visit advertiser app

The Daily Advertiser

About this app

Data safety.

Ratings and reviews

• Flag inappropriate

What's new

App support, more by gannett.

The Complete Guide to App Advertising

Get a PDF copy of the guide using the form below, or scroll down to read the entire guide right on this page.

Don't Have Time To Read the Entire Guide Now?

We'll email you a downloadable PDF version of the guide and you can read later.

All of our content is generated by subject matter experts with years of ad tech experience and structured by writers and educators for ease of use and digestibility. Learn more about our rigorous interview, content production and review process  here .

Built with the expertise of:

Anthony Berrena, CRO

Introduction.

• In-app advertising is growing, and that means it's a huge revenue opportunity for publishers.
• It comes with a lot of challenges and technical considerations, such as in-app video ads and header bidding, as well as which SDKs to integrate.
• Do it all right, and you will see your revenue skyrocket.

Apps are big-league money makers for publishers. Mobile app ad revenue reached nearly $582 billion in 2020. By 2023, global app revenue is expected to top $935 billion.

With that kind of revenue potential, many publishers are eager to get in on mobile apps. In 2022, you have plenty of app revenue models to choose from, but one of the most popular and lucrative is in-app advertising.

To help you decide whether in-app ads are the right choice for your app, we have put together this guide to in-app advertising revenue generation.

Let's get into it.

This guide to app advertising is a great place to start, but many publishers end up working with Playwire. Why? Because we make it all easy for you while we maximize your in-app advertising revenue. Interested? Contact us today .

table of contents

What is app advertising, types of in-app ads.

How to Pick the Right Ad Format for Your App

Tools in Your Toolbox: The App Publisher’s Ad Tech Stack

Challenges of in-app advertising, working with mediation partners for mobile app ad revenue generation, how to build your in-app advertising revenue at scale, adding in-app video ads: the next big leap, breaking through to the big time: in-app header bidding, do in-app advertising yourself, or call in a partner, about playwire's sdk, monetizing with playwire vs. with a single mediation partner, your partner in in-app ad revenue generation, related content.

In-app advertising is the process of serving ads to the users of apps. If you’re an app publisher who reaches a significant user base, advertisers will pay you to put their ads in your app for users to see.

That’s the simplest definition, but the reality behind the scenes is much more complex. However, the basics remain the same. You have access to your user base, advertisers want that access and they will pay you for it. Complete this exchange thousands of times per day, and you build a revenue stream that can support your business.

When you are trying to decide what kinds of ads you want to include in your app to drive mobile app ad revenue, you need to understand the available types. Of course, most publishers have two main goals: to earn the most money possible and preserve the user experience. With the right combination of ads, you can accomplish both goals.

There are several types of in-app ads to choose from:

• Interstitial ads
• Gamified ads
• Rewarded ads

Banner ads typically sit alongside your content for the entire time the user is viewing the content. They appear as images, animated images, and clickable assets and are used by advertisers that may want to drive brand awareness or produce a call to action. You can pick out the sizes that suit your app and complement your content. 

These ads look very much like traditional desktop web publishing ads. While they can be easier than some other mobile app ad units to implement, they also tend to offer the lowest CPMs. Their value lives in the volume you can serve.

Interstitial Ads

Welcome to full-screen takeover: interstitial ads happen between phases of an app user's journey, appearing very differently than a banner ad. In a mobile game, the user might, for example, complete a level of the game. And, before the next level loads for the user, a full-screen interstitial ad appears, motivating the user to engage with the ad in the game's absence. 

Interstitial ads can be text, images, or video. Using videos in this format can help generate great CPMs. In fact, video ads usually offer some of the highest available CPMs for app publishers.

These are ads that look like a natural part of the app and provide little interruption to the user's experience. While they may be marked as ads, their look and feel are very much like the rest of the content inside the app.

Gamified Ads

What's more engaging than a video game? Almost nothing. That's why gamified ads have become such a popular type of mobile advertising. These ads, which yield the highest in-app ad CPMs for publishers, present the user with a game to complete within the ad.

It could be as simple as M&M's viral Eye-Spy Pretzel game or as complex as a platform scroller game — but it has to be custom. You won't be able to sell gamified ad inventory programmatically. These are direct-sell ads, which is part of why they generate such high CPMs.

Rewarded Ads

With rewarded ads, you incentivize ad views by giving perks or bonuses after the app has launched. The reward could be in-app currency, coupons, more lives in a mobile game, or anything that has value to the user. 

Rewarded ads come up in cases where the user's experience is fully interrupted. The user knows ahead of time that they will get something in exchange for viewing (e.g., when playing a game, a rewarded ad may provide the user extra lives in exchange for watching a video ad).

How to Pick the Right Ad Formats for Your App

You know the types of in-app ads. But how do you decide which one is right for your app?

This is a tough decision that many publishers have to make. It's all about looking at your app and understanding where you can feasibly place ads that will be effective and preserve the user's experience. 

