Facebook Ads 1790% More Profitable on iOS Than on Android

[Northgrove]

Really? They're finding less profit in a crap platform where everyone can block ads and pirate all the apps?

While that may play a role here, I don't think that is typical Android user behavior. What I think is far more decisive here is that Android phones are much more geared towards budget users, who don't have much to spend to begin with, especially not random, advertised stuff.

 

[samcraig]

One reason Only, Apple makes it better....

Android phones with their quadcore processors, larger screen, bigger cameras, and all the other gimmicks NEVER compare to an iPhone or iPad with iOS.

With Apple the hardware and software works together. On Android you have hundreds of different hardwares and developers cant make a good software to work on all without crashing.

Nothing you wrote has anything to do with the topic at hand. Congratulations.

 

[qtx43]

17.9 times is 1690% more. Math is hard. /pedantic mode off

 

[CKA]

If in-app ads aren't profitable, then developers can't afford to price their apps at expected price-points. There are enough people who want free or 99¢ apps to make in-app ads reasonably useful to the consumer.

For my part - I would pay money to remove ads. The "sweet spot," to me, is an ad-supported app with a paid ad-removal in-app-purchase... free for those who don't care, ad-free for those who do.

Exactly, I don't mind to pay for a good app to remove ad. I would rather like apps offer like one-time pay to remove adv and unlock everything rather than adv with In-App Purchase. A 0 cost app may catch my eye-ball at first, but rather to keep buying in-app purchase, say a reasonable lump-sum is more preferrable.

 

[ghettochris]

No argument. And I have plenty of free apps (often because there's no alternative). I'd rather pay then have ads. Maybe not every app I own - but many.

I wish that ISP's could filter out ads on all sites I visit and just add the amount the ads they filtered cost to my bill and have a ad free internet. no more 2 minute video with a 30 second ad before it on youtube or random sites reddit sends me to. no more tips for a slimmer belly all over the place, no more full episodes with ad breaks that are now up to 5 30 second commercials, sometimes the same one back to back 5x in a row (seriously just happened this week at cbs.com, what a joke player) I wonder how much companies pay to show me all the ads they do over the course of a month, I would likely pay that plus some percentage, so it is better for them than if I saw and ignored them all like I more than likely would have. maybe ads when you google search something would still work, or somehow filters got smart enough to show me new things and deals that like a friend recommending something awesome you find you wished you knew about sooner type of thing, but that might require NSA levels of access to your private life to work well.

Basically the whole internet is a free app shoving ads down your throat and a paid ad free version isn't available. so we pirate it with adblock.

 

[Solomani]

Really? They're finding less profit in a crap platform where everyone can block ads and pirate all the apps?

This.

It's ironic that (unlike Apple) Google (The Advertising King) and Android marketplace desperately need advertising revenue to survive and to make a profit.... and yet all the people with money, all the paying customers are on Apple's ecosystem.

Who's left on Android's ecosystem? The masses of cheapskates, the pirates, the side-loading hackers. The "I'll never pay a dime for ANY software" entitlement junkies. Eric Schmidt must be furious and throwing a chair at the wall the more he is reminded of this reality.

 

[gotluck]

I'm an android user with an ad blocker that pays for apps. Do I really exist?

I also have an ad blocker on my iPhone 4, jb required for iOS.

 

[samcraig]

This.

It's ironic that (unlike Apple) Google (The Advertising King) and Android marketplace desperately need advertising revenue to survive and to make a profit.... and yet all the people with money, all the paying customers are on Apple's ecosystem.

Who's left on Android's ecosystem? The masses of cheapskates, the pirates, the side-loading hackers. The "I'll never pay a dime for ANY software" entitlement junkies. Eric Schmidt must be furious and throwing a chair at the wall the more he is reminded of this reality.

Well that sums up everyone on Android, now doesn't it

You realize - this was about Facebook ads. One app. It's not about all of Android's potential ad revenue and/or Google's ad revenue stream, right?

Last time I checked, Google was doing ok.

