Doing so profitably starts with performance marketing, which allows advertisers to reach their audiences at scale — and pay for results rather than impressions. 

Marketers can use the strategy across apps of all verticals and categories to stimulate specific down-funnel actions. And performance marketing is achievable across channels — including connected TV (CTV)

CTV is now in more than 90% of US households, creating a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to engage with new audiences. This is especially true for non-gaming apps, which can leverage the mobile gaming apps’ technology, strategies, and tactics to acquire high-value users on CTV and beyond. 

Let’s explore the unique challenges that non-gaming apps face in scaling their UA, how mobile apps across the board can efficiently optimize toward specific business goals, and what the dawn of precision performance marketing on CTV means for profitable mobile audience growth. 

Unique Challenges for Non-gaming Apps 

Revenue from non-gaming apps recently surpassed that of gaming apps in the US, signaling a shift in consumer behavior and an opportunity for further growth. The non-gaming category is diverse, from food delivery and finance to health and wellness. But most brands share the challenge of stimulating down-funnel actions, such as purchases, orders, or subscriptions. 

While gaming apps often rely on in-app advertising or in-app purchases as their primary source of monetization, as gamers spend minutes or even hours at a time in the app, non-gaming apps often need users to take a particular action in a limited amount of time in the app to generate value. 

For example, a food delivery app doesn’t just need people to download their app, even though that could technically qualify as UA. Instead, they need people to download the app and place their first order. Acquiring high-value new users, or those likely to make that first-time order and further purchases, requires first identifying those consumers and then reaching those audiences at scale. 

There’s a ton of data to consider, but apps don’t have to go it alone. Performance-driven data partnerships can help brands connect with high-intending audiences, measure success, and continually optimize campaigns to maximize ROI and drive incremental growth. 

Fueling More Targeted, Profitable Growth With Performance Marketing  

In the example of the food delivery app, advertisers can use performance marketing to understand the impact of their advertising beyond installs. With cost per event (CPE) analysis, campaigns can start to optimize toward the specific “event” of the first-time order. 

This performance-based approach enables marketers to understand down-funnel consumer behavior, and anything from completing a level to making a purchase can be optimized as an event. Starting with an app’s business goal, learning periods, and experimentation, marketers can identify an ideal channel mix that yields users most likely to take the specific action.

Machine learning coupled with powerful data analytics can help app advertisers find their ideal audience and continually optimize campaigns in real time to yield more of those specific down-funnel events. This allows apps to scale UA profitably and avoid ad waste on consumers unlikely to generate high lifetime value (LTV).  

Opportunity in CTV for App Marketers  

While CTV is a new and exciting marketing channel, its pricing model has historically been based on impressions, charging brands for eyeballs rather than results. This can seem hard to justify in our current economic reality, especially for apps operating on thinner margins. 

To leverage CTV efficiently, marketers should test its advantages as a performance channel and shift their buying from a CPM to CPI (cost per install) model, making it a natural extension of their UA campaigns. 

Marketers should prioritize collaborating with channel partners that provide a single access point across mobile and CTV for their performance campaigns. This enables transparent omnichannel reporting that delivers deeper insights for more holistic optimization across channels. 

For example, while tapping into performance-based buying on CTV, marketers can still track performance on a CPE basis, optimizing toward channels where users convert on the desired event, such as first-orders for food delivery apps, as mentioned earlier. This ensures sustainable, cost-effective ROI while increasing user LTV.

By only paying for installs, advertisers turn impressions into a powerful value add for additional brand awareness. For example, users who see a CTV ad for a dating app may not be able to install it immediately, but they may do so later, creating a halo effect from the campaign that delivers long-term benefits. 

As viewership reaches new heights and ad spend projected to grow 21% this year, app developers and marketers neve have had a better time to reach incremental new audiences on this channel. 

With CPI pricing, efficient performance marketing for apps — relying on the same measurement infrastructure as mobile — is more than possible on CTV. In fact, CTV may be all but necessary to stand out in the increasingly competitive app marketplace and scale revenue through the acquisition of high-value users.  

The post How Mobile Apps Can Profitably Scale UA with Performance Marketing and CTV appeared first on AdMonsters.

And that is still having a significant impact on the top mobile trends for 2023.

We all know that Apple’s privacy move massively shook up the effectiveness and profitability of targeted advertising across mobile app ad land. And I don’t think nary a publisher has fully recovered since. But if ad ops is anything, it is resilient and resourceful. So now, publishers are baking privacy-first into their monetization strategies and focusing on putting the consumer at the helm.

In a search for what’s ahead for the rest of 2023, I tapped into my mobile mastermind group to gain insight into the top trends. We spoke with Amanda Dean, Head of Programmatic Partners and Strategy, IBM Watson Advertising; Adam Gray, Senior Director, Programmatic Growth, timehop & Nimbus; Ron Duque, Head of Advertising and Ad Tech Operations, WeatherBug; and Marc Santiago, VP, Programmatic Engineering, Nimbus; and Vanessa Eng, VP, Programmatic Revenue Strategy & Operations, Enthusiast Gaming. And guess what, privacy-first and consumer-first were two of the main themes that emerged from our conversations.

Top Mobile Trends 2023

A Return to Tried and True Targeting Strategies

Amanda Dean, Head of Programmatic Partners and Strategy, IBM Watson Advertising

“On the topic of mobile trends in 2023, I see a return to tried and true targeting strategies. Contextual, time of day, engaged users, viewable inventory — all these signals still have value and can tell you a lot about the user and their intent. I see value in other unique signals like Weather targeting to create that “right time” to put a brand’s ad in front of the right consumer.

We will see a shift to utility and value. Consumers are looking for more value from the apps and mobile websites they use, and how technology can actually improve their lives. For us at The Weather Company, we’re working to bring more interesting ways to present the data to consumers, leaning into emerging tech like XR and VR but in an organic way that isn’t gimmicky. In addition to delivering a forecast, we’re helping to explain what it means to them, to give users a deeper understanding of what’s happening and changing outside your door and across the world.”

