/research/us-store-speed-2026 · Ad pixel

Does AppLovin slow down a store?

In 7IT’s test of 367 US online stores, AppLovin ran on 47 of them (12.8%). On the median store that loads it, it downloaded 33 KB and kept the phone busy for 0.08 s before the page could respond.

12.8%of 367 US stores run it
33 KBmedian download on stores that load it
0.08 smedian time the phone spends running it

Stores with it and without it.

StoresMedian scoreMain contentBlocking timeApps on the page
With AppLovin473112.9 s2218 ms34
Without3203611.4 s1130 ms18

Stores that run AppLovin had a median score of 31, against 36 for stores without it. They also run more apps overall (a median of 34 against 18), so that gap is not all AppLovin’s doing. The size and phone time above are AppLovin’s own. On this sample there is no score penalty that can be pinned on it.

One in four stores that load it download more than 36 KB of it, and spend more than 0.10 s running it. Median Google phone-lab results, home pages only, September 2026. Method and limits in the study.

If you run AppLovin.

  • Ad pixels count visits; they do not need to block the visit. Load them after the first interaction, or move them server-side (Conversions API, server-side tagging) so the phone does less.
  • Check every pixel still feeds a campaign that is running. Pixels outlive campaigns.
  • One container for all pixels, loaded late, beats many tags each loading early.