Appsumer, a performance insights platform for mobile app advertisers by InMobi, has published a benchmark report on how major advertisers are leveraging the top sources for app downloads, analyzed through advertiser channel adoption and share-of-wallet.
The report provides a snapshot of advertiser behavior from second quarter 2021 to the second quarter 2022 and reveals that Apple has gotten a significant boost to Apple Search Ads (ASA) as a result of their AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) initiatives, while Facebook and Snap saw declines in both share-of-wallet and market share.
ATT allows you to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers. Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies’ apps and websites.
Tracking occurs when information that identifies you or your device collected from an app is linked with information that identifies you or your device collected on apps, websites and other locations owned by third parties for the purposes of targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or when the information collected is shared with data brokers.
The Appsumer report says that smaller advertisers continue to struggle with the increasing complexity of cross-channel advertising; while the number of channels used didn’t move significantly, the underlying data shows more detail on how larger and smaller marketers adjusted channel mix. Large advertisers increased the channels used year-over-year by an average of 1.4 channels to a total of 10.7. In contrast, smaller advertisers decreased the channels used on average by 1.1 year-over-year to 2.5.
“There is a clear divide between the success of larger advertisers and the struggle of smaller advertisers,” says Shumel Lais, General Manager of Appsumer by InMobi. “The largest advertisers likely increased channels to maintain volume when performance dipped on some channels. Smaller advertisers frequently lack the creative, data and optimization resources to diversify quickly across channels.”
The report’s findings also highlight the shifts among market leaders, including:
- ASA joins the duopoly of Meta and Google at the top table of advertiser adoption, with adoption growing nearly four percentage points to 94.8%, while Meta adoption declined three percentage points to 82.8%.
- ASA’s share-of-wallet rose five percentage points, reaching a 15% share. Apple’s first-party data advantage on iOS for both measurement and targeting has helped, but they will need more inventory, which is why rumors of an Apple DSP are swirling.
- Meta’s share-of-wallet declined four percentage points year-over-year, still finishing significantly ahead of ASA with a 28% share. However, the data reveals that Meta saw an increase of share-of-wallet in early 2022, suggesting that they’re starting to recover from initial ATT headwinds.
- Snap lost 50% of their share-of-wallet and was impacted by both the current economic climate and ATT headwinds. However, while adoption declined three percentage points to 32.7%, it bounced back from 25.4% in the first quarter of 2022. Snap may recover its share-of-wallet in coming quarters as adoption growth can be seen as a leading indicator.
- TikTok pulled ahead of Snap for both advertiser adoption and share-of-wallet. However, TikTok’s advertiser adoption declined nearly seven percentage points to 43.2%. Their share-of-wallet remained steady at 3% suggesting that some advertisers are succeeding, while others are struggling to come to grips with the platform.
Appsumer says that iOS versions that enabled ATT reached mass adoption in June 2021, allowing the report to offer full comparative year-over-year analysis of its impact on mobile app advertisers. The Appsumer Benchmark Report data comes from a study that looked at more than 100 North America and European consumer mobile apps with a median spend of $350,000 per month between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022.
Appsumer says that assessments ensured that no single advertiser represented more than 20% of the dataset to avoid a single advertiser from dominating or skewing the results. For a copy of the Benchmark Report, go here. For more information on Appsumer and its offerings, visit www.appsumer.io