Is your app a first-person shooter with levels? Perhaps you would want to go with interstitial video ads between levels. Have a chess or board game app that maintains a continuous screen throughout? Banner ads beside the content might work nicely. Does your app offer lives, levels, or in-game currency? Rewarded ads could be the right fit.

Here's the point: In-app advertising revenue generation is not one-size-fits-all. It's unique to your app and your preferences. A good mobile app advertising partner will walk through your app with you to look for ad opportunities that could work well for you. 

But at the end of the day, it's about what you feel comfortable with. The process of adding ads to your app should be collaborative and leave you with a full picture of the mobile app ad revenue potential for each iteration of your strategy.

Think of setting up in-app advertising like building something from a set of instructions. In that scenario, you get a preview of the tools you’re going to need. Here are the tools you’re going to need (a.k.a your ad tech stack ) in order to do in-app advertising the right way:

In the world of mobile apps, ads don’t reach user eyeballs without an ad server involved in the process at some point. Ad servers come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, but they all have this in common: They put the right ads in front of the right people at the right times. That’s their primary function.

You’ll have choices when you go to pick out an ad server for your app. However, you may find that you don’t end up making a dedicated decision about which app ad server you’re going to use. That’s because many in-app advertising tools have rolled ad serving into their list of capabilities in an attempt to sweeten the pot for potential customers.

In-App Header Bidding

You don’t have to start out with a header bidding tool picked out and implemented, but know that you will need one if your app advertising efforts go according to plan. Once you’ve got a handle on the basics, you’re going to want to graduate to header bidding in order to increase your revenue.

In-app header bidding simply improves the programmatic auction process. It’s a real-time auction for each impression in which bidders are blind to other bids, and the best bid wins. That’s as opposed to the waterfall method, which selects the first acceptable bid from an advertiser.

The process of actually doing header bidding is complicated and requires a dedicated tool. That’s the choice you’re eventually going to have to make. There are options here, but the main idea is to implement a tool you’re comfortable using that allows you to integrate as many sources of demand (header bidders) as you want.

Consent Management Platform

Particularly as attribution rules change in the mobile app space, consent management is more important than ever. This is the process of gathering “opt-ins” for behavioral tracking that generates valuable data.

There’s no need to hard-code all of this stuff yourself. In fact, doing so could put you at risk because then you have to keep up with the constantly changing rules and regulations surrounding mobile app privacy. 

Most publishers are best served by established consent management platforms (CMPs). These tools handle everything from tracking to creating opt-in requests that convert.

Data Management Platform

Data management platforms (DMPs) enable you to actually do something with all the data your users create when they use your app. Whether it’s their demographic information or their behavior inside your app, these data points have real value.

Why? Because a high-quality DMP can organize them into audience segments that provide real value to advertisers, who will then be more likely to purchase your ad inventory — and do so at higher prices — to reach those particular audiences.

To put it simply, if you aren’t using a DMP, you’re leaving money on the table. And no app publisher wants to do that.

Forgive us if we’ve painted you a rosy picture. The truth is that in-app advertising isn’t easy. It’s hard — especially if you’re not a publisher who has a lot of technical knowledge and dev resources.

Here is a look at some of the most common challenges app publishers face as they try to do in-app advertising:

Balancing SDKs

Publishers who are new to in-app advertising often face some obstacles as they try to bring in revenue . That's because it's a lot harder to get started with in-app ads than with ads on a website.

On a website, you can make changes and see them live in real-time to make sure they work. You can change up your ad inventory layout and offerings with little effort. 

But in a mobile app, you face some unique challenges as you try to implement or change your ad strategy:

• You have to ensure that all of the software development kits (SDKs) you and your ad partners are using work together. 
• You have to make changes to your app in a testing environment.
• Then, you have to resubmit your app to the major app stores for approval.

After you have resubmitted your app and gotten it approved, you then can see whether your changes were effective. If this sounds inefficient, that's because it is. It takes a lot longer to get mobile ads up and running and a lot longer to make changes to them.

Sourcing Demand

That SDK struggle often contributes to a separate problem: sourcing demand. To bring in programmatic advertising revenue as an app publisher, you have to connect some kind of demand for your app’s ad inventory to your SDK configuration. That usually involves integrating yet another SDK.

But here’s the issue: That’s just one source of demand. In-app inventory demand is like anything in economics — more competition leads to greater profits. Even if your single source of demand is a huge one, such as Google, you’re leaving potential revenue on the table if you’re only working with that one source. 

Impressions will sometimes go unfilled, and CPMs will just be the best that single demand source has to offer — not the best available among all buyers.

So, you want to source plenty of demand from diverse demand sources, but you may find yourself hesitating to do the work of that because you don’t want to break something or even deal with your mess of SDKs. And any hesitation here translates to money quite literally lost.

Related: Learn more about the differences between Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) based demand and CPM-based demand.

