Mobile Marketing Glossary

The frequency with which users interact with an app determines its stickiness. The higher the user engagement, the more addictive the app.

What exactly is app stickiness?

When a sticky app provides a great and unique user experience that distinguishes it from the competition, it will have a loyal audience, low churn, and high engagement.

Stickiness is determined by users finding your app valuable and relevant to their lives. A sticky app means your users will be compelled to return frequently, giving you more opportunities to monetize through in-app purchases (IAP) or in-app advertising (IAA).

How can you increase app stickiness?

So, how do you make your app more appealing? What is the secret sauce that keeps users coming back to specific apps? Sticky apps, it turns out, have a few things in common.

Here's how you can turn their hard-learned lessons into a highly sticky app engagement strategy

1 - Determine your weak points Everything revolves around your users' needs and expectations. Instead of getting rid of clunky functionality because you thought it was what your users wanted, eliminate the guesswork and involve your target audience in development decisions.

Request feedback on issues, broken user experiences, and a wishlist of value-added features. The more specific they are, the more likely you will incorporate influential stickiness factors into your app.

2 - Make sure the onboarding process is enjoyable Onboarding is the first introduction a user has to your app after downloading it. Consider it an audition that sets the tone for your relationship, in which you must quickly demonstrate your app's value and usefulness in solving their problems.

Suppose onboarding is marred by interruptions such as too much-requested information, buggy performance, a lack of clarity around functionality, or a long and tedious signup process. In that case, users are likely to migrate their dissatisfied thumbs elsewhere. Trashing your app is expected to follow, as is sharing their disappointment on social media, so put time and effort into a great first meeting.

When done correctly, a clear, hassle-free, and delightful onboarding process can increase app stickiness, user LTV and retention rate, making it a long-term investment worth your resources and ongoing optimization.

3 - Customize! Allowing users to customize their user experience (UX) can significantly impact app engagement and retention and strengthen their emotional connection to your app. And the more profound the relationship, the more likely you will retain your users and have them return to your platform.

Personalization helps create relevancy and heighten value while delivering a unique UX, from allowing users to choose their plan, which then adapts their entire user journey, to suggested items based on shopping history.

4 - Recognize what you're doing well and do more of it Identifying successful experiences and dissecting them into their constituent parts can assist you in developing an extremely sticky app. You can determine your "power users," who typically have the highest LTV, engagement, and app longevity.

Once you've identified your power users, it's time to learn how they use your app so you can figure out what keeps them coming back.

It would help if you understood which features your power users use most frequently and their typical user journey. Examining the activities of current power users can reveal behavioural patterns that point to a future of high spending and engagement.

5 - Increase brand loyalty Building a rapport by adding tangible and one-of-a-kind value to your users' lives can foster a strong sense of loyalty, which will help improve your app's stickiness and reduce the likelihood of users defecting to the competition.

Provide personalized content that your users will find helpful and relevant. The more objective and non-sales your content is, the more trust you'll build with your users.

6 - Interact meaningfully with your users Your app's stickiness does not stop there. To increase engagement, we must look beyond your app, utilizing a variety of communication channels that can improve your UX.

Utilize timely, personalized push notifications with an enticing offer based on your users' status or progress. Send creative emails with intriguing subject lines that capitalize on users' FOMO. Share high-quality educational materials, such as video tutorials, best practices, and industry-relevant use cases.

All to stay top of mind with your users and remind them of the utility of your app.

7 – Keep a finger on your stickiness pulse Finally, stickiness is an engagement metric that indicates your app's long-term health. Analyzing the stickiness of your competitors can also play a role in your development strategy, so measuring stickiness on an ongoing basis is a necessary all-around habit to adopt.

Keep in mind that increasing app stickiness takes time. Proper testing is required to know what's working and what needs to be fixed; otherwise, you're just shooting arrows in the dark.

Key takeaways A sticky app has a loyal audience, low churn, and high engagement because it consistently provides a great and unique user experience that distinguishes it. Use this metric to optimize your campaigns and track the growth rate of your app.

To calculate stickiness, multiply your daily active users (DAU) by your monthly active users (MAU) to get a ratio that allows you to measure the proportion of monthly active users who engage with your app over 24 hours.

Improving app stickiness entails identifying weak points in your users' journey, ensuring seamless onboarding, personalizing your UX, understanding "power user" behaviour, building brand loyalty, meaningfully engaging with your users, and continuously measuring your app engagement.

Ad publishers are digital property owners who sell advertising space on their properties to third parties.

What is the distinction between a publisher and a marketer?

The publisher owns the channel or property hosting the ad, while the advertiser owns the ad content. Here are a few key distinctions

• The digital content property is owned and controlled by the publisher.
• Ad specifications, rates, editorial calendars, and quality standards are determined.
• Receives payment for the advertisement.
• Revenue is generated through advertising and possibly other sources such as subscriptions.

Advertiser

• Controls and owns the product or service being advertised.
• Determines the ad's content.
• The ad is paid for
• Earns money from eventual sales generated by the advertisement.

Models of monetization/h3>

How do publishers make a living? Publishers sell advertising using one of several revenue models:

Ad units:An advertiser pays for a specific ad size and placement in display advertising. An advertiser purchases a particular length of ad content, such as 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 60 seconds, in video or audio advertising.

Sponsored/affiliate links: Affiliate links pay a publisher a commission on any purchases made through the ad. Affiliate links are typically included with content related to that product or service.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) / Pay-Per-Impression (PPI): With pay-per-click (PPC), an advertiser only pays for the number of clicks or impressions on their ad. This can be a fixed amount or a fluctuating figure based on algorithms like the ones used by Google Ads.

Publishers and the ecosystem of Programmatic Advertising

While profitable, selling ad space can be time-consuming for a publisher. Manual selling can entail extensive outreach and communication with the advertiser, as well as the exchange of funds and artwork, the publication of the ad on the app or website, and the sharing of analytics.

