eCommerce iOS remarketing spend jumped 85% YoY in H2 2025
Gaming iOS UA spend grew 34% despite market maturity
Finance install fraud dropped up to 53% but risks remain high
Growth in Spain is no longer about reach. It’s about quality
Spain is one of Europe’s most mature mobile markets. Smartphone penetration is among the highest in the region, with 96% of internet users accessing the web via mobile and spending nearly three hours a day on their phones. Messaging, commerce, and social platforms are no longer “just” channels, they are habits.
This behavior starts early. Spain’s young, digitally fluent population grows up mobile first, with seven in ten children aged 10 to 15 already using smartphones, according to TBS Education. For this generation, mobile is not an option or a preference. It is the default interface for daily life.
The result is immediate and intense competition. Users are experienced, selective, and intentional about where they invest their time, money, and attention. Trust is built early, or not at all. Transparency around data usage increasingly determines whether an app earns a place on the home screen.
With mobile adoption effectively maxed out and 5G coverage widely available, reach stops being a meaningful differentiator. Growth shifts away from acquisition volume and toward activation, retention, and long-term value (LTV).
In this report, we explore how these shifts are reshaping mobile marketing in Spain. from platform dynamics and user behavior to the growing role of remarketing, retention, and value-driven strategies. Based on aggregated data, we highlight what’s driving performance, where budgets are shifting, and what marketers need to stay competitive in a mature market.
* All results are based on fully anonymous and aggregated data. To ensure statistical validity, we follow strict volume thresholds and methodologies and only present data when these conditions are met. When normalized data is presented, the share of each month out of the total for the entire time frame is shown to create a trend.
High spend, low attention, and fragmented user journeys
Digital investment in Spain continues to rise. Ad spend exceeded €6.2 billion in 2025, growing 11.2% year over year (YoY). Most of this investment flows into search, social, and in-app advertising. In-app formats alone surpassed $2 billion (roughly €1.8 billion), based on Statista estimates published by DataReportal.
At the same time, emerging channels are reshaping media strategies. Connected TV (CTV) is among the fastest-growing segments, with investment rising nearly 50% to over €174 million. Since 2023, spending has grown by more than 120%, and projections for 2026 anticipate a further increase of 30% to 60%.
Despite rising investment, capturing user attention is becoming harder. Fewer than 12% of users click on ads in a typical month, and only 7.9% feel represented by the advertising they see. As complexity increases, the gap between spend and real impact continues to widen.
With mobile at the center of digital behavior, fragmentation emerges as the core challenge. Users move fluidly across apps, social platforms, messaging services, QR codes, and offline touchpoints. Connecting these signals through a unified, privacy-conscious measurement strategy is becoming essential to understand performance and drive sustainable growth.
Digital advertising investment in Spain in 2025 by segment
Spain’s next growth chapter is shaped by non-gaming apps and accelerating iOS installs
Spain’s app economy is entering a more mature phase, where growth is driven by relevance rather than sheer volume. After years of expansion fueled by smartphone adoption, affordable data, and pandemic-driven behavior, install growth is now slowing, a clear sign that the market is stabilizing. Demand remains strong, but users are becoming more selective and expect real, tangible value from the apps they choose.
Gaming played a central role during the pandemic, with installs peaking during lockdown periods. Since 2022, that momentum has eased, impacted by market saturation and rising user acquisition (UA) costs.
Non-gaming apps tell a different story. Between 2023 and 2024, installs in this category grew at a faster pace and ultimately surpassed gaming. This reflects a shift in user behavior, with a stronger preference for utility-driven apps that simplify and support everyday life.
Android continues to dominate, accounting for roughly 7 out of 10 mobile OS users in Spain, largely due to price sensitivity. At the same time, iOS is steadily gaining ground. Installs have grown nearly tenfold between 2017 and 2025, with market share rising from 20% to almost 30%. In 2025 alone, iOS installs increased by 35%, while Android saw a 15% decline.
This evolution aligns with rising disposable income in urban areas, longer device lifecycles, and stronger monetization potential. Looking ahead to 2026, Spain’s biggest growth opportunity lies in attracting higher-value users.
In this context, measurement and attribution matter more than ever. In a mature market, small optimization gains can drive outsized impact.
Overall install trend by vertical & platform (normalized)
Brands reallocate investment from acquisition scale to lifecycle value
Growth strategy in Spain is being recalibrated around economic reality. As UA efficiency declines and media costs remain volatile, growth is no longer driven by pure scale, but by yield. Investment is shifting toward user quality, lifetime value (LTV), and the ability to compound value over time. Volume still matters, but it is no longer the main growth engine.