Dealing with Privacy Issues

If you’re looking to more advanced app publishers and feeling jealous that they have it all figured out, don’t. Here’s why: All app publishers face a turbulent and fear-inducing legal challenge as they try to bring in revenue from in-app advertising.

Many of those established publishers suffered greatly when Apple announced that tracking the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) of app users required an explicit opt-in. Suddenly, publishers and advertisers couldn’t track app installs — a primary ad performance metric — and the whole in-app advertising ecosystem was under threat.

Publishers and advertisers suddenly found themselves scrambling for solutions. Some lost a lot of money or threw in the towel completely. That all happened from one change — not even a legal change. A single company made a single privacy-focused change, and the whole in-app advertising industry started shaking.

It happens all the time. And for an individual app publisher who is building a business based on in-app advertising revenue, it’s disheartening at best and existentially threatening at worst.

Looping in Direct Sales Demand

Direct ad sales may feel a little outdated when you’re talking about SDKs and programmatic advertising, but it’s a mistake to discount the value of direct sales for app publishers. Classic insertion order (IO) buys handily outdo most programmatic buys when it comes to yield.

The problem, of course, is actually doing direct sales. It’s a two-pronged issue:

• Maintaining a direct sales team is expensive, particularly at first before it is generating enough revenue to pay for itself.
• Getting a seat at the table with the premium buyers who are interested in IO buys is a long-term play. You have to build a brand — not to mention a user base — that is well-known and attractive enough to the major brands with advertising money to burn.

Those issues are enough to turn away even the most determined app publishers. It happens all the time, and it’s a shame because much higher CPMs are on the other side of the struggle to build up a direct sales game.

Supporting High-Value Ad Units

Let’s just admit something: In apps, display banners are tiny. They’re certainly not turning many heads or making a splash. This is a medium that requires a different approach to ad units in order to really get advertisers excited, but actually running the premium ad units that get buyers’ attention takes a lot of technical work.

For example, a gamified interstitial ad is enough to make many advertisers salivate. These units command attention by taking over the entire screen, and they foster engagement with brands by getting viewers to play a game. From an advertising perspective, it’s near perfection.

But for the publisher, even the sky-high CPMs that come with an ad unit like that may not solve the central problem: Most publishers have no idea how to accommodate complex, premium ad units like that. And even if they have a dedicated engineering and development team (which is often just one person for small to mid-sized publishers), finding the time and resources to build out an ecosystem in which these units thrive is a pretty heavy lift.

As you can probably guess, the result is often that publishers give up. They stick with lower-value but less technical ad units, and their revenue potential suffers.

The above challenges are a big part of the reason why many publishers work with ad mediation partners.

Ad mediation is an app monetization solution that allows an app developer and publisher to handle multiple ad networks through a single SDK. If consolidation of revenue reporting and engagement metrics on a single dashboard is important to you, you'll also be pleased to discover that these monetization efforts can be quickly scaled.  

When a mobile ad mediator manages the available ad space from your app, it will automatically send your supply to every ad network you are working with for you. Mediation partners are another way to tap into more advertising demand.

So far, we've discussed the nuts and bolts of ad formats and mediation partners, but we should zoom out for a moment to discuss how to scale up your in-app advertising smartly and safely. 

The first thing to know is that you can do this wrong. You can go in too hard on in-app ads, shoehorn in a bunch of different types in too many places and watch your audience shrivel. You can slap a strategy together and never optimize it based on incoming data. You can get the technical side wrong. 

But that's not going to happen to you because you're reading this guide. You're going to do this the right way. 

Audience First, Then Ads

You're going to begin by focusing on building a real, dedicated user base for your app. No matter how tempting it is to start in-app advertising before you've even attracted a user, it is, in most cases, a bad idea. 

Start by building your user base with a world-class app. Then, slowly introduce ads. At first, do only small, non-intrusive ads, and do them sparingly. A banner here and there will do the trick. 

Don't add anything else until you've gotten some feedback from your app's users. Based on the feedback you get, tweak your strategy, slowly adding more ads until you're generating solid revenue but preserving your user base.

Don't Fear Premium Ad Units

But don’t get stuck in your early patterns. There’s nothing wrong with simple banners and video units, but there is something wrong with only ever doing those and never trying out the many premium in-app ad units.

For example, if you never run rewarded video inside your mobile game, you’re missing out on some of the highest CPMs available in the app space today. Don’t let the technical side scare you — many partners (like Playwire) will take care of that for you.

Don’t let fear stand in the way of progress when it comes to your in-app advertising strategy. Remember — there’s no harm in trying something new and walking it back if it doesn’t work.

Leverage Your Data

Yes, data and privacy are changing. But one thing remains the same: The data your app’s user base generates has real value. That is, it has real value if you use it correctly.

Simply understanding more about your app’s users has value of its own, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re discussing the value of data as it relates to what you can charge advertisers to reach your audience. 

