Top mobile ad networks
Apple Search Ads has displaced Facebook as the best ad network for mobile marketers on iPhone and iPad, according to a new performance index from AppsFlyer. Apple’s ad network has significantly expanded since Apple changed marketing practices, hitting 60% of all its business from the first half of 2020 in just seven weeks this year.
“Apple Search Ads (ASA) ranked first in both the Retention Index’s global power and volume rankings,” AppsFlyer, a mobile marketing measurement platform, says. “iOS marketers flocked to ASA following the enforcement of ATT.”
This is something mobile experts predicted over a year ago.
ATT is App Tracking Transparency, a privacy-centric technology Apple introduced about six months ago. Since the adoption of App Tracking Transparency, other ad networks get less data on consumers, impairing their ability to track devices and target people.
Apple Search Ads, however, does not use ATT.
“ASA is the only media source in iOS that functions independently of SKAdNetwork and deterministically attributes users,” AppsFlyer says. “It is therefore no surprise that it is the new #1 player among consenting users in both the Retention Index’s global power and volume rankings.”
The reason is simple: App Tracking Transparency is aimed at the sharing of data between companies.
For example, if you owned and marketed a mobile app in 2019, you could share the device identifiers of your very best, most engaged, and most profitable users with Facebook, and essentially ask Facebook to find you more people like these. Facebook, with device identifiers from thousands of apps and billions of its own users, could look for other people who might like apps such as yours, and show your ads to them. So could Google, or any of a hundred other ad networks.
Not anymore.
Unless people agree in App Tracking Transparency to share their data ... and only about 20% actually do.
Top mobile ad networks in AppsFlyer's retention index
But App Tracking Transparency does not cover first-party data: data that companies collect from people and do not share with others. And since iPhone owners are Apple customers, and Apple Search Ads is part of Apple, ASA can use different standards and methodologies to identify the right people for marketers’ ads. Perhaps even more importantly, Apple Search Ads has the same advantage that Google Ads has on Google’s website: high intent.
ASA shows ads primarily in the App Store, and if you’re there, you’re likely there to search for and install apps. If Apple can get the right ad in front of you, you’re very likely to click on it and install it.
That’s much more powerful than randomly showing you an ad while you’re playing a game, checking news, or doomscrolling social media.
“ASA’s success was driven by non-gaming apps where it ranked first, thanks to the top spot it secured in the Life & Culture group in seven regions across the globe: Eastern Europe, Greater China, Japan & Korea, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Western Europe,” says AppsFlyer. “ASA’s advantage was also evident in the IAP Index, overcoming Facebook to take the number one global power and volume ranking, driving quality users at scale, with a first place showing in non-gaming and second place result in Gaming.”
Apple’s ad network wasn’t as strong in Gaming, where it was third in AppsFlyer’s power ranking and fourth in volume ranking, despite strong showings in Japan, Korea, as well as North America.
For advertising platforms that use SKAdNetwork, TikTok showed unexpected strength, beating out Facebook for the top spot. Ad giant AppLovin took third, with Google in fourth.
Facebook is still “adapting to new reality,” AppsFlyer says: the company has been slow to adopt Apple’s privacy-safe SKAdNetwork (also referred to as SKAN) framework for attributing mobile marketing, and it shows.
The top ten for the SKAN index:
- TikTok
- AppLovin
- Unity Ads
- ironSource
- Liftoff
- Snapchat
- Jampp
We’re essentially seeing the continued rise of the platforms. 2021 wasn’t just good for Apple and its ad network: Google also did well in advertising to particularly Android but also iOS users. Ad engines built on owned platforms have inherent advantages that third-party ad networks are challenged to compete against.
“Not only does Google continue to drive the largest number of installs in app marketing, but it is doing so in greater numbers, further increasing its lead over Facebook in Android devices,” AppsFlyer says.
Google had the biggest reach in every region, according to the report, and is getting most of its growth in India, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. It’s also ranked first in retention — mobile users marketers acquire via Google Ads stay in apps longest — and increased its share of gaming category ads by 5% over 2020 numbers.
Facebook’s news wasn't all bad.
The massive social platform lost out somewhat on iOS thanks to SKAdNetwork, but held serve in the gaming category there at least, was ranked second in retention on Android.
AppsFlyer’s performance index is focused on mobile app install marketing, and measures marketing performance across 17,000 apps, 623 ad networks, and 33 billion app installs.
