Study: Facebook, Google top mobile ROI rankings while Snapchat surges

Brief:

Facebook and Google deliver the best return on investment for mobile marketers on iOS and Android platforms, per a study by marketing analytics firm Singular. Snap's Snapchat image-messaging app surged to the No. 3 spot on the list for last year, while ad networks from Aarki, Unity and Vungle are vying to challenge tech firms for the best results.
Ad networks on Android have more volatile ROI rankings than that their iOS counterparts, per Singular. A third of the ad networks in its ROI Index for Android are new, while 80% of the 10 pre-existing ad networks changed position. Only two new ad networks appeared on Singular’s ROI Index for iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, but 73% of the networks moved in the rankings.
Ad fraud is a persistent problem for mobile advertising that many ad networks are working to eliminate. Jammp, Aarki, IronSource, Vungle, AppLovin and ChartBoost promise more scrutiny of ad fraud. Singular eliminated a record 15 ad networks from its ROI Index because of "excessive levels of fraud," per its report.

Insight:

Advertisers and media companies grouse about Google and Facebook's dominance in digital advertising, but the companies deliver the best results for mobile marketers, according to Singular’s ROI ranking. Facebook and Google are the core drivers of mobile user acquisition for iOS and Android in almost every category and region, including the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Unity, a game development engine that powers half of the world's videogames, has a growing ad network that ranks third on Android and fourth on iOS behind bigger companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple. The iPhone maker's Apple Search Ads are a key way to get discovered on the App Store.

BlueStacks should be on every mobile marketer’s radar, Singular said, even though the startup wasn’t included in its ROI ranking. The company’s software lets PC and Mac desktop users play mobile video games. It has more than 300 million users, offers user acquisition and ad monetization to game developers. "We gave the company multiple honorable mentions for outstanding performance," Singular said.

The biggest concern among marketers going into 2019 is finding actionable information among the vast trove of data generated among mobile platforms. Marketers can choose from 7,000 data, analytics and delivery tools and an explosion of information about digital activity, Singular said. To create its ROI Index, Singular analyzed more than $1.5 billion of spending, $2.7 billion in revenue, 560 million app installs and more than 700 media sources. The firm calculated ROI — the revenue each ad network returns divided by cost — for apps among media sources and mobile operating system.