The programmatic advertising ecosystem is a middleman to broker and streamlines ad sales for publishers to simplify and automate ad sales.

Publishers can pay for access to a supply-side platform (SSP) to manage their inventory sales to automate their inventory sales. Conversely, advertisers can pay for access to a demand-side platform (DSP) to manage their purchases.

Independent data brokers can also help provide ROI data to both parties.

Ad networks and ad exchanges

Ad networks pool ad inventory for advertisers to purchase more quickly. Ad exchanges, on the other hand, serve the same purpose but are carried out by algorithms rather than humans.

A software platform that manages the distribution of digital advertising campaigns is known as an ad server.

What exactly is an ad server?

An ad server saves variations of creative assets from an ad campaign, such as imagery, audio, and video files, and decides which versions to serve to which customers. Ad servers can also collect data, such as clicks and impressions, to provide insight into the performance of an ad.

Ad servers are data-driven matchmakers that connect ads with audiences based on geolocation, interests, and behaviours. For example, if an ad is about outdoor gear, the ad server looks for people whose data indicates a hiking interest.

These sophisticated algorithms make decisions based on multiple targeting variables, the frequency with which an ad is presented, where and in what format it is displayed, and its earning potential.

What exactly is temporary attribution?

Temporary attribution is a time-sensitive model that allows UA managers to customize how their data is presented. It can also be used for testing and campaign management.

Let's look at an example to see how this differs from traditional attribution models:

You have a gaming app and want to run a limited-time offer campaign. You also want to see how quickly a new network, Network B, can drive in-app events after reattribution. You should stop crediting Network B for future in-app events when the week is up.

The network would be compensated for those reattributions. Still, the reattributed users' subsequent session and event data would be attributed to the previous source, whether organic or another network source.

As a result, temporary attribution can help determine the success of engagement and retarget campaigns.

Third-party (advertiser or buy-side)

Third-party ad servers indirectly allow advertisers to interact with multiple publishing platforms by storing, serving and measuring various variations of active ad campaigns.

Advertisers typically use their ad servers to test and optimize creative variations and measure the results of campaign deliveries across placements.

Advertisers benefit from third-party ad servers in several ways:

• Advertisers can better manage their creative assets without requiring updates from publishers.
• They can create templates to generate new creatives that more efficiently meet various publishing platform requirements.
• They can test multiple versions of the same campaign to determine which version performs best with which targeted audience and on which platform.
• Advertisers can optimize campaign delivery in real time.
• They can use frequency capping to limit the number of times a user sees a single piece of the creative campaign.
• They can distribute their ad spend evenly across placements within a given timeframe.
• Advertisers can gather detailed campaign performance data across all of their placements.
• Rather than relying on each publisher's data, this method produces more transparent and accurate reporting.
• It enables tracking traffic and engagement across multiple sources to optimize future spending.
• It consolidates critical metrics and insights into a single location for efficient reporting

Servers that are self-hosted (or open-source)

The decision comes down to control, cost, speed, and ease of use.

• One-time setup fee with ongoing server maintenance costs.
• Full data ownership - A front and back end that can be completely customized.

• Installation, customization, and support necessitate specialized technical knowledge.
• An open-source server may lack the features you require, necessitating the use of additional plug-ins to perform desired functions.

How to Choose the Best Ad Server for You

Your market role and position will steer you toward a solution that meets your business objectives. When auditing your specific needs, the most important thing to consider is how much time and effort you're willing to invest in implementing a solution that meets your goals.

Publishers will look for platforms that support rich media ad formats, provide self-service account management for advertisers, as well as optimize tools that assist in prioritizing high CPM (cost per mille) ads.

Important Takeaways

Like web servers, ads are engines that work behind the scenes to power the digital advertising ecosystem. The ad-serving workflow is complex, involving a vast network of interconnected technologies.

When things are going well, you don't notice the effort, but it has a huge ripple effect when something goes wrong.

Ad servers will use the same functional capabilities in different ways to help you manage the scope of your digital marketing efforts, depending on your business purpose and needs.

Whether a publisher or advertiser, an ad server can be a dynamic hub of operational efficiencies for managing your inventory, creative assets, and relationships.

Having control over your ad server means having control over your data. As a result, your ad server serves as a central artery of business intelligence, processing critical information about your customers, investments, and efforts within and across channels.

An ad server keeps this valuable information in one place, which can be used to make critical decisions.

Managing multiple ad networks via a single SDK to assist publishers in increasing CPMs, fill rates, and efficiency.

What exactly is ad mediation?

Ad mediation platforms enable app publishers to manage multiple ad networks from a single centralized platform, simplifying reporting and optimization. Without it, publishers must work with each ad network via their SDKs and platforms.

Ad mediation platforms help publishers sell more inventory and increase fill rates by forcing ad networks to compete with one another. The publishers accept the highest bid, resulting in optimal fill rates and an increase in eCPMs.

How does header bidding in-app work?

Multiple advertisers bid in real-time for a specific ad space using programmatic technology, with the highest bidder winning. The highest bidder pays one cent more than the second highest bidder. This enables publishers to sell their inventory at the highest possible price while also allowing advertisers to deliver a competitive rate.

What are the advantages?

The first issue that publishers must address is increasing the amount of ad inventory sold, also known as fill rates. This is accomplished by collaborating with more ad networks and encouraging advertisers to compete for your ad space via an ad mediation platform.

They enable publishers to manage multiple ad networks with a single platform and SDK. Campaign managers, on the other hand, do not have to go into each ad network interface to manage and optimize campaign performance. Instead, they get a bird's-eye view of their ad networks, giving them access to more opportunities to sell ad space and improve campaign performance at scale.

However, Facebook and Google do not share all of their data with ad mediation platforms. Sometimes, the campaign manager will still need to manage their campaigns using different media.

How do you pick the best platform for you?

With so many platforms to choose from, how do you prefer? To find the best ad mediation platform for you, consider the following questions:

What are ad networks supported?

Check that the ad networks you are currently advertising on and the ad networks you intend to use in the future are integrated with the platform.

