often featuring tools for categorizing spending, setting financial goals and analyzing trends, and saving recommendations. The final goal is to help users gain a better understanding of their financial habits, and identify where they could save more.
Investment apps
Investment apps simplify stock market participation, allowing users to invest, often with lower fees. These finance apps can provide additional features as educational resources, or robo-advisors, algorithm-driven financial advisors that offer automated trading strategies to assist both beginners and experienced stokers.
Cryptocurrency apps (and blockchain)
Cryptocurrency apps facilitate the buying, selling, storing and general management of cryptocurrencies securely.
Many crypto apps integrate blockchain technology to provide a decentralized and transparent environment, recording transactions and investments across a network of computers.
Loan apps
Loan apps streamline the borrowing process enabling users to apply for personal, business or mortgage loans. They offer fast approval and digital management.
BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)
BNPL apps allow users to make purchases and pay in installments over time, dividing the total cost into equal parts and therefore resembling installment loans. While the first payment is made at checkout, the rest are directly billed to the credit
BNPL apps provide zero percent interest if the payments are due on time.
Although it could have been considered a real trend in the finance apps category, its growth has slightly slowed after the pandemic.
Are you looking for a deeper insight? Don’t miss out on The Best Finance Apps for 2025.
Biometric authentication
Enhanced security verification is key to a satisfactory user experience in finance apps. Biometric authentication through fingerprint or facial recognition has become a standard feature in finance apps, helping prevent unauthorized access while also providing a fast login process.
AI and machine learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies play a crucial role in finance apps:
- Fraud detection and prevention: AI driven algorithms can analyze transaction patterns in real-time to identify and block presumed fraudulent activities.
- Financial insights: AI tailors personalized financial recommendations, investment strategies and spending insights based on individual usual behaviour.
- Customer support: AI powered chatbots and virtual assistants handle queries 24/7 with extremely short response times and without the need for human intervention. However, if the questions at issue were to be more complicated or articulated, virtual assistants could also smoothly transfer them to human agents.
Revival of crypto apps
Crypto app installs soared 133% in 2024, reflecting a renewed interest in digital currencies.
Cryptocurrency has seen multiple cycles of booms and crashes. The crypto market is recovering from the FTX collapse. Additionally, Bitcoin’s dramatic collapse in early 2018 led many to declare its demise, yet it rebounded multiple times, with the latest resurgence in 2024 and its price peaking past $100,000.
According to Sensor Tower data, the global total session count for crypto apps increased 37% YoY in 2024, with positive and consistent growth throughout the year, correlated with Bitcoin’s price.
Cryptocurrency is expected to witness more growth in 2025, along with its increasing adoption of blockchain technology.
It is essential to develop a well-structured user acquisition strategy to reach the right audience and thrive in the competitive finance app market.
Leveraging Algorithms
When conducting app install campaigns, it is crucial to gather data and analyze results to understand strengths and inefficiencies. There are many Ad Networks and UA platforms that leverage machine learning algorithms to optimize campaigns and acquire high quality users.
Choosing the right payout model
The primary payout models in finance app marketing campaigns are CPI and CPA.
With CPI advertisers pay for every app install, especially effective to boost visibility and for user base initial growth. This campaign gathers data quickly and scales faster.
With CPA, on the other hand, payment is based on users completing specific in-app actions, such as registration and first time deposit. While CPA attracts higher quality users, they typically take longer to scale, as they require sufficient data to optimize for post-install events.
Either way, it's crucial to regularly update and diversify ad creatives, since new engaging content helps capture users’ interest and therefore drive higher conversion rates.
Choosing the right attribution model
Understanding which marketing efforts drive conversions is crucial for campaign optimization. Finance app marketers typically decide whether to rely solely on Click-Through-Attribution (CTA), which assigns conversions if users clicked on the ad before installation, or to also incorporate View-Through-Attribution (VTA), which captures conversions from users who viewed the ad but did not click on it, giving a more comprehensive view of the campaign’s performance.
Optimizing the user funnel
Optimizing the user journey within the app is crucial to acquiring valuable users. Instead of focusing solely on app installs, UA campaigns should be structured around in-app events that indicate long-term engagement and monetization potential. Identifying events not too far ahead in the funnel, such as completing verification, helps target users who will be more likely to contribute to revenue growth.
