United States tech giants, Google and Facebook continue to dominate mobile advertising with a significant majority of the non-organic install market, global attribution leader, AppsFlyer has said in the latest edition of its Performance Index released Wednesday. The search and social giants hold the number 1 power ranking position in 79 percent of breakdowns and 82 percent of volume rankings across all indices.

Analyzing 27 billion app installs across 495 media networks and 14,000 apps, the report shows that Google is the best platform for driving performance for app marketers in Africa, while Facebook is the best platform for remarketing across Africa and the Middle East.

The social network’s ability to drive performance at scale in both the Retention Index and the new IAP (in-app purchase) Index has propelled Facebook’s ranking forward, Appsflyer said. It also dominates the new IAA (in-app advertising) Index as well as the Remarketing Index, making its overall cross-index position as the dominant force in mobile clear.

But quality comes at a cost with an analysis of the cost of media showing that Facebook charges more. This is especially true in Gaming, where cost is significantly higher in North America, Latin America, and Europe, while Google has a slightly higher cost in APAC. In Non-Gaming, Google is more costly, but not by a wide margin, with the exception of North America where Facebook is more expensive, the report shows.

More so, a platform breakdown shows Google is a clear winner in Android, largely thanks to its leap in developing countries where the Operating System dominates, while Facebook controls much of Apple’s iOS.

While the novel coronavirus has had a significant impact on apps and the entire ecosystem, the impact of the pandemic on media source rankings was marginal with the only exception being Apple Search Ads. Organic growth in the App Store led marketers to start and/or increase their app store optimization efforts, bringing Apple Search Ads to the front, driving impressive growth, and strong performance, the report notes.

“Our Performance Index has been the go-to source of information for many marketers for a few years now and we are excited to include some insight from the burgeoning African apps market in this edition,” said Daniel Junowicz, AppsFlyer managing director for Latam & Africa. “The African app market represents a significant opportunity for people on the continent and beyond to drive new growth opportunities.”