What is the user experience like?

One of the most significant advantages of these platforms is that they simplify campaign management. Ensure that the reports are easily accessible and that the workflow saves you time.

Is the server trustworthy?

You don't want to work with a platform that has frequent outages. The less trustworthy they are, the more money you will lose.

What additional campaign optimization features do they provide?

Inquire about how the platform can help you improve campaign performance. Do they support audience segmentation and campaign testing? How are their customer service and data security protocols?

An ad exchange is a digital marketplace for buying and selling advertising inventory.

Who makes use of it?

On an ad exchange, virtually anyone can buy and sell impressions. Publishers use ad exchanges to sell ad space and advertisers or agencies to buy ad space.

How do ad exchanges function?

To gain a better understanding of the ad exchange's role in the digital marketing ecosystem, let's first identify the key players and examine how they interact with one another-

Ad networks and their differences from ad exchanges

An ad network connects advertisers to publishers that offer ad inventory. An ad network's primary function is to aggregate ad supply from publishers and match it with advertiser demand.

Although the ad exchange and ad network appear to serve the same purpose, they do not. Ad networks gather digital ad inventory from a list of publisher sites or buy ad impressions in bulk from an ad exchange, sort them, and resell them to advertisers. Because advertisers lack the time and resources to filter available inventory, Ad Networks do it for them.

They categorise inventory based on specific criteria such as pricing, scale, or audience segments (demographics, geography, language, interests, consumer behaviour, etc.). Some Ad Networks are concerned with coverage and quantity, while others are concerned with the quality of ad slots available.

An ad network is a closed group of privately traded ads, whereas an ad exchange is an open pool of impressions. Ad exchanges provide more transparency to buyers because they can see exactly how much each image is sold for, with no intermediary players.

How does this all fit together on the ad exchange?

In many ways, the ad exchange functions similarly to an auction, allowing advertisers to reach their target audiences across a diverse pool of publishers.

Advertisers and agencies typically use a DSP to connect to an ad exchange, while publishers typically make impressions available on a conversation via an SSP.

What exactly occurs during real-time bidding (RTB)?

When a user visits a web or in-app page, an ad impression is created and auctioned off on the exchange. The DSP can analyse data from various sources, including the user's mobile identifier, time of day, device type, ad position, demographics, and purchasing behaviour, to determine whether to bid on the impression and how much to bid for it.

The most fantastic aspect of the buying and selling process is that it all happens in the blink of an eye.

RTB is based on a fully automated process that determines the price of advertising space and inventory in real time based on supply and demand. Advertisers can bid on ad space with a set number of ad impressions, and the highest bidder's ad is displayed for each image.

A few key ad exchanges

• DoubleClick (Google)
• AppNexus
• OpenX
• Rubicon Project Exchange (Magnate)
• Right Media Exchange (Yahoo)
• Smaato – mobile focused
• MoPub (Twitter) – mobile-focused.

Important takeaways

Using attribution data, mobile advertisers can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their ad exchange purchases. It provides you with authoritative, indisputable data that allows you to allocate your budget better and optimise your app's performance, ROAS, and LTV.

• It contributes to making the process of buying and selling ad space more efficient and transparent while also increasing profitability: Advertisers reach out to their valued target audience at the right time and in the most relevant, data-driven context, while publishers get the best price for their ad space.

• An ad exchange can analyse real-time data from various sources: Users' mobile identifiers, time of day, device type, ad position, demographics, and purchasing behaviour are all used to determine whether to bid on the impression and how much to bid on it.

• It enables advertisers to buy ads across multiple sites at once: As opposed to directly negotiating purchases with specific publishers. An ad exchange provides a more efficient and transparent solution for buying and selling digital advertising in an increasingly complex and dynamic advertisement market.

Assisted instals are app instals due to multiple user touchpoints along the path to installing an app. These touchpoints (clicks and views) preceding the final installation are called "assists."

App-ads.txt is a text file that app developers/publishers add to their developer websites to list vendors authorized to sell their inventory. It assists participating players in overcoming various programmatic advertising limitations, such as a lack of transparency and security.

How does app-ads.txt function?

Developers of mobile apps upload the app-ads.txt file to their developer website. They can also use online app-ads.txt hosting platforms to upload it for them. The developer website URL is then included in each app store listing.

Buyers and advertisers can search individual app stores to find the developer's website for a specific app. Advertisers can crawl the developer website once they have the URL to identify vendors authorized to sell the publisher's ad inventory, which comes in handy when deciding whether to accept or reject bid requests from an ad network or SSP.

Example of app-ads.txt

• The domain of the ad system
• The ID of the publisher's account
• Type of account/relationship
• The ID of the certificate authority

Here's an example of an app-ads.txt record:

Let's take a closer look at each of the app-ads.txt records:

The domain of the ad system-

The buyer will use the canonical domain name of the advertising system (or ad network) to access the publisher's inventory. If a publisher, for example, wants to authorize Google's ad network to sell their inventory, the ad system domain can be "Google.com."

The ID of the publisher's account-

In the advertising system, a unique identifier is associated with the publisher's or reseller's account. In the preceding example, the publisher account ID is "pub-00000000000000000000."

Type of account/relationship:

In this case, "DIRECT" indicates that Google's ad network will offer the publisher's inventory directly to interested buyers, and "VENDOR" denotes the seller's relationship with the vendor. The publisher can label a vendor as "direct" or "reseller," depending on whether the vendor sells inventory through third-party resellers.

Publishers should not include any vendor in their app-ads.txt file unless they or their partners have a relationship with them.

The ID of the certificate authority

A one-of-a-kind identifier that identifies an advertising system (or ad network) within a certification authority. In the preceding example, the certificate authority ID is "f08c47fec0942fa0."

