Advertising is one of the two most popular monetization methods in mobile apps and games. Yet the field is filled with confusing terms, metrics and acronyms. This talk gives a brief introduction to the industry aimed at independent app/game developers and publishers.

1. Ads in Mobile
Apps and
Games 101
Alan Mendelevič
Founder & CEO
AdDuplex
alan@adduplex.com
@ailon

2. Alan Mendelevich
@ailon
15+ years development experience
Founder & CEO of AdDuplex

3. Everybody loves ads!
Right? Right!?

4. App monetization models
Advertising is the most popular on some platforms, important on all

5. Why would I want to monetize
with ads?

6. No one buys apps anymore
(as opposed to paid
apps/games)

7. Minimal impact on
game design
(as opposed to F2P)
* do not confuse with visual/graphic design

8. Monetize
the long tail
in addition to in-app
purchases
(Freemium, F2P,
premium features)
only 1-5% of users will
ever make an IAP

9. Gateway to IAPs
IAP to remove ads

10. Not only for
monetization

11. Jumpstart your new titles
App
#1
App
#2
App
#3
New
app

12. Cross-promote with
other publishers

13. Mobile Advertising
Terminology Primer

14. Ad types

15. Banners
• Largest provider choice
• Don’t interfere with the flow
• Take up screen real estate

16. Full screen ads
Interstitial image ads
Video ads
Playable ads
• Good user engagement
• Don’t take up real estate during
gameplay
• Can’t show too often (needs a
natural pause)
• Can be “heavy”

17. Offer walls
• Can be user initiated
• Show multiple ads
• choice for the user
• diluted for advertisers

18. Native ads
• Look like content
• Can be non-intrusive
(e.g. replace field ads in
sports game)
• Hardly accessible to indie
developers

19. Ad providers
Ad networks
Ad exchanges, mediators
Direct deal marketplaces

21. Basic terms
• Impression
ad displayed to user once
• CTR – click-through rate
percentage of impressions resulting in clicks on the ad
• IR – install rate
percentage of clicks resulting in app installation

22. Ad pricing models
• CPM
Cost per mille (thousand impressions)
• CPC
Cost per click
• CPI
Cost per install
• CPA, CPL, etc.
Cost per action, lead, etc.

23. KPIs for
Advertisers

24. CTR – click-through rate
• Percentage of ad impressions resulting in clicks
• Improve by perfecting ad copy and campaign
targeting

25. IR – install rate
• Percentage of clicks resulting in app installation
• For app/game advertisers
• Improve by perfecting store listing, ad copy
relevance (sometimes at the expense of CTR)

26. CPI – cost per install
• For app/game advertisers
• Improve by increasing both CTR and IR

27. ROI – return on investment
• Based on “deeper” internal metrics
• Improve by acquiring better users cheaper (trial &
error, previous experience)

28. KPIs for Publishers
Just 2 things you actually care about

29. eCPM
Effective CPM – any ad sales
model converted to CPM

30. CPC → eCPM
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 × 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 × 1,000
Example:
• CPC = $0.10
• CTR = 1% (0.01)
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = $0.10 × 0.01 × 1,000 = $1

31. CPI → eCPM
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 × 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 × 𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 × 1,000
Example:
• CPI = $1
• CTR = 1% (0.01)
• IR = 10% (0.1)
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = $1 × 0.01 × 0.1 × 1,000 = $1

32. Fill rate
A concept most developers are not familiar with

33. Fill rate –
percentage of ad
requests resulting
in ad impression
Requests
made
Ads
received
• Almost never 100% for a
single ad provider
• Can vary dramatically based
on the region and other
factors
• Smaato: “Worldwide, the
average ad network fill rate
was 10% in Q3 2011”

34. Mitigating low fill rate
Ad Provider 1
Ad Provider 2
Ad Provider N
Cross promotion or “house ad”

35. Last step – something with 100%
fill rate
• House ads – ads for your
other apps or services,
“public service” ads
• Cross-promotion ad for a
partner publisher
• Cross-promotion network

36. Empowering developers to
help each other grow.
• free advertising for your apps
• utilize 100% of your ad space
• 9,000+ apps, more than 1 billion ad
impressions a month
www.adduplex.com
The largest cross-promotion
network for Windows Phone
and Windows Store apps

37. Step 1:
Create an ad for your app
Step 2: Place a line of
code into it and start
advertising other apps
Step 3:
They promote yours in return

38. What’s the catch?
You show
You get

39. Introducing Interstitial Ads
coming in early 2015

40. When
monetizing
with ads pay
attention
to…

41. Some providers may calculate
eCPM disregarding the fill rate
Impressions Clicks CPC eCPM
1,000 10 $0.1 $1
Requests Impressions Clicks CPC eCPM
2,000 1,000 10 $0.1 $0.5
VS

42. It is incorrect to directly compare
eCPM for different ad types
$1
eCPM
$5
eCPM
VS

43. Why wouldn’t
I monetize
with ads?

44. Arguments against ad
monetization
• Religion, allergy, etc.
• Rarely/short running apps
• Negative effect on UX (as any other attempts to
monetize )
• Extra permission requirements/privacy concerns
• High revenue unpredictability
• Optimizing ad revenue takes time and effort

45. No good
reasons,
actually…

46. Thank you
Alan Mendelevič
Founder & CEO
AdDuplex
alan@adduplex.com
@ailon