Adam Gray, Senior Director, Programmatic Growth, timehop & Nimbus

“In the mobile programmatic industry, just as everywhere else, privacy concerns are gaining prominence and driving changes. Both publishers and advertisers are investing in privacy-focused technologies and partnerships that prioritize trust, transparency, and efficiency. This is driving the growth of contextual-based targeting, which has been challenging on the mobile monetization side.

Despite challenges, the mobile programmatic sector is expected to continue its growth trajectory, with an increased focus on privacy and the use of alternative targeting methods to compensate for the effect of policies like ATT on advertising effectiveness.”

Ron Duque, Head of Advertising and Ad Tech Operations, WeatherBug

“Privacy will continue to drive how mobile publishers drive further value and transparency for their customers. As Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are more widely adopted — especially with computation that is performed on-device — they will provide additional layers of protection that mobile publishers should be investing in as part of their ad tech stack.

Leveraging certain signals that are available on the mobile device to build meaningful and actionable audiences in a privacy-first approach, will be critical. One type of technology will not solve all things but a combination of technologies will likely be the best solution for a mobile app publisher.”

Marc Santiago, VP, Programmatic Engineering, Nimbus

“With conversations around SDA, global and individual privacy laws and rights. I do believe that behavioral and generalized cohorting of supply will be paramount in the coming years.

This has to be approached with true transparency as well as respect for the individual. Marketers and agencies will have to adapt spend and targeting ideologies to meet this need. Controllers of supply will be responsible for both protecting those individual rights to privacy as well as providing buyers with confidence in the new data-free landscape.”

Follow the Consumers Lead

Vanessa Eng, VP, Programmatic Revenue Strategy & Operations, Enthusiast Gaming

The post Top Mobile Trends For 2023: Privacy Rules appeared first on AdMonsters.

Last year, advertisers spent over $327 billion targeting users as they engaged with popular mobile apps, but as HUMAN Security announced yesterday, a chunk of that spending went into the pockets of fraudsters who successfully launched a massive ad fraud scheme.

HUMAN discovered the highly sophisticated scheme last summer. Dubbed VASTFLUX (a combination of fast flux, an evasion technique used by cybercriminals, and VAST, which the criminals exploited to perpetrate this crime). 

Massive Ad Fraud Scheme

In this multistep fraud, attackers purchased mobile inventory via programmatic exchanges and then injected malicious JavaScript code. That code allowed the attackers to stack as many as 25 video ads on top of one another, enabling the fraudsters to register multiple ad views. All ads, of course, were completely invisible to the user, which was instrumental in evading detection.

“What was technically impressive and incredibly concerning about VASTFLUX was the fraudsters hijacked impressions on legitimate apps, which makes it nearly impossible for users to tell if they are impacted,” said Gavin Reid, HUMAN’s newly-appointed CISO, in a statement.

HUMAN discovered VASTFLUX as its data scientists were investigating an entirely different threat. VASTFLUX managed to spoof some 1,700 apps, target 120 publishers, and run ads on 11 million devices.  At its peak, the fraud accounted for more than 12 billion fraudulent ad requests per day.

“It is clear the bad actors were well organized and went to great lengths to avoid detection, making sure the attack would run as long as possible—making as much money as possible,” Marion Habiby, a data scientist at Human Security, told Wired.

A Bot Economy

Thanks to their ability to mimic human behavior, bots are a favored and prolific tool of cybercriminals. Tamer Hassan, CEO and Co-Founder of HUMAN Security says bots are used in 77% of all digital attacks. 

“What’s especially important to understand is there is a bot economy that supports sophisticated organized criminal activity, allowing anyone to buy bots. This allows bad actor groups to function like legitimate businesses and fund other criminal schemes.” 

For instance, his company has seen:

• Botnets leased or even franchised similar to the way other SaaS products are marketed and sold. 
• Customer success services complete with customized solutions and 24/7 support via encrypted chat rooms.
• Marketplaces for everyday users – not sophisticated cybercriminals – to purchase bot support to secure coveted items like tickets, sneakers, etc.

As a result of this economy, malicious actors, such as those behind VASTFLUX, can easily develop, deploy and adapt botnets in order to bilk advertisers while evading detection. 

According to Hassan, the ultimate goal is to eliminate the financial incentive for these schemes, and effort that will require cooperation among everyone in the industry.

“We need to change our approach and embrace modern defense as a core framework for effective intra-industry and public-private collaboration. This approach goes after the economics of cybercrime, ultimately making schemes like VASTFLUX unprofitable while collective protection lowers the cost of defense. Winning the economic game is how we win as an industry against cybercriminals.” 

The post HUMAN Discovers and Shuts Down Massive Ad Fraud Scheme appeared first on AdMonsters.

With the advertising ecosystem constantly changing, buyers are always seeking ways to improve ROI, and sellers are always seeking new ways to diversify revenue — interstitial ads are moving up on the list as a solution to both challenges. A recent study conducted by Adnimation found that the average eCPM for interstitial ads was 4,094% more than the average eCPM for traditional banner ads. 

For publishers looking to boost their revenue, new research proves it’s time they shift their perspectives and reconsider any reservations they have. Interstitial ads have high viewability, which breeds high click through rates. The high eCPM rates are also a benefit to publishers. 

The aesthetic of interstitial ads, without a doubt, instantly grabs users’ attention but is that always a good thing? 

Let’s remember that there was a time when lots of publishers turned their back on interstitial ads because users felt they were intrusive. Also, Google isn’t too fond of them, and their new Development Program Policy prohibits developers from placing interstitial ads in front of consumers while gaming. 

Despite all this, with proper placement, frequency capping, and a transparent “X” button, interstitial ads can realize their full potential. Tomer Treves, co-founder and president of Adnimation provides a more in-depth overview of interstitial ads and their ability to drive publisher revenue and advertiser ROI below.

Yakira Young: One of the most notable results from the study was about interstitial ad performance on desktop devices. The eCPM of interstitial ads outperformed banner ads by 5,173%. What makes interstitial ads perform drastically better on desktop when compared to banner ads?