Important Takeaways

• The IAB created app-ads.txt as a simple tool to prevent ad fraud and improve transparency in programmatic advertising. The benefits of ads.txt are extended to the mobile in-app and OTT advertising ecosystems.
• It contains a list of ad networks, and SSPs permitted to sell a publisher's app inventory. The file is available on the corresponding developer website, and advertisers can use it to decide whether to accept or reject vendor bid requests.
• Implementing app-ads.txt correctly provides the following advantages:

1. Transparency and trust have improved.
2. Reduced counterfeit inventory and domain spoofing risk
3. Minimal advertising revenue loss as a result of unauthorized reselling.
4. Increased ROI for advertisers
5. Brand security is guaranteed.

• A publisher/developer must ensure that each record is formatted correctly. This can help publishers, and advertisers get the most out of programmatic advertising.

App store analytics provide app owners with valuable information about their app's success.

Ad units are placeholders that display advertisements to users to monetize app or website traffic. They contain code that calls ads from ad servers to display ads in various formats within a platform.

Formats for ad units

Not all mobile advertisements are created equal. Some may be text-only, while others may be more interactive. Mobile ad units come in various formats, each of which is uniquely effective in its way. Here are some of the most common:

Banner ad unit: Rectangular ads appear at the top or bottom of the app and are refreshed at predetermined intervals. This is one of the most common and easiest to implement types of mobile ad units. Text, image-rich media, and video can all be included.

Overlay ads with a companion: Responsive advertisements appear in the middle of a desktop or mobile screen and expand when an interaction occurs. If a user clicks on the ad after it has been closed, it can be minimized and raised again.

Overlay slider ads: Ads that slide up from the bottom of the screen to fill the entire screen and only expand when clicked. This is available on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Native ads: They are highly customizable ads that mimic your app or website's natural look and feel. Native ads work well with long-form written content and can be created as image or video ads.

Ad units: That gives users in-app rewards after they complete a survey, play a game, or watch videos in the form of video ads or interactive ads are referred to as rewarded ad units. This encourages users to interact with apps and earn rewards.

Non-rewarded video ad unit: Ad unit with video and audio content. Video ads frequently appear on banners and begin muted. There are six types of video advertisements:

• Bumper ads: Short and short videos that occur before, during, or after another video with no option to skip.
• Skippable in-stream ads: videos that play before, during, or after another video. A few seconds after the video begins, users are given the option to skip it.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: videos that play before, in the middle of, or after another video that the user cannot skip. These videos are frequently kept short of providing a positive user experience.
• Outstream ads: Mobile-only video advertisements that play automatically but without sound can be unmuted. These advertisements appear in banners, in-feed, natively, and as interstitials.
• In-Feed Video: Video ads that appear in search results or content feeds are known as in-feed video ads. These advertisements frequently increase video views by encouraging users to click on the video thumbnail.
• Masthead advertisements: These are big featured videos that appear at the top of a website, such as the YouTube homepage

Playable ad unit:

A mobile advertising format where users can play micro-games or short snippets of gameplay. They are divided into three sections. The tutorial comes first and quickly demonstrates the game's key mechanic. Conversely, the gameplay provides a preview of the game within 10-20 seconds. Finally, there is an end card with a clear call to action asking users to install the game.

Interstitial Ads:

They are apparent and command the user's full attention. Interstitial ads float in the middle of the screen on a desktop and take up the entire screen on mobile devices.

Audio ads:

Audio-only ad units that focus on the user's auditory experience provide a less intrusive ad experience than other formats and are popular with audio platforms such as Spotify and Amazon Echo.

Offerwall ad unit:

A mobile ad unit that displays in-app rewards for completing an offer or engaging with an ad. Users have complete control over when they want to interact with offerwalls, resulting in a positive user experience.

Text ad unit:

Text ads are primarily used on search platforms such as Google and Bing to advertise a product or service. There is no rich media included.

Common ad unit sizes

Mobile banners:

1. 320×50 – Banner for Phones and Tablets
2. 320×100 – Large Banner for Phones and Tablets
3. 300×250 – IAB Medium Rectangle for Phones and Tablets
4. 468×60 – IAB Full-Size Banner for Tablets
5. 728×90 – IAB Leaderboard for Tablets

Display banners:

1. 300×250 – Inline rectangle
2. 320×50 – Mobile leaderboard
3. 320×100 – Large mobile banner
4. 250×250 – Square banner
5. 200×200 – Small square banner

Largest performing ad sizes for Google:

1. 300×250 – Medium rectangle for desktop
2. 336×280 – Large rectangle for desktop
3. 728×90 – Leaderboard for desktop and tablets
4. 300×600 – "Half page" banner
5. 320×100 – Large mobile banner

In the broadest sense, a bot is an autonomous programme designed to perform pre-defined tasks over the internet. While bots typically perform simple tasks, these software programmes have evolved to handle increasingly complex tasks - both good and bad.

What exactly are bots in mobile fraud?

Mobile fraud bots can run on real mobile devices. Still, they usually run on servers, simulating specific tasks like ad clicks, instals, and in-app engagement while masquerading as legitimate users.

Malware on a user's device can also be identified as a bot.

These malware programmes generate bogus ad impressions, fraudulent clicks, and in-app engagement, leading to fake in-app purchases without the user's knowledge.

How do bots function?

Server-based bots will operate through emulators (device simulating software) by mimicking an active user's behaviour, interacting with ads, completing app installation funnels, and sometimes even reaching a profound in-app event.

These programmes constantly refresh their metadata, observe and learn user behaviour patterns, and apply them in their activity to avoid being detected by fraud detection solutions.

IP blacklisting is frequently used to block server-based bots; however, fraudsters have learned better to conceal their activity behind new, non-blacklisted IPs, necessitating constant updates in blacklists and advanced solutions for fraudulent IP detection.

Device-based bots may employ a technique known as SDK mimicking (also known as SDK spoofing), in which App A attempts to impersonate App B by sending false click, install, and in-app event reports on its behalf.

Apps with open source SDKs or low-security measures are more vulnerable to such attacks because their SDK is easier to breach, mimic, or reverse engineer.