While acquiring users is essential, keeping them engaged is just as important for long term success.
Retention rates tend to be relatively low for finance apps, with many users dropping off the funnel after a short period.
Some finance apps categories, such as stock trading apps, have the highest retention rates, likely because users have an inherent reason to return frequently. Therefore, to drive long term engagement across all finance apps, it’s important to implement strategies that encourage consistent usage.
Here is what to keep track of in UA campaigns and key strategies to acquire loyal customers:
Monitoring the correct KPIs:
- Sessions per user per day: helps evaluate customer engagement and satisfaction because it reflects user engagement with services like personal account management or financial advice. For finance apps that handle transactions, it also evaluates the payments’ ease, which impacts user retention.
- Retention rate: indicates the percentage of users who continue using the app after a certain period. The higher it is, the higher the chances of said users performing in-app events.
- ARPU: tracks how much revenue each user generates in a limited time frame, and therefore makes it easier to understand the quality of the users acquired.
- Average time to first transaction: measures how quickly users engage with the app and complete their first significant action within the app, such as making a payment, setting up a transfer, or completing a purchase. The faster users take this first step, the more likely they are to stay engaged with the app.
Customer engagement:
Engaging users is critical for retention. To achieve this, finance apps should add in-app valuable and interactive features.
- Gamification elements: Gamification helps create a sense of achievement and progression, especially through rewards.
- Firstly, daily logins and streaks are a good example since they encourage habit formation in users, by rewarding regular app usage.
- Similarly, badges recognize financial milestones, such as reaching savings goals.
- Leaderboards, on the other hand, add a competitive aspect by comparing users’ progress to that of peers.
- Actual mini-games, such as “spin the wheel”, that clearly display potential rewards.
- Finally, educational content provides financial knowledge in an engaging format.
- In-app financial guidance: AI-driven insights, automated savings suggestions, and chatbot advisors can help users manage their finances effortlessly and therefore enhance their experience in the app.
- Referral programs: Earning rewards by inviting others to join the app. A new user is usually required to complete specific tasks within the app, like completing a transaction, to get the benefit. It’s not only great for UA, but also increases engagement.
Considering retargeting:
Retargeting means to re-engage users who may have dropped off or become inactive. By tracking user behavior within the app, finance apps should create personalized retargeting campaigns that encourage users to return by offering incentives, reminders, or highlighting features they haven't yet explored.
Avoiding common mistakes:
- Focus on preventing fraud and ensuring data accuracy: Trust is the foundation of finance apps, also making it key for retention. Implementing secure transactions, biometric authentication, accurate data reporting and encryption safeguards users’ sensitive information.
- Minimize steps: Minimizing the number of steps needed to complete tasks can prevent users from abandoning the app. Therefore, an intuitive interface is key to enhance usability in finance apps.
- Never overwhelm users: Overloading users with aggressive or excessive notifications should be carefully avoided, opting for non-intrusive banners.
Even retargeting campaigns should be far away from spam activities, with relevant and valuable notifications or emails. - Waiting times: Slow processing speeds and long verification procedures can frustrate users. Optimizing app performance should be one of the greatest focuses for finance apps.
- Finance apps are reshaping financial management, spanning different categories.
- Enhanced security with biometric authentication, AI-driven insights (from fraud detection to personalized financial guidance), and the resurgence of crypto apps are key points not to miss.
- Successful UA campaigns leverage machine learning for campaign optimization, choose the right payout and attribution models, and focus on in-app events that will potentially drive long-term engagement.
- Retention strategies include gamification, in-app financial guidance, referral programs, personalized retargeting, and a commitment to security and usability through an intuitive design.
Finance App Growth Fueled by Mapendo: A Case Study
Remittance App Paysend Gets +176% Registrations With Mapendo's Programmatic Platform
Paysend's challenge was acquiring high quality users who'd send money via their app and become valuable customers.
Paysend's user acquisition campaign for iOS targeted North America and Western Europe.
Ready to start growing your app profitably? Reach out to our sales team and schedule a call to understand if there is a mutual fit!
