ADMIXER GUIDE TO IN-APP ADVERTISING

Admixer LLC. Since 2008

reach, engage, and measure your audience on mobile apps

Executive summary

Welcome to the App Age

The Advanced Advertising Capabilities of In-App

Best Solutions for In-App Advertisers

Mobile is the leading growth driver of global internet usage, with 78% of users accessing the web via mobile devices.

But today’s digital world isn’t just mobile-first — it’s app-first. Apps dominate the mobile landscape, accounting for 89% of consumers’ smartphone time. This figure is only expected to grow as app usage continues to increase at a faster rate than of the mobile web.

In this guide, we're presenting recent statistics on global mobile and in-app usage, ad trends, and the ways how brands can reach their ultimate marketing and business goals leveraging best-in-class in-app inventory available via Admixer.DSP.

Placement: With in-app ads advertiser gets end-to-end infrastructure, providing their users with ad messages maximum relevant to their experience and context

Performance: Advertisers and brands also get the opportunity to track their ad campaigns more precisely, filter out fraudulent traffic, leverage advanced targeting, and eliminate any ad blocking

Brands often underestimate in-app ads, thinking that to give a go with it they have to get own application first, which is not obligatory at all. Nearly any brand can serve their ads in applications that already exist

Whatever your business goals — awareness, leads, app installs or engagement, Admixer helps you reach your objectives with mobile app ads.

After answering the question of why advertisers should invest in in-app advertising, it’s time to turn to where specifically it’s best to invest in-app advertising budgets.

For instance, if you need to reach social users - leverage Viber inventory. If you focus on maximizing user engagement, you may want to try in-app video ads, and so forth.

Top in-app formats we'll lead you through in this guide:

• In-app video ads >>• Banner ads >>• Native ads >>• In-game ads >>• Ad formats in messengers >>

EVOLVING FROM MOBILE TO IN-APP

WELCOME TO THE IN-APP AGE

We now rely on apps for everything, from navigating traffic on the way to making notes what to pick up from the grocery store on the way home.

Consumers’ time spent with their mobile devices continues to grow each year as apps accumulate the minutes that were previously spent with other media.

In fact, mobile is now the only media format with growing usage, while consumers are spending a decreasing amount of time with all other formats, including desktop and television.

source: eMarketer

More Mobile, Less Everything Else

INSIGHTS ON WHO'S USING APPS AND HOW

Apps play an important role inconsumers’ lives Ipsos research reaffirms the large opportunity for brands to reachcustomers through apps.

On average, consumers have a total of 80 apps on their phone, and they are using an average of 40 of these apps per month.AppAnnie, January 2018

IN-APP TIME SPENT & TOP APP CATEGORIES Apps are the growth driver of not only the

mobile world, but the entire digital world:

78% of internet users access the web via mobile devices and apps account for upwards of 89% of consumers’ mobile time in many mobile markets worldwide eMarketer, comScore

Top App Categoriesfor reaching engaged audiences Social, News, and Gaming are three of the top app categories in terms of user penetration. This means that they attract a diverse base of engaged users that can be filtered by additional in-app targeting data such as gender, age, and location to create a highly-effective in-app advertising campaign. source: comScore

* Top news apps: Google News, Apple News, Feedly, News360

*

GAMING APPS Gaming apps present an especially attractive advertising

opportunity — the mobile gaming audience is not only diverse and broad, but it is rapidly increasing year-over-year.

Take advantage of the untapped value of mobile gamers by investing in the ad formats that these players love most

DID YOU KNOW?

Games are not just for kids!

Users of all ages turn to gaming apps to relax or challenge their friends.

Gaming apps tend to get a bad rap, but in reality they represent a very efficient and effective opportunity for advertisers to reach diverse audiences.

Nearly 50% of US Adults Play Mobile Games

Gaming Apps: Costs & Engagement Rates

source: eMarketer

36%38%

40%42% 43%

MOBILE AD SPENDING The audience of mobile devices users is snowballing. Guess what else is growing? That’s right, mobile ad spend - and revenues.

AD BUDGETS ARE INCREASING … AND SO ARE REVENUES

Mobile ad budgets are increasing. The increases are expected to be largest when it comes to direct programmatic.

30% of advertisers and brands expect programmatic direct in-app budgets to increase by more than 6% over 2019.

Top apps. Excluding social media, marketers are most often including health/lifestyle, news, music, and gaming apps in their programmatic in-app buys.

12% - this much revenues will increase by the end of 2019 based on eMarketer estimation.

By the end of 2020 gaming apps will generate $94 billion

SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS CONFIRM THAT79% of Facebook ad revenue & 86% of Twitter's ad revenue come from mobile

TRENDING

In-app video ad is another rising trend, especially short-form (any video shorter than 5 minutes). Some of the most popular short-form video apps globally include Snapchat, Instagram and Music.ly.

