ROI on iOS

SKAN performance: top ad networks

We’re seeing significant change in SKAN performance on iOS from ad networks. Meta in particular has rebounded from a tough first full year of SKAN to a major increase in market share, and there are 5 new entrants into the iOS rankings this year.

There was a reasonable amount of change in networks with top SKAN performance for 2024. Networks breaking into the top 5 positions this year include: 

In addition, there are 5 additional new entrants on the SKAN performance index that we did not see last year:

Apple Search Ads

As you’re probably aware, Apple Search Ads does not use SKAdNetwork for measurement, instead using the Apple Ads Attribution API. So it’s hard to compare apples to apples on the iOS side. That said, ASA is a massive force in user acquisition on iOS.

But it’s been an interesting year for Apple Search Ads. While the last few years have been a breakout growth story for Apple’s mobile user acquisition ad network, the past year was a little different.

First off, there’s plenty of positives.

Apple Search Ads is a top-3 mobile user acquisition ad network. Think about that: despite only being active on the iOS side, ASA captures enough ad spend to rank in the top 3 of all ad networks globally for mobile user acquisition. And Apple Search Ads actually increased its share of spend on Singular, growing market share 18% over last year.

Also positive: ASA had 19% growth in the number of Singular clients using Apple Search Ads throughout the year.

But it’s been generally tough lately in adtech.

The result is that there’s a clear downward trend to ASA spend over the full year except September. And while that was the case with the entire industry in the last quarter, ASA dropped more. What that could mean: downward price pressure on ASA clicks and conversions. 

We’ll see how this develops over the rest of 2024.

All-round excellence: ad networks with the most rankings

All ad networks that ranked

For the 2024 edition of the Singular ROI Index, 31 ad partners managed to rank in at least 1 category. That’s up 1, or 3% from the 2023 index.

Golden 6: the 6 networks that ranked in every single category

Only 6 ad networks or platforms ranked in every single Singular ROI Index category, an impressive achievement that speaks to global scale and universal vertical penetration.

In alphabetical order, they are:

Seeing Meta and Google here is not a surprise. ironSource and AppLovin are also regular heavy hitters that rank well. TikTok has significantly leveled up this year, and its scale suggests that more is yet to come.

But the big surprise here is that Moloco made an appearance in every single category. That’s impressive: more about Moloco below.

Key storylines in mobile adtech for 2024

The big are getting bigger (23.4% bigger)

There’s no doubt that it’s tough times in adtech. Overall spend is down for many ad networks. But the biggest players are taking a larger share of overall spend.

46% jump in CTV spend (Roku is the king)

We’re seeing a massive jump in CTV ad spend.

Names like Roku, Vizio, TVSquared, Vibe, and Samsung were visible in the data for the 2023 ROI Index, but not prominent. For 2024, they’ve grown substantially, along with LG Ads and TVScientific. 

As you can see from the rankings above they’re still not in the very top tier of ad networks and platforms for mobile user acquisition, but the growth rate is impressive.

The top CTV networks that we’re seeing for spend, listed alphabetically, are:

• LG Ads
• OneView (owned by Roku)
• Roku
• Samsung
• TVScientific
• TVSquared (owned by Innovid)
• Vibe
• Vizio

Of these, Roku is by far the largest. Roku offers OneView, its DSP acquired from Dataxu in 2020, along with Roku Brand Studio for branded content, a self-service Ads Manager, and it also does direct deals for Roku Channel. Between these channels, Roku captured almost as much spend as all the other CTV players listed above combined.

Meta is on a roll

Meta is doing very well, thank you very much. 

While 2022 was tough for Meta, with flat revenue and a down quarter in Q4, 2023 was much better, with positive revenue growth in each quarter and a blow-out Q4 that beat the year-before quarter by almost $7 billion. 

Meta has figured out SKAN and — probably more importantly — built or extended measurement methodologies that are under its own control such as Aggregated Event Management and Conversions API.

The result is significant growth in share of spend for Singular customers … and a massive jump in the company’s stock price.

iOS spend growing at Android’s expense

Last ROI Index, the iOS-Android spend story was about iOS recovery after an SKAdNetwork dip. Now we’re seeing steadily increasing growth on iOS, hitting almost 53%.

The big question: how will SKAN 4 and Privacy Sandbox on Android impact these spend trends?

One possible outcome is that SKAN 4 improves measurement on iOS at the same time that Privacy Sandbox degrades it on Android, resulting in a repeat of history but reversed: a decline in spend on Android this time rather than iOS. Mitigating against this possibility, however, is that the big spenders on mobile have improved their Unified Measurement capabilities and are no longer solely dependent on last-click on-platform measurement.

Moloco: not a 1-hit wonder

Moloco was a force in the 2023 Singular ROI Index. That’s not just continued in 2024; it has actually accelerated. Moloco is present in every single category, and it has improved its ranking, hitting the top 5 more frequently.

That includes top-5 performance on 2 global indexes on iOS and 4 on Android.

Impressive, and given last year’s shocking performance, not a shock anymore. Moloco’s scale is still not at quite the top level of the other big players who are not named Meta or Google, but it’s getting closer. And, it almost can’t be overstated: ranking in every single category at the scale Moloco currently has is simply amazing.