Tomer Treves: Advertisers seek users’ attention, and traditional display banners suffer severely from banner blindness. This means that when they appear next to the content, users know how to focus on the content, and they just physically don’t see the banner. We have heat maps that show that this has been happening for years. 

But it’s worse than that. Without professional monetization, many of the display ads are not viewed at all. An article can have ten banners that are way below the fold, which nobody has ever scrolled down to; therefore, those ads have zero viewability. The advertiser pays for them, but users don’t see them, so the return on investment for the advertiser is zero. Some banner ads have high viewability and give a good return, for example, high-quality in-content banners, but overall, the average return for display banners is relatively low. 

On the other hand, interstitial ads on desktops cover the whole page. Sometimes it even takes a few seconds until there’s an ‘X’ button, so the users give it their full attention on a relatively big screen. This is exactly what advertisers seek, and they’re willing to pay top dollar for it. 

From the publisher’s point of view, it’s an intrusive ad, so there’s a need to balance it by reducing the number of banner ads and implementing a frequency capping so the ads won’t run too often. But you can charge a very high price for them. 

YY: Mobile devices also saw a significant performance gap between banner and interstitial ads. On mobile, interstitial ads outperformed banner ads by 3,241%. Do you project this increase to continue?

TT: Mobile devices also have a viewability issue because they have a small viewport, so the users only see a small portion of the content at any given moment. The users also learned how to scroll very fast past banners. That is why, on average, the return on regular banners is relatively low in contrast to interstitial ads, which attract the user’s full attention, making advertisers willing to pay much more.

So yes, this increase will continue. However, publishers must be cautious to use interstitial ads sparingly because they can come at the expense of user loyalty. If there are too many interstitial ads, users might not return.

YY: From my research, I learned it’s nearly impossible for a user to ignore an interstitial ad. What is it about interstitial advertisements that stand out and instantly grab user attention?

TT: Interstitial ads grab users’ attention because they cover the entire screen space. Sometimes, the ‘X’ button takes time to appear. It’s actually a good idea to change the location of the ‘X’ button occasionally, so users won’t get used to them and click on them too fast.

YY: Some publishers are still on the fence about interstitial ads and whether or not they want to use them. What would you say to those publishers who need clarification on using interstitial ads?

TT: I understand and agree with them. I don’t like ads; no one likes ads. It would be wonderful if we could have sites with no ads at all. But as long as we want to give users the ability to consume content for free while still generating income, we need to give away some of the users’ attention to the advertisers. 

That being said, Adnimation recommends fewer ads for higher prices. We don’t believe in too many banners that clutter the site and cover the content. And when you use only smaller-sized ads that are out of the viewport, you need to put a lot of them to get to the prices you need to cover your costs and make a profit. 

Interstitial ads are aggressive, but you can limit their number with smart frequency capping – per user, per time unit, and according to users’ behavior. Because you are charging an average of 4,000% more for interstitial ads, you can have a smart balance – serve some interstitial ads and fewer standard banner ads. Ultimately, you will have fewer ads, but your ad revenue will still increase. 

YY: Did any advertisers in the study experience any challenges with interstitial ads?

TT: Definitely, yes. After introducing interstitial ads for the first time, some advertisers received complaints from users. It’s not easy for a publisher to receive complaints. And whenever they do, they forward them to Adnimation, and we need to offer them an explanation.  

We explain two things:

1. True, interstitial ads are more aggressive. But when done smartly, the users will eventually see fewer ads, so the content will be much better in terms of user experience.
2. We also remind them to look at the numbers. If a publisher had 10 million pageviews that month, and received three complaints – it’s not easy, and we need to answer these three users from the bottom of our hearts and explain – but it’s three out of 10 million. That’s a good number.  

YY: How can publishers use interstitials as a revenue driver while showing fever traditional banner ads?

TT: Due to the high prices advertisers are willing to pay for interstitial ads, you can reduce the number of regular display banners while generating more revenue. But it’s more complicated than it sounds because you need to have smart frequency capping and smart decision-making in real-time to know when to show interstitial ads, to whom to show interstitial ads, and how to optimize the ads to have such a high eCPM. 

It’s not that every advertiser is willing to pay so much. They need to understand the return they get on that unit, and there is a huge gap between how much they’re willing to pay and how much they’re actually charged. That is why you need sophisticated technology and ongoing management to maximize prices to the level we can get for our publishers. 

It’s not just a small piece of code and ‘wow, I’m making so much money.’ It requires advanced technology and ongoing real-time management like the service and technology that Adnimation offers its publishers. It’s not an easy solution, but it’s a smart solution. 

YY: What do you foresee for interstitial ad placements and their ability to drive revenue in the future?

TT: Nothing is going to stay as it is today. The world of ad tech and ad placement changes constantly, and the pace of change also gets faster and faster every year. I’m almost 100% sure what I know now will not be the same three years from now. 

But in 2023, interstitial ads will play an essential part in a publisher’s ability to make money, and publishers who partner with Adnimation will enjoy this new level of revenue. 

Since most of our partners are with us for a very long time, whatever comes ahead in 2024, we will be there ahead of time to analyze the changes and ensure we have the next best solution ready for the years to come. 

The post New Study Provides Concrete Data on the Success of Interstitial Ads appeared first on AdMonsters.

It begs the question, what do we predict will happen this year? NFT’s took the world by storm. Retail media and ID solutions revolutionized practices around privacy-centric data. How will these practices evolve further in 2023? 

At the beginning of 2022, AdMonsters published our predictions for the year. With the help of industry professionals, we predicted that brands would triple down on first-party data, the changes in Google’s privacy sandbox, and the CTV boom. Will the predictions be spot on this year? Let’s look forward together to see how we predict the new year will pan out. 

Big Tech

The walled gardens have always been a major influence on the ad tech ecosystem. In fact, Google and Meta (the duopoly) captured 85% of ad spend. 

Since they’ve monopolized revenue and inventory, any significant change they implement will affect the ad tech industry. For example, the announcement of Google’s third-party cookie depreciation sent ad tech into a tailspin because Chrome dominates traffic. 

