Report: 92% of iOS ad spend now goes to remarketing
May 7, 2026
AppsFlyer’s 2026 State of eCommerce App Marketing report reveals that 92 per cent of all iOS ad spend now goes to remarketing as re-engagement budgets surge worldwide. On Android, remarketing also climbed to 85 per cent. Whilst UK Android Ad Fraud dropped from 22.2 per cent to 11.8 per cent, UK iOS Fraud grew from 11.4 per cent to 20 per cent.
The remarketing trend is clear. Remarketing and re-engagement attribution accounts for 27 per cent of all attribution queries in AppsFlyer’s AI assistant. The single largest subtopic. And for good reason. The State of eCommerce App Marketing report shows that remarketing lifts install-to-purchase conversion in the UK by 179 per cent on Android and 139 per cent on iOS.
“Acquiring new users has become expensive. The competition for installs is fierce, CPIs have risen, and China-based shopping apps have flooded paid media channels with enormous budgets,” commented Sue Azari, Industry Lead for eCommerce at AppsFlyer. “Because of this, brands have decided to spend less on acquiring new app users but focus on remarketing. They are looking at who they already sell to and how they can get more value from them,”
“We’re seeing brands re-engage lapsed buyers, personalising offers and messaging based on purchase history, and using push notifications and deep-linked campaigns to bring people back into the app at exactly the right moment,” added Azari.
The effect has been immediate, loyal users who make two or more purchases now make up a third of buyers in the UK on both iOS and Android.
Meanwhile, fraud is migrating toward the highest-value traffic. Whilst global iOS fraud dropped 34 per cent, in the UK iOS Fraud grew from 11.4 per cent to 20 per cent. The pattern suggests fraudsters are rotating toward high-CPI Western iOS markets where payoff per fraudulent install is larger. Agency fraud spiked to 41.2 per cent in Q4, aligning with peak holiday UA season.
Additional UK stats include:
● iOS UA spend held close to the global average at -11 per cent Q4-on-Q4
● 84-85 per cent of UA spend was on iOS, matching the US as the most iOS-dominant markets globally
● Remarketing spend grew steadily on both platforms: Android up 27 per cent, iOS up 26 per cent Q4-on-Q4
● 90 per cent of remarketing spend allocated to iOS — the highest concentration in the dataset
● Consumer spend share grew on both platforms: Android up 14 per cent, iOS up 17 per cent. The UK overtook Japan to become the third-largest iOS consumer spend market
● iOS web-to-app conversions followed the same Black Friday spike pattern as the US
Methodology
AppsFlyer’s State of eCommerce App Marketing, 2026 Edition analyses anonymous, aggregated data from 1,800 eCommerce apps (excluding marketplaces and grocery apps) with at least 3,000 installs per month per country. This report covers October 2024 through March 2026, analysing ad spend, conversion trends, consumer revenue, buyer behaviour, web-to-app patterns, fraud, and AI analytics usage across 13+ markets on both major mobile platforms.