Singular ROI Index 2023: the best ad networks of the emerging era of privacy

Today we’re officially launching the Singular ROI Index 2023 to showcase the best ad networks of the emerging era of privacy. It’s the first dynamic Singular ROI Index, allowing you to slice and dice the data by platform, region, vertical, and measurement type, and you can access it right here, right now.

Why does it matter?

• Everyone knows advertising is getting harder
• Everyone knows “tracking” is going away
• Everyone knows marketing measurement is getting tougher

So the key question for advertisers is this: which ad networks, platforms, and partners in the emerging privacy era of SKAN on iOS and (soon) Privacy Sandbox on Android will still be able to help growth marketers drive performance-oriented campaigns?

Data in the ROI Index

To answer that question, we analyzed hundreds of gigabytes of data representing:

• Trillions of ad impressions
• Over 100 billion clicks
• Over $10 billion in ad spend
• Billions of app installs

The result is the top ad networks globally, for gaming publishers, for brands, for retention, for return on investment, and — where we can — for regions like APAC, EMEA, North America, and South America. Out of the literally thousands of marketing platforms that are integrated with Singular, we isolated 30 premium partners that made the grade in at least one category. Those 30 premium partners occupy all of the 214 available slots in our various ranking lists, and the 2023 ROI Index reveals which ones achieved the highest number of rankings.

What you can expect in Singular’s 2023 ROI Index

We also provide highlights for:

• The top 15 all-round networks: all geos, all verticals
• Ad networks that grew the most from 2021 to 2022
• Marketing partners that gained the most share over the course of the last 12 months
• Where Apple Search Ads — which does not use SKAdNetwork for attribution — ranks in comparison to the other ad networks

There are some surprises in this year’s ROI Index. For one, Meta very publicly had challenges adapting to the new measurement realities on iOS, but — very much in line with the company’s recent financial performance — we find that there’s some massive positives lately. Also, several relatively tiny companies, including Moloco, Mistplay, Aarki, and Blind Ferret punch well above their weight class in delivering mobile marketing performance. One of them even tied with Meta and Google and AppLovin (!!!) in a never-before-seen 4-way tie for the most rankings in the 2023 ROI Index.

Mobile advertising in 2023: a preview

We also hit some of the major changes happening in the mobile advertising space for 2023, including:

• Massive and ongoing measurement turmoil
• iOS ad spend recovery, rebound, and (maybe even) a boomerang effect
• What to expect for Android ad spend in late 2023, early 2024
• Growth rates in mobile ad spend for 2023 … including some shrinkage
• Ad spend allocation shifts from mobile to CTV and retail media
• Ongoing challenges with retargeting

Finally, we end the ROI Index with key clues to the future of marketing measurement: how brands and apps will continue to be able to run performant data-driven advertising absent granular, deterministic last-click identifiers, and 4 advertiser imperatives in an age of change.

The ROI Index is, of course, completely free.

Access your copy here.