Your user data tells the story of your audience — who they are, where they are, how engaged they are, what they buy, what they like, and more. For advertisers, that’s an uncut gem. You can cut and polish it by creating audience segments that illustrate who, exactly, buyers are reaching when they purchase your app’s impressions.

Don’t panic — you don’t have to become a data scientist. You just have to find the right data management platform (DMP). These tools offer varying levels of ability and service, but the main idea is that they take a lot of the grunt work and guesswork out of the picture so you can derive value from your data without taking up too much of your valuable time.

Optimize Always

The last thing to remember is that scaling up your revenue from in-app advertising is an ongoing process — it never ends. You should never stop optimizing your strategy based on user feedback and hard data, as well as tests you want to try. 

If you stop optimizing your strategy, it will one day stop working as well as you need it to. Keep going, and soon you'll have a mobile app ad revenue machine.

As you build out your in-app advertising strategy, you are likely going to consider adding some video to your in-app advertising strategy. That's because there's big money in in-app video advertising ( try $18 billion in 2021 ).

How much adding video to your mobile app advertising strategy will affect your revenue will depend on a variety of factors. The type of app you have, the video ad format you choose, and whether you're doing direct sales will all play a part in how much you make.

How to Add Video Advertising to Your App Ad Strategy

There’s some good news: Many mobile ad exchanges and networks already do video ads, so you can dip your toes into video ads without having to do too much on the technical side. However, you will have to do a few things.

First, you’re going to have to have some kind of a video player. That’s the only way you’re going to be able to run video ads inside your app. Ideally, the video player’s SDK will be capable of initiating calls for programmatic auctions and doing header bidding.

Remember, too, that you don’t necessarily have to have video content in order to do video ads. In fact, many apps that benefit from the high CPMs of video advertising don’t actually create video content. 

Mobile games are a great example. They often run interstitial video in between levels or at the start or end of each game. It’s a great way to generate ad revenue without being too disruptive to the user experience — particularly if you have an engaged and broad user base.

You can get a complete breakdown of how to increase your mobile app ad revenue with video ads here .

Once you're more than a beginner in in-app advertising, it may be time to move on to the big time: in-app header bidding . 

In-app header bidding is like header bidding for web in that it turns the traditional programmatic auction process on its head. Instead of your SDK sending out a request for bids and accepting the first one that exceeds your price floor (the waterfall method in a nutshell), you get the highest bid on every impression. How? By soliciting bids and accepting the highest one instead of the first one. 

That's potential. And it's a big part of how app publishers go from middling revenue to revenue in the seven figures. 

It's exciting, but it's important to remember that, more than most any other step you've taken to reach this point, adding in-app header bidding is a big technical lift. You're going to need either a couple of experienced developers or a revenue partner like Playwire to implement, manage and optimize your in-app header bidding tech and strategy.

In-app advertising is the logical next step once you've built a solid user base for your app. But before you're bringing in advertising dollars, your budget may be limited. That means you should do all of this yourself, right?

Not necessarily. Not every app revenue partner out there can or will actually do the work, but the handful that can and will do the work well will increase your revenue by more than enough to make their services worth the cost. The increased revenue is the bottom line, but there are other key benefits of calling in a partner as you set up advertising in your mobile app:

Instead of having to painstakingly integrate every SDK yourself, you have a partner who will do it for you. 

In a similar way, you don't have to worry about dependency management as you integrate SDKs. Your revenue partner should handle all dependency management for you.

Allowing yourself easy access to dozens of high-quality SDKs means you get access to incredibly broad demand. And more demand means higher CPMs for apps.

Our Ad Tech Build vs. Buy Series covers this topic in detail here .

If you decide to work with Playwire, you won't have any need for a dozen SDKs. You'll just need one: Playwire's.

That's because Playwire's SDK is an SDK of SDKs. With one, you get many — and we have already managed the dependencies for each inside our SDK. That means you get integrations for the biggest header bidders, various high-quality mediation partners, and consent management all in a single, lightweight SDK.

Why choose a revenue partner like Playwire to handle your in-app advertising when there are dozens and dozens of mediation partners out there? Because you want access to the broadest possible demand.

Broader demand means more competition, which means a lower likelihood of unfilled ad requests and unnecessarily low CPMs. How does Playwire increase your demand over a mediation partner? By integrating that mediation partner and various others into our SDK.

That way, your requests for ads fan out over vast networks — not just a single ad network tied to one mediation partner — and come back to you filled and at a very high CPM almost every single time.

Generating revenue from in-app advertising can be confusing — even overwhelming — for publishers who would much rather spend their valuable time creating world-class content. 

You shouldn’t have to face that problem. You should do what you do best while a trusted leader in in-app advertising handles the rest. That’s what we do at Playwire . And to help us do it, we have built a dedicated platform for app publishers to amplify their revenue and take questions out of the equation.

