Apptica Talks. Episode #5. In-App Advertising: numbers, insights and recommendations with Elmira Kenya from Easy Monetization

In this episode Apptica Talks about In-App Advertising: numbers, insights and recommendations with Elmira Kenya from Easy Monetization.

Easy Monetization fine-tunes ad monetization for app publishers to boost revenue from impressions.

What we have talked about:

• Current state of IAA
• Different IAA formats and their match with app genre.
• Correlation between IAA and user’s engagement
• The networks with the biggest traffic
• Challenges to keep in mind while integrating several networks
• The importance of app-ads.txt
• The most frequent mistakes among publishers
• Trends to keep an eye on in the upcoming future

Key takeaways:

1.Different app types have varying best-performing ad formats. For example: Interstitial ads or banners fit runners, hypercasual games, utilities.

Now  more than 50% of the remuneration paid to partners in the Yandex Advertising Network falls on this format.

Rewarded ads are suitable for strategy, shooters, and multiplayer games. These ads work well for both users and app owners. Usually, rewarded videos show the highest CPM rates.

Banners and native ads embedded in the feed are suitable for news apps. Banners are less intrusive, especially for free apps. It can be an excellent ad format for apps with shorter user sessions.

2. More ad revenue at Yandex ad network the partners get from:

• Interstitial— 41%
• Native — 40%
• Banners 13%
• Rewarded Video — 5%
• In-stream video — 1%

3. Several strategies can help avoid adverse user reactions towards ads: provide a skip option, offer a paid, ad-free version of your app, conduct tests with different ad formats and types to determine which ad types perform best with your user base, gather feedback: allow users to express their preferences regarding ads and take their opinions into account when building and optimizing your monetization strategy.

4. The more networks you connect, the higher the competition in ad impressions, which means more demand and more income for you.

You should be looking at:

• Geography. Not all networks work equally well in every country. For a variety of reasons, some ad networks are better suited to specific regions than others. Make a list of the countries your audience comes from and select networks that perform better there.
• Formats. Keep in mind that ad networks sometimes differentiate between ad formats. Some don't even support certain ones.
• Advertiser database. Find out where ad networks source their advertisers from and who the advertisers are. Do they advertise reputable brands or mislead users?
• CPM. All ad networks do participate in the auction. But if you want to prioritize a network and add it right away, you’d better have a good idea how much it can earn for you.

5. There are a few great ways to get the data and choose the network.

First, there’s the Appodeal performance index. It tells you which ad networks are the most profitable. The data is organized by format and operating system (iOS, Android).
Second, Google released their SDK Index last year. It doesn't include any data on ad revenue, though it does give a general overview of the ad SDKs available. You can use it as a starting point before diving deeper to learn more about the networks.

6.  The networks with the biggest traffic now:

• Eastern Europe:

Applovin - 30%

Admob, Unity Ads - 15%

Vungle, Yandex- 10%

• Asia

Applovin - 42%

Admob- 25%

BidMachine - 15%

Unity Ads - 10%

Vungle - 4%

IronSource - 2%

Notsy - 1%

• Middle East: Applovin, Admob, Unity Ads, Bid Machine, IronSource, AdColony, Vungle, Yandex

7.  The most frequent mistakes publishers make when they start ad monetization:

• Being agnostic about SDK updates (developers fix any bugs, new features)
• Using a single advertising SDK
• Caching too many ads  (keep track of your show rate, if it drops below 20%, you need to rework your ad caching algorithm, the higher your show rate, the better)
• Blocking too many ad categories  (blocking any category decreases CPM for your ads, you need to strike a balance between ad profit loss and removing ad categories that are appropriate for your product)

8. The trends to keep an eye on in 2023/2024.

Mobile alternative stores is a growth drivers for app developers.

Current Android trends:

• CPI for Android grows YoY: Match, simulation, puzzle games,
• There are Android devices without Google Play (Huawei, for example)
• App developers want to monetize apps on other platforms
• High competition within Google Play store (92% of apps cannot get more than 10k+ downloads)

Vendors are developing their own app stores – Samsung Galaxy Store, Oppo App Market, AppGallery, GetApps, Xiaomi GetApps Store, Amazon store.

Xiaomi Get Apps Store:  >200 billion downloads worldwide, >100 million active MIUI users

Huawei App Gallery Store: 180 billion cumulative application downloads, 580 million monthly active users (+(+10%)  and  360,000 publishing partners.

Amazon Store: 70 million MAU 360 thousand publishing partners, 172,000 publishing partners.

9. Importance of app-ads.txt

In app-ads.txt, app owners indicate a list of advertising networks and their partners that can sell placements in the app. Developers publish app-ads.txt independently.

The ads.txt protocol is one of the online advertising industry standards developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Ads stands for authorized digital sellers.

Some DSP networks use app-ads.txt to check which advertising networks are authorized: such advertising networks can display ads in the app and do not purchase ad impressions if there is no app-ads.txt.

In addition, app-ads.txt is one of the ways to confirm access to the app. The Yandex Advertising Network uses app-ads.txt to check that ad units in the app are configured by users who actually have access to it.

To get in touch with Elmira:
kenyaelmira@yandex-team.com
LinkedIn

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