Today, social apps have taken two different paths. One focuses on personality first and encourages users to rely more on profile descriptions and personal chats. This way, users can stay as anonymous as they want until they are ready to share more.

The other group of apps does the opposite. It builds a Tik-Tok-style community with short videos instead of traditional profile photos or video call matches instead of simple chats. Moreover, video calls have become a big trend in the social app industry. Almost every social app offers video calls, whether traditional calls, anonymous blurred videos, or even VR video chats with artificial avatars instead of real faces.

How social video chat apps work

There are many ways to have digital encounters in the social app market. Here are some examples of apps that offer different experiences:

  • Video chats and voice calls with new people after random matches: Chatroulette
  • Speed dating apps where users schedule time-limited video meetings, decide on a real-life meeting, and share contacts after a video call: Ditto, Filteroff
  • Short-video apps, where users post vertical videos instead of traditional text descriptions to showcase their personalities: TikTok, Zeeplive, Moj
  • VR apps with imaginary environments allow one to meet with new people via calls in person but hide the actual looks of both interlocutors: Flirtual
  • Live streaming apps where people can stream, watch others streaming, and chat with them: Bigo, Chingari

Moj App

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Source: Google Play

Why video chat social apps have become a trend

First, this was partly influenced by the COVID-19 restrictions. According to Statista, people who were locked in still wanted new encounters, which led many apps to introduce the video calls feature and start the era of digital meetings instead of real-life ones.

However, the in-app video calls trend did not decline even after the lockdown. Instead, it paved the way for a new type of app. Here are some of the main reasons for that:

  • Short profile videos and video chats ensure safety. Virtual calls are safer than real-life meetings, and apps do not reveal any personal information, so you can easily end an unpleasant experience with just a tap.
  • According to a survey among French users, the most popular reasons for using virtual video meetings were to have fun and feel happier.
  •  At the same time, 38% of respondents agreed that video calls allow social app users to trust their new acquaintances. According to a survey of July 2022, the top concern (39% of respondents) of meeting people from social apps was whether people are who they say they are in their profiles. This concern is solved by using digital calls or watching profile videos.
  • Per BBC article, digital encounters might become the most evident and simplest solution for busy youngsters who lack time for physical meetings.

Bigo Live App

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Source: Google Play

Short video apps marketing: Insights and statistics

PropellerAds, a multisource advertising network, also saw a surge in video social apps. Here are some examples of campaigns from our partner, who runs a social app designed for video chatting with new people: Zeeplive. The app positions itself as an ideal option for making new friends, as well as flirting or romance.

  • Dates: 20 October — 30 October 2023
  • GEO: Pakistan
  • Format: PropellerAds classic push
  • Bidding model: CPM
Campaign Impressions Clicks
Android_v1 251 517 098 491 963
Android_v2 237 169 766 480 922
  • Dates: 5 May — 16 May 2023
  • GEO: Pakistan
  • Format: PropellerAds in-page push
  • Bidding model: CPM

Campaign

Impressions

Clicks

Android_v12

903 043

47 236

Android_v14

924 608

48 693

As you see, the campaign receives a considerable number of clicks with push traffic, which gives an immediate idea that short video platforms perform similarly to traditional Social apps — e.g., perform nicely with push notifications.

Top tip: Push ads provide you with personalization features like push badges and emojis that help to engage users and perfectly match the online chatting context.

How to run short video app campaigns

The top popular strategy PropellerAds offers based on the experience of their media buying partners involves the following steps:

  • Define your goals. If you are striving for the maximum personalization level, your stop is a push traffic campaign with thorough testing of creatives. Alternatively, you can pick Onclick traffic with a persuasive landing page for boosting brand awareness. Still, the evergreen strategy is a combo of an Onclick campaign for a product presentation and scaling with push (for example, with the help of retargeting)
  • Creating Whitelists and Blacklists. This is a pretty generic tip, but it’s still essential: using black- and -whitelists after the first tests will allow you to send more traffic to the best-performing zones or exclude ad placements that don’t bring enough conversions. It is especially important when you are testing various approaches to your creatives.
  • Creatives might depend on a particular app and its positioning. However, the general advice is to attract attention using the realistic looks of people who want to encounter and chat via a video call. This might include plain selfies — or video selfies that can be embedded in landing pages and prelanders.
  • Although your campaign might be very similar to traditional social apps, make sure to make your creatives realistic. A misleading text will only result in a user’s disappointment, zero conversions, and the absence of any in-app activity.
  • Use landing pages featuring a short video preview with a nice cliffhanger. This way you can reel the user in the funnel and have them more interested in installing the app.
  • With overall short video app popularity, don’t disregard popunder traffic. Despite the higher initial volume, you have an excellent opportunity to catch the attention of interested users and scale up the activity further.
  • Monitor GEOs. From time to time, some of the key players get blocked in particular regions – which usually leads to a spike in the activity and appearance of new apps looking to conquer the market. A good example was India with a block of TikTok, which led to the appearance and growth of Moj, Chingari, and more top apps, well-known now.

Summary

To sum up, social video apps are a trend that will be here to stay — and are still fresh enough to earn on them, as they are constantly evolving and innovating. What is more, running Social Video apps does not involve any special techniques that go beyond similar campaigns in advertising networks or Facebook. So, this might be the next big thing for media buyers who want to reach a large and engaged audience.