Understanding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Mobile Ad Mediation

The mobile ad channel is providing plenty of opportunities to app developers and publishers. The increasing trend of mobile engagement and growing competition among ad networks are enabling both ads publishers and marketers to capture a portion of the growing mobile ad spend pie. Mobile Ad Mediation technology has entered the mobile ad marketplace to enable developers and publishers significantly increase their profits. How? First find out what is mobile ad mediation!

What is mobile ad mediation?

Mobile ad mediation is a technology that enables publishers to match the right ad network with the right inventory in order to monetize more impressions. The centralized ad mediation platform ensures complete transparency and enables publishers to access all available ad demand sources by using a unified SDK. Through this centralized platform, they can connect, manage and optimize as many ad networks as they would like to work with to gain maximum profits.

How does ad mediation works?

Ad mediation technology works in two ways: traditional approach called “waterfall” and latest one called “weighted system.”

• In the traditional mediation approach, ad networks are divided into different “buckets” on the basis of potential revenue (overall eCPM). When a request for an ad fill is sent, the highest performing ad network (bucket) is called & its ad pool is used until completed. It moves to next bucket only when ad supply of first bucket if filled.

• In the latest “weighted system,” ad networks are prioritized on the basis of performance, providing more holistic view of available ad demand. By using this approach, developers can fill all high-performing ads first before they move onto lower paying content.

Why one should opt for ad mediation?
Your mobile ad mediation partner will consolidate all fragmented ad demand into a single platform, thus optimizing your demand streams & serving app developers with highest-paying ads. It helps developers and ads publishers to stay in control of their ad monetization strategy by executing big deals with their mediated ad partner while those who publish ads get a private marketplace where they can choose which advertisers can bid on their inventory. So, get ready to take advantage of mediation, increase fill rate and CPMs, and double your mobile revenue.

Native Ads for Mobile and App Revenue: The Connection

Since the beginning of the boom in mobile usage, app publishers and marketers have been looking for unique mobile ad formats that can generate reliable clicks and attract potential users.

Undoubtedly mobile advertising is a great app monetization strategy but you need to place your bet on the most effective ad format that gives higher ROI. Native advertising for mobile apps is now gaining traction & has become a new industry standard, rather than just being a buzzword.

Understanding Native Ad Format
“Native” mobile ad formats fit into an app without any disruption in the user experience. This type of ads 'natively' fits into the non-advertising content within the app. Since app stores have different search algorithm than general search engines, so it is important that app store optimization rules are considered while app advertising via native ad format.
According to a recent report by Facebook, native in-stream ads will drive 63.2 percent of all mobile display advertising by 2020. Thus, native ad format will be a significant growth driver of mobile advertising.

Advantages of Native Advertisement for Mobile Apps
Publishers and those in the business of app advertising often wonder what difference would native advertising make in their revenue pool. Well, then first thing one should understand about native ads is that such ads have a much higher response rate from viewers than conventional ones.
Advertising apps through native placement prove to be beneficial for both app publishers and marketers but in a different way.

Benefits of Native Ads for Publishers

• Higher eCPMs means higher revenue

• Better user experience means greater engagement

Benefits of Native Ads for Advertisers

• Higher brand awareness with better engagement

• Better response from viewers in terms of clicks

Mobile app advertising using native ad format results in faster digital form of word of mouth. Advertising apps through native ad placement method will result in higher clicks and conversions, thereby increasing your app monetization returns.

Programmatic – The “Gluten” of Mobile Advertising Industry

If you’re an app developer or marketer, you must have come across the word – Programmatic. This is hottest buzzword in the mobile advertising industry and gained a lot of traction in recent years. Programmatic simply means automatic.
In programmatic advertising, one can target specific audiences with mobile ads at the specific moment in a real-time bidding setting.
This mobile app advertising tactic is not only influential but it also eliminates complex ad-related tasks. A recent survey has revealed that more than two-thirds of digital display advertising will be purchased through programmatic advertising. Surely, this marketing platform has greater potential for mobile advertisers. How? Read on to find out how.

No More Ad Inventory Inefficiency & Wastage!
Programmatic Advertising can help mobile advertisers expand their campaign. Advertisers utilize demand-side platform (DSP), which is a system that allows buyers of advertising inventory to manage ad exchanges in an automated fashion, to identify the best users for their specific campaign. Ad inventories are then purchased one at a time through auction.
The DSPs are connected to Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) and Ad Exchanges and this network can help advertisers to buy low cost mobile ad inventory that has large number of impressions. They can also buy impressions based on the specific information of the person who will click through the advertisement.
The automated process of programmatic advertising ultimately prove beneficial to mobile advertisers as they can identify the audience best suited for the ad campaign, reduce inefficiency and waste of ad inventory.

Tips to maximize your programmatic advertising campaign:

• Programmatic mobile ads placement should be done both through traditional mobile advertising channels as well as on tablets, TV and display.
• Programmatic advertising is not a long-term contract, evaluate your campaign and make adjustments accordingly.
•  Monitor and purchase only the most viewable ad placements from suppliers.
• Design innovative mobile ads depending on advertising channels.

