Mobile has recently become “the thing” in the online marketing world, especially since 2014, when mobile web browsing surpassed desktop for the first time in history.
Naturally, mobile specific ad networks have been on the rise too. In fact, there are so many of them offering monetization services that it’s easy to get lost in the sea of choices. With all of this happening, the question stands tall: which platforms do you choose?
Here is a list of mobile ad platforms that have been their job well continuously and are a solid pick for advertisers:
Millennial Media
Making great use of user feedback and comments, Millennial Media has turned into a true mobile ad business master, which offers full screen, image and video ad formats to its users.
The network can be easily integrated with mobile ads, supports most widely used devices and is the first platform that offered mobile advertisers the ability to exchange ads together. All the results and analytics of the method are available to both sides on their respective dashboards.
Millennial Media also lets you display ads from other platforms that you use, thanks to the ANM (Ad network mediation). You can even cross promote your other apps inside a single app.
Finally, the platform allows advertisers to compete for a client’s inventory with real time bidding mechanism, which potentially makes the revenue for top quality applications extremely high.
Chartboost
Most of the available ad platforms offer ads for the general public, but when it comes to niche advertising, Chartboost is the best choice for mobile game apps. Chartboost is wholeheartedly dedicated to mobile games and offers built-in analytics and easy integration (a single SDK, much like AdMob) to go along with it.
The network grants you full control over the ads inside your app, and you can see/choose who is running ads on your app and who is allowed/not allowed to run them.
Chartboost prides themselves as a very transparent network – everything is always fair and square with those guys. You can find their list of CPIs for all over the world here.
The platform is mainly focused on heavy promotion and also utilizes the bidding system, making advertisers compete with higher bids and allowing you to reach the revenue you really want.
The ad formats mainly consist of “download another game” (though interstitial and video ads are there too) and fits within the gaming audience perfectly, allowing you to target the right group of consumers.
The revenue offered by Chartboost is extremely high. You get to keep more than 90% of it. Chartboost takes only about 10% of the transactions that they handle for you.
Conclusion: If you are into gaming apps, choose Chartboost with your eyes closed.
AdMob
If you are a beginner in the vast world of mobile advertising, AdMob is probably your best choice. Being the lesser spawn of Google, the platform carries a number of benefits for advertisers, particularly:
Easy integrations with all common devices (IOS, Android and Windows Phone) thanks to the simple Software Development Kit (SDK) integration system
Wide array of ad formats for all kind of mobile devices and tablets – banner ads, full screen ads, custom search ads, interactive ads, etc.
Clean and clear instructions regarding integration process
On the downside, the revenue for AdMob isn’t the greatest, that’s why it’s a good choice for newcomers. More seasoned advertisers might want to consider some of the other options listed here.
Smaato
When you think about ad competition, Smaato should come to your mind on par with Millennial Media. Real time bidding model is there to create lots opportunities for mobile app publishers to maximize their revenue.
What’s beautiful about Smaato is that their integration is not only easy, but also free. The platform supports all kinds of advertising formats and devices (IOS, android, blackberry, Symbian, etc.)
You really have nothing to lose if you go with this platform and thanks to them having 390 demand partners, the revenue potential can be rather high if you can match their demands.
Flurry
Flurry has become a part of Yahoo Developers network in 2014, and is a platform heavily focused on analytics. In fact, their analytics provide much more insights than any other platform available out there. You have the ability to monitor your whole portfolio of apps on different app stores across all platforms.
Customized conversion metrics allow you to dip further into your analytics and see what is working vs. not working. You can also see which conversions come from free users and paid users. In other words, if you are the heavy analytic type, Flurry is your best choice.
InMobi
Originated in India, this platform has reached worldwide recognition and close to 100 billion impressions. It’s a good platform to consider for every developer who wants to achieve successful monetization.
The key thing about InMobi is that they have developed a new way of ad targeting called appographic targeting. It practically shows what kind of apps users are most likely to consume based on their previous and current app choices rather than demos and location.
The revenue is decent and can be increased even further with the smart use of appographic targeting.
HUNT
This is literally the place where you “hunt” for the best ads for your app. You are given all the tools that are needed to commence the “hunt”: SDK for easy integrations, reporting tools for analytics and the thrill of tracking the ads you want.
HUNT currently has around two billion users, which makes it a worth-trying-out platform where the revenue can be pretty damn high.
Admoda
Admoda is ready to pay publishers on CPC, CPM and Flat Rates (whichever you pick) and promises you very high fill rates and good revenue. The strongest part about Admoda is probably their customer support, which is comprised of a very helpful team ready to solve any issue you might encounter.
Aditic
Aditic is a strong player in the mobile ad market, largely thanks to it being associated closely with Sofialys. The platform’s team spent 6 years designing it for mobile developers and publishers, while making sure it is “idiot-proof”.
Their dedication has resulted in great success, allowing the platform to support every device you know and close to every format possible including banners, video, image and interstitial ads.
Mojiva
Mojiva utilizes contextual mobile advertising to a great effect. Thanks to their smart algorithms and advanced tech, the platform sends “crawlers” to your mobile app that look for relevant keywords and phrases that are later used contextually to find the best suited target group, which in turn, leads to increased revenues.
On a final note I would add that all the platforms listed here are amongst the top in the industry and can handle billions of impressions every month. It’s just a matter of preference, experience, budget and strategy that will should help decide which platform suits you best.
Tuan Nguyen is an experienced advertiser and banner design professional. He is also the founder of 20 dollarbanners, an advertising agency specializing in banner design. Throughout the years, Tuan has helped countless businesses rise and grow their revenue with the help of banner ads.