 

[PDXoPDX]

The real question is: why the hell are people clicking on ads at all? You have to have "idiot" written on your forehead to buy something from a click ad. I suppose we do still have telemarketers and spam, so I guess I answered my own question-a fool and his money is easily parted, and we have no shortage of fools.

 

[gatearray]

Really? They're finding less profit in a crap platform where everyone can block ads and pirate all the apps?

Not only all that, but the majority of all those millions of "activations" are from people in third world countries with no real purchasing power.

 

[ChrisA]

100% annoying on all platforms :]

Not true. On this Mac I can block all ads. I never see any.

 

[Parasprite]

As a consumer I am going to go with Android being the winner here. Why? Because if in-app ads aren't profitable - maybe we'll see less of them. So the fact that one platform is making a case for them - as a consumer - is not a "win"

Bravo, 10/10! So convincing I almost mistook you for a troll.

That being said, this could really have several causes (or a combination). Mind you, I am not saying any of these are necessarily true:

• Android has a form of system-wide Adblock available (at least if you're rooted) which would actively prevent many ads from being seen (but not necessarily being generated)*
• Ads delivered to Android are not as relevant/visible/misclickable/frequent as ads delivered to iOS users**
• The algorithms/sampling size/etc in the figure are faulty/inadequate/misleading and may not accurately represent the population as a whole (see: "garbage in, garbage out")***
• The Android app is subjectively worse/missing features/prone to crashing/slower and as a result, people spend less time actually using the app than on iOS**
• Android users are more stingy, have less money, or are more skeptical of ad legitimacy, or are more worried about security exploits than iOS users****
• iOS users are (for whatever reason) more likely to click on ads

*I don't know if any of the options block or are capable of blocking Ads within Facebook's app. Additionally, I doubt that the small population of Android users who happen to both use Adblock and Facebook's app would contribute to this great a difference.
**I have never used either app nor have a Facebook account so I have no idea whether this is true or not (see: "garbage in, garbage out")
***Haven't looked at them.
****Ads often relate to things you have to buy; ad-heavy products probably evoke strong memories of visiting certain dubious websites that promise niche hardcore pornography/expensive software and sometimes install malware

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

and the app still runs slow as a turtle on my iPhone 4...

 

[samcraig]

Bravo, 10/10! So convincing I almost mistook you for a troll.

That being said, this could really have several causes (or a combination). Mind you, I am not saying any of these are necessarily true:

• Android users are more stingy, have less money, or are more skeptical of ad legitimacy, or are more worried about security exploits than iOS users*
• iOS users are (for whatever reason) more likely to click on ads
  
  
  You know it could be that iOS users are more likely to click and have disposable income (I honestly don't know). But THAT doesn't mean that Android users are cheap nor does it mean they don't have disposable income
  
  Often (not saying you) people simply believe one has to be the polar opposite of the other.
  
  ----------
  
  

  and the app still runs slow as a turtle on my iPhone 4...

  
  That means ad viewing time is longer

 

[ChrisA]

I wish that ISP's could filter out ads on all sites I visit and just add the amount the ads they filtered cost to my bill and have a ad free internet. ..

Do you know you can do this yourself at little cost. Set up a proxy server with an ad block. Then you set your devices to access via the proxy. All the software you need is free and the hardware requirements are very low. And old "netbook" would make a great proxy server for an entire small company.

If you only have one computer you can run an ad block plug in on the browser and never see adds but in an office or if you have a big family at home you'd be best off blocks adds centrally. It costs nearly nothing and is not rocket science to set up. It will also speed up the Internet because the proxy (1) does not waste bandwidth with adds and (2) caches content for all users, so the first guy in the office to look at MacRumors has to wait bu the second person see's the cached page (assuming it is still current.)

Two common and free proxies are "squid" and Apache with mod_proxy. Squid is easier to setup I think.

 

[parapup]

IOW Android users are less gullible to falling prey to random shifty Internet ads. OTOH iOS users are trained to click anything that looks remotely shiny.

[ Seriously though who the hell uses the FB app on Android - I don't see anyone using it after they check the Battery stats and find out that's what killed their battery. Besides the FB site looks identical in Chrome.]