In the world of mobile fraud, a blacklist is a database of known fraud signal providers.

What exactly are blacklists?

Any publisher or source whose behaviour matches known fraud patterns is flagged as mobile fraud and, where possible, blocked.

Many anti-fraud solutions purchase or maintain their blacklists of known fraud Device IDs, bot signatures, and IP addresses.

When a source is added to a blacklist, all clicks and instals from that source are automatically blocked.

What is the significance of blacklists?

Criminals can quickly and cheaply change their IP addresses and Device IDs, avoiding the real-time protection of most blacklists.

Furthermore, only data providers with massive, real-time databases and advanced machine learning capabilities can quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent devices and IP addresses, providing meaningful real-time protection.

Similarly, many fraud providers blacklist only a few bot signatures because developing the necessary bot signature database requires massive resources.

A bid request is a code used to sell display advertisements and inventory information. It enables visitors to see most relevant ads and multiple advertisers to use the same ad spot on a given publisher's platform.

What exactly is a bid request?

Computers process data and make decisions at breakneck speed. The exact ads on the page aren't determined with bid requests until visitors arrive at the app or website. When they do, an automatic bid request is generated to provide information about available impression inventory and consenting visitor demographics (age, gender, location, visited websites, etc.).

This programming language is used for header bidding, exchange bidding, and real-time bidding (RTB).

What is the purpose of bid requests?

Bid requests aid in quickly retrieving the most relevant ad for the current visitor.

A bid request, for example, could be used to target users who recently visited your or a competitor's website or app. Ad exchangers' information about web visitors, such as cookies, tags, and pixels, and the platform (inventory details and number of impressions), as well as app users' information, such as IDFA, will be included in bid requests.

A company could also avoid advertising to segments of the audience who had recently purchased by using bid requests, instead focusing on new leads for a brand awareness campaign.

How does it work in practice?

The bid request is generated as soon as a user visits a web page or launches an app, and it pulls various data points based on the consenting user, page, and site analytics. This data is then sent to an ad exchange, which is shared with advertisers.

Advertisers place real-time bids for ads they have ready and waiting based on the context provided by the bid request. An ad server selects the highest bid and immediately puts the winning ad on the page.

The entire process takes less than a second while the page is loading.

Important Takeaways

Bid requests enable advertisers and publishers to negotiate a mutually beneficial ad spend agreement.

The information gathered allows the advertiser to target their ideal audience, but it also assists the publisher in making the most of each ad spot. Bid requests allow publishers to accept the highest bid and increase the value of the ad spot for the advertiser.

So, to summarise, here are the critical points about bid requests and real-time bidding:

• Bid requests enable real-time bids for digital or mobile advertisements from web pages or apps.
• Open auction (or real-time bidding) in programmatic advertising allows companies to target their audiences rather than pay for a specific site's placement.
• Bid request information assists advertisers in reaching out to specific audience groups who are more likely to be positively influenced by their ads.
• Bid requests allow for a more personalised experience for the audience by displaying ads that correspond to their behaviour or interests.
• Bid requests are received almost instantly, allowing for real-time bidding. The publisher approves the highest bid for each spot, and the viewer enjoys a seamless loading process with targeted ads.
• Advertisers control the real-time bidding process and can set parameters such as focusing on critical information or spending limits.
• Ad mismatching, insensitive placement, and other issues are possible when computer programmes rather than humans run the ads. If there are any potential threats, the parameters should be carefully considered, as should how poor placement can be avoided.

Is your marketing budget immune to attribution bias? See examples and learn how collaborating with an MMP can help you protect your data from erroneous attribution.

This is known as biased attribution, when a paid advertising platform or ad network is incentivized to attribute traffic to itself over a competitor. This attribution bias occurs when the network serves as both a source of traffic and conversions and a measurement provider. App marketers in charge of mobile attribution should be wary of bias affecting their campaigns.

Four examples of erroneous attribution:

Most app marketers now work across multiple ad platforms to achieve their user acquisition goals. Misattribution is common when marketers do not have an attribution partner, confusing campaign metrics and budgets. Four of the most common examples of biased attribution are provided below.

Bias in the market

This attribution bias occurs when a user is already looking for an app and may have installed the app without seeing the advertisement. In this case, however, the ad will still receive credit for the attribution, even if it did not influence the user's decision to install.

Bias toward low-cost inventory

This term refers to misattribution, which occurs when one campaign ad performs better than another due to a lower-priced product. However, the ad may be superior in creativity and design rather than the lower-priced product driving conversion.

Bias based on correlation

This is most likely the most common type of attribution bias. The assumption that an event in the customer journey caused a subsequent event when they are not truly connected is known as correlation-based bias.

Bias in digital signals

Digital signal bias can occur if the online and offline activity is not considered. You have a digital signal bias when your attribution model fails to account for the relationship between offline sales and online training.

How can marketers avoid attribution bias?

The simplest way to obtain data free of attribution bias is to collaborate with a neutral, third-party mobile measurement platform (MMP). MMPs act as a bridge between networks and app developers, analyzing traffic and determining the validity of each engagement and install. To ensure data integrity, MMPs also use anti-fraud solutions.

Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) refers to on-demand video content from traditional broadcasters that includes high-quality, professionally-produced online and on-demand content.

What exactly is BVOD?

BVOD is a growing video delivery model that refers to video content produced and published by traditional broadcasters that is available online and on-demand.

Although BVOD provides high-quality content to viewers for free, most BVOD platforms include advertisements in their content to generate revenue.

During the pandemic, BVOD usage has skyrocketed among both viewers and advertisers. Because it has several advantages over other forms of video on demand and traditional TV, it has grown in popularity in countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Other BVOD providers include NBCUniversal's Peacock, Hulu, Pluto TV, and Sling TV.

The rising popularity of BVOD

BVOD has grown in popularity as a method of delivering high-quality content.

According to a recent study, linear TV and BVOD will reach more than 90% of the UK's adult population each week in 2021, accounting for nearly 26% of broadcaster viewing among 16 to 34-year-olds.