This shift is not limited to mobile. Across Spain’s broader media landscape, brands are rebalancing toward formats that build relationships, not just reach. According to IAB Spain and PwC, branded content grew 8.7% year over year, while influencer marketing surged 25.9%. These channels are gaining share because they create sustained attention, trust, and cultural relevance in a market where traditional advertising is increasingly easy to ignore. The channels evolve, but the strategy is consistent: extract more value from existing audiences.
Mobile investment patterns reflect this same dynamic. The volatility in spend across the year was largely driven by shopping apps, with strong pressure from Chinese players accelerating competition, particularly on iOS. In the first half of the year, investment concentrated on aggressive UA to quickly build scale and market presence. In the second half, the strategy pivoted. Budgets shifted toward remarketing, focusing on re-engagement, conversion, and monetization of the acquired base.
UA and remarketing ad spend trend by platform (normalized)
Paid installs rise, but momentum shifts toward value-driven iOS efficiency
Paid installs in Spain trend upward across both Android and iOS, but the drivers behind that growth diverge as the market increasingly prioritizes efficiency, optimization, and long-term value.
Android shows higher volatility throughout the period, with sharper quarter-to-quarter swings. Growth accelerates at several points in 2024 and peaks around Q3 2025, followed by a clear pullback in Q4 2025, declining 12% YoY. This pattern points to growth driven by short acquisition bursts rather than sustained momentum, reflecting rising budget sensitivity and a move away from broad-scale acquisition toward more selective investment.
iOS follows a steadier upward trajectory. Paid installs rise gradually from Q1 2024 to Q4 2025, increasing by 21% over the full period. Performance remains relatively stable quarter to quarter, signaling consistent growth supported by selective scaling and efficiency-focused strategies rather than volume-led expansion.
Android remains scalable but is more exposed to budget reallocation and short-term optimization cycles. iOS has become a more resilient channel, driven by incremental gains and value-based decision-making. In 2026, efficiency and first-party data activation will define competitive advantage.
Paid installs trend by platform (normalized)
eCommerce is driven by calendar-led UA and scaled remarketing investment
eCommerce remains a major growth driver in Spain, but the investment logic has shifted. Rising competition and weaker acquisition efficiency are pushing brands away from always-on UA toward a more tactical, moment-driven approach.
UA spend now closely follows Spain’s retail calendar, concentrating around high-intent moments like Las Rebajas. Q2 and Q3 dominate the spend curve. In 2025, investment during these peak quarters more than doubled YoY, signaling short-term scaling tied to promotions rather than sustained growth.
The broader channel mix reflects the same urgency. Classifieds, a major channel for retail discovery in Spain, grew by over 20% YoY, while social media investment rose by 13%, reinforcing its role in product discovery and retargeting. The omnichannel eCommerce journey in Spain is increasingly stitched together across search, social, in-app, and CTV, with each touchpoint playing a distinct role along the path to purchase.
Platform trends reinforce this shift. Android UA remained relatively stable, ending Q4 2025 slightly below early 2024 levels despite a mid-year rebound. iOS showed sharper volatility, with heavy concentration in Q2 and Q3, followed by a nearly 50% drop in Q4. Once scale had been established, brands reduced acquisition spend and shifted focus to the users they had already acquired.
That pivot made remarketing the defining story of H2. eCommerce remarketing spend surpassed $700 million in 2025, up 40% YoY, with particularly strong growth on iOS. In a crowded category, the winning move is extracting more value from existing users.
eCommerce UA and remarketing ad spend trend by platform (normalized)
eCommerce UA and remarketing ad spend split by country HQ*
eCommerce app sessions trend by platform (normalized)
From reach to grip, finance apps double down on iOS engagement, up 96% YoY
Spain’s online banking market has entered a more sophisticated phase. Users are concentrating activity in fewer, trusted apps, and growth is increasingly driven by engagement and retention rather than pure acquisition.
This shift is reflected in both platform dynamics and investment behavior. By 2025, UK apps had become the largest advertisers in Spain’s finance category, with Revolut ranking as the most downloaded finance app, according to Sensor Tower. As market penetration increased, UK advertisers adjusted their strategies, shifting away from acquisition toward retention, re-engagement, and lifetime value. UA investment fell 18% YoY, while redirected budgets meant UK brands accounted for about half of total remarketing spend in Spain that year.