This year, some experts predict a new king is in town. Amazon is gaining ground on Google’s empire and the game of thrones persists. 

Amazon will 1-Up Google. “Amazon is the new (and improved) Google. While the latter holds its death grip firmly on the ad products side of the business, Amazon not so quietly builds up an ever-growing tech stack to cover all marketing needs. Talk at its Unboxed conference celebrated its clean room capabilities. As the leading Retail Media Network, there’s ample cause to celebrate. The question remains whether these moves will put it in the antitrust crosshairs or if they can keep flying under the radar of government scrutiny, unlike their compatriots at Meta, Twitter, and Google.” – Eliza Nevers, Chief Product Officer, Lotame

Economic Shifts Will Rattle Big Tech Into More Rounds of Layoffs. “Industry dynamics are seeing tectonic shifts. The pandemic created unusual dynamics and may have delayed a reckoning, but the digital giants finally got too big and overshot the surrounding market dynamics. As a result, all of the major players, with the possible exception of Amazon, are already doing layoffs – we’ve seen announcements from Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Snap, Microsoft, and even Disney. When it comes time to cut the digital fat, the first cut is rarely enough. We’d expect to see more layoffs next year, some from the same players who have already announced a first pass. In the surrounding recessionary environment, startup and growth capital is scarce and more expensive. Some young companies in the industry won’t be able to secure funding. So we also expect to see numerous close shops or seek a quick sale. How hard and how many? Hopefully, we won’t know next year until we see green shoots. One thing we can predict with relative certainty: Elon Musk will be one of the three remaining Twitter employees by the end of Q1.” – Mike Woosley, COO, Lotame

Meta will Flake on Metaverse Investments. “The handwriting is on the wall for the Metaverse based on Meta’s last earnings report. Facebook “invested” $9B on this metaverse thing – and every drop of that $9B came from its profits. Its VR service has just 200,000 users. As a digital property that puts its traffic somewhere between “Catster” and “The Fluffy Kitty” in the public interest.  Advice to Meta: if you want to expand in VR, be like Microsoft and buy a gaming company for $75B. Meta will drastically curtail its investment by the middle of 2023.” – Mike Woosley, COO, Lotame

Privacy and Identity Solutions 

Privacy was the talk of the town in 2022, and the ad tech industry could barely keep its name out of their mouths. Some predict the conversation around privacy will change in 2023, and others think the discussion will be less prevalent. Here’s what industry experts think: 

Privacy Switches Focus. “Brands and publishers are building on their first-party data capabilities and ID alternatives. Still, these tactics alone will not solve the tightening of privacy regulations and the deprecation of third-party cookies. While personalization does not equal identification, the industry has long conflated the two. 2023 will be the year that marketers shift their strategies from ID-based personalization to creative-based personalization.”  – Alistair Goodman, CEO, Emodo

Shrinking Identity Landscape: Learn to Walk the Cookieless Walk. “Despite urgency doubling around the need for identity solutions, 2023 will bring little to no progress as Google continues to kick the can down the road. As long as cookies exist, marketers will use them. Even those with mandates to target only first-party data won’t realize their identity partners rely on cookies. With zero real use cases to prove those aforementioned in-market cookieless solutions work, the most exciting development in 2023 will be far fewer companies in business. The identity landscape will continue to shrink over coming quarters from more than 100 transactable IDs to a top four or five.” – Eliza Nevers, Chief Product Officer, Lotame

Privacy Will Lose Its Importance. “Privacy, although hugely important, will become less of a focus for marketers this year. We are hearing that it is still a consideration but differs from the focal point it has been in the past. Google continues to punt changes opening up questions about when and if it will begin to deprecate cookies. Additionally, new regulations have shown exactly what limitations are on the horizon, so some uncertainty has been removed around what changes will take place and when.” – Matt Sotebeer, Chief Strategy Officer at Digital Remedy 

Data Fraud and Misinformation 

The industry has created systems to stop the increase of ad fraud, but that does not mean the practice has died down. Bad actors became more creative with sneaking misinformation and scams into ads.  

We saw that in our 2023 Malvertising preview, which noted that every aspect of the supply chain was affected. We also saw it with the increase in political ad fraud during the midterm elections. 

The industry must work together to educate themselves and consumers on how to detect and block ad scams. The more publishers understand the origins of these attacks, the more they can do. This will allow publishers to put better security in place to protect themselves and the consumer.

Mis/disinformation. “Our research finds that 68% of consumers globally are worried that levels of mis/disinformation are growing. This poses a huge threat to brands as 3 in 5 (61%) consumers would be less likely to purchase from a brand that appears alongside mis/disinformation. In the face of economic uncertainty in 2023 and beyond, brands must ensure advertising spend is driving strong ROI. Ads appearing alongside false or misleading content is a form of wastage—with the added risk of creating reputational damage. In the year ahead, we’ll see a greater emphasis placed on solutions that ensure ads appear in brand-safe environments. AI-driven tools that leverage semantic science—such as deep learning, machine learning, and ontology—will provide confidence and clarity to advertisers and publishers looking to defund mis/disinformation and reinforce the authenticity of their brand values.” – Dan Slivjanovski, CMO of media measurement company, DoubleVerify

Mobile

What does the future of mobile advertising hold? The consensus is that mobile advertising brands will expand into new partnerships and develop privacy-centric strategies. 

New privacy changes and tech advances forced app publishers to re-evaluate how they drive their ad ARPDAU. AdMonsters recently hosted a webinar “The Future of Monetization,” that spoke to the future of mobile monetization. One of our panelists, TK  Krishnamurthy asserted that brands should prioritize users’ needs before considering revenue. Creating a great user experience will boost revenue at the end of the day. 

