A study by Nanigans, one of the largest buyers of Facebook ads, indicates that mobile ads on Apple’s iPhones generate 1,790 percent more ROI than mobile ads on Android devices. The study, which looked at more than 200 billion ads on Facebook with a focus on retailers, suggests that mobile advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns. The study also notes that Facebook’s desktop ads over the past year experienced a 375 percent increase in click-throughs and 152 percent jump in overall ROI.

“Retailers are realizing significantly greater return from audiences on iOS than audiences on Android,” the report says. “For the first three quarters of 2013, RPC [revenue per click] on iOS averaged 6.1 times higher than Android and ROI [return on investment] on iOS averaged 17.9 times higher than Android.”

Nanigans SVP Dan Slagen was somewhat hesitant to publish the study, due to its potentially controversial findings, but ultimately the company decided to let the data speak for itself.

“It’s not just that Android monetizes worse than iOS — it actually offers negative return on investment,” reports VentureBeat. “In other words, while advertising on iOS brings retailers 162 percent more cash than they spend on the ads, advertising on Android returns 10 percent less than the cost of the ads.”

The study does not speculate regarding reasons for the disparity. However, recent studies have indicated that there is a distinction between the two user groups and iPhone owners tend to earn and spend more money.

“One caveat that Slagen offered, however, is that the data changes with industry, and that gaming and e-commerce industries, for instance, did not see the same kind of massive iPhone/Android gulf in ROI,” notes the post. “Still, customers with iPhones are simply worth more, he said.”