App Annie Now Tells Publishers How Well Facebook’s App Install Ads Work

App Annie, a company selling pick axes during the app store gold rush, is expanding its mobile app analytics platform today with the introduction of ad analytics for Facebook Ads. The change will improve the company’s Advertising Analytics service, launched earlier this spring, by allowing app publishers to better determine how well their Facebook-based app install ads are performing, and compare those metrics to other ad networks.

Specifically, publishers will be able to track key metrics including CTR (click-through rate), CVR (Conversion Rate), eCPI (effective Cost Per Install), Installs and more, the company says.

The addition of Facebook means that App Annie now supports 28 mobile ad platforms around today, including top players like AdMob, InMobi, iAd, Millennial Media, Chartboost and many more.

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However, despite Facebook’s access to rich profile data on those who click, App Annie isn’t currently providing demographic information about an app’s users – thought the company tells TechCrunch that’s a “super interesting” area and something it hopes to get into more over time. But for now, its focus is on offering publishers a look at their mobile ad campaigns across channels, so they can see which perform best, allowing the app makers to better allocate their marketing dollars in the future as well as make other adjustments, as need be.

App Annie is also now expanding support to the long tail of ad platforms and networks services allowing them to write to its API. Once that’s done, app publishers who have an App Annie Ad Analytics account can link to those ad platforms and networks within App Annie, where they can then link their account and view their info.

App Annie’s Marcos Sanchez, VP of Global Corporate Communications, explains the company’s larger value is in “being Switzerland” when it comes to the addition of the new services, including support for Facebook Ads.

“Whereas Apple’s not going to provide a way to link in your Google Play data, we provide that middle ground for bringing in a lot of different networks,” he says. “It’s about unifying and integrating multiple sources into a larger platform play.”

Support for Facebook Ad analytics comes at no additional charge, as App Annie’s core app analytics and ad analytics products are offered for free to its customers. Instead, the company continues to generate revenue via its “Intelligence” product, designed for enterprise use, which offers more data and custom reporting.

App Annie is today in a unique space in the mobile app analytics industry. Its competitors for app analytics, like Flurry or Onavo, for instance, have been acquired by the big guys (Yahoo and Facebook, respectively), while many of the new entrants are focused mainly on ASO (App Store Optimization, i.e., SEO for app stores). And, of course, App Annie acquired its top competitor, Distimo, back in May, giving it something of a monopoly in this space.

But the company hasn’t gotten complacent despite its market position, and is continuing to roll out new features for its customers, assuming that the threat of competition is always just around the corner. Plus, following the release of the Ad Analytics expansion, announced today, App Annie is due to roll out another “big” feature within the analytics space in around three to six months, we hear. No word yet on what that may be.

Correction: clarified API usage to explain data is not imported, but info is available.