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

Well that sums up everyone on Android, now doesn't it

You realize - this was about Facebook ads. One app. It's not about all of Android's potential ad revenue and/or Google's ad revenue stream, right?

Last time I checked, Google was doing ok.

Perhaps, but Facebook's arguably the biggest app(especially among those 18-34 year olds the advertisers long for) and if they don't see a lot of profit on Android, others may rethink their app-ad strategy for Android also.

 

[Parasprite]

and the app still runs slow as a turtle on my iPhone 4...

Some turtles can actually move pretty fast in water, something my 4S can't even do on it's own.

 

[BaldiMac]

From the linked article:
“For the first three quarters of 2013, RPC [revenue per click] on iOS averaged 6.1 times higher than Android and ROI [return on investment] on iOS averaged 17.9 times higher than Android.”

So 3x the clicks on iOS and 6x the revenue per click? Wow. (Or does return on investment include more than just click revenues?)

 

[Parasprite]

You know it could be that iOS users are more likely to click and have disposable income (I honestly don't know). But THAT doesn't mean that Android users are cheap nor does it mean they don't have disposable income

Never said it did.

Often (not saying you) people simply believe one has to be the polar opposite of the other.

I completely agree, those people drive me nuts. I definitely prefer those without that mentality over those with it.

 

[phoenixsan]

Annoying.....

and all we can say, Facebook ads are part of the revenue system to the company. No point in complaining about a free service, IMHO. But this data can enhance the perception that Mac or iOS users are not the poor ones. And makes sense.....Apple hardware is not cheap, even the iOS devices with all the facilities to buy them.

Or maybe the iOS users are more prone to use the mobile platform to buy things.....

 

[Parasprite]

Do you know you can do this yourself at little cost. Set up a proxy server with an ad block. Then you set your devices to access via the proxy. All the software you need is free and the hardware requirements are very low. And old "netbook" would make a great proxy server for an entire small company.

If you only have one computer you can run an ad block plug in on the browser and never see adds but in an office or if you have a big family at home you'd be best off blocks adds centrally. It costs nearly nothing and is not rocket science to set up. It will also speed up the Internet because the proxy (1) does not waste bandwidth with adds and (2) caches content for all users, so the first guy in the office to look at MacRumors has to wait bu the second person see's the cached page (assuming it is still current.)

Two common and free proxies are "squid" and Apache with mod_proxy. Squid is easier to setup I think.

The laziest attempt I've tried at this involved an old Windows box, a couple of Ethernet cords, and a hosts file.

Needless to say, it was slow and didn't work very well. It certainly wasn't nearly as elegant as the much simpler solutions you're suggesting. The only annoyance is that certain websites (intentionally or otherwise) tend to argue with various forms of ad blocking, and it's moderately inconvenient not being able to quickly adjust/disable it within the browser.

 

[kdarling]

Personally, I skip past Facebook ads.

Ads on one edge I don't mind too much, but I don't like them showing up inline.

.

 

[MrRez]

Really? They're finding less profit in a crap platform where everyone can block ads and pirate all the apps?

Could you please detail how you block ads in the Facebook app on Android?

 

[FirstNTenderbit]

One reason Only, Apple makes it better....

Android phones with their quadcore processors, larger screen, bigger cameras, and all the other gimmicks NEVER compare to an iPhone or iPad with iOS.

With Apple the hardware and software works together. On Android you have hundreds of different hardwares and developers cant make a good software to work on all without crashing.

How is this related to the topic of the post?

On topic: Does this mean iOS users are more susceptible to ads on Facebook? IDK. I've read multiple comments on MR about how much people hate ads. Now all of a sudden because iOS has more profitable ad penetration on FB ads are okay. iOS FTW?

I've realized (sometimes I need reminding) for a while now that what we think in tech forums has almost no relation whatsoever to the general populace. Basically all I see is iOS users on FB spend more on products and services advertised on FB. That says nothing good nor bad about them.

Does anyone think the advertising success achieved through FB with iOS users might make Apple double down on iAds? Meaning iAds becoming more pervasive throughout iOS.

All of the above is from the perspective of a consumer, not developer.