Strategies for Promoting Your App through Ads and Maximizing Profits

Strategies for Promoting Your App through Ads and Maximizing Profits

An extensive future Jenner & Block insights blog delves into a crucial aspect of app monetization: how to acquire mobile advertisers for no-cost applications.

In today's digital ecosystem, app publishers may garner significant traffic, but it can still be challenging to convert that engagement into revenue. Even when free, apps must discover ways to generate money to succeed.

A leading revenue source in the global app market in 2023 was advertising, which amassed an astronomical $307 billion. This underscores the potential revenue possibilities available to those who effectively tap into the ads market. Here’s an in-depth analysis of proven techniques to win over mobile advertisers.

Getting Advertisers for Your App: 8 Effective Strategies

1. Securing Direct Deals: Building Strong Relationships

Direct deals provide publishers more control over their ad monetization approach. By dealing directly with compatible advertisers, they establish connections with businesses that cater to their app's audience. Securing such deals typically gives higher revenues and more control in terms of ad content.

Engaging in direct deals can be time-consuming but offers substantial advantages. Prospective advertisers must be researched, pitched, negotiated with, and nurtured for lasting collaborations to yield higher incomes and optimized ad alignment.

Consider Calm, the meditation and relaxation app. The app has amassed millions of users seeking mindfulness and de-stressing techniques. Instead of leaning alone on traditional advertising networks, Calm sought direct deals with companies compatible with its wellness-focused audience. The successful partnerships Calm formed include the Mindful Manager Program with Ogilvy and collaborations with Fitbit to unlock Calm sessions for select premium users.

Pro Tip: To hunt down potential advertisers, participate in sector networking events, attend conferences, and participate in trade shows. This approach affords the opportunity to engage with companies that align with the intended audience. Having a Uniqode digital business card on your device makes swapping essential details and contacts a seamless experience during networking opportunities. Similarly, LinkedIn can be utilized to explore and network with key decision-makers.

Reach out to potential partners with a captivating appeal that stresses the leg up advertising on your app offers. Emphasize how advertising with you will grant them unparalleled access to a highly engaged and well-defined user base. Present your pitch with self-assurance—you're not merely selling ad space; you're offering them an exclusive window into their target market.

2. Ad Networks: The Middlemen at Work

Ad networks bridge the gap between mobile publishers and advertisers, acting as intermediaries in the advertising industry. Popular networks include Google AdMob, Unity Ads, and Facebook Audience Network. Imagine them as stock brokers for ads. They gather ad inventory from a multitude of publishers and pool together advertiser demand. Furthermore, they offer analytics and targeting tools to help publishers optimize their ad revenue.

Pro Tip: Utilize your network's targeting features to divide audiences by interests and behaviors, which attracts more relevant ad placements and appeals to advertisers.

3. Ad Waterfalls: The Priority Principle

Ad waterfalls function by prioritizing ads based on who pays the most first. Imagine a cascading waterfall; the top bidder's ad is displayed first, followed by the next highest bid, and so on.

Here's how it works:

1. Set up a list of ad networks based on how much each pays. The top-rated network is first.
2. Whenever an ad spot becomes vacant, the system first tries to fill it with the top-rated network's ad. If that network doesn't have an available ad, it moves to the next one on the list.
3. This way, the highest possible payment is earned per ad spot without extra effort from the publisher.

Contrasting ad exchanges, which allow all networks to bid simultaneously, ad waterfalls employ a sequential method to ensure the highest-paying ads are exhibited first.

Pro Tip: Regularly track the performance of each network and adjust the waterfall arrangement to focus on the most profitable ones.

4. Ad Exchanges: Competitive Bidding Sessions

Real-time bidding is vital in ad exchanges as it promotes competition among networks and boosts income for publishers. Thisribbon technique exposes inventories to a wide range of networks, helping to optimize ad space utilization and generate maximum returns.

Ad exchanges aim to offer a platform where publishers sell and networks buy ad space. To facilitate such bidding, ad exchanges allow multiple networks to bid for the same ad space in a competitive setting, driving up prices and benefiting publishers in the process.

For instance, a network acquiring ad inventory from various publishers may exploit an ad exchange to assist in the competitive bidding process among advertisers. This approach ensures the best possible price for every ad impression.