TikTok continues to level up

TikTok is no longer a surprise breakout. 

TikTok is a major player that this year hits every single index in the 2024 Singular ROI Index and often ranks high. Scale is also significantly up, with both spend and customer count in the top tier of the big players whose names are not Google and Meta.

TikTok wins an unprecedented level of time and engagement among mobile apps, but its monetization tools are still relatively young compared to its other big-platform competitors. If it can find a way to overcome some of its challenges vis-a-vis Meta and Google and Apple Search Ads in terms of data insights on its users, it will grow even faster.

One result of that: TikTok has become a SAN: self-attributing network. That adds privacy protection, but does require a specific SAN integration in order to get privacy-safe performance data. New clients have this experience right away, while existing clients are being switched to the new integration.

Regional ad networks disappearing

Look at the regional ROI and retention indexes for Android. Essentially every name on the list is a global player rather than a regional force.

Sure, that starts with the biggest networks and platforms in Google and Meta and TikTok, but you also see the AppLovins and Liftoffs and Molocos of the mobile adtech world. Some of the regional names that we’ve seen in the ROI Index in years past are now missing.

Part of that is due to consolidation of ad networks thanks to acquisitions by the biggest players, and part of that is due to the fact that large global companies with apps that are dominant in many geos are using platforms that they’re used to across all platforms.

It does beg the question: could local players have unique traffic sources that might prove beneficial?

Appier is exploding (in a good way)

Appier, the AI-focused user acquisition and mobile engagement platform that was founded in Taiwan and is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is growing fast. The company raised $80 million in 2019 and used it to fund both acquisitions and international expansion APAC, U.S., and Europe.

Search for Appier on the 2023 Singular ROI Index: it’s nowhere to be found.

But in the 2024 index: Appier has 5 rankings:

• iOS gaming
• Android global ROI 
• Android global gaming ROI
• Android regional ROI for APAC
• Android regional retention for APAC

That’s impressive.

Only a handful of Singular customers are currently using Appier, but with results like this, it’s likely others will feel the need to give the company a try.

X slash Twitter: not dead yet

Obviously, there’s been a ton of press on Elon Musk’s social toy, the former Twitter. Much of that was on the drop in ad spend on the platform, particularly after the multi-billionaire engineer and founder told advertisers to f*ck off.

But X isn’t dead yet.

And advertisers are still spending there.

Not a lot, of course. Not even a similar amount to Snap, for instance. But more than Reddit, and more than some of the familiar names in the mobile adtech space.

Last year, Twitter ranked on 14 separate indexes in the Singular ROI Index. This year, that’s down to 12.

More telling, perhaps, is that where last year Twitter had quite a number of rankings in the top 5 of ad networks, such as global ROI on Android, global retention on Android, and regional retention in APAC and North America, this year X has zero rankings in the top 5 in any category.

Perhaps even worse: its share of ad spend among Singular customers has dropped 38%.

All of which — let’s be honest — might actually spell opportunity. With less competition, good ads could stand out more. It’s worth a shot, at least. The core challenge: standing out from the typical drop-shipping consumer gadget ad that X is full of now that big brands have largely pulled out.

Reddit rejoins the ROI Index

Reddit scored a place on the 2024 ROI Index after skipping a year in 2023. The content-focused community placed on the iOS SKAN index for non-gaming, and showed well in other categories but ultimately fell short of the top rankings.

Reddit is a platform worth paying attention to. While there’s been some controversy over decisions management is making to get profitable, they are necessary steps to making Reddit more advertiser-friendly. Plenty of work remains, but there is huge potential here with 70 million DAU and close to a billion MAU.

If you do try Reddit, however, be aware that it requires very specific ad types. Typical ads are easy to skip in Reddit, but content-based ads that lean into what Reddit is — and even maybe a specific subreddit — offer significant potential.

ironSource, Unity, and Aura ironSource are a powerhouse

ironSource and Aura ironSource were big last year in the Index with 14 placements in various categories, plus 12 for Unity Ads, and 2 more for Aura ironSource for a total of 28.

In 2024, that total jumps to 38:

• Aura ironSource: 6
• ironSource: 17
• Unity Ads: 15

Not only did the ironSource + Unity juggernaut grab 38 slots, it also upgraded many of its positions from top 20 or 25 last year to top 5 in the 2024 Index. 

The result is that this conglomeration is dancing with the giants in adtech. The intriguing part is that there’s still significant untapped potential if Unity can put its recent re-pricing gaffe behind it and then work to find better ways of using its development/creation market share to build perhaps a first-party data collective or a clean-room privacy solution which would enable SAN-level targeting.

That could be a real juggernaut.

AppLovin continues to deliver

As much as we may disagree with AppLovin on the need for truly independent third-party measurement (AppLovin owns Adjust, a Singular competitor) there’s no denying they have done some impressive work.

AppLovin is truly global, ranks in every single index, no matter which platform or region or vertical focus, and ranks very, very high in most of them. That success hasn’t always been reflected in its public markets performance, but since the stock price is up about 4X since January 2023, AppLovin is finally getting rewarded for its efforts.

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