Essential for overseas promotion: What are the global advertising channels?

AppsFlyer breaks down data by industry verticals in 11 regions around the world, and for the first time, includes Africa and the Middle East. In terms of classification, this report provides classification rankings for both games and non-game applications. Among them, games are divided into casual, moderate & strategy, and gambling games according to game types. Non-game applications are divided into three categories: cultural life, tools, and shopping.

1. Differentiation of top channels: Facebook and Google

Ads has become the gaming channel with the highest ROI in the world

Statistical data shows that the dominant position of the two giants, Facebook and Google, remains unshakable, ranking top 2 in all categories of game channels. Compared with its sudden rise in the first half of 2018, Apple Search Ads has dropped from 4th to 6th place.

Several high-quality SDK advertising platforms, such as AppLovin, ironSource, Unity Ads, Vungle and Tapjoy, have been committed to meeting the needs of game applications, and their market share and overall strength rankings have increased to varying degrees. Among them, AppLovin has ranked third in the game strength rankings for three consecutive times and has become the best game app advertising platform besides Facebook and Google, especially in the field of game app installation, where its market share has grown gratifyingly.

ironSource achieved a remarkable leap in the seventh issue of the list, rising from 12th to 6th place in the global game advertising channel rankings. In this issue of the list, its ranking rose again to 5th place. The advertising platform has seen significant improvements in quality. This achievement is mainly due to the growth of ironSource's video and game-demo advertising platforms, in addition to ironSource's active implementation of anti-cheating measures.

Overall ranking of comprehensive strength of all categories of game advertising platforms

Of course, for game marketers, the overall strength of the advertising platform is important, but in the actual delivery process, ROI is the indicator that everyone pays most attention to. It is worth noting that compared with the first half of 2018, the ROI of major platforms in the second half of the year showed greater fluctuations.

The most notable change is that the ROI rankings of the top “super platforms” Facebook and Google Ads have jumped significantly, taking the first and second places, and have become the undisputed preferred channels for mobile games to go global. Facebook excels at driving demand for games through enhanced targeting and optimization, and the game discovery model is more suitable for the nature of social browsing. Google AC has made rapid progress in the past year since its release.

The rankings of several advertising platforms that ranked high in ROI in the first half of the year dropped significantly. Crossinstall, which ranked first, dropped to sixth place, and Apple App Store Search Ads, which ranked third, dropped to 12th place.

Overall ranking of ROI performance of all game advertising platforms

So, what are the advantageous channels in the regional markets that mobile game overseas advertisers are most concerned about? Let’s take a look at the situation of game advertising platforms in North America, Japan, South Korea, India, and the Middle East respectively.

Casual games, mid-core games and strategy games in North America

Game and social gaming advertising platform strength ranking

Casual games, mid-core games and strategy games in the Japanese and Korean markets

Game and social gaming advertising platform strength ranking

South Asia (India) Market Casual Games, Mid-core and

Strategy games and social casino games advertising platform strength ranking

Casual games, mid-core and strategy in the Middle East market

Game and social gaming advertising platform strength ranking

2. Toutiao and Ali 9Apps join the list

Top non-game app advertising channels worldwide

According to AppsFlyer statistics, Facebook and Google Ads, which account for half of overseas marketing, have a 45% higher share in the non-game sector than in the game sector, and compared with Facebook, Google is growing faster in the non-game sector.

2018 can be described as the year in which ByteDance (Toutiao) conquered the global market. Relying on the huge proprietary traffic pool gathered by the "Toutiao" product matrix, ByteDance jumped from 11th place in the first half of the year to 6th place in the comprehensive strength list of global non-game application (all categories) advertising platforms in the second half of the year. At the same time, ByteDance ranks 4th in the world in the "Growth Index" list of this report, despite its already huge platform scale, and its growth potential remains strong. Correspondingly, ByteDance also appeared on the "Growth Index" list of multiple regional markets, including India No. 2, Japan and South Korea No. 11, and Latin America No. 3. This shows that while ByteDance is consolidating its position in mature markets such as North America, Japan and South Korea, it is also constantly exploring emerging markets.

9Apps also made it to the "Global Non-Game Apps (All Categories) Advertising Platform Comprehensive Strength List". 9Apps is a mobile application distribution platform under the Alibaba Group Mobile Business Group and maintained its 14th position on the list. From a regional market perspective, 9Apps is strong in emerging markets such as India, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Global non-game APP advertising platform ROI performance ranking

Shopping apps are a genre of their own in the application field and are a relatively core vertical industry. In 2018, e-commerce in various regional markets around the world developed rapidly, and shopping apps saw significant growth. So what are the best media channels for shopping apps?

Global Shopping App Advertising Channel Comprehensive Strength Ranking

The survey data shows that Facebook occupies a dominant position among many media channels of shopping apps due to its huge user scale and excellent user quality. Google Search Ads follows closely behind with its powerful search intent model. In addition, Snapchat has been promoted to the third place in the media channel of shopping apps, and given the young age of Snapchat users, its potential cannot be underestimated.

From a regional perspective, the current advertising channel performance rankings for the hottest destinations for e-commerce overseas - North America and Southeast Asia, as well as Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Latin America are as follows.

Ranking of advertising platforms for shopping apps in major regional markets around the world

3. With the popularity of toB market,

Advertising platforms from China continue to rise

As Chinese developers go global, local Chinese advertising platforms serving overseas developers have also emerged.

ByteDance, JOOX, and DO GLOBAL are on the Global Growth Index

As reflected in this report, in addition to ByteDance and 9Apps mentioned above, more advertising platforms from China are further rising. ByteDance, JOOX, and DO GLOBAL are on the Global Growth Index list.

In addition, Mobvista has a clear advantage in the non-game application category, appearing in the classification lists of non-game application advertising platforms in North America, Latin America, Africa and other regions, and has achieved encouraging growth in Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe. DO Global has also expanded its international presence over the past year, with significant growth in North America, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, which is consistent with its active regional markets in the second half of 2018.

JOOX has established a clear advantage in Southeast Asia and continues to maintain rapid growth; UC Ads has been deeply rooted in India for many years and continues to maintain rapid growth; Opera ranks first on the Southeast Asia Growth Index List and is growing rapidly in India and Africa.

The rapidly rising Chinese advertising platforms are "closer" to domestic overseas developers in terms of time and space. There are no language and cultural differences between them, and they are more familiar with the needs of these advertisers. It is believed that they will become more and more competitive in the future competition in the overseas digital advertising marketing market.

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author: White Whale Out to Sea

source: White Whale Out to Sea