However, the surge in BVOD adoption is not surprising. It allows viewers to watch high-quality TV shows and films on any device of their choice, such as their phones, tablets, or computers.

Even better, instead of being limited to predetermined programming on linear TV, viewers can access their preferred content anytime, making BVOD an excellent choice for cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

The Advantages of BVOD Advertising

As more viewers embrace it, BVOD is attracting the attention of advertisers. Due to it, advertisers and publishers will have an excellent opportunity to enter the thriving CTV advertising landscape.

For example, global CTV ad spending has increased rapidly and recently surpassed the $20 billion mark. Similarly, BVOD revenue reached $363 million, an increase of 67.8% yearly.

What is the distinction between BVOD, SVOD, TVOD, and AVOD?

Advertisers and publishers in the CTV landscape are frequently overwhelmed by different types of video-on-demand. Let's take a closer look at the most important ones:

Subscription video on demand (SVOD)-

SVOD provides viewers access to high-quality video content for a monthly or annual subscription fee, assisting content publishers and streaming service providers in retaining users and building a loyal subscriber base. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are two popular SVOD platforms.

Transactional video on demand (TVOD)-

TVOD does not require users to pay a subscription fee to sign up for the platform but rather to purchase or rent various films and shows for a fee. Google Play Movies & TV is one such example.

Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD)-

AVOD provides viewers free access to all films and shows on the platform. Users must watch commercial ads before or during a video to enable monetization.

YouTube is one of the most well-known AVOD platforms; others include Peacock, Pluto TV, and Facebook Watch.

Brand safety is a digital marketing definition that refers to channels and practices designed to assist advertisers in avoiding any placement or context that may potentially harm the advertiser's brand or reputation.

What exactly is brand safety?

This term typically refers to channels that do not contain sexual content, violence, hate speech, or other potentially harmful content.

What is the significance of brand safety?

Brands are highly concerned about how they are represented.

Because fraudsters are always looking for loopholes and market gaps to exploit to make a more significant profit, they will frequently try to place sensitive brand-safe campaigns offering higher payouts in non-brand-safe placements, which are usually cheaper.

This is where domain or app mimicking may come into play. Fraudsters will use their names and occupations to present low-quality placements as high-quality, manipulating server messages.

Advertisers purchase campaign inventory through mobile advertising payment mechanics. Each mechanic charges a "cost per" service. The advertiser pays the publisher when a user completes a pre-agreed-upon action (and when it can be proven complete).

The total cost of a campaign is determined by determining how many users from that specific channel completed the action during the campaign's duration.

What are the various pricing models available to advertisers?

There are numerous payment methods available, but the following are the most commonly used in the mobile advertising space:

The advertiser pays the publisher every time; a thousand impressions are recorded on a single advertisement.

The advertiser pays the publisher every time a user clicks on an advertisement.

The advertiser pays the publisher every time a user clicks on an advertisement and then installs the app featured in that campaign.

The advertiser pays the publisher each time a user interacts with an advertisement, opens or installs an app, and then completes an action (e.g., a newsletter sign-up).

Other purchasing mechanics exist, such as cost per engagement, but these four approaches are the most popular among advertisers in the mobile advertising space.

Conversion tracking is when a mobile measurement partner monitors a specific mapped data point within a mobile app. When an advertiser works with an ad platform, for example, they use conversion tracking to determine which specific data points are reached by users they acquire.

What is the significance of conversion tracking?

Conversion tracking ensures that advertisers and ad networks know where an install or purchase (or any other data point) originated, which aids in determining the source's quality. It also provides a more comprehensive understanding of campaign performance for future optimization.

A cohort in mobile marketing is a group of users linked together by a familiar identifier. A cohort can be anything as long as there is a commonality: from users in a specific geographic location to users who installed an app within the same time frame.

Cohorts are intended to make it easier for marketers to compare data by using the metrics that are relevant in a given context. You can do numerous things with cohorts that solidify cohort analysis as an essential component of mobile marketing.

After installing an app, a user has an engagement lifespan, which expresses trends that can be manipulated. The issue is that with a constantly changing user base, any changes you make may be imperceptible. You must be able to look at the same group of users over time to get a clear picture of how your manipulations have affected them. Furthermore, engagement rates differ between users and different stages of your users' lives. As a result, optimization will work on some groups, but not others, and cohorts allow you to learn where your optimizations have succeeded.

Cohort analysis can also eliminate the confusion resulting from running concurrent improvements and campaigns, giving you a clear picture of what is producing the best results and which channels are worth your investment.

Click spam, also known as organics poaching, is an advertising fraud in which a fraudster executes clicks for users who did not make them.

This allows fraudsters to claim credit for fake clicks unless preventative measures are in place.

Click spam begins when a user lands on a mobile web page or app operated by a fraudster. From there, various types of fraud could occur:

The mobile web page could perform clicks in the background without any visible advertisements.

The spammer could start clicking in the background while the user is using their app, giving the impression that they have interacted with an advertisement.

If they run an app that is active in the background at all times, the fraudulent app can generate clicks at any time (e.g., launchers, memory cleaners, battery savers)

The fraudster could send impressions as clicks to make it appear as if a view had converted into an engagement.

The spammer could send clicks to tracking vendors using fraudulent device IDs.

These approaches have in common that the user is unaware they have been registered as interacting with an ad. This is because they never saw an advertisement. The fraudulent scheme occurs in the background of the user's device, leaving them in the dark.

Cost aggregation is the process of combining your cost estimates to obtain a single all-inclusive figure that represents your project spend.

Cost aggregation has the following advantages:

When done correctly, cost consolidation can provide several advantages to a company. It is beneficial to:

• Compare costs across partners, countries, and platforms.
• The defeat cost data fragmentation.
• Provide a clear and accurate picture of ROI.
• Allow project managers to see marketing spending broken down by activity.

