Which mobile ad network is best?

Meta for most consumer apps at scale, Apple Search Ads for the highest intent, Google for automated reach. Best is category-specific and the only real answer comes from a controlled test on your own app.

Why do networks report more installs than my store console?

Each claims attribution under its own rules and windows, and the claims overlap. The store console is the only count of installs that actually happened, so use it as the denominator for anything that matters.

Are incentivised install networks worth using?

Only to move chart position, and the users do not stay. They contaminate retention data, which makes every other channel harder to judge afterwards.

Do ad networks account for links that fail to open the store?

No. Every network in common use counts the click when the tap leaves the ad, not when the destination loads. That gap is yours to measure.

Mobile ad networks

Networks differ less in audience than in what they will tell you. Choosing one is largely choosing what you are willing not to know.

9 August 2026 · PAD team

The main routes

Network	Best for	Reporting
Meta (Facebook, Instagram)	consumer apps at scale	detailed, optimistic on attribution
Google App campaigns	intent-driven installs	automated, little placement control
TikTok	young audiences, cheap reach	improving, still coarse
Apple Search Ads	high intent, bottom of funnel	clean, limited volume
Programmatic DSPs	scale and retargeting	opaque, requires diligence
Incentivised networks	chart position only	meaningless for retention

Apple Search Ads is the outlier worth naming: the traffic is already in the App Store, which means no browser sits between the tap and the listing. It is the one channel structurally immune to the delivery problem, and its volume ceiling is the price of that.

What each network counts as a click

All of them count the tap. None of them counts the arrival. That distinction is invisible in every dashboard in the table above and is where a share of every budget goes.

network counts:  tap leaves the ad          ✓
network counts:  browser opened            ✓
network counts:  store actually opened      ✗

Measured on 21,000 taps routed between 3 and 9 August 2026, 19,381 came from inside social apps and 95.6% were iOS. For networks whose inventory is social feeds, that is the population where the last row matters.

How to run a fair test between two networks

Same creative, same country, same period. Different creative makes the comparison meaningless.
Same destination type, and a destination that survives an in-app browser, or you are comparing browsers rather than networks.
Compare on installs from your store console, not on installs each network claims.
Run long enough to reach several hundred installs per network before deciding.

The third point is the one people skip. Networks self-report attribution and each claims credit generously, so the sum of claimed installs routinely exceeds the installs that happened.

Warning signs in a network

Volume that appears instantly at any budget, click-through rates far above category norms, and installs with near-zero day one retention. Each individually can be innocent. Together they describe traffic you do not want and are paying for.

How many to run

One, properly, until its economics are known. Then two. Teams running four networks at small budgets usually have four sets of unreadable data and a conviction that app marketing does not work.

Compare networks on arrivals, not on the clicks they bill you for.

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