September 2025 Ad Growth Analysis
Discover the fastest-growing mobile apps and the advertising strategies powering their user acquisition campaigns in September 2025.
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Executive Summary
Key findings and performance overview for September 2025
Overview
In September 2025, AppGoblin analyzed 10.2K mobile apps and captured 503.1K HTTPS events across 4.7K unique API domains, providing a comprehensive view of acquisition activity.
This activity spanned 193 AdTech platforms supporting 228 advertisers and 8.9K creative assets driving some ad campaigns to 76.6% week on week installs growth.
This is a behind-the-scenes look at mobile app advertising based on data collected by AppGoblin.
- Which apps were advertising the most — 228 apps were actively running ads
- What their ads looked like — nearly 8.9K different commercials, banners, and videos
- Where they were advertising — 193 different advertising platforms and services
- How the whole system works — over 503.1K technical interactions captured (clicks, loads, redirects)
Ad Impacts on Weekly Install Growth
App discoverability in the app stores is dead.
Organic app discoverability is the myth that the ad monopolies on the Apple and Google use to juice their store ad campaigns. Few people search for new apps.
Meanwhile, in-app ads are a direct way for apps to reach new audiences (you're still not getting away from the ad monopolies). The Ad Impact section shows the correlations between apps that were seen running ad campaigns and their increased installs during the following week.
These are the September 2025 ad mobile app ad campaigns (US) that drove the highest increases in week on week (W/W) install growth.
Most Popular Video Creatives
Video ads with the widest mobile app distribution during September 2025
Creative Performance
These mobile app ad video creatives achieved the widest distribution among mobile publishers in September 2025. The top performer was showing across 106 publishers demonstrating it's popularity and success as a mobile app ad creative.
TikTok was the leading advertiser and its creatives were preloaded the most. Interestingly there were several ecommerce product apps that were also seeing wide distribution. And of course at least one AI app, Microsoft's Copilot also saw one of the highest ad reach.
Ad Network Landscape
The advertising platforms that powered September 2025 user acquisition campaigns
Network Distribution
The mobile advertising Android ecosystem is monopolized by Google due to it's control of the Android OS. However, there are several other ad networks that provide valuable reach and targeting options for app advertisers. Overall we saw 2310 publishers, delivering 2344 unique creatives across the top ad networks in September 2025.
The other ad networks fighting for the leftover market share are split into two overlapping groups: SDK direct ad networks and programmatic networks.
Note on Methodology
When looking at this data its important to keep the context of how it was collected. The data is aggregated from API calls made by opening apps and watching the ad network connections. As such, this does not include App Store advertising (Apple/Google) or social media ads (TikTok/Facebook/Instagram). Facebook Audience Network (FAN) is included, but as it is quite small it didn't make the top 10.
Rank | Ad Network | Publishers | Advertisers | Creatives | Market Share |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() google.com | 1,438 | 114 | 1,378 | 62.3% |
2 | ![]() mintegral.com | 189 | 59 | 177 | 8.2% |
3 | ![]() applovin.com | 162 | 0 | 246 | 7.0% |
4 | ![]() unity.com, unity3d.com | 137 | 51 | 190 | 5.9% |
5 | ![]() rtbhouse.com | 101 | 0 | 6 | 4.4% |
6 | ![]() yandex.com | 78 | 15 | 200 | 3.4% |
7 | ![]() adcolony.com, appreciate.mobi, fyber.com | 63 | 14 | 48 | 2.7% |
8 | Criteo criteo.com | 49 | 0 | 43 | 2.1% |
9 | ![]() adikteev.com | 48 | 1 | 15 | 2.1% |
10 | ![]() bidease.com | 45 | 7 | 41 | 1.9% |
Campaign Reach Analysis
Publisher distribution strategies and market penetration insights
Reach Tiers & Distribution
These are the advertisers that appeared in the most unique publisher apps during this period. TikTok dominated with it's ads being shown in the vast majority of Google's preloaded ads.
This is a useful set of apps for those looking to understand who is likely running larger mobile ad campaigns in September 2025.
Rank | App | Publishers | Creatives | Installs | Ad Networks | MMP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() TikTok - Videos, Shop & LIVE social networking | 538 | 163 | 3.9B | ||
2 | ![]() Ibotta: Save & Earn Cash Back shopping | 23 | 10 | 22.9M | ||
3 | ![]() Microsoft Copilot productivity | 19 | 4 | 45.4M | ||
4 | ![]() Solitaire Classic: Card Game game puzzle | 17 | 3 | 1.7M | — | |
5 | ![]() NeoFlash tools | 16 | 7 | 32.6K | — | |
6 | ![]() Hand Clap Track tools | 14 | 6 | 112.8K | ||
7 | ![]() Phone Whisperer tools | 11 | 3 | 142.6K | ||
8 | ![]() Gocrypto: Crypto Trading business | 11 | 1 | 16.3M | ||
9 | ![]() ABCmouse 2: Kids Learning Game education | 10 | 4 | 1.6M | ||
10 | ![]() BandLab – Music Making Studio music and audio | 9 | 7 | 113.9M |
Final Insights
Actionable takeaways and strategic recommendations for user acquisition
Diversification is Key
Google holds 62.3% market share. Concentrated monoplization of ad networks hurts app developers. Diversifying beyond Google Ads reduces platform risk and increases audience reach. This is currently only available for large app publishers.
High Growth Opportunities
Average growth rate of 76.6% demonstrates significant opportunity in the mobile app market. Strategic ad campaigns can rapidly scale user acquisition for those that can afford it.
About AppGoblin
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AppGoblin is a free mobile ad intelligence platform that provides insights into the mobile app ecosystem. Our mission is to democratize access to mobile ad data, enabling developers, marketers, and analysts to make informed decisions.
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Data source: AppGoblin Ad Intelligence Platform | Report Period: September 2025
For more insights and detailed analytics, visit AppGoblin.info
Report Generated: October 2025