AppsFlyer Finds Economic Downturn Caused Declines in App Install Ad Spend Budgets

AppsFlyer has released the 16th edition of its Performance Index, ranking the top media sources in mobile advertising across 11 regions and 22 app categories.

The latest version of the Index, which originated in 2015, found the economic downturn had a significant impact on the mobile app media space throughout 2023, as nearly all top media sources saw declines and app install ad spend budgets reduced by 20% in the third quarter of 2023 when compared to Q3 in 2022.

“In a world where excellence is redefined by measurable outcomes, marketers around the globe are keen to boost efficiency, and unlock unprecedented success – the same applies to African marketers.

The key to shaping this future of business brilliance lies in embracing data-driven strategies – our latest Performance Index explores how unique economic conditions have impacted the overall market, providing valuable insights on marketing strategies during an economic downturn, and implores marketers to make the right decisions when it comes to budget allocations,” said Michael Zaitsev, Managing Director for Africa & CIS at AppsFlyer.

Apple Search Ads and Meta Lead the Way Across iOS Gaming and Non-gaming

The best way to properly depict the state of the iOS media market is by looking at a single source of truth (SSOT). AppsFlyer’s first ever SSOT iOS index combines SKAdNetwork and traditional attribution, and accurately deduplicates between the two data sources.

Apple Search Ads (ASA) is the #1 media source for iOS gaming apps and non-gaming categories, coming in at #1 in almost all the rankings across every region and every category with high quality and unmatched scale, particularly in non-gaming.

The dominance of ASA in non-gaming is even more pronounced than it is in gaming, coming in at #1 in all the rankings across every category and every region except for Latin America with unmatched scale and high quality.

Although still far from its dominant iOS position before iOS 14.5, Meta ads continues to adapt in the post iOS 14.5 era, coming in at #2 in the power and volume rankings (power rankings combine quality and quantity metrics while volume only covers quantity).

The social network’s performance is mostly fueled by non-gaming apps on SKAdNetwork, Apple’s privacy-centric attribution interface, where it drives the highest number of installs, well above the competition.

Google Ads came in at #3 in the rankings thanks to its scale among non-gaming apps. It should be noted that for Google, iOS is secondary compared to Android, especially when compared to its web business.

For gaming apps, Applovin ranked 5th in the global power ranking, driven by success in casual and hyper casual games, followed by Unity Ads in 6th place, thanks to a #4 rank in casual and hyper casual games. ironSource ranked 2nd globally in social casino, and 2nd in hyper casual games in Western Europe, Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and the Middle East.

For non-gaming, Meta ads ranked 2nd in the global power ranking, driven by its performance in Life & Culture where it ranked 2nd, while Google reached 5th place (3rd in the volume ranking) thanks to a #2 power ranking in finance. Snapchat and Moloco ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively thanks to top-notch quality.