A study of more than 200 billion ads on Facebook shows mobile ads on the iPhone generate 1,790% more return on investment than ads do on the Android platform.
Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns.
The study is by Nanigans, one of the biggest buyers of Facebook ads, and it focuses on retailers, saying that in the past year on Facebook’s desktop ads, clickthroughs are up 375 percent and overall return on investment is 152 percent.
“Retailers are realizing significantly greater return from audiences on iOS than audiences on Android,” the report says. “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.”
Android doesn’t just monetize worse than the iPhone, it actually gives a negative return on investment. Advertising on Android returns 10% less than the cost of the ads.
While Nanigans doesn’t speculate why the ROI differs so much between the two platforms, other studies have pointed to the same issue Android has faced for years: a lower-end audience. Simply, iPhone owners tend to both make and spend more money than Android owners.
“Audiences cost more on iPhone, and the reason is that it’s worth it,” Nanigans SVP Dan Slagen said. “Typically, we’re not looking to acquire one-time customers, we’re looking to invest over time … so we pay more up front for better long-term results.”