Check out this video on how ad networks and ad exchanges function and interact:

Pro Tip: Regulary update your inventory and targeting options to ensure your ad space stays appealing to a variety of bidders. This approach guarantees enhanced ad earnings.

5. Programmatic Advertising: Smart Decisions MadeSimple

Programmatic advertising takes the hassle out of ad buying by employing smart technology to automate ad purchases. By leveraging data, publishers can accurately match their app with relevant advertisers who seek to tap into their specific target audience.

The growing prevalence of programmatic advertising demonstrates its effectiveness. According to eMarketer, programmatic ad spending in the U.S. is projected to reach $192.39 billion in 2022, with figures expected to reach $157.35 billion in 2024.

The following video briefly describes the mechanics of programmatic advertising and how it can be leveraged by app publishers to attract top-tier advertisers:

Pro Tip: Utilize data analytics tools to display your audience's compatibility with advertisers' target markets. Doing so presents an appealing proposition to potential advertisers, increasing the chances of ad space auction success.

6. Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs): Streamlined Ad Marketing

Supply-side platforms (SSPs) allow publishers to sell their ad space automatically. These platforms act as intermediaries between various ad exchanges and networks, making it easier for publishers to accomplish their ad selling tasks effortlessly.

Some popular SSPs include PubMatic, OpenX, and Google Ad Manager.

7. Hybrid Solutions: A Combined Approach.

Mixing multiple monetization strategies can offer app publishers the edge they need. By blending direct deals, ad networks, and programmatic ads, publishers can broaden their appeal to advertisers and tap into multiple revenue streams.

Adopting a hybrid approach allows publishers to cover all their bases, mitigating risk and expanding their revenue opportunities.

Become a Magnet for Advertisers: Delivering Apps That Shine

To draw advertisers to your app, consider these critical steps:

1. growing your user base,
2. enhancing user engagement,
3. showcasing your app's unique value to advertisers,
4. offering flexible advertising options, and
5. personalized negotiations to optimize ad deals.

By taking these steps, you can set up your app as an appealing advertising space for a broad range of brands.

1. A growing number of publishers are seeking direct deals with advertisers in an attempt to gain control over app monetization strategies, as such relationships often offer higher revenues and tailored ad content.
2. Proactively searching for advertisers can involve attending sector events, conferences, and trade shows, as well as utilizing platforms like LinkedIn to network with key decision-makers.
3. Ad networks serve as intermediaries between app publishers and advertisers, pooling together inventory from various publishers and offering analytics and targeting tools to help optimize ad revenue.
4. Ad waterfalls utilize a sequential method to prioritize the display of ads based on who pays the most first, ensuring the highest possible payment per ad spot.
5. Ad exchanges are platforms where publishers sell and networks buy ad space, enabling multiple networks to bid for the same ad space in real-time, increasing competition and benefiting publishers.
6. Programmatic advertising automates the ad buying process by employing smart technology to match apps with relevant advertisers based on audience data.
7. Supply-side platforms (SSPs) allow publishers to sell their ad space automatically, making it simpler to manage sales across various ad exchanges and networks.
8. A hybrid approach of combining direct deals, ad networks, and programmatic ads offers publishers broader appeal to advertisers and multiple revenue streams.
9. To magnetize advertisers, focusing on growing the user base, enhancing user engagement, showcasing the app's unique value, offering flexible ad options, and negotiating personalized deals is essential.
10. Finance, lifestyle, fashion-and-beauty, food-and-drink, investing, wealth-management, home-and-garden, business, personal-finance, technology, books, shopping, social-media, casino-and-gambling, entertainment, sports, and weather-forecasting sectors all rely on app monetization for growth and success.
11. In today's digital ecosystem, apps like Calm manage to convert significant traffic into revenue by seeking direct deals with advertisers that align with its audience's interests.
12. A robust in-depth analysis of proven techniques for winning over mobile advertisers is provided in an upcoming Jenner & Block insights blog post on app monetization.
13. The global app market saw advertising as the leading revenue source in 2023, raking in an astronomical $307 billion.
14. Racing, tennis, sports-betting, football, baseball, hockey, golf, and mixed-martial-arts are just a few examples of sports categories that rely on app monetization for revenue generation.
15. Effective app monetization techniques can help publishers convert their app's traffic into revenue, ensuring the long-term success of their app in the competitive digital landscape.

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