ADVANCEDADVERTISINGCAPABILITIES

MOBILE WEB VS. MOBILE IN-APP

Mobile devices, unlike desktop computers, are typically owned and used by one person, which means the apps we use are closely connected to our personal lives and daily habits.

This makes mobile apps the ideal place for advertisers to create effective advertising touchpoints.

KEY INSIGHTS HERE:Device: type, price of owned device as well as if the user owns the latest device model or not - all these parameters help to understand more of user data, specifically predict income level and lifestyle.

In-app purchases / paid subscriptions: In-app payment data provides advertisers with insights about user's openness to in-app purchases, readiness to install fee-based apps, and go shopping online.

GPS location: precise geo provides opportunity to create geo-related ads tightly connected with users' context or even - moments, i.e., brands can serve very precisely targeted ads, knowing that user is in the particular shopping mall right now.

Cookies User Identifier Advertising ID

Browser & cross-device data: shopping, favourite websites,

cross-device paths.

Parameters:• OS

• Gender• Age

• Basic device info: type

Available User Data

App tracks in-app behavior: paid subscriptions, in-app purchases, etc.

Parameters:• OS• Gender• Age• Advanced device info: type, brand, model, price etc.• In-app purchases / paid subscriptions• GPS location• Wireless carrier

Vulnerable in-browser ad blockers

Ad Blocking

Customizable according to users preferences

33 min Average Daily Usage

3h 8 min

MO

BIL

E W

EBSI

TES M

OB

ILE APPS

sources: Smaato, Admixer

IN-APP TRACKING & PRECISE TARGETING

DID YOU KNOW?Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) first released September 2017 has blocked 3rd-party ad server ad cookies within the Safari browser. Thus ad servers could no longer read what cookies are on the user’s browser. Plus, Apple did allow the dropping of 1st-party cookies (aka, a site could drop a cookie if the user visited their domain). This cookie would persist for 30-days and would be readable only by the same site.

The 2019 ITP 2.2 update now restricts this to 7 days. No cookie, therefore, ever persists on a user’s Safari browser more than a week (unless the person revisits the website).

Mobile Device IDs● Tied to users● Last for an average of 21 months● Users opt in to each app’s policies

when they download the app

Mobile Web Cookies● Tied to browsers● Decay within 24 hours● Not opt-in

COMPARED TO

WITH IN-APP ADS ADVERTISERS CAN TARGET BY

Since apps are able to collect first-party data on an opt-in basis, they are also able to pass valuable targeting parameters such as IP address, interests, etc., which allow advertisers to precisely reach their ideal audience. Within the in-app environment, advertisers can also harness geo-location data to ensure that they are reaching users at the right time and in the right place.

Geo Interests Creative*

Devices Platforms

and so much more...

ADS

* ad creative type with the highest Conversion Rate

BLOCKING AD BLOCKERS Back in the early days of the internet, ads were often intrusive and garnered a bad reputation for disturbing the online user experience. Demand for ad blocking technology grew in response and now continues to be an obstacle for advertisers and publishers alike.

More than a quarter of internet users in the US had ad blocking software on at least one of their devices in 2017.

Of these ad blocking users, 87.3% were blocking ads on desktop/ laptop, while only 34.5% were blocking ads on mobile.4

However, even mobile ad blocking software cannot fully block in-app ads, which makes the in-app environment even more attractive to advertisers.

DID YOU KNOW?

In cooperation with the Coalition for Better Ads, Google has updated Chrome to block ads that fail to comply with the initiative.

Chrome now blocks full-page interstitial ads, flashing ads, or loud auto-play ads, among others.

27,5%of internet users block ads

87,3%of ad blockers users

block ads on desktop/laptop

34,5% block ads on mobile

ALONGSIDE WITH BEST-IN-CLASS VIEWABILITY, ADVERTISERS ALSO GET:

• Better conversion• User retention and loyalty• Brand awareness• High purchase rate• More time spent with ads

HIGH VIEWABILITY

Advertising can only be effective when it is viewed by real people. In the mobile world, an ad can only be considered viewable if the ad content is within the viewable area of the app or mobile website for a minimum period of time.

In-app Viewability vs. Mobile Viewability

CHECKLIST BEFOREYOU START

YOUR IN-APP ADS CHECKLIST

With ever-increasing usage and superior technical capabilities, it’s clear why advertisers should invest in in-app — now it’s time to look at how to best invest advertising budgets in-app.

LEVERAGING IN-APP ADS IN 3 STEPS:

#1. WhereWhere your ads come from: verticals and app categories

#2. WhatChoose ad formats which fit your goals

#3. How Identify your goals and KPIs how you'll measure the outcome

#1. WHERE YOUR ADS COME FROM A trustworthy supply chain is vital for fostering an efficient and fraud-free advertising marketplace.

