AppLovin said on November 4 that third-quarter revenue rose 55% to $2.18 billion and net income rose 72% to $1.44 billion.
What happened
In its third quarter results, filed with the SEC as an exhibit to a Form 8-K, AppLovin reported adjusted EBITDA of $1,842 million, up 59%, an 84% adjusted EBITDA margin and a 66% net income margin. Free cash flow was $1.4 billion. The company repurchased and withheld 4.1 million Class A shares at a total cost of $1.4 billion, and its board raised the repurchase authorization by $3.2 billion, to $3.6 billion. For the fourth quarter AppLovin guided to revenue of $2,365 million to $2,395 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1,995 million to $2,025 million. The release describes AppLovin as “a leading marketing platform” and does not break revenue out by product.
Why it matters
AppLovin reported on the same day as Magnite, whose revenue for the quarter was $204.2 million, as we covered in Magnite Reports 39% CTV Growth in Q3 and Raises Its 2026 Outlook. AppLovin’s revenue is more than ten times larger. We compared AppLovin, Magnite and other ad tech companies on the August earnings in Owned Supply Is Winning Ad Tech’s Earnings Season. The release carries no quote from management and no figures for advertiser count or pricing, so the drivers of the 55% growth are not stated.
One thing to ask
In our reading, the useful question for a marketing team that buys app install or performance media from AppLovin is how it is measured. Ask your account contact for incrementality results next to the platform’s own reporting, and ask which share of last quarter’s spend ran on the same bidding settings as the quarter before. A holdout test of your own shows what your spend returned.