The churn rate is an essential metric for all apps. Learn what churn rate is, how to calculate it, and why it is an important KPI. The percentage of users who have stopped using an app is the churn rate. This could be customers who have stopped using the app and are no longer starting sessions or uninstalled the app. The difference between these two churn definitions is determined by an app's vertical and business goals. Customer churn rate, for example, refers to the group of users who have stopped using the app's products or services. This is especially useful for apps that operate on a subscription basis.

The churn rate of an app is the number of users who leave the app in a given time frame.

What is the significance of the churn rate?

A high churn rate could mean you are spending much money on user acquisition but not getting the most out of the user. You can improve user retention — and thus revenue — by identifying the issues. Some mobile app verticals are bracing for high churn. For example, hyper-casual gaming developers see high churn rates as an unavoidable part of their overall business strategy and have adjusted their models to account for it.

How do you compute the churn rate?

Determine whether you will be measuring inactive users, users who have uninstalled the app, or users who have canceled a subscription before tailoring a churn rate calculation to your app's needs. Then, decide on a time frame. Is it necessary to calculate the annual churn rate, the monthly churn rate, or another period?

In-app event tracking can help you see where your users tend to churn in the user lifecycle, giving you an idea of which period will be most beneficial to measure and the precise locations where you may need to intervene to reduce churn.

What is an acceptable churn rate?

A negative churn rate indicates that an app has made more revenue from new and existing customers than it has lost from churned users, which is a rare occurrence.

A negative churn rate indicates that an app has made more revenue from new and existing customers than it has lost from churned users, which is a rare occurrence.

By analyzing the churn rate, app developers can determine if changes such as improving UX, optimizing features, or adjusting prices are required to help retain customers. Churn rate benchmarks will vary depending on your app's vertical, region, and operating system.

It is critical to remember that a churned user is not lost forever; numerous win-back strategies are available.

Ad partners must share impressions to confirm that each click has a matching impression. This validates the display of an ad, preventing click fraud from infiltrating a marketer's data and stealing ad spending.

A user must be exposed to an ad before clicking on it. Although this makes complete sense, ad channels can click on an ad without informing their attribution partners of a good impression. As a result, fraudulent clicks are delivered that would otherwise be rejected (by validating each impression).

Network partners already track impressions and ad delivery for their analytics. As a result, sharing this data with attribution partners is entirely possible.

Click validation safeguards against three types of fraud:

It occurs when a fraudster executes clicks for users who did not make them. Check out our definition of click spam for more information.

It is a more sophisticated type of click spam. Fraudsters can detect when other apps are downloaded onto a device by listening to "install broadcasts" via an Android app. They can use this information to trigger clicks just before an installation is completed, claiming credit for the installation.

Also known as replay attacks, this creates legitimate-looking installs using accurate device data with no simple installs present.

This new standard requires ad channels to send impressions with a unique identifier, as our white paper explains. This allows us to confirm that a click was logically possible - a requirement that significantly increases the workload of a fraudster.

The click-through rate, or CTR, is the proportion of people who click on a given ad, link, email, etc., to the total number of people who viewed it. CTR in mobile marketing refers to the number of clicks on an ad concerning total views.

For example, if a company runs a mobile advertising campaign that generates 10,000 impressions and 500 App Store clicks, the CTR for that campaign is 5%.

CTRs are a valuable metric for assessing the effectiveness of mobile advertising. It is possible to benchmark campaign performance by putting the CTR of one campaign in the context of other movements. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. CTR can be used in A/B testing to compare the like-for-like performance of advertising creatives, determining whether certain creative features increase interactions.

CTRs can be used to compare the effectiveness of various advertising channels. When comparing CTRs for banners, interstitials, video, and other campaign types, an advertiser can determine their energy, which can help determine where to invest most of the mobile advertising performance.

CTRs can also assess user quality within the giant attribution funnel. An advertiser can learn whether a high CTR corresponds to increased user value by tying campaign performance to in-app behavior. This can assist advertisers tempted by high CTR channels in determining whether they will provide high-quality traffic - or simply a high volume of users - and adjusting advertising investment accordingly.

In some cases, a high CTR does not always correspond with conversion rates, so it is critical to define your KPIs. Assume you have an e-commerce app; the most necessary conversion is a purchase event. In your analytics, you may notice that Network A has a CTR of 10% while Network B only has a CTR of 7%. However, Network A has a 5% conversion rate, while Network B has a 20% conversion rate. Despite having a lower CTR, Network B has a higher ROI in this case.

• Click-through rate = total number of clicks / total impressions Or for email marketing:



• Click-through rate = percentage of people that have clicked on a button, link, or visual in an email / total number of email opens.

What is the significance of CTR?

Undoubtedly, the bottom line driving your user acquisition optimization should always be down-funnel metrics.

However, CTR remains one of the more powerful metrics for measuring the success of creatives and content, and it should be balanced with your primary KPI(s) for the best overall performance.

For example, suppose you are running an ad that drives high-value users to your app but receives little traffic or has a low CTR. In that case, you can change the ad design, language, call to action, or other ad elements to increase the volume and quality of traffic to your app.

Because CTR reflects user engagement and interest, a higher CTR is preferable. High CTR is then linked to an ad's quality and relevance scores as the primary determinant. Higher CTRs for Google AdWords and other search marketing platforms indicate greater relevance and usefulness to your users, directly impacting the prices marketers pay per ad served.

What are CTR's limitations?

It is critical to understand that, in the context of a comprehensive evaluation of campaign success, CTR is ultimately a "vanity metric" that ranks low on the hierarchy of performance-driven parameters available for measurement and should not be given significant weight when optimizing campaigns.

CTR is only one component of a comprehensive understanding of the user funnel. When combined with more significant performance metrics such as installs or purchases, it enables networks and marketers to increase user acquisition, optimize performance marketing tactics, and be more strategic with marketing budgets in the future.

Conversion in marketing occurs when a user acts in response to a call to action in an ad, offer, or notification. The action that qualifies as a "conversion" can vary depending on the platform: for mobile, it could be a download, install, sign-up, or purchase.