Many Spanish finance brands still rely on Android for scale, but this approach is reaching its limits. Android UA peaked in Q1 2025 and declined steadily thereafter.
iOS, while smaller in absolute terms, showed stronger momentum. Finance app activity grew 96% between 2024 and 2025, compared to 51% on Android. iOS is increasingly where engagement compounds, particularly for digital wallets. Investment apps remain more cyclical, while mobile banking surged late in 2025, likely driven by end-of-year promotional activity.
Finance UA ad spend trend by platform (normalized)
Finance UA and remarketing ad spend split by country HQ*
Finance app sessions trend by key categories & platform (normalized)
Selective UA replaces scale-first growth in Spain’s Gaming market
According to the Asociación Española de Videojuegos (AEVI), Spain is now one of the EU’s top four gaming markets, nearing €5 billion in value. The market has expanded beyond traditional audiences, from Gen Z students to older professionals. In 2024, women became the majority of gamers for the first time, creating a broader, more diverse revenue base. Gaming is also gaining institutional recognition as a cultural and educational tool, accelerating gamification across digital products and services.
As the market matures, mobile growth is shifting from scale to selectivity, with UA focused on efficiency, defending market share, and sustaining monetization rather than driving usage growth. This is most visible in H2, when sessions seasonally soften despite continued spend. Android investment peaked mid-2024 and declined as ROI thresholds tightened, while iOS spend rose 34% from 2024 to 2025, reflecting a stronger focus on value-focused strategies.
At the category level, Casino saw a sharp pullback after mid-2024, especially on Android, following Spain’s strict gambling ad regulations. Brands are responding by shifting from acquisition-led growth toward CRM, UX, and loyalty. Recurring late-summer and Q4 session dips, with partial Q1 recovery, reinforce the need to factor seasonality into budget planning.
Gaming UA ad spend trend by key categories & platform (normalized)
Gaming app sessions trend by key categories & platform (normalized)
Install fraud declines overall, but finance remains a high-risk vertical
Install fraud in Spain is declining across major verticals. However, risk levels and stability vary sharply by industry.
In eCommerce, install fraud dropped by over 90% on Android and iOS between 2024 and 2025, with similarly steep YoY declines. Mature acquisition strategies, tighter partner controls, and the impact of ATT and SKAN have largely neutralized install-level fraud.
Even in verticals where fraud rates have dropped significantly, like eCommerce, this does not mean the risk has disappeared. It reflects a moment where prevention is outperforming fraudsters, not a permanent advantage. Fraud is a constant game of cat and mouse. As defenses improve, so do attack methods. Maintaining strong protection and continuous monitoring remains critical across all verticals, not just high-risk ones like finance.
Finance remains the highest-risk vertical. Despite overall declines of more than 50% on both platforms between H2 2024 and H2 2025, install fraud rates remain near 30%. High payouts, aggressive scaling, and complex onboarding flows continue to make finance apps structurally attractive to abuse. While both platforms improved YoY, Android recorded a 6% rebound in Q4, signaling active fraud adaptation rather than resolution. In finance, fraud prevention is continuous. Gains are reversible, and defenses must evolve alongside attack methods.
Gaming operates in a lower-risk environment. Install fraud declined by 76% on Android and 47% on iOS, with steady improvements and no rebound. This reflects mature UA strategies and limited install-level incentives.
Install fraud rate trend by key categories & platform
With Android paid installs declining and iOS installs growing, marketers may want to explore more balanced platform strategies. Consider testing iOS-focused campaigns to capture higher-value users while optimizing Android acquisition efficiency.
Remarketing spend surged on iOS and Android, highlighting a shift toward lifecycle-driven growth. Marketers could try expanding re-engagement strategies and segmentation tactics to maximize retention, engagement, and long-term customer value.
With eCommerce remarketing spend surpassing $700M in 2025 and finance engagement growing strongly on iOS, marketers might explore stronger retention and engagement programs. Try combining seasonal acquisition campaigns with remarketing to extract greater value from existing users.
As Spain’s gaming market matures and UA efficiency tightens, teams may want to explore more targeted acquisition strategies. Consider prioritizing higher-value segments and testing creative optimization or CRM-led engagement to sustain growth and improve monetization.
Although install fraud has declined across many industries, finance still faces elevated risk levels. Marketers may want to explore advanced fraud detection tools and continuously monitor partner quality to help reduce exposure.
