• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 14, 2025

Temu discontinued use of Google Shopping ads in the U.S. last week. When it did, the ecommerce company's App Store ranking fell from between No. 3 or No. 4 to No. 58 within three days. 

The company's impression share -- which measures how often its ads appear compared with eligibility -- fell dramatically before disappearing completely from advertiser auction data by April 12.

Mike Ryan, head of ecommerce insights at Smarter Ecommerce, shared his analysis on LinkedIn.

“I first reported a high degree of correlation between Temu's ad spend & app rank in April 2024, he wrote. “It's not surprising – many businesses depend on advertising. But in Temu's case the relationship appeared very immediate and very strong.”

Ryan wrote that he sees through the data -- not organic demand -- that ads propped up Temu's app installs.

Temu could not turn off ads even for one day without consequences.

The Trump administration’s position on Chinese imports -- raising tariffs to 125% -- coincided with the drop. Some trading partners like Apple and Nvidia were not affected, and many electronics and semiconductor companies that received a special exemption. 

“The exit of Temu is a moment many ecommerce advertisers have hoped for,” Ryan wrote. 

And while he believes this could offer momentary relief to some brands, the causes of that exit are likely to prove even more punishing in the long term, particularly in the small and medium-size business (SMB) sector.

“Temu is a weed that could grow back at any time,” he wrote.

Marketers welcomed the news about Temu. Arian Ghotbi, marketer at Cyrus's Digital, wrote in the comments of Ryan’s post: “I hoped for this. More power to local advertisers.”

Victoria Chapman, founder of TLC Ads, believes the immediate plummet in app rankings shows how artificially propped up the company's market position was -- all paid acquisition with virtually no organic demand.

“I wonder how loyal their customers are, or if they relied heavily on first time downloaders [or] buyers.”