Marketers use conversion rates to assess the success of a campaign. Conversion rates are the proportion of users who complete the desired conversion. This is calculated by dividing the total number of users who completed the action by the total size of the audience exposed to that ad. For instance, suppose an advertiser runs a campaign with a target audience of 20,000 people. 800 people from that group clicked

(i.e., converted): 800/20000 = 0.04 or a 4% conversion rate.

What is the significance of conversions?

Conversion KPIs are critical for determining the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Only by measuring how many users convert as a result of that spend can you calculate your ROAS. When developing your KPIs, consider the conversions that correspond to your company's objectives. For example, a high install conversion rate is a positive result but does not always translate into more revenue from in-app purchases. In this case, you must consider both the conversion rate for installs and the conversion rate for in-app purchases in your analysis to learn how to convert users from install to purchase.

A conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete a specific action. Conversion rates are calculated by taking the total number of users who 'convert' (for example, by clicking on an advertisement), dividing that figure by the total size of the audience, and converting that figure to a percentage.

For example, suppose an advertiser runs a mobile ad campaign on Facebook that reaches 10,000 people. Of those 10,000 people, 400 clicked on the ad (the conversion event in this scenario). As a result, the overall conversion rate for this campaign is as follows:

400/10000 = 0.04, or a 4% conversion rate

With the knowledge that 4% of users who saw an ad converted, marketers now have a metric to strive for to grow further.

What is the significance of conversion rates?

Conversion rates are an excellent way to compare and contrast the performance of different advertising channels. As in the previous example, conversion rates are significant when running mobile user acquisition campaigns because they allow you to track the success of each campaign. When scaling a campaign, they can also set ROI expectations.

Conversion rates do not always refer to clicks; they can also refer to conversion events that occur further down the funnel. For example, the percentage of users who went on to install an app or complete an in-app action can be calculated. This is useful for advertisers and marketers because it allows them to identify valuable users. This data can then be fed into the funnel to improve targeting and campaign performance.

Conversion rate analysis, when used correctly, can reveal which channels are most effective for promoting a specific app, allowing an advertiser to determine the effectiveness of their copy and use it to guide strategic decisions. Suppose your data shows that your conversion rate is lower than expected. In that case, you can use it to identify problems with an app's UX (for example, when users are having trouble signing in) and highlight other areas for improvement.

Although no single conversion rate can be used to define success in the mobile advertising industry, research into industry benchmarks and vertical-specific conversion expectations can be beneficial. This research can be used to compare these figures to the performance of your in-house advertising campaigns across a variety of channels and advertisers.

A callback (also known as a postback by some) is a ping sent from one server to another. A callback can be triggered manually or automatically when a specific action or event within an app is completed.

What is the significance of callbacks?

Callbacks are essential for anyone using server-based technology to provide real-time business intelligence reporting. Callbacks are the method by which data is transferred from one server to another from a mechanical standpoint. This means they're required for anyone who wants to feed data into tools or dashboards connected to the server, such as a mobile analytics dashboard.

In general, the presence of consistently triggered callbacks helps businesses feel confident in the quality of their data. Rather than questioning whether figures are correct, business professionals who use dashboards with automated callbacks can be reasonably satisfied that their data is accurate.

This significantly impacts a company's confidence in using data to inform performance. Knowing that this critical data is updated in real time when significant events occur enables developers to respond quickly to any required changes.

For example, if an update is pushed that causes users to churn due to a technical issue, a company that runs callbacks on crash reports may be able to identify the problems early and resolve them as quickly as possible. In a better case scenario, an app developer running callbacks on in-app purchase events might notice a spike after a push notification campaign, informing them that this is a successful technique that could be scaled up.

Considerations when discussing callbacks

Businesses must think about when they want callbacks to be triggered. While it is possible to trigger callbacks on almost any event, requesting callbacks on everything poses two potential challenges to businesses.

To begin with, requesting callbacks on everything will put internal servers under strain. This could mean that anything that connects to the server (including the app itself) will be impacted by callback traffic, potentially slowing performance.

Second, requesting callbacks on everything may interfere with the successful analysis. Businesses must decide whether analyzing everything or focusing on specific actions will benefit their processes more. On the other hand, setting up callbacks for each stage of your user funnel is exceptionally beneficial to your retargeting analysis. This can help you see where users fall short and tell you how long it takes most users to move from one step to the next.

A sophisticated form of click-spamming is clicked injection. Fraudsters detect when other apps are downloaded, and trigger clicks before an install is complete by publishing (or having access to) an Android app that listens to "install broadcasts." As a result, the fraudster receives credit for installs.

Click injection fraudsters can use a junk app to hijack a device at the right time (and with the correct information) to create an "ad click" that appears legitimate, resulting in CPI payouts in the absence of adequate fraud prevention tools.

Why is click injection necessary?

Most obviously, fake ad engagements siphoned off the advertising budget that could have been used to reach more people. Aside from theft, it is critical to examine how click injections work. While the engagements are bogus, the transactions and events are not. As a result, phony ad engagement will be attributed, resulting in the theft of an organic conversion or another legitimate advertising partner. This could imply that advertisers continue to invest in ineffective advertising, potentially diverting funds away from more effective campaigns.

The bigger picture: Compromised data

Fake engagements do not just siphon off ad spending. They also compromise data that marketers will use to inform how they distribute their ad spend. For example, if a marketer's data shows that a certainly paid campaign resonated with their target audience, they will likely invest more to optimize ROI. However, because that data is based on fraudulent claims, the damage is two-fold. Firstly, they are handing over even more ad spend than in the first instance. Secondly, they are ignoring channels that may have brought them genuine success.

What exactly are installed broadcasts?

Install broadcasts are signals an Android device sends from a newly installed app (or an app that changes status in some way, such as when it is uninstalled). This feature helps connect different apps, allows apps to streamline login with a deep link to a recently installed password manager, or provide users with more direct options to transfer into a specific web browser.