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What is the AppsFlyer Performance Index and Who Top the Leaderboard?

The AppsFlyer Performance Index is a benchmark in mobile advertising. Think of it as something like the ISO standard for engineering or the Oscar for movies. In 2021, the AppsFlyer analyzed 580 media sources, including 29 billion installs for 16,000 apps.

In the marketing industry, this index is crucial because it tells companies which media sources can deliver high-quality users from marketing campaigns. Because of this, many media sources want to rank at the top of the AppsFlyer Performance Index. If the media source makes it to the top ranks, it is evident to their target companies that they could deliver conversion to the advertisements they place on their websites or apps.

Top Companies in the Leaderboards

Here are the top performers in what AppsFlyer calls the SKAN Index. It is a ranking based on several metrics.

  • TikTok – number 1 for business.
  • Google – dominant in the Android world as it has closed known gaps or flaws in its marketing.
  • iOS 14+ – great for remarketing campaigns.
  • Apple Search Ads – provides full data access to advertisers and is number one in the iOS marketplace.

These numbers are from the Performance Index XIII. For this release, they studied 33 billion app installs, 55 billion app opens, 623 media sources that have at least 50,000 attributed installs and 17,000 apps with installs of at least 3,000.

Key Findings in the Performance Index

In the index, AppsFlyer said that TikTok for Business was at the number one spot for the first SKAN Index. In relation to this, they said that Facebook was still adapting to the new reality of what is happening online.

 

The goal of this ranking is to provide advertisers with accurate information about results. It does not make sense for companies to advertise on platforms where they do not get a conversion. At the end of the day, advertisers only want to work with companies that help them drive the most value.

It is in this regard that TikTok is in the top spot. In terms of power ranking, TikTok is number one. However, it places only 5th as far as volume ranking is concerned. Based on this study, the social network had the fourth-highest number of advertisers.

Facebook, however, has a little setback. For the past years, Facebook dominated the iOS rankings of AppsFlyer’s Performance Index. When ATT came into the picture, Facebook lost its ground. Right now, Facebook only places second against TikTok.

This result only affirms what Facebook already knows. Recently, they’ve said that they expected increased headwinds from platform changes. They specify that the recent iOS updates would have an impact on their performance in the third quarter of the year.

Facebook is going through a transition phase, especially so because Facebook is gearing towards other endeavours. The transition phase will help Facebook overcome these challenges. They also said that in the coming months, they would continue to introduce new platforms and tools for advertisers.

Meanwhile, in the Android universe, Google still remains the largest driver of installs in app marketing. This result shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that Google controls Android. The thing is that Google still leads over Facebook on Android devices as far as marketing is concerned. What this means is that Google advertising has much more power over Facebook. People who develop apps will have better conversion rates if they advertise on the Google platform instead of the Facebook platform.

They also found out that Google is number one in the retention index as far as power and volume are concerned. It involves both gaming and non-gaming categories. As such, an online casino business would do well in Google’s advertising platforms.

One key finding is that Google is not at the number one spot for racing games. As far as installation is concerned, most of the apps that people installed, which they found on the Google platform, belong to gaming, and only 5% are from racing.

Google is the best advertising platform, and it has the biggest reach in every region. As far as growth, its marketing base is coming from developing countries like India in places in Southeast Asia.

In the iOS universe, Google’s performance is number 6 in the global positions for attention index. This, of course, applies only to users of iOS that consented to have Google on their phones. In this regard, Google is at the number four spot in volume ranking.

One key player in gaming apps is Unity Ads for iOS. It maintained its third spot in the retention index in terms of global power rankings. Unity is a platform where people make games and release them. There are also advertisements on the platform, and now it is number one in position for gaming in both power and volume rankings.

For Android, Unity Ads is at the third spot for both power and volume rankings. For games, it was at the third spot for all game genres globally. Unity Ads is also in the number one position for advertising for racing games, slot machines, adventure and hyper-casual games.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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