Appsflyer has presented a report on the state of affairs in the mobile advertising market for the first half of 2019. The most important conclusion of the work: Facebook is no longer the main player in the advertising market. Google gives more downloads.
In the study, we identified four central outcomes of the study.
1. Google took the first place in the world in generating installations
This happened for the first time. Appsflyer explains the event for three reasons:
- the dominance of Google’s advertising monetization on Android;
- Google’s particularly strong position in categories such as midcore games, utilities and applications for life;
- the growth of Google’s advertising positions in Latin America (18%), the Middle East (14%) and Southeast Asia (8%).
At the same time, Facebook remains in the first place in terms of influence. All thanks to the high quality of traffic in most categories and regions. Plus, it consistently bypasses Google on non-organic installations on iOS in the entire gaming segment, except for midcore.
T op-10 sources of mobile installations (volume of installations, world, first half of 2019)2. Apple Search Ads is an increasingly important player in the mobile advertising market
According to Appsflyer experts, high competition and problems with findability force marketers on the App Store to invest in ratings and issuance. So ASO is becoming an increasingly important aspect in promotion, and with it Apple Search Ads.
As a result, in the first half of 2019, the share of Apple Search Ads as a download source in the global market increased by 82%. The main growth occurred in the second quarter, when the platform launched in 46 countries. But there is a nuance. Apple Search Ads is showing itself better now in the non-gaming segment.
3. AppLovin and ironSource are fighting for third place in the gaming traffic market
The top three channels for promoting games, in addition to Google and Facebook, also includes AppLovin. However, it has a rapidly increasing competitor — ironSource. In the first six months of the year, its share in global game downloads increased by 32%. For comparison, AppLovin’s growth was 10%.
Now companies are growing in different ways. AppLovin is scaling the business, including through the launch and purchase of game studios. As for ironSource, it relies on its own mediation platform and the formation of a pool of consistently earning partners.
Appsflyer also calls Unity Ads and Vungle important players in the mobile gaming advertising market. The first ranks fifth in the world in terms of game downloads, the second is the sixth. Like ironSource, both platforms grew well in the first half of the year (their shares increased by more than 30%).
T op-10 sources of mobile gaming installations (volume of installations, world, first half of 2019)4. TikTok is the fastest growing advertising platform
TikTok‘s share of global mobile downloads increased 10-fold in the first half of 2019. Now it is an important player, including in the gaming traffic market, where the service ranks tenth. In terms of gaming installations, it has overtaken: Snapchat, Apple Search Ads, Chartboost, AdColony and Fyber.
Appsflyer is confident that growth will continue. One of the possible drivers will be the planned launch of its own audience network (audience network).
Also on the topic:
- “Money doesn’t rain down on us from the sky”: AppsFlyer founder on business
- AppsFlyer: motivated downloads of mobile games for the year increased by 3.6%