An opportunity for growth. “Global macroeconomic changes reshape how businesses think about growth demands and create opportunities for those who are willing to adopt. As the mobile ecosystem evolves, advertisers will continue to get pushed to experiment with new channels to remain competitive. Mobile-first businesses will go beyond mobile inventory to new forms of audience reach that are novel for mobile performance, such as Connected TV. Measurement is also evolving as it takes a broader set of tools and methods – from media mix modeling to up-to-date platform support – to have a holistic view of channel portfolio performance.”– Andrey Kazakov, VP of Demand, AppLovin

The Integration of Digital Marketplaces into Mobile Games and Apps. “The opportunity and monetization that can be unlocked by integrating digital marketplaces into mobile games and apps are vast. After all, there are already billions being spent annually on digital items across every other gaming platform. As a partner of AppLovin, Lion Studios integrated an NFT in-game event into Match 3D and saw strong engagement and an increase in Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU).This led to a significant increase in in-app purchases and drove a new and meaningful revenue source through royalty fees generated from users trading their assets on the marketplace. Looking at recent years, mobile game developers that invested in new monetization methods early are the ones who gained advantages in the market. For developers looking to unleash their user engagement potential in 2023, the time to invest is now.” – Rafael Vivas, General Manager of New Initiatives, AppLovin

Web3: The Digital Landscape

Many believe Web3 capabilities won’t impact how business is run in the ad tech ecosystem on a major scale but is this truly the case? Industry sentiments are mixed. 

Awareness around Web3 grew immensely in 2022 with the rising popularity of NFTs and metaverse in ad campaigns. For example, TMB and Pet collective launched an NFT campaign that sold out in seconds. Their partnership proved that Web3 capabilities are profitable and a creative way to engage with your audience. The key is creating an experience that connects with your audience’s needs. 

Web3 capabilities are also a potential solution to the new privacy regulations because it promises to give consumers control of their data. In Web3, a small monopoly of owners won’t store consumer data assets. Instead, the consumer will control their own data and decide if they want to sell it or not.  

NFTs Represent the Evolution of Digital Item Ownership. “Digital marketplaces are widely accepted amongst gamers worldwide, and billions of digital items are transacted through them annually already. We believe that NFTs are an evolution of digital ownership. They present a new opportunity for users to re-sell their earned or purchased digital items and drive incremental revenue for developers. Previously, if you wanted to see whether a user truly owned an item, you had to log into that game and interact with that user inside of it. Now, with NFT technology, you can easily identify someone’s digital ownership of assets on a public ledger and easily exchange that ownership. Digital marketplace monetization should be at the forefront of developers’ minds when aiming to keep users engaged with new creative games.” – Rafael Vivas, General Manager of New Initiatives, AppLovin 

Web3 will Continue to Climb, but not Without Hurdles. “The recent FTX collapse has sparked a lot of uncertainty and fear within the crypto/NFT market. However, despite this, we are still seeing a lot of interest from brands to launch Web3 activations. Because the Metaverse’s focus is on community, brands will find different and new ways for consumers to interact with them and each other digitally. One of the Metaverse’s greatest strengths is its ability to build community. The rise of the Metaverse won’t occur without hurdles though. We can expect to see challenges in adoption and use cases. We will need elevated virtual reality technology and much more robust avatar standards and architecture.” – Jack Cameron and Billy Huang, the co-founders of Insomnia Labs

Web3 Breaks New Ground for Brand-Consumer Relationships. “With the recent surge in privacy laws, Web3 could be the answer brands and businesses are looking for in the future. Within Web3, we see NFTs as a brand loyalty program that could identify and curate a closer group of consumers than ever before. Also, DAOs will allow people to have a stake, enticing them to participate actively in the community. Wholistically, Web3 provides technology to build new things and empowers brands to communicate with their consumers more intimately than ever before. Consumers can now connect and interact with the brand more intimately and with other fellow consumers who share the same passions and interests. Web3 will unlock new opportunities for brands to become more “cool” and connect deep, long-lasting relationships with their consumers.” – Jack Cameron and Billy Huang, the co-founders of Insomnia Labs

Further Experimentation in the Ad Tech Space

Revenue diversification is essential in the era of the ad spend slowdown and a possible “ad recession.” 

Consequently, the ecosystem is forced to evolve and experiment with new mediums to help drive revenue and user engagement. Whether that means experimenting with Web3 or augmented reality, creativity is key to standing out in the crowd. 

Creative Ad Monetization. “The gaming industry has always thrived on creativity and experimentation. The current economic downturn is forcing us to double down on this even more. As launching new gaming hits has become more difficult, we are seeing more and more developers take risks and be open to changing their previously winning formula. We currently see and predict that we will continue to witness the game industry developing in its monetization strategies. Whether it’s adopting hybrid monetization, with IAP partners integrating ads and ad-based developers trying to crack IAPs or new ad formats such as app open or native, I expect to see a lot of new and creative monetization strategies emerge in 2023.” – Daniel Tchernahovsky, VP of Global Business Development, AppLovin

Augmented Reality and AI. “Augmented reality is gradually growing out of its infancy and could soon become an indispensable part of a digital marketing strategy. More and more brands have started integrating AR features into their apps and online campaigns. Consumers are trying out AR and experiencing upgraded customer journeys – think of using Google Lens to translate restaurant menus or trying on make-up and glasses virtually. Whoever scores with the most creative and intuitive implementation this new year can set new standards and secure a long-term competitive advantage.” – Florian Hübner, CEO and Founder at Uberall

“Augmented reality is already making its way into online campaigns and setting the first benchmarks in the hybrid customer experience. The beauty chain Douglas, for example, recently launched an AI-powered digital tool for analyzing customers’ skin types and offering tailored product suggestions. Personalized customer experiences like these will continue to evolve rapidly in the coming year and beyond, further changing the standards in digital marketing. Success with customers and the competition will be determined by the actual benefits of these tools and the creativity with which they are implemented.” – Florian Hübner, CEO and Founder at Uberall. 

The post That’s So AdMonsters: 6 Ways We Predict Ad Tech and Digital Media Will Evolve in 2023 appeared first on AdMonsters.

Increased page load time will turn into an increased bounce rate and decreased ad revenue, which is bad news for publishers.

To tackle this issue, Google launched an open-source initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

What Is Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source project launched by Google to ensure that mobile web pages operate at an optimal speed. It aims to improve the web page experience for users by enabling publishers to create faster web pages and ads that are consistently fast and high performing across devices.

