AppsFlyer said in his mobile ad report Apple Search Ads has tripled its market share since the first half of 2020, even as other companies hurt as Apple shifted its priorities from targeted third-party ads to privacy on iOS.

That seems pretty anti-competitive to me. But we’ll see what regulators and courts think about that. But as companies damaged by these changes turn to business combinations, we’re seeing a remake of the adtech, app, and mobile gaming landscapes.

The first half of 2022 was marked by ongoing privacy changes, a global economic downturn and a post-Covid cooling that caused an ecosystem realignment, with smaller players seizing the opportunity to gain market share as the main Media sources, namely Google Ads and Meta ads, losing ground.

“All these changes for marketers and media companies present multiple opportunities. Apple’s privacy changes continue to pose challenges as macroeconomic conditions force marketers to relentlessly focus on the most profitable Media Sources and channels as media costs rise,” said Shani Rosenfelder, director of marketing insights at AppsFlyer, in a statement. need to adapt quickly to a more risk-averse environment and think outside the box to maintain efficiencies at scale. Adaptability can be instrumental in distinguishing between the winners and losers of tomorrow.”

With the launch of iOS 14.5 last spring, Apple stopped allowing advertisers to use the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) to track users on an individual level and made it much easier for users to opt out of tracking. Called the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, the result was that user acquisition was no longer as effective and marketers had to find other ways to get users to use games and apps.

AppsFlyer said the aftershocks caused by ATT continue to present major challenges for app marketers and media companies alike. When comparing pre-ATT to post-ATT market share (H1 2020 vs. H1 2022), major media sources, especially Google Ads and Meta Ads, have lost ground on iOS. That has led to billions of dollars in lost revenue.

While both companies were negatively impacted, ATT was much more painful for Meta. Despite the social giant doing well on Apple’s own SKAdNetwork (SKAN) campaigns, it’s far from where it was before Apple’s privacy changes came into effect.

For the Android market, Google Ads and Meta Ads still dominate and remain at the top of the global power rankings and the global volume rankings. However, both giants lost market share for app installation in Android in the first half of 2022, but still topped the list thanks to their unparalleled scale.

TikTok For Business boomed in 2022, scaling Android significantly from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022. The growing social network is dominant in non-gaming, where it ranks third in the global volume ranking. However, a decline in the second quarter of 2022 resulted in the installation’s overall market share increasing slightly between H2 2021 and H1 2022.

In addition, Apple Search Ads (ASA), which operates independently of SKAN and deterministically assigns users regardless of permission from the ATT, has gained the most ground, tripled its market share since H1 2020 and became the number one media source in the iOS rankings.

Economic slowdown puts extra pressure on marketers and media companies

The unique market conditions that occurred in 2022 have exacerbated the challenges facing mobile marketers and mobile media sources. App install ad spend budgets fell 14% in Q2 from Q1 2022, following a 2% increase between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022.

The average app budget fell 12%, with a slightly larger drop on Android compared to iOS (-13% vs. -9%). On the media side, seven of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20 media sources saw the user
acquisition budgets fall in Q2 compared to Q1, including the top three players Google, Meta and Unity.
All three companies have cut staff this year.

Each of the top three networks lost significantly more than the average dip in the top 10 media sources. A year-on-year comparison shows that overall media spending changes in 2022 were four times higher than in 2021 (-12% vs -3%).

Amid rising media costs and an economic slowdown, home media use is on the rise, especially among non-gaming apps. Overall, H1 2022 saw an 18% increase in native media installs on Android compared to H2 2021 (compared to a 2% increase in paid media). On iOS, the shift to home media is greater, with a 30% increase. The average per account also shows clear gaps: while the amounts paid increased by 3%, the proprietary media increased by 25%.

Media sources across the ecosystem see shift in gaming market share

For Android gaming, the retention index ranking shows that Google Ads has maintained its lead in the global power and volume rankings thanks to its unparalleled scale. A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that the search giant lost a very small fraction of its installation market share when comparing H1 2022 to H2 2021.

However, Meta ads dropped one position in both the global power and volume rankings, which is also reflected in a greater loss of install share. Unity Ads and TikTok for Business both fell in the rankings, with IronSource gaining significant ground in gaming app installations. The rise of IronSource, which is currently being acquired by Unity, is mainly driven by a wave of causal games at the expense of TikTok, Unity Ads and Meta.

In iOS gaming, Meta Ads ranked first in strength and volume in the SKAN Index. The second place was taken by TikTok For Business, which even made it to the volume ranking to reach the fifth spot. After an extremely slow start, Google Ads gained some ground in SKAN, finishing third in the IAP rankings — up three places in both the power and volume rankings. However, Applovin and ironSource lost quite a bit of share, dropping three places each in the power rankings.

Unlike the gaming space, the non-gaming app environment is completely dominated by Google and Meta. TikTok For Business has certainly gained ground, but it remains a distant third. Because Google and Meta have such a significant share of non-gaming, the rankings, where both companies held their first and second positions, don’t tell the whole story. A closer look reveals that Google lost a fairly small portion of the ecosystem, while Meta lost a larger percentage.

Methodology

The AppsFlyer Performance Index analyzed a total of more than 500 media sources, 27 billion installs and more than 19,000 apps from January to June 2022. From this, the SKAN Index covered 450 million postbacks from more than 2,400 apps and 45 media sources.