AppsFlyer recently released its annual ranking of media sources for mobile app advertising. Performance Index. The study used data from about 495 sites and 14,000 applications from January to June 2020.
According to published data, the big companies Google and Facebook continue to dominate the market, capturing the largest share of the non-organic installs market. So, the search engine and the social network took first place in 79% of categories in terms of the degree of influence and 82% of categories in terms of advertising volume.
However, it was Facebook that became the leader in the quality of mobile app advertising, having outstripped its main competitor, Google, in terms of the number of installs. At the same time, the cost of conversions on Facebook turned out to be higher. This is especially noticeable in the category of gaming applications, where the cost of clicks significantly exceeds competitors in North and Latin America, as well as in Europe. Google showed a high price tag only in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in the category of non-gaming applications.
By platform, AppsFlyer ranked media sources as follows: Google leads in Android installs and Facebook leads iOS.
In the analysis of the gaming vertical, Google leads the rankings for action, adventure, board, and card games, while Facebook was more effective in promoting games in the categories of Puzzle, Simulation, Social Casino, Sports, Strategy, and Word. Among the non-gaming categories, the popular social network “controls” the app ad market in entertainment, health and fitness, photography, and shopping, while Google leads social and utility services.
Other leaders in delivering high user experience for mobile apps include Apple Search Ads and Snapchat, ranked 3rd and 4th in the global cross-platform power rankings, respectively. In the non-gaming rankings, Twitter (5th place on Android and 6th place on iOS) and TikTok For Business, which took 4th place, successfully proved themselves.
It is also worth mentioning the Unity Ads platform, which also shows high results in the promotion of games and mobile applications.
“ Unity Ads has suddenly risen to number one in the top three mobile in-game advertising giants (ironSource, AppLovin and Unity Ads),” AppsFlyer notes in its rankings.
The site managed to achieve this due to a sharp jump in user retention volume indicators, although the company still remains in last place among the leaders in terms of quality indicators.
Recall that we previously discussed mobile app promotion in Facebook App Ads, which achieved an 83% reduction in the cost per installation.