Since its launch, over 1.5 billion AMP pages have been created by leading Ad Tech and CMS providers.

The optimal performance of AMP pages is credited to limiting Javascript and HTML/CSS, which results in faster rendering of the pages.

In addition to this, AMP pages are also powered by Google AMP cache which helps with faster load times on Google Search.

How Does Amp Work?

The AMP Framework was designed to make sure that users get an optimized and faster experience on web pages (as opposed to the slow and clunky load times of times past).

Great documentation that makes AMP easy to deploy and a user’s first approach is the framework’s biggest strength. Overall, the AMP framework plays a huge role in providing a path to create faster and more optimized mobile web pages.

Since AMP pages were developed, their load times and speed have continuously improved. It now takes less than half a second for pages to load. This resulted in 10% more traffic to publishers’ pages and also improved time spent on these pages.

Compared with normal pages on the mobile web, AMP pages, load 4X faster than normal pages resulting in 33% more user engagement.

Advantages of AMP

1. AMP pages are open pages and can exist beyond Google

AMP pages are not restricted to Google products at all. Users can visit AMP pages directly just like non-AMP pages, which helps with better accessibility and improves user experience.

2. Publishers can exercise greater control in all aspects of their AMP pages

One of the biggest advantages of AMP pages is that it gives publishers much-needed control over their pages. A publisher can control everything ranging from their monetization strategies to their content presentation while also building a direct connection with their readers.

3. AMP does not affect your ranking as a separate factor

AMP pages are not a ranking factor on Google. AMP pages are given ranking on the same basis as HTML pages — this gives publishers a sense of security when building AMP pages as they will be judged on metrics similar to HTML pages.

4. Increase in web traffic

You can expect better traffic to your site with better SEO. In addition to improving your SEO, AMP will reduce your bounce rate if your content is exceptional. If your content is exceptional, you are more likely to get good session numbers from users.

Disadvantages of AMP

1. Decreased Ad Revenue

Even though AMP officially supports ads, inserting them on your page is not an easy task due to their coding structure. Since AMP pages are designed to be minimal and simplistic, they usually get rid of all the extra things on a page, which might also include meaningful advertising.

2. Less Analytics

AMP pages usually support analytics under various different tags on a page, hence the process of extracting information from those tags separately becomes a hassle and may require additional resources for apt analysis.

3. Decrease in Leads and Subscribers

AMPs are designed for a simple and hassle-free user experience, hence they also remove all extra widgets and side content from the page which might result in the removal of side-placed social buttons, affecting one’s email subscribers and leads too.

Client Side Header bidding in AMP

Since AMPs limit JS tags, it becomes hard for publishers to implement header bidding on their pages.  However, with time, publishers have found a way to implement header bidding through RTC and header bidding wrappers.

In client-side header bidding each client gets access to their cookies for browser and meta information. This further helps in the process of mapping down requests and increasing the bidding prices — eventually increasing RPM and the overall publisher revenue.

However, in client-side header bidding, multiple requests are sent at the same time to participating ad networks and require proper ad implementation as it can impact the performance of a page directly.

Server Side Header Bidding in AMP

In server-side header bidding, only one request is sent to all the ad networks, which leads to a lesser load on the webpage and less effect on its performance while also increasing the number of networks that can bid for the inventory space.

With server-side header bidding, the information shared depends completely on the ad server upon which the bidding is taking place. This can result in lower bids as most of the bidders do not have the capability to match user demands.

Future of AMP

AMP will continue to grow at a rapid rate, with more publishers opting for AMP pages to improve customer experience and provide optimal loading time as well. With the presence of RTC and header bidding wrappers, publishers are now able to increase their ad revenue as well, which really makes AMP pages the way to go in the future.

AMP pages have high viewability scores, which leads to increased eCPMs. However, publishers’ technological shortcomings dilute those benefits. AMP only works on mobile devices if you treat it like premium inventory. In other words, you need to find advertisers who are specifically seeking AMP mobile inventory.

The post What Are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)? appeared first on AdMonsters.

As app developers juggle an ever-increasing list of considerations — such as the user experience, revenue goals, multiple types of demand sources, and more — the importance of reliable and flexible mediation tech is more important than ever.  

 Originally, ad mediation emerged to help publishers optimize their revenue more effectively, but the first generation of mediation often left monetization teams with more questions than answers.

As the tech has advanced and publisher needs have become more complex, let’s revisit mediation: how it works, why it’s important, and what publishers should look for. Let’s dive in. 

How Mediation Works 

At its core, ad mediation seeks to optimize ad revenue. At its best, mediation finds the best result for all sides of the advertising ecosystem: the publisher, the advertiser, and the end user. It does this by assessing in real-time which ad opportunity among a set of demand sources will yield the best result at that moment for that user. This drives higher eCPMs for the publisher, more relevant and enjoyable ads for the user, and better campaign performance for the advertiser. 

Open and unbiased auctions put the publisher in the driver’s seat, providing them with the controls and transparency required to optimize across waterfalls, ad lines, and various demand sources

This optimization is managed by an auction process, which can vary from one mediation platform to another. Among these, open and unbiased auctions put the publisher in the driver’s seat, providing them with the controls and transparency required to optimize across waterfalls, ad lines, and various demand sources.  

Further optimization is achieved when the ad mediation platform provides robust tools with options for creating user cohorts, placement settings, and demand integrations.

These mechanisms empower monetization teams to choose the users who will view different types of ads, when, and from which ad partners. In so doing, apps can optimize average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) while minimizing churn or cannibalization.  

Why Mediation Is Important 

Ad mediation can deliver optimal ad revenue for app publishers while respecting all other publisher KPIs and commitments. Moreover, it can do this while saving monetization teams countless hours each week, allowing them to focus on more meaningful projects. 

Mediation offers a more dynamic approach to optimization for publishers still reliant on ad monetization waterfalls.

Depending on the mediation solution chosen —, this can work across all demand source types, creating a more competitive, and thus more lucrative, revenue ecosystem for the app. As more publishers begin to spin up their ad sales teams, the ability for demand diversity in ad mediation is more important than ever.

