Adtech giants face challengers in the age of privacy | Singular

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In the new era of mobile marketing, adtech giants are seeing their dominance challenged more than ever, according to a new report from marketing measurement firm Singular.

The Singular ROI 2023 report indicates that we are in a new privacy-centric era for ROI on ad spend. Meta and Google still rank near the top, but the adtech giants are challenged by relatively smaller networks like Moloco, Mistplay and Blind Ferret. Apple Search Ads is also on the rise, according to the report.

Moloco is growing and is on par with Google and Meta on at least one key statistic: top ad networks for various industries and specific geographies. TikTok has added quality to ever-increasing quantity as it has delivered better ROI for more marketers than ever before, and two ad tech titans AppLovin and new merger Unity+IronSource are rivaling the most extensive advertising networks.

Apple now has the second-largest ad network for mobile user acquisition on iOS, according to data from Singular.

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To find the best ad networks for mobile marketers, Singular analyzed trillions of ad impressions, over $10 billion in ad spend, and billions of mobile app installs, says John Koetsier , author of the report (and former VBer), in an email to GamesBeat.

On Android, everything is business as usual, with the Google Ad ID still available until at least 2024, when the Privacy Sandbox for Android will launch. On iOS, however, this report represents the first full year of results under Apple's app tracking transparency requirements, including the use of Apple's SKAdNetwork for marketing measurement and attribution. Apple changed the world by phasing out the use of Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) by prioritizing privacy over targeted ads.

The rise of Apple

Top Ad Technology Companies.

Apple Search Ads is not directly comparable to ad networks using the third-party attribution framework SKAdNetwork, as Apple offers the Application Programming Interface (API ) Apple Search Ads Attribution for its own first-party network.

But in terms of dollar volume and number of conversions (which Singular measures across all platforms), Apple Search Ads is now the second-largest ad network on iOS for app marketing.

Apple Search Ads is now the second largest user acquisition network on iOS, with a huge ad spend platform transition in 2022. It went from 36% in 2021 to 47% in 2022.

After a rocky start with new attribution methods, brands measuring marketing through Singular have learned to use Apple's privacy-focused SKAd...