For advertisers important to maintain control over their creatives as they move through the programmatic supply chain and are ultimately served on a user’s mobile device.

The best starting point is to understand where purchased ads are coming from and who is authorized to sell this inventory.

Choose supply partners wisely — many premium publishers only work with a small selection of supply-side platforms (SSPs), and working with SSPs that have direct relationships to high-quality inventory is the best way for advertisers to maintain control over their ads and get the best return on investment.

#2. WHAT AD INVENTORY TO PICK?

The in-app environment allows for ad spaces to be seamlessly integrated, turning ads into a relevant idea, offer, or suggestion that enhances, rather than distracts from, the user experience. When choosing an ad format for an in-app campaign, consider how users experience advertising in the app age.

BE SURE:

whatever your business goals are, awareness, user acquisition, engagement, revenue generation — Admixer helps you reach your objectives with mobile app ads ensuring:

• precise targeting• high-impact creative• brand safe inventory• integrated measurement

YOUR GOAL

Brand awareness

User acquisition

Engagement and retention

Revenue generation

#3. HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS

Depending on business goal you're focusing on - whether it's increasing brand visibility, struggling for new active users (UA) or engagement, revenue generation - there's an optimization strategy behind picking right ad inventory and placing your ads wisely.

Once you've set all up, the next essential step is to measure your outcomes properly.

There are various sets of metrics for in-app advertising. Here are several important parameters to keep an eye on.

YOUR GOAL METRICS

Brand awareness CTR, Volume - Reach

User acquisition CR, CPA, CPU

Engagement and retention

DAU, MAU, Retention Rate

Revenue generation ROI, LTV, ARPU

PICK AD INVENTORYBASED ON YOUR MARKETING GOALS

IN-APP VIDEO ADS Video has become one of the most effective advertising formats for connecting with mobile consumers.

Mobile video ads yield higher user engagement and greater brand recall than any mobile display ad format. And since mobile video demand is still growing and eCPMs have not yet matured, in-app video is also one of the most cost-effective sources of video inventory

InMobi, 2017YuMe, April 2017

HOW IN-APP VIDEO ADS CAN HELP YOU?

Accurate placement of in-app video ads can boost the high engagement of the audience. Specifically, placing it at a natural break in the users’ app journey is a good practice.

In-app video ads are the best way to engage your audience and ensure your brand’s presence at the point of purchase. Mobile video ads fit nearly any purpose – from promoting product or service to telling a brand story.

Leverage interstitial and rewarded video ads to:• enhance in-app purchases • reach out better loyalty

TRUSTED AD INVENTORY PROVIDERS:• INMOBI• FYBER• OPERA

IN-APP BANNER ADS Some interesting findings on mobile banner advertising by InMobi:

• on Android, the highest banner ads conversion relates to lifestyle content (2.02%);

• on iOS, banner ads works best for classified content (2.7%).

HOW BANNER ADS CAN HELP YOU?

In-app ad banners design requires a careful balance between eye-catching and bringing too distracting experience. Best mobile banner ads should highlight key features or provide an offer with a clear and compelling call to action without too much text though.

Leverage standard and interstitial in-app banner ads to:• increase your brand visibility• user acquisition

TRUSTED AD INVENTORY PROVIDERS:• INMOBI • NIMSES• VIBER• FYBER• OPERA

IN-APP NATIVE ADS

HOW NATIVE ADS CAN HELP YOU?

Native advertising presents a unique opportunity to share your brand story. The combination of visual, headline, and description allows advertisers to state their message clearly and convincingly, and give extra information on the benefits, values, and story behind the product or service.

Leverage standard and interstitial in-app banner ads to:• increase your brand visibility• user acquisition

Non-intrusive ads that blend into the look and feel of the underlying app.

This ad format helps reach new audiences on premium mobile publishers who offer capabilities for native ad placement and experience.

With this type, ads will appear contextually appropriate. This seamless placement makes native advertising highly effective resulting in impressive CTR.

TRUSTED AD INVENTORY PROVIDERS:• INMOBI • VIBER

IN-GAME ADS

IN-GAME ADS

HOW IN-GAME ADS CAN HELP YOU?

Try in-game ads for promoting special offers, new arrivals, upcoming events, and more.

Game ads work for a wide range of verticals: sports, beauty, ecommerce, beverages, even real estate companies, and so much more brands can leverage game ads. The main point here is relevance to the audience, context of the game, and right ad placement.

Leverage in-game ads to:• brand awareness• revenue generation

Since gaming apps are among the most popular apps in terms of audience amount and time spent, these formats are worth mentioning separately from general in-app ads.

Along with regular game ads, like rewarded video, offerwall, and interstitial ads, there are absolutely authentic in-game ad formats, built-in seamlessly in the game scape and not obtrusive for the game player at all.

