How does mobile app advertising works - a complete guide

Mobile app advertising refers to ads that are designed only for mobile devices. This is used by advertisers to promote brand information, news or offers. The ultimate goal of mobile advertising is to ensure continuous engagement with the users. Mobile advertising is the best bet for app publishers to generate a higher return on investment.

Importance of mobile app advertising

According to a survey by Statista, there are currently 6.4 billion smartphone users worldwide considering the global population is at 7.9 billion, that means a smartphone penetration of over 80 percent. Smartphone usage is expected to continue to increase in the coming years, breaching 7 billion in 2024 before rising further to 7.5 billion by 2026 which is the main reason why mobile app advertising is going to rule the ad tech industry.

How does it work?

Starting off with mobile app advertising might seem like a formidable task at first, but it really isn’t. An Ad network is essential for mobile app advertising. Ad exchange is an automated marketplace that allows publishers to sell their ad inventory in real time and advertisers to bid on and acquire it. Multiple ad networks are used to purchase and sell inventory.

To offer the inventory for bids, the publisher uses a supply-side platform (SSP) to connect to the exchange. The ad exchange now selects the most interested bidders for that inventory based on visitor information acquired by the site's cookies.

Each app has a set of placeholders where ads are displayed, these are called ad units. An ad unit can have multiple formats based on where it appears on the app.

Types of ad formats

Now let us take a look at the different types of ad formats that are used to do mobile app advertising.

• Native Ads
• Interstitial Ads
• Banner Ads
• App-open Ads
• Rewarded video Ads
• Rewarded interstitial Ads

1. Native Ads -

These ads are designed to match the look and feel of the app it is published on are called native ads. Native ads are non-disruptive in nature, so they don’t hamper the user experience and make sure that the ads appear to be a part of the application. So, Native Ad is the best ad format that you could be advertising in your application.

Native Ads

2. Interstitial Ads -

These are the ads that are spread over the entire screen and they appear during the natural transitions of the app. These ads have a close button at the top right corner of the screen. You should not place interstitial ads between the main activities in your application as they may bore your users as these ads are very intrusive in nature.

Interstitial Ads

3. Banner Ads -

Banner ads are displayed in the top or bottom of the screen, plunging to the screen for the duration of the user session and they might refresh automatically after a certain period of time. These are highly popular on mobile apps as they are very easy to implement for app monetization purposes.

Banner Ads

4. App-open Ads -

This is a new ad format that is coming up in the ad tech industry. These ads overlay the loading screen of the user once they minimize and reopen the app. These ads are rendered based on user experience so the users don’t find the ads very intrusive. App-open ads generally go along with the app’s branding which takes up 15% of the screen, so users won’t feel that they have navigated away from the app.

App-open Ads

5. Rewarded Video Ads -

Rewarded Video ads are the type of ads that people have to opt-in to view the ad to get a reward as an outcome. This is especially prevalent in scenarios where a user wants to unlock content such as level-ups, virtual coins, or premium content.

Rewarded Video Ads

6. Rewarded Interstitial Ads -

Rewarded Interstitial ads are a type of incentivized ad format. These ads appear during natural transitions of the app offering rewards to the user. During the app transition, rewarded interstitials give you an intro screen that announces the reward and gives users a chance to opt-in. At any point during the experience, the user can decide to skip the ad or to opt-out of the ad.

Rewarded Interstitial Ads

How does SDK X help you with mobile app advertising?

SDK X is an all-in-one ad revenue optimization platform that empowers the app publishers to maximize their app monetization capabilities. With its ML & AI capabilities, SDK X can help you find the best combination of Ad Format & demand partner for your app to generate the highest ad revenue based on real-time bids.

Let us take a look at how SDK X helps you with mobile app advertising:

1. Access Google Ad Manager 360 account via SDK X

Increase the revenue of your existing ad formats without any difficulty by integrating SDK X with your app. You also get access to Google Ad Manager 360, an ad exchange platform to connect with other premium ad networks.

2. A/B test to improve your ads

With SDK X, perform A/B testing on ad formats, placements and demand partners to identify the best fit for your application. This means that you will always have the best ad formats at your disposal with the right demand partner at the right placement to ensure the maximum yield for your ads.

3. Adaptive Templates

You don’t have to hard code your ad templates for different devices. All you need to do is integrate SDK X with your application to choose your ad template from a wide range of adaptive templates that we offer and render ads on different devices without any difficulty.

4. Complete control over your ads

With SDK X you get complete control over ads so you can target the audience based on specific demographics. Analyse the performance of your ads based on crash reports, unfilled inventory and improve your ads.

5. Policy Compliance

SDK X is compliant with all the Google ad policies. So, you need not worry about policy violations.

Mobile app monetization is a monotonous process. It has to be done precisely by app monetization experts if you are looking to generate revenue without any hassle. GreedyGame has a 360 degree approach when it comes to developing app monetization solutions. Having helped more than 1500+ app publishers to increase their ad revenue, our app experts know what works best for each app.