Privacy awareness sparks changes in mobile consumers’ behaviour

New research reveals a 20% drop in iOS installs among the vast majority of media sources, according to a performance index from global attribution agency AppsFlyer that ranks top media sources in mobile advertising . 

The index comes just ahead of Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which is set to have radical effects on the sector. Even though the Apple’s ATT framework doesn’t come into force until early Spring, it appears already to have affected consumer behaviour.

Key Points

• A 30% jump in the cost per install on iOS in the second half of last year was an important factor behind the significant drop. Android costs increased by only 10%. The result was mobile app marketers were able to achieve fewer installs for the same budget. The rise in cost for iOS users was because of two main elements: higher demand caused by Covid-19, and a decrease in supply due to a 40% rise in users who selected Limited Ad Tracking (LAT). 
• In the battle between Google and Facebook, the giants of mobile app marketing, Google extended its lead over Facebook at the top of the Retention Index’s Universal Power Ranking. Google’s share of non-organic app installs was relatively unchanged in North America and Europe, but Android continues to grow in developing markets, especially India.
• Facebook’s retention score, however, is 16% higher than Google’s. But the Google–Facebook duopoly could soon be challenged by gaming platform Unity Ads, which has placed #2 in the Retention Index’s Global Gaming Power Ranking, overtaking Facebook. 

Sound Bite

“The increase in end users enabling Limited Ad Tracking (LAT) is likely due to the growing attention around user privacy in general and Apple’s privacy changes in particular. Networks that rely on iOS were impacted across the board, as were the advertisers using them.” Shani Rosenfelder, Head of Content and Mobile Insights, AppsFlyer.

Sourced from AppsFlyer