When mediation systems are transparent, flexible, and neutral, app publishers can truly maximize ad revenue. 

For publishers concerned about cannibalizing their users — particularly those with the highest lifetime value (LTV) — the user segmentation options within mediation tools can provide a powerful and much-needed degree of control. By dynamically cohorting users based on parameters set at the mediation layer, monetization teams can automatically optimize advertising ARPDAU without exposing high-value users to competitors’ ads. 

App publishers can maximize ad revenue when mediation systems are transparent, flexible, and neutral.

What Publishers Need 

Ad mediation is best when it empowers the app publisher and values the user experience at its core. To this end, publishers must seek several key elements from their mediation tech solution, whether they build it themselves, rely on a third-party managed solution, or leverage a customizable mediation-as-a-service solution (like InMobi’s Meson). 

First, publishers need absolute transparency in the mediation process. No auction dynamics should be obfuscated, and pricing must be upfront and clear. This allows the monetization team to make informed decisions on monetization settings and fairly assess business costs with each partner.

Moreover, without transparency, publishers cannot verify that the mediation tech is working in the publishers best interest. Thus, it’s no surprise that in a recent Advertising Perceptions study, the lack of transparency offered by many mediation companies was a top concern for 22% of publishers. 

Second, publishers need unmitigated control. Every app is unique, and maximizing monetization for many user types requires granular control mechanisms.

Indeed, 76% of publishers report that they would rather pay for greater control over their mediation than rely on a free tool with limited options. In this pursuit, publishers should ensure that their mediation solution allows for user segmentation based on user behavior, context, demographics, and other custom parameters. 

Third, publishers need flexibility. Demand sources and preferences vary by app, and mediation solutions must be able to accommodate them. To this end, publishers should verify that their mediation tech allows them to choose which demand partners and third-party vendors they work with.

While some vendors may have native integrations with the mediation tech, it’s equally important that the publisher create their own adapters and connect any other demand source of their choice. 

What’s Next in Mediation 

To attain the control, flexibility, and transparency needed for ad monetization, many publishers are revisiting their approach to mediation. Indeed, during a recent webinar on the future of monetization, predictions emphasized the importance of ad relevance, publisher control, and building trust with ad tech vendors.    

This aligns with a recent Advertiser Perceptions study of over 100 top mobile publishers, wherein a majority of publishers (55%) expressed concern about the lack of control provided by their current mediation solution, and half (50%) were frustrated by an overall lack of transparency. 

 Given the complexity of building mediation from scratch and the need for transparency and control, we expect to see the rise of mediation-as-a-service solutions like Meson. Indeed, among publishers without their own mediation platform, 73% would prefer to manage their mediation in-house, provided an outside tech company handled the infrastructure.  

No matter how monetization teams  integrate ad meditation into their tech stack, one thing is sure: publishers can make growth happen in 2023 if they allow transparency, flexibility, and control to empower them.

The post What App Publishers Need to Know About Mediation appeared first on AdMonsters.

When you are looking at the future of your monetization goals, there are several things to consider. 

Privacy regulations have shifted how the entire industry runs their businesses, the power dynamic between the consumer and the publisher and advertiser is changing, and tech innovations are making app publishers reevaluate their ARPDAU. That does not mean your monetization goals cannot be met. It means that the practices you have used to achieve those goals in the past need to change. 

The essential component now is the consumer and the user experience. While ad revenue is important to any thriving business, it must not outweigh the needs of your audience. 

“Monetization is important, but it is a secondary metric,” said Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy General Manager (Meson) and VP of Strategic Partnerships, InMobi. “It is something that has to be done, but in a way that helps you retain the user.” 

During our Dec. 7, 2022, Webinar, “The Future of Monetization,” AdMonsters spoke with TK and Adam Sadur, Head of Programmatic, SmartNews. We chatted with them about the top monetization challenges facing mobile apps, how publishers are taking control of their monetization destiny, what to expect in 2023 and more. (Watch the video-on-demand below.)

The post Webinar Replay: The Future of Monetization appeared first on AdMonsters.

The ecosystem is ever-evolving. Shifting user expectations, privacy considerations, and tech innovations (and consolidations) are forcing app publishers to re-evaluate how they drive ad ARPDAU.

In this new mobile economy, publishers should focus on privacy-first strategies and seek out partners who can best help them optimize for both revenue and retention.

In preparation for our upcoming webinar, The Future of Monetization — on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 1 PM EST — with InMobi and SmartNews, we reached out to Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy, General Manager (Meson) and VP of Strategic Partnerships, InMobi, to learn more about the challenges publishers face, how they’re adapting to elevate their ad revenue and the importance of unifying auctions across multiple demand sources.

Lynne d Johnson: With the launch of Apple’s ATT in 2020, the launch of SKAN 4.0 in October, and testing for Google’s Privacy Sandbox expected soon, what’s most important for publishers to consider about user privacy and addressability in 2023?

Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy: Publishers who are deprioritizing cookie dependency and focusing on privacy-first unified identity solutions are the best poised for optimized ad fill and revenue in 2023. We’ve also seen increased interest in seller-defined audiences (SDAs), which necessitate tools that provide publishers with more granular control over user cohorts.

With the release of SKAN 4.0, there is renewed optimism for the future of iOS app growth with greater insights into campaign performance and more powerful optimization and measurement capabilities than previous iterations.

LdJ: Time and again, studies reveal that users prefer free apps over those that require subscriptions. Given the often precarious balance between user retention and monetization, what overarching trends are you seeing across publishers you work with?

TK: Mobile app publishers are seeking more flexibility and control over their monetization settings. This can take shape in multiple ways, such as flexible ad format placements, heavier use of native ads, and more robust user segmentation.

To achieve the monetization flexibility they need to optimize for both revenue and retention, many publishers are seeking ways to augment their existing tech stack — without necessarily developing it all in-house.

LdJ: You have mediation technology that unifies auctions across multiple demand sources. This tech promises to give publishers more control and greater ability to maximize their in-app revenue. How so?

