Numbers · Published 2026-02-03 · 3 min read
iOS niche analysis: AI Girlfriend, Cleaner, Photo Editor
I ran a quick analysis of three iOS app niches, looking at how the top companies buy traffic in Meta.
Method
- downloads and revenue from the free version of Sensor Tower
- picked the top apps by revenue
- then looked for their ads in Tyver
Cleaners. 8 apps, roughly $24M by Sensor Tower's estimate
AEM:
- 7 of the 8 apps buy through Meta AEM
- Jumping ahead: every app across the three niches that makes money uses AEM
Web2App:
- Formally 4 of 8, in practice more like 3 of 8, since BPMobile runs a badly configured Web2App through AppsFlyer
Update: I was fairly called out in the comments. Yes, there are no UTM tags, which is sloppy, but not critical. It looks as though BPMobile does buy a lot on Web2App after all — I found it through their fan page. Sorry about that. And BPMobile, thank you for reading.
An interesting observation:
- The other three companies run Web2App without AppsFlyer
- They use custom solutions plus simple pre-landers
- Meta makes it convenient to work with the Conversions API directly, so they save on trackers
The apps: Cleaner Guru: Clean Up Storage, AI Cleaner: Clean Up Storage, Cleaner Kit – Clean Up Storage, Cleanup App – Phone Cleaner, Photo Cleaner: Swipewipe, Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner, Cleaner Neat: Clean Up Storage, Cleaner AI: Photo Cleanup.
Photo Editors. 8 apps, roughly $25M
AEM: 7 of 8. Web2App: 3 of 8.
A wrinkle in this niche: there are often web versions, so it is hard to tell where Web2App is really being used to buy app installs.
An interesting configuration:
- Reface uses AppsFlyer with a custom PID
- Probably they are happy with the probabilistic matching and send the events themselves
The apps: Picsart AI Photo Editor & Video, Photo Editor, Meitu BeautyCam, Facetune: Video & Photo Editor, VSCO: Photo Editor & Presets, BeautyPlus – Selfie Photo Editor, Photoroom: AI Photo Editor, Reface.
AI Girlfriend. 5 apps, roughly $100k
For me this is the most puzzling niche: there is no big money visible yet, and at the same time an enormous number of apps are trying to get into it.
AEM: 1 of 5 — EVA: Chat with AI Girlfriend.
Web2App:
- The only ones actually managing to earn are EVA
- The classic chain: Meta to Web2App to AppsFlyer
The apps: EVA: Chat with AI Girlfriend, AI Girlfriend Chat: Jessy, Promptchan: AI Girlfriend, AI Girlfriend Sexy – Spicy GF, Intimate – AI Girlfriend Chat.
Conclusion
- if an app is sitting in the Apple grossing charts, the chances are high that it buys on Meta
- you could say that roughly a half to a third of the list buys on Web2App
I will post the full video walkthrough on the course in the next few days.