Programmatic advertising is not just efficient but it’s also incredibly effective. The final outcome, i.e. ROI still depends on the abilities of mobile advertiser, mobile ads created & displayed and strategies applied. Get ready! Reach your goal with programmatic!

Interesting Facts about Your Mobile App User Lifetime Value (LTV)

There are millions of mobile apps available to download in app stores. Some accomplish huge success while others experience a great setback. Today, success and failure of mobile app depends greatly on mobile marketing campaigns. The mobile marketing arena revolves around the lifetime value (LTV) of mobile app users. LTV is the most meaningful metric for determining the profitability of your mobile app. Lifetime Value is the projected revenue generated by a user during their lifetime from the time of app installation to the time it is no longer used. LTV marketing metric helps app developers and marketers to better plan their marketing budgets by focusing on users who will provide better ROI than customers with low-value LTV. There are some interesting facts about LTV that developers and app marketers must know in order to divert the future of their app towards the path of success:

Fact #1: Monetization, Retention and Virality are the three drivers of LTV

Ad-based monetization strategy will boost your revenue. In-app messaging can increase user retention by 3 times and also results in 25% more app launches.

Fact #2: LTV is not just part of marketing campaign but also of design phase

App developers often consider LTV as part of mobile marketing strategy after developing and launching their app. However, LTV should be considered right from the time when mobile game app idea and design are finalized for long term success.

Fact #3: Successful game apps make most of the LTV after 30 days of installation

First 30 days of app installation generally contribute 25-50% of total LTV value. The yield is usually twice from 31 days to 180 days as compared to first 30 days. Give creative reasons to app users to use your app for long.

The Last Word!

Once you understand how important LTV is for your app’s long-term success, you can easily customize your mobile marketing strategy and partner with the best mobile ad networks and get better results. 

Mobile Game App Monetization: The Winning Formula

The growing popularity of mobile game apps among smartphone users cannot be denied anymore. Thanks to the creative minds of app developers! Some app developers rake in millions (and without much exaggeration in billions) because they know how to monetize from their mobile apps. Often app developers think that money will flow into their business once they come up with a novel app idea, create a compelling game app and get it accepted in the gaming space. However, the actual work starts right after this! In order to make money via your app, you have to think about winning monetization formula.

What’s that winning monetization formula?

You regularly update your app and offer novelty to users. You have included real money gaming wherever possible. You also offer freemium levels to users. But all these things cannot just ensure higher revenue streams. You need to think differently with gaming monetization. In-game advertising is the answer to your problem! In-game advertising and affiliate marketing are becoming the new monetization norm in the mobile gaming industry.

• Presently, rewarded video ads are the hottest revenue generator for mobile game app developers. Rewarded video ads provide the highest revenue per user in comparison to native and display ads. This in-game mobile advertising method helps developers to integrate ads into their app and incentivize the users with in-app rewards such as coins or currency.

• Mobile affiliate marketing is a new revenue stream for mobile app developers. Register with the best mobile affiliate ad network that offers affiliates and advertisers a mix of commission models based on CPA, CPM, sale, form submission and much more.

Rewarded video ads and mobile affiliate marketing by partnering with mobile affiliate network are surefire ways to engage & retain users as well as monetize your game app. Finally, ensure that your mobile game app is always in the limelight. Promote your app through cross-marketing and on social platforms. In this way, you can conveniently boost your mobile gaming revenue.

Why Retargeting should be part of Your Mobile App Marketing Strategy?

It may sound surprising for mobile app developers & marketers, but an average mobile app loses 80% of its users within a month of installation! After creating and launching a mobile app, the most obvious step marketers follow is to increase the number of downloads and user base. However, this is not the end of your mobile app journey. Mobile app advertisers and marketers need to devise strategies to retain users who have installed your mobile app and engage them in a strategic way. Mobile app retargeting is the solution to re-engage those users who have either lost interest in the app or are spending more time on other mobile apps. 

Understanding the Retargeting Basics

Mobile retargeting (or remarketing) is a form of mobile app advertising that lets marketers to reach their users with specific messages while they are using other mobile apps/websites. Today, app marketers are turning to mobile advertising companies to help them develop strong retargeting strategies in order to drive greater user retention and better ROI. Instead of spending huge chunks of advertising dollars, advertisers need to spend only fraction of the budget to re-activate lapsed users and increase users’ lifetime value.

How retargeting works?

It all starts with preparing list of app users based on different cohorts such as search queries, app purchases and most functions used. This list is them provided to the best mobile CPM and advertising networks. Your chosen mobile advertising company will prepare retargeting mobile ad based on different user cohorts so that each user can be targeted specifically based on what interests them more about your mobile app. This results in reactivation of lapsed users and better conversion rates.

Remember creativity matters in retargeting

Only hire best mobile advertising company and CPM networks that can deliver creative media ads for recreating better app experience for your app users outside the mobile app itself. Better mobile app ad means better re-engagement and higher retention.