TK: Meson serves as in-house mediation for mobile apps, empowering publishers with reliable and scalable tools to take control of their monetization, without the headache of building it themselves.

For instance, we provide mobile app publishers with complete control over their open auction dynamics, giving them the tools they need to manage demand for each waterfall, between ad lines, and across different types of networks. As the bid dynamics are unbiased and fully transparent — including log-level data for all auctions — publishers can make informed decisions about what’s best for their app and monetization goals.

Additionally, we provide robust tools to help publishers cohort their users so that they can choose the best monetization strategy for their various user segments. They are also able to use this data for user acquisition.

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming webinar — The Future of Monetization  — on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 1 PM EST — with InMobi and SmartNews where you’ll learn how publishers are taking control of their monetization destiny. Register now!

The post The Future of Mobile Monetization: Q&A With InMobi’s Ram “TK” Krishnamurthy appeared first on AdMonsters.

Gaming apps have historically been at the forefront of UA, but non-gaming apps are increasingly generating their own strong results, as evidenced by their increased revenue. In fact, according to Sensor Tower data, over half of App Store spending in the U.S. now comes from non-game apps, and in Q2, iOS users in the U.S. spent more money in non-gaming apps than games for the first time ever. 

Let’s explore how.

The Standard UA Playbook

UA has evolved from a mono-channel, narrowly targeted approach, which enabled app developers to test on a relatively small budget, to a complex operation involving various sources of growth and a meaningful investment to make experiments worthwhile.

Optimizing toward performance goals in the current mobile landscape requires far more capital to spend on a single platform — or a more creative channel allocation strategy and superior automated optimization capabilities. So, mobile apps, especially non-gaming developers, are adopting more diversified platform strategies to acquire high-value users.

Why Gaming Apps Have Led the Way on UA

Gaming apps are known as the bellwethers of mobile marketing. In large part, this is because the economics of UA in gaming are more forgiving due to each user’s high potential lifetime value (LTV). 

For example, gaming apps will more frequently land what those in the industry colloquially refer to as ‘whales’ — users who spend tens of thousands of dollars on in-app purchases to further their enjoyment of a game. Those who spend the same on e-commerce, finance, or food delivery apps are less common.

As a result, gaming apps do not need to be as sensitive as their non-gaming peers to short-term results. They can test longer with the confidence that if their UA strategy generates some success over the course of the longer period of time, the whales will justify their UA spend. This allows gaming developers to test for longer, eventually reach an inflection point in learning and strategy, and then see their acquisition efforts take off.

By contrast, non-gaming apps are more sensitive to performance goals and budgets — specifically in the early stages of a campaign — and keeping the spend strictly within the planned budget. They must follow best practices more closely to build sustainable businesses and hit that inflection point with an increased sense of urgency.

Best Practices for Non-gaming Apps to Acquire High-value Users

Acquiring high-value users begins with an effective channel acquisition strategy. Marketers must understand the channels compatible with their specific app’s audience and goals. Then, they need to determine their budget and how much they need to spend to hit a critical mass of experiments that can drive more efficient performance.

The latter piece of the puzzle is timing and expectation setting. For example, business leaders unfamiliar with the dynamics of UA may want to set acquisition targets for the learning phase of a campaign. But that is often impractical because the business does not yet have a frame of reference for its UA costs and how to make its efforts more efficient. Instead, marketers need to understand industry benchmarks — gaming being the bellwether — for how much they will need to spend to learn before they can start setting and hitting performance KPIs. 

Next up is channel allocation optimization — which is about a combination of performance and volume. Budgets are allocated across channels in a way that will deliver particular payback within the required timeframe. This could be breaking even on a high volume within a year or reaching 115% D90 return on ad spend (ROAS) as it can already start turning a profit after the first 90 days but on a minimal volume. The purpose of the exercise is to factor in individual channel performance at the particular scale and combine it with others to complement each other to reach the general goal. 

It takes technical heft to efficiently find high-value users across an array of platforms. Take Miami-based Picsart, which saw new users and increased its performance with its network partner. In addition to driving installs and increasing conversion rates, Picsart maintained a top-5 position in the highly competitive photo and video category for U.S. iOS. And the app became one of its network’s top-performing in terms of cost per engagement and conversion rates.

In addition to optimizing channels, mobile marketers should also test and improve creatives with the help of analytics. How do different aesthetics and copy work across audiences, verticals, and channels? How can creative be adapted and targeted to eliminate waste and identify the highest-value users? The stand-out networks will approach their clients’ creative strategy in a consultative way to see what works best vertical to vertical. They’ll work with clients directly to get the most out of their UA by guiding the process from concept to final production.

Marketing analytics and measurement should deliver clean, actionable data across all the channels you intend to buy from, specifically cost data, and the ability to map it to revenue and easily create relevant metrics for your UA. These could be D7 retention or D0 ROAS, for example, as long as they are presented in a clear and actionable way. 

Lastly are predictive analytics, which are a great investment because predictive lifetime value (pLTV) models drive the goals and actual buying decisions. So the more accurate the models get, the more efficient UA. 

A pLTV model can be a trivial one based on average values. Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU) is used with retention factored in to determine an average user’s LTV. Or it can be regression analysis based on user-level cohorts that drives a much more accurate result. Still, it will take much more data input to be useful (e.g., purchase verification for subscription apps and user-level ad revenue for ad-supported apps). 

Lastly, all of the above depends on continuous experimentation in creative, UA, and predictive analytics, by a team with a diverse set of skills and an analytics stack you can trust. Gaming or not, successful mobile growth teams are multidisciplinary. They include designers for creative works, data scientists for predictive analytics, and UA professionals to execute on ad channels from an operational and business perspective, as the underlying goal of the organization itself is to deliver customer growth at a certain performance and volume. 

An effective UA strategy combines a winning combination of channel allocation and optimization, creative testing, actionable data, and predictive analytics driven by pLTV. By mastering these best practices, apps from any vertical can acquire high-value users that drive long-term, sustainable growth. 

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