Combine that with our global direct sales team and close relationships with major players in the app advertising space — think Google, Amazon, and the like — and you have a recipe for maximum revenue. 

Just ask any app publisher who has worked with us. Read our case studies . Meet with our team. Try us out. Expect more revenue, and you’ll have your expectations met. Ready to get started? Contact us today .

Feel free to visit our Complete App Advertising Resource Center , or dive deeper into any of these related articles:

• Where to Begin with Your In-App Advertising
• In-App Advertising with Google AdMob
• 5 In-App Advertising Revenue Models
• 5 Mobile App Video Advertising Tips
• A Guide to Mobile App Advertising
• In-App Advertising Cost Breakdown: From Investment to ROI
• In-App Advertising Revenue Models: CPA vs. CPM
• In-App Advertising: Mobile Apps vs. Desktop Apps
• The 8 Best Advertising Practices for App Develops
• The Complete Guide to In-App Advertising Revenue Generation

Amplify Your Ad Revenue

Accelerate your business and uncomplicate your ad tech stack, because you deserve a partner and a platform that demands more for you.

Get Started

Want to create a new Google Ads account?

You’re about to create a new Google Ads account. You can create multiple campaigns in the same account without creating a new account.

• How it works
• AI-Powered Ad Solutions
• Performance Max
• Local Services Ads
• Google Analytics
• Keyword Planner
• Manager Accounts
• Google Ads Editor
• Reach Planner
• Google Ads Mobile App
• Conversion Tracking
• Work with a partner
• Become a partner
• Case Studies & Articles
• Growth Formula
• Grow My App

Choose your offer and get up to {AWARD_AMOUNT} in Ads credit

New advertiser? Choose between three attractive offers, based on your budget, to jumpstart your first campaign.

Your {AWARD_AMOUNT} in Ads credit is ready to be claimed

Sign up for Google Ads and complete your payment information to apply the offer to your account. Terms and conditions apply

Drive sales, Stand out, Be found, Show up, with Google Ads

Drive sales.

with Google Ads

Play animation

Pause animation

Do more for your business with Google Ads

Whatever your business goal, drive better results with Performance Max.

Google Ads gives you many ways to be seen with Performance Max

• Performance Max - Selected, more information after list
• Search - Selected, more information after list
• Display - Selected, more information after list
• Shopping - Selected, more information after list
• Video - Selected, more information after list
• App - Selected, more information after list

Make the most of Google Ads

With Performance Max, you get the best of Google all-in-one. Powered by Google’s AI, reach valuable customers most likely to buy from you wherever they’re browsing - on Search, Display, YouTube and more - from a single campaign.

Start with search

Help drive sales, leads, or site traffic by getting your business in front of people who are actively searching Google for products or services you offer.

Engage the eye

Build awareness and consideration with memorable, visually engaging ads that reach your audience when they’re online, checking Gmail, or using mobile apps.

Offer up your inventory

Show up when people are shopping with visually engaging product listings and let them know what you have in stock to drive more sales.

Bring your brand to life with video

Boost awareness of your brand, follow up with former ad viewers, and reach potential customers while they’re watching or searching for videos on YouTube.

Promote your app

Reach people who are interested in apps like yours to drive installs or choose to re-engage current users to drive more in-app actions.

Choose a sign-up offer to jumpstart your first campaign

Select an offer that fits your monthly budget and sign up when ready. You’ll receive your Ads credit after you meet the minimum spend requirement for the offer you selected.  Terms and conditions apply.

{AWARD_AMOUNT_0}

{award_amount_0} in ads credit.

Spend {TARGET_AMOUNT_0} with Google Ads in the first 60 days to unlock the credit.

{AWARD_AMOUNT_1}

{award_amount_1} in ads credit.

Spend {TARGET_AMOUNT_1} with Google Ads in the first 60 days to unlock the credit.

{AWARD_AMOUNT_2}

{award_amount_2} in ads credit.

Spend {TARGET_AMOUNT_2} with Google Ads in the first 60 days to unlock the credit.

Select an offer to continue

How to claim your offer.

Sign up and complete payment setup to apply the offer to your account.

Achieve all your goals in one place

Maximize leads and conversions

Increase online sales

Drive in-store foot traffic

Show your brand to more people

Market your app to new users

The power of google, for your business.

Google AI + Your Inputs = Better Results

Add essential inputs like budget details and creative assets, and let Performance Max go to work to drive results. Powered by Google AI, Performance Max creates and shows ads to valuable customers wherever they are looking online to maximize your return.

Track, learn, and optimize for ROI

Track conversions to get unmatched audience insights. Google’s budget-optimizing automation helps you capture new customer opportunities with the highest ROI.

Stay in full control of your budget

Get recommendations, decide your monthly budget, and adjust at any time. Google technology helps you measure results and make the most of your ad spend.

What success looks like

“There really is no better platform than Google Ads to reach the entire world.”

Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Co-owner, Beekman 1802

“This year already, we have a 300% ROI in our Google Ads.”

Randy Williams, Founder & CEO, Talley & Twine

Learn how Asutra earned a 675% return on ad spend with Google Ads

Let us help..

Get started with our free personalized support. Create your custom ads plan with a Google Ads Expert.

The No-Nonsense Guide to App Advertising

• Ad Optimizations

No-Nonsense Guide to App Advertising

Download the guide to learn expert strategies and actionable tips on app adverstising.

With more and more people using free apps, developers are turning to in-app advertising as a way to generate reliable income. The No-Nonsense Guide to In-App Ads by Google AdMob will give you an overview on how to make money from ads, how it works, how to choose the right brand-safe advertising network, and all the ad lingo you can handle so that you can start implementing in-app advertising into your mobile app.

We will cover the following sections in the Guide:

1. How an app business makes money from advertising

Imagine you owned a popular cookie shop on a busy street. With so many people seeing your storefront every day, and to make some additional revenue, you decide to sell ad space in the window and on walls - space known as inventory. You reach out to the neighborhood and soon other businesses paying you to feature their ads. As a mobile app developer, your app is similar to a busy storefront: people visit your app every day, you can display ads in your app, and businesses want to advertise to your users.

But because it’s digital, in-app ads offer several benefits, such as measuring how many people have looked at the ads, easily localizing for each market, and using a variety of ad formats to deliver the best experience to your users.

2. How pay-per-click advertising works

Digital advertising offers several models, and one of the most popular is the pay-per-click model (or PPC model), where advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad. If a user sees an ad but doesn’t click on it, advertisers don’t pay.

The PPC model aligns the interests of advertisers, app developers, and users. As digital advertising has matured, additional “pay for performance” advertising models have emerged like “pay per download” and “pay per acquisition”, all designed to better align interests

3. What’s an ad network?

Ad networks automate the process of buying and selling ads. They build relationships with businesses looking to advertise and apps looking to make money by selling ads inventory. Advertisers get access to lots of different inventory in apps at scale and app developers are able find advertisers quickly. As app owners, ad networks help you spend less time marketing your ad space and more time on creating the best app for your users.

4. How to choose the right ad network for your app

There are lots of factors to consider when choosing an add network. A few key questions to ask are: How much revenue can the ad network bring you? Look at an ad network’s “effective cost per mille” or eCPM for short (referring to 1,000 impressions). eCPM is calculated by dividing total earnings by total number of impressions in thousands and will give you a standard to compare different ad networks’ payouts.

How much demand does the ad network have available? Evaluate an ad network’s “fill rate”. Fill rate is the number of times an ad network delivers an ad to an app divided by the number of times that app requested an ad.

What experience will the ad network provide your users and you?

This is combination of a number of factors:

1) The type of ad formats the ad network can offer.

2) The quality of the advertisers on an ad network — known as “brand-safe advertising” — so users see ads that don’t disrupt their app experience and in turn damage your brand

3) Is the ad network’s technology reliable and easy to use?

4) How quickly and easily can an ad network pay you?

Download the complete guide on the right to learn more about how to launch your app business with advertising. And let us know about your feedback on Twitter .

Share article

Related resources

Game insight boosts ad revenue by 30% with admob smart segmentation, the no-nonsense guide to app monetization, mobile app developer business kit - section 4.

Some features are in beta and are not yet available to all publishers.

How to Get Advertisers on Your App: A Beginner’s Guide to Mobile Ad Monetization

In-app ads don’t just magically appear in your app. here’s how to get advertisers on your app and start driving mobile ad revenue..

Today, 89% of publishers monetize their apps using in-app advertisements , but getting ads on your app doesn’t happen automatically. App publishers make arrangements with advertising demand sources who fill inventory in exchange for a share of revenue. In addition to in-app purchases and subscriptions, in-app advertising is one of the three primary ways that app publishers generate revenue.

In the modern app ecosystem, publishers have many options for implementing in-app ads — but deciding which approach to take requires careful consideration for the revenue potential they provide, as well as the user experience.

In this post, we’ll explore how to get advertisers on your app and highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

Jump to a section…

How to get advertisers on your app Direct deals Ad networks Ad waterfalls Programmatic ad options Programmatic supply-side platforms Programmatic ad exchanges App bidding Hybrid solutions Monetize your app with the right advertising channel

How to get advertisers on your app

Believe it or not, mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but the industry is evolving rapidly. Over the past two decades, we’ve seen new innovations emerge that strengthen advertiser and publisher partnerships. Today, these partnerships take many forms, including:

