Commentary

Smart Phone, Smarter Monetization

People spend an average of three hours a day on smartphones or tablets, with 85% of that time spent in an application. As a result, publishers must adopt the smartest techniques to achieve maximum monetization, both in the immediate term as well as in a way that is sustainable over the long term.

And, because it’s where consumers are, in-app is also where advertisers want to be. Mobile in-app ad spending is projected to outpace mobile web browser ad dollars by nearly three-to-one, per eMarketer, reaching $16.9 billion by 2018, an increase of $13.4 billion since 2013, according to Juniper Research.

A key advantage to in-app advertising is that it provides new opportunities for engagement, due to its ability to leverage real-time location data. This opens up countless opportunities for highly targeted, hyper-relevant “right place at the right time” marketing messages that convert.

For publishers looking to maximize yield in-app in the immediate, there’s one action that can produce these benefits: adding more demand partners.

In light of recent industry consolidation -- AOL’s acquisition of Millennial Media for $238 million in September of 2015 or Sizmek’s $11.7 million acquisition of mobile DSP StrikeAd – this is especially important.

It’s simple math – diversify demand by adding more partners and revenue increases. 

Additionally, by diversifying demand partners, publishers can offer a more balanced user experience while creating CPM competition, and ultimately that increase in revenue. Partnering with programmatic marketplaces that can provide differentiated demand partners accomplishes two key objectives: a better user experience as well as price competition. 

Diversifying demand partners is effective as a short-term solution, but publishers must also implement a longer-term strategy in order to sustain optimal in-app monetization. Header bidding, the solution du jour to maximize monetization on desktop and mobile web, must be adapted successfully for in-app.

Publishers can encourage mobile ad-serving partners to develop and refine header-bidding capabilities for SDKs in order to address the same issues of fragmented demand that plagued mobile web and desktop publishers.

Mobile apps, unlike the mobile web or desktop, bring in demand via SDKs, server-to-server integrations and APIs.

Mobile ad servers currently use bid price estimates from RTB demand sources to determine which ads are served, a process that was used for mobile web and desktop before the advent of header bidding. When publishers rely solely on these estimates, they can potentially leave revenue on the table. This problem is exacerbated in-app because demand distribution is much wider as compared to mobile web or desktop.

The issue of optimizing a waterfall setup is particularly challenging in the SDK environment. Making updates to the ad stack also requires users to update the app, and as a result, developers tend not to make frequent changes.

This is where header bidding in-app becomes helpful. Publishers do not have to rely on the waterfall structure, which may not be delivering maximum yield. Instead, they can open up more demand without compromising user experience.

As users increasingly spend time in-app, app developers and publishers must look for more efficient ways to maximize yield. Header bidding allows publishers to access all sources of demand, with full transparency into the value of each impression.

The advertiser with the true highest bid wins the impression, and publishers and app developers no longer miss out on revenue. Mobile apps have proven to be effective in reaching consumers with timely, relevant messages that actually convert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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