TRUSTED AD INVENTORY PROVIDER:• ADVERTY

Revenue Split by Ad Format

See Demo:Adverty In-game Ads >>Adverty 360 City Billboards>> source: Chartboost report, 2018

AD FORMATS IN MESSENGERS

HOW VIBER ADS CAN HELP YOU?

Viber is one of the top-3 messaging apps in the world, leading in 11 countries.

Viber helps advertisers increase awareness, consideration or conversions for brand by connecting to active and engaged consumers around the globe.

With Viber ad formats advertisers can engage their audience at the right time, providing visually rich, non-intrusive ads, that looks and feel native and demonstrates high CPM.

Messaging apps trend is growing. Here are some figures:

In 2018 2.01 billion mobile users accessed messaging apps, and this amount is expected to grow to 2.48 billion by 2021.

The number of apps using in-app ads will grow in 2019 by 60%.

DOWNLOAD POST-CALL TIMEOUT & WATCH

2,1%Average CTR

2%Average CTR

TRUSTED AD INVENTORY PROVIDERS:• VIBER

Leverage Viber video ads to:• engage users• increase brand awareness • convert users and drive revenue generation

Average CTR1%

Average CTR

EMERGING IN-APP ADS TRENDS

TRENDING AD FORMATS

Dynamic creatives Admixer will launch this format soon

Video ads

Coded creatives

• MRAIDs

• Playable ads

• HTML banners

Augmented and virtual reality

CROSS-DEVICEAs consumers become increasingly mobile-oriented, marketers and advertisers try to reach them where they reside. In-app advertising helps them capture targeted consumers' attention and provide their users with relevant and seamless experience between the app and the advert.

MESSENGERS ARE UPIn 2019, mobile advertising and mobile commerce are going to become better integrated into messaging apps. Social messaging is predicted to conquer social networks as the principal media activity. Messaging apps offer more engaging outreach options. They have the first-party identity data that makes Facebook and its counterparts so attractive.

EVOLVING PERSONALIZATIONA new era of personalization opens up as more data becomes available. At the same time - the role of personal data privacy becomes crucial as never before. GDPR released in 2016 and finally applied across Europe on May 25, 2018, attempts to harmonize a patchwork of differing data privacy laws extending its implications to the security of mobile apps. More on GDPR >> | GDPR Compliance for Apps >>

LESS FRAUD WITH IN-APP ADSWorking with industry-leading traffic quality partners, we experienced how in-app advertising saw 25% less fraud than mobile web in H2 2018 while botnets targeting iOS devices rose.

BRANDS AND AGENCIES can no longer focus only on mobile web because in-app advertising offers marketers better possibilities for tailoring the more effective marketing campaigns.

ADMIXER ECOSYSTEMWe offer a comprehensive ecosystem of solutions for mobile advertising. So if you’re a developer, publisher, or advertisers looking to reaching the broad mobile audience, here’s what you can leverage

Admixer.Publisher is an ad server allowing you to manage both, mobile websites and mobile apps, and set up direct ad campaigns as well as add external demand sources via single account.

Admixer.Network is an enterprise solution letting you build direct or SSP-based ad networks for mobile web and mobile apps. As a demand source you can use both, direct campaigns or external tags and activate programmatic demand based on oRTB model. Each of these options will help you increase fill-rate and total revenue.

SDK that we provide supports mediation and is integrated with trustworthy demand sources like AdMob and Mopub. Along with direct campaigns, you can easily add own monetization sources and set priority impressions via waterfall model.

Player.Best an HTML5 omni-platform Video/Audio player by Admixer with 100% effective inventory monetization. Player.Best supports all existing video and audio formats, including streaming. It integrates with external demand sources, as well as Admixer.DSP. Using Player.Best you get a platform for player, ads settings and schedule management. The platform allows publishers to get customized players` codes, add demand sources, and track KPIs through real-time reports.

Admixer.Creatives for mobile - Wow ad templates – UI and HTML5 for Admixer users who work directly with agencies or advertisers. Check ready-to-use banners examples or head to gallery for more mobile ad formats, putting Mobile as a filter.

Admixer.DSP - a self-service programmatic buying platform that uses comprehensive data and mainstream technology to help global advertisers purchase most relevant audiences at a large scale across desktop and mobile media in more than 20 GEOs. As a part of Admixer Programmatic ecosystem, Admixer.DSP offers functionality far beyond common trading desks, providing access to a number of efficient connectable tools and services.

NEED MORE INFORMATION OR HELP WITH IN-APP ADS?

Reach out to us and we’ll be glad to help you!

Tetiana SichkoBusiness Development Manager,Partnerships' ManagerAdmixer.DSPtsichko@admixer.net

Dmitry BreusDirector of Business Development,Head of Admixer.DSPdbreus@admixer.net

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