• Direct deals: Publishers and advertisers (who can often be other publishers!) can negotiate the sale of ad inventory directly, either in-person or through a third-party broker.
• Ad networks: Ad networks facilitate commercial relationships, acting as an intermediary between large volumes of publishers and advertisers based on existing supply and demand.
• Ad waterfalls: Waterfalls allow publishers to manually prioritize multiple demand sources in order to drive more revenue. They can be developed and managed using any number of technical solutions including supply-side platforms or custom ad servers.
• Programmatic supply-side platforms: Publishers work with supply-side platforms, or SSPs, to automate the management and sale of their ad inventory to brands and other apps willing to pay for the opportunity to connect with new audiences.
• Programmatic ad exchanges: Programmatic exchanges assemble inventory from publishers, networks, and SSPs and pair it with demand from advertisers through real-time bidding auctions.
• App bidding: App bidding allows publishers to hold real-time unified auctions between programmatic and network-based demand sources within the app itself. This model cuts down SDK weight, generates more revenue, and improves efficiency compared to the waterfall approach.
• Hybrid solutions: Hybrid ad solutions can offer any combination of features described above. For example, a hybrid ad solution might feature app bidding within an ad waterfall.

Let’s look at each option in more detail:

Direct deals

While direct deals are still fairly common in desktop publishing, they’re rarely used in today’s mobile ad industry. In this approach, publishers and advertisers typically negotiate a deal for a number of ad impressions at a specific cost-per-mille, or CPM, and the timeline over which those impressions will be served. These deals can be arranged directly or via a third-party broker. In both cases, each party knows how much inventory is available well before it deploys in-app.

Today, direct deals occur most frequently when publishers need placements that don’t reflect traditional advertising models. For example, a shopping app might partner with an advertiser to offer high-value coupons and promotions in-app. Another example might be a sponsored content partnership, in which a brand property appears as part of a mobile game or app’s core functionality. These types of partnerships typically involve a lot of moving parts, including development resources, and are typically handled in the form of a pre-negotiated contract between the advertiser and publisher.

While direct deals are financially beneficial to publishers, they do have drawbacks. Most notably, they are time-consuming to prepare and difficult to scale across a large user base due. They require a lot of operational overhead including contract negotiations and manual coordination. All the same, direct deals are worth considering when they have value to advertisers and can drive high payouts.

Ad networks

While direct deals excel in a one-to-one marketing relationship, ad networks let publishers sell inventory on a greater scale more reliably. Ad networks first appeared in online advertising’s early days to act as intermediaries between publishers and advertisers. After partnering with an ad network, publishers incorporate a small SDK into an app’s code that requests and deploys ads from a centralized ad server.

Ad networks are immensely useful when it comes to pairing inventory supply with advertiser demand, although not all networks treat impressions equally. Some curate high-value inventory and resell to advertisers at a premium price. Others collect unsold inventory, combine the impressions into bundle deals, and sell them at a remnant price. Specialist networks will even sell inventory by industry vertical to ensure relevancy for advertisers.

In the early days of SDK ad networks, a publisher typically contacted a representative who directly managed their account. Today, many networks also offer self-service dashboards to manage inventory and data analysis reports. SDK networks will likely have a bigger role in the years ahead as IDFA-based ad models fall away, placing a renewed emphasis on direct yet scalable relationships.

Did You Know?: While some other mobile ad networks only pay developers when users click on the ads they serve, Vungle offers publishers ad revenue based on a flat CPM rate. This aims to get publishers paid top dollar for their ad impressions, no matter what.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with us today!

Ad waterfalls

Unless contractually stated, mobile publishers are typically not limited to using a single ad network. Adding multiple SDKs to an app grants access to a broader array of advertisers, although one would need to manually prioritize each demand source using some kind of technical solution like an SSP. To do so, publishers can implement an app waterfall that distributes valuable inventory to premium networks before unsold inventory goes to non-premium sources.

While only one network will ultimately gain each impression, ad waterfalls leverage historical performance data to ensure high-spend networks get the first shot at claiming audience impressions. The benefit being that as more impressions are called and the quality of ad that any individual network is able to return starts to decline, publishers can revert to the next highest ad network in order to keep earnings high.

In 2020, waterfalls are the most common way to get advertisers on your app, but they are not the most efficient. For example, if a non-premium advertiser will pay more for a specific ad impression than a premium ad partner, they still have to wait until the latter turns the opportunity down. For publishers, this limits potential revenue that would otherwise be gained by prioritizing competitive advertisers.

Another concern with waterfalls occurs when publishers integrate too many SDKs into their apps. If not optimized effectively, this leads to “SDK bloat” which can introduce a number of performance issues like latency and maintenance cost, as well as surface development challenges like coming up against method limits.

Programmatic ad options

Programmatic advertising is a relatively recent innovation. It allows media buyers to purchase inventory at scale based on the audience they wish to target, rather than focusing on a single channel. This dynamic is achieved through an ad sales process known as real-time bidding (RTB) that sees inventory sold in a unified auction as opposed to a sequential order. The programmatic ecosystem has multiple entry points and specific use cases for publishers.

