ROI index charts rise of Moloco and Reddit alongside big tech

While the dominance of Meta and Google in mobile advertising is hardly the stuff of breaking news, a recent report from analytics and attribution platform Singular highlights some of the emerging stars when it comes to mobile advertising ROI such as Reddit and Moloco.

Size does matter, but not as much as has been previously assumed, with the report flagging that smaller ad networks can deliver outsized ROI for advertisers.

The 2025 Singular ROI Index delivers a comprehensive overview of the mobile advertising ecosystem, tracking performance across billions in spend and trillions of impressions.

Here are some of the most note-worthy highlights from the report:

It is possible to use a low-cost ad network and generate high revenue

Singular has launched its ROI Quadrant which classifies ad networks by cost and ROI, to help marketers identify high-efficiency partners.

While most marketers operate in the quadrant of scale: high cost but with mostly high-quality partners who deliver results, advertisers looking to make a significant impact without an extraordinarily high initial outlay ought to consider the quadrant of growth. Networks in this quadrant typically generate less than $5 million in spend.

It should, however, be noted that the categories that perform the best in this quadrant are fintech, gaming, on-demand, and retail. On the other hand, verticals that seldom make it to the quadrant are segments that are either too small a niche (education) or represent too competitive a space (health and fitness, travel).

Working with a smaller ad network brings several advantages: the smaller size brings greater focus on niches and verticals that are relevant to the audience profile an advertiser would like to reach. Delivering smaller scale campaigns for smaller clients also improves the visibility of the ad as opposed to the bigger platforms who tend to attract the largest number of advertisers.

In the APAC region, networks like Digital Turbine, Motive, Reddit, and Snap consistently land in the quadrant of growth delivering high ROI for low cost.

Challenger networks are on the rise

The list of dominant scaled ad platforms features familiar names—Google Ads, Meta Ads and TikTok for Business. However, there are also several challengers emerging.

Reddit aggregates audiences across diverse geographies and interest groups. It has seen a 47% increase in daily active users and profitability for the first time in 2024. Reddit is on 18 leaderboards analysed by Singular and is particularly strong in gaming and fintech. Its expanding ad load, new placements, and better measurement tools have made it increasingly attractive to performance marketers.

Moloco, meanwhile, is powered by AI and machine learning tools, and ranks fifth in adspend and overall ROI (average ROI across all verticals, geographies, and advertisers) in the Singular ROI Index. Outside of Apple Search Ads and the walled gardens of Meta, Google and TikTok, it is at the top tier for geographic and vertical coverage.

Speaking to Campaign, Moloco’s CMO Paul D’Arcy said, “We help advertisers achieve their performance objectives across more than three million apps. With Moloco, you can reach about two million daily users across that set of apps, which is more than TikTok and Instagram combined. It is a pretty big universe and we have seen attention shift dramatically into the world of apps from every other place that attention used to be concentrated—from print, television to the web. With attention moving, we see advertisers moving into apps across all categories.”

Apple Search Ads may not have as much scale in a mobile landscape dominated by the rival Android operating system, but it has multiple $100 million advertisers who engage with it annually. It ranks 7^th on ROI among ad networks of all sizes and ranks third when it comes to spend. It is projected to grow from around $8 billion in revenue in 2024 to $14 billion by 2027.

Advertisers are returning to X—but in dubious categories

X has been trying to revitalise itself as an advertising platform, in a number of ways. Its CEO Elon Musk has initiated legal action against advertisers who allegedly boycotted the platform, and applied pressure on holding companies like Omnicom and Interpublic which are headed for a merger later this year.

However, according to the Singular ROI Index, besides gaming, the two categories where X does incredibly well on ROI are pornography and adjacent apps, and gambling or real money gambling. These categories are gravitating to the platform thanks to strictures that limit their ability to advertise elsewhere. X continues to remain a site for breaking news—including about sports—which makes it the perfect venue for RMG and gambling apps.

The Singular ROI Index shows that while the industry’s giants remain strong, newer entrants retain the power to disrupt the ecosystem. Marketers now have access to a broader and more efficient array of advertising options, which could change how and where they choose to spend their ad dollars.