Introducing The Singular ROI Index, the World’s First Ranking of Mobile Ad Networks By Return on Investment

The Singular ROI Index is the first of its kind analysis of the app ROI generated by different mobile app ad networks. While past research has measured ad network performance using mobile app metrics like user retention and revenue per install, it has neglected a major part of the picture: the cost associated with driving such engagement. Providing mobile app advertisers with revenue or conversion data without cost data is similar to reporting the earnings of public companies or dividends paid to shareholders without accounting for the price at which investors purchase the stock. That’s why we created the Singular ROI Index, the world’s first ranking of ad networks by app ROI.

Key Findings

Facebook Overtakes AdWords on Android: While AdWords was the top-performing ad network for mobile apps on Android in the first half of 2016, there was a changing of the guard in the second half of the year. Facebook surged into the top spot for app ROI on Android, bumping AdWords into the #2 position.

Apple Search Ads Burst Onto the Scene: Apple Search Ads publicly launched in October 2016 and in a very short period of time emerged to deliver the 7th highest mobile app ROI on iOS in the second half of the year and the 10th highest ROI in 2016.

iOS Ads Drive 1.3X Higher App ROI than Android Ads: While it’s well-known among marketers that iOS users spend an average of 4X more in apps than Android users, no research has ever factored in the amount of advertiser investment required to acquire those users on iOS vs. Android. Singular found that mobile device users are about 1.65X cheaper to acquire through Android ads compared to iOS ads. Yet iOS ads drive 1.3X higher ROI than Android ads — meaning for each dollar a marketer spends to acquire a mobile app user on iOS, they can expect to get back 1.3 times more revenue than if they had spent that dollar on Android.

Networks on the Rise: NativeX, Motive, Mobvista, Fyber, YouAppi Singular’s mobile app ROI analysis uncovered a host of rising stars that drove top 20 ROI for advertisers, but are yet to rank among the highest-earning mobile ad networks. As more advertisers execute iOS and Android app ROI positive campaigns on these ad networks, Singular predicts their share of mobile ad budgets will continue to grow.

Download The Singular ROI Index to see the world’s first ranking of ad networks by app ROI.