Programmatic supply-side platforms

Supply-side platforms (SSPs) automate, manage, and optimize the sale of ad inventory. Each SSP connects to demand sources — such as networks, ad exchanges, or demand-side platforms — and helps facilitate the unified auctions that determine the winning advertiser bids for each impression in real-time. These fully automated platforms drastically reduce the overhead costs of ad monetization by streamlining the sale of inventory on behalf of publishers, reducing the complexity of negotiating with multiple partners. SSPs can function as independent publisher-controlled platforms, but many modern ad tech companies have started to offer supply-side features as an added service.

Programmatic ad exchanges

Ad exchanges partner with both publishers and advertisers to unify supply and demand at a global scale. Exchanges gather inventory from multiple publishers and SSPs in real-time before presenting offers to ad buyers. Google Ad Exchange is the most well-known example, but Verizon Media, PubMatic, Xandr, and MoPub also support their own exchanges, among many others.

Once partnered with an exchange, publishers can set floor prices and targeting options that focus inventory within a massive demand pool. They function much the same as a stock exchange would, wherein traders can set similar limits for the exchange of securities. On the downside, most exchanges have high revenue and traffic requirements that limit small and medium-sized publishers from accessing their services.

App bidding

Of the programmatic options, the most recent is app bidding. As the name implies, app bidding solutions allow publishers to host real-time programmatic auctions in-app via code. For publishers, app bidding is more efficient than waterfall mediation for a variety of reasons. The approach allows media buyers with different models (e.g. programmatic ad networks, ad networks with mock-bidders, and DSPs) to compete on an even playing field, increasing publisher revenue as a result.

All demand sources involved in the auction receive and process bid requests, typically using the OpenRTB protocol, that contain information they can use to programmatically determine what they’re willing to bid for the impression. It also drives higher revenue than many other options because DSPs and SDK networks can compete alongside each other with fewer middlemen.

Hybrid solutions

Programmatic technology is still relatively new, which leaves many publishers without the necessary infrastructure to implement it effectively. What’s more, many existing solutions lack direct deal support or other customizable options. To that end, some platforms offer hybrid solutions, combining app bidding with features from direct deals and even ad waterfalls. While hybrid models aren’t as efficient as purely programmatic mediation, they grant publishers manual control over their inventory.

Monetize your app with the right advertising channel

One of the most crucial elements of monetizing your app is simply choosing the right partner — and that’s where Vungle can help. We are a mobile advertising platform that offers complete monetization and in-app advertising solutions that emphasize quality and performance above all else. Our team will work with you on solutions that complement your existing user experience to ensure you get the highest return on investment. Get in touch with us today for more details.

Microsoft Advertising 4+

Microsoft corporation.

• 4.5 • 335 Ratings

Screenshots

Description.

Microsoft Ads help you stay on top of your advertising campaigns while you're on the go. Keep your finger on the pulse of your accounts all from your smartphone or tablet. • Monitor your favorite campaigns and get performance data on the go • Quickly make changes to update your status, budgets and bids • Get notified to know when your automatic rules have ran or credit cards are about to expire • Visualize how your account or ads are performing and compare metrics side by side • Get in touch with Microsoft Ads support whenever you need help Note: Some of the above mentioned features may not be available for Smart Campaign customers

Version 2.21.24

With the latest release, the app now supports the Simplified Chinese language and locale formatting.

Ratings and Reviews

335 Ratings

Love it and works excellent

You want a platform that works and is very reliable versus Google choose bing if you have the right set up and ads to Run this platform will run very smoothly. You can transfer what you have from your Google account over to the platform of Bing and run your same ads. Google has too many policy changes and regulations since the pandemic with me it was hurting my family greatly and my business goals because they kept suspending my account over 7 times. I switched to bing my exact same set up I had with Google, I turned it on as soon as I turned it on I started getting clicks and calls immediately and making money. I love this platform. If you don’t have a company that’s running your SEO program or your ads for you because time is money do not go with Google.

10 Years+ with Bing

I absolutely love bing, and Microsoft. I've used all of their platforms over the last ten years, was in-fact one of their very first customers when it was Adcenter. They've come a long ways and although they're teams are bit difficult to work with at times, (when it comes to campaign problems) they still do 100x times better than the leading competitor, and the Mobile app far out weighs any other and.... that's why I highly recommend MicrosoftAds! Gooooooo Bing it baby!!!!

Finally a GOOD advertising platform!

Love love working with Microsoft Ads. Wouldn’t trade them for any other. They’re so helpful and not extremely strict on policies. I also really love how you can easily get someone on chat or get a call right away. This alone is by far the best. Google Ads or FB have nothing in comparison even if they have the biggest market share. Thanks Microsoft Ads! A true fan 👍

App Privacy

The developer, Microsoft Corporation , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Financial Info
• Contact Info
• User Content
• Search History
• Identifiers
• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese

• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

More By This Developer

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Authenticator

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

You Might Also Like

Digistore24

Local Services ads by Google

Google Analytics

Shopify Inbox