Marketing report company Singular has produced an ROI index for mobile advertising, based on its own research which shows that Facebook and Google appear to offer the best value for mobile advertisers.
The Research
Singular sampled over $1.5 billion of spend in mobile advertising, including over a half a billion installs and almost $3 billion in revenue. From this, the company was able to produce an ‘ROI Index’ that ranks the best-performing ad networks for mobile marketers on iOS and Android globally.
Singular’s backers include Norwest Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Thomvest Ventures, and Method Capital, and Singular’s customers (as a marketing intelligence platform) include companies like Airbnb, LinkedIn, Symantec, and Twitter.
Facebook & Google – Best Value
Given the popularity and scale of Google and Facebook, and the economies thereof, and the fact that they can deliver results, it is perhaps not surprising that Singular’s ROI Index put Facebook and Google at the top for delivering the best return on investment.
The Index showed that Facebook won the global rankings, but Google came top in all three key regional rankings: EMEA, APAC, and Americas.
Ad Fraud Levels Also Taken Into Account
Singular’s ROI Index also considered advertising fraud levels, and it has been reported that a record number of 15 companies were deleted from its rankings this time around because of “excessive” fraud.
Snap No.3
The Index shows Snap (the advertising network for Snapchat) improving its rankings on most of the lists, and it is now the No. 3 network for non-gaming ads on both iOS and Android.
Other Findings
The ROI Index also showed other important results for:
- Japan-based mobile messaging service LINE (700M users), ranked three times.
- Twitter, which showed a resurgence with 11 rankings on global, regional, and platform-specific charts. These included second on iOS for retention: providing users/customers who stay engaged.
- Unity, the games ad network, ranking third on Android and fourth on iOS globally.
- BlueStacks, the US technology company that produces the BlueStacks App Player and other cloud-based cross-platform products, is delivering significant ROI on its own on-platform ad network.
Android More Volatile
Singular’s ROI Index also shows that one-third of the global Android index is brand-new compared to only two new networks joining the corresponding iOS index. This indicates that the Android ad ecosystem is more volatile than iOS.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
With all of us now using mobiles for our personal and business lives, mobile advertising has become a very important way for businesses to reach customers. Google and Facebook are widely known among marketers, but many marketers now know they need to consider using more than just two media partners in order to get the most value out of their advertising budgets.
In an increasingly complicated and segmented media marketplace an ROI Index such as the one produced by Singular can provide valuable marketing intelligence, perhaps provide new ideas for promising ad networks to try, and can give businesses a way to get some measurement of ROI from different touchpoints across multiple channels that can help guide ad spend in order to produce the best value results.
