Impact of Ad Libraries on Ratings of Android Mobile Apps

One of the most popular ways to monetize a free app is by including advertisements in the app. Several advertising (ad) companies provide these ads to app developers through ad libraries that need to be integrated in the app. However, the demand for ads far exceeds the supply. This obstacle may lead app developers to integrate several ad libraries from different ad companies in their app to ensure they receive an ad with each request. However, no study has explored how many ad libraries are commonly integrated into apps. Additionally, no research to date has examined whether integrating many different ad libraries impacts an app´s ratings. This article examines these two issues by empirically examining thousands of Android apps. The authors find that there are apps with as many as 28 ad libraries, but they find no evidence that the number of ad libraries in an app is related to its possible rating in the app store. However, integrating certain ad libraries can negatively impact an app´s rating.