Android - advertising network research

Anyway, well, at the very least, I can install advertising in my Android app. That ought to generate a few bucks on the side.

Ok, so, what are the options?

So, a google search shows "admob SDK".

http://code.google.com/mobile/ads/docs/android/fundamentals.html

It jumps right into code; it doesn't look nearly as complex as the in-app-billing. A couple of pages instead of dozens.


This link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2471417/embedding-ads-on-android-app

talks about both admob and adsense.

It also mentions that admob has been purchased by Google, and that Adsense is some kind of invitation only program by Google. It's really starting to look like Admob.


Btw - good news - I actually got another click on an advertisement yesterday. Believe it or not, this is a big deal. Those clicks are worth real money. I've been taking a look at the ads since I got my first click a couple of days ago, and there are some very interesting ads there - Dice, Xcode training, a free deal on Google Adwords - $75 worth of free ads, apparently - hmm, maybe I will try that out. Is it ok if I click on the ad myself? I think so...)

Ok, back to reality. There is also something about mopub.


This is interesting:

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2011/01/04/mopub/

[...] This fits in with one of the consistent trends we’ve been hearing about from developers: interstitial and video ads seem to be performing better than the traditional mobile [...]


Well, actually, mopub looks good. This link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5514945/mopub-for-android


talks about how you only need to integrate one api, how they have friendly tech support. I love friendly tech support.

Here's some literature from their site:

http://www.mopub.com/about/


We started MoPub because mobile publishers didn’t have good ways to control the ad experience that they presented to their users.

Before MoPub, publishers would essentially have to choose a single ad network (iAd, AdMob or AdSense) or use an unsophisticated mediation layer.

// ok, they were talking about ad networks.

Furthermore, they didn’t have the tools to run performance-tracked house ads, cross promotions or sell inventory easily to advertisers.

Today, with MoPub, publishers can optimize the performance of their existing banner inventory and also open up new revenue streams by selling ads directly to advertisers or effectively merchandise with virtual goods and other products.

// Ok - looks good, I think.

Hmmm; it look like admob started disabling user accounts recently:

http://nolovelust.com/post/Today-Admob-closed-my-publisher-account-after-couple-of-years.aspx

Scary. Google is great, but you will never get an answer from them on anything. I'm liking mopub just because they will respond and won't shut you down, at least from what I've seen so far.


Another posting in the original SO thread talks about Leadbolt. Found some review on it here:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1855568&page=2&highlight=leadbolt

"Mostly positive. Apparently a company named CPALead starting banning accounts.

well since i first whas a kind suspicious about leadbolt i just gave it a try a few weeks ago .
And well to my suprise its just very good , they have almost identical suvey's to cpalead and ofcourse alot more and more international offers .
My conversion whas very good like 20% with an epc of 0,34$ well and thats not bad for the niche im working in .han

But than i got to the time i earned like $300 in a week very easy and i whanted to check if theyre payout is good , so to my suprise theyre using Payoneer for a short time now and its very great because you can withdraw your money on any ATM in the world ( im currently also using for cpalead ) .
I requested 2 very early payments of $140 i guess minus 20% vep fees i got 2 payments around $100 they both got in time and never got any problems with leadbolt .

They still cant beat the cpaleadpremium survey's but hey! give them some time and believe leadbolt will grow very very big , im currently using leadbolt alot more and also plannig for using it alot more ! leadbolt keep up the good work"

What's epc? payment per click? They say they are good international - that's important for my app. Leadbolt also supports adult content, FWIW.

Ok, so, Leadbolt, Modpub.

Did I show this pretty good link about mopub on SO? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5514945/mopub-for-android? I think so.

Here's review of Adwhirl:

http://www.jamesbecwar.com/category/ad-networks/admob/

It looks like a pain to set up, you might really need to use your own server as well. It pulls in ads from all the networks, but isn't that what modpub does?

Also a note on the same link about mopub:

So a bunch of people have been leaving Google/Admob to start a new company called MoPub. It looks like an ad aggregation service like mobclix or adwhirl. But, they have funding, so maybe it will be great. I have signed up for the beta, will let you know if you hear anything.

Along the same lines, Google lost Admob’s founder Omar Hamoui for personal reasons. Its never good when founders leave after a merger…

Wow. It's hard to make money on ads!

http://www.ziggysgames.com/?p=68



"I’m an iOS developer but I wanted to share my stats too. I just had my first days of experience with AdMob, I must say I’m not impressed. Today so far I’ve had +120,000 impressions and made a dollar. My eCPM is 0.01 and this dollar is the revenue from 30 clicks. I think that’s ridiculous. Well the impressions are a bit high because I have a lot of places where ads show up but still? 30 clicks = 1 dollar? Shape up AdMob."

"I’ve been using AdMob since first launching my app in April this year. I found the documentation was a little lacking, but fill rates were ~70% from the get-go. Ever since enabling Google AdSense as a backup I’ve seen fill rates >90% consistently. I haven’t been paid yet (just over $11 total earnings so far), but in the past I’ve been happy with Google’s track record with AdSense payments."



What? How?

Here's a good one:

http://droid-blog.net/2011/05/31/android-money-report-1-may-11/

Most of my apps generate money with ads. The voice recorder uses AdMob, 3D Invaders uses a mix of AdMob, Mobclix and Madvertise. While Admob brings stable income, I’m not satisfied with Mobclix. Madvertise used to bring enormous eCPM (more than $ 10) but decreased strongly in the last weeks.

Okay, how much did you get?

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, my Android income for May 2011 (so far):

Madvertise: ~$ 295
Mobclix: ~ $ 50,94
AdMob: $ 260,51
Market sales: ~ $ 45


GREAT idea for a feedback button:

"I used to include a feedback-button within my apps which simply starts the mailapplication. This is a good way to communicate with users as long as your app is not too well known and you are able to answer each feedback sufficiently. As your app more popular, you might want to build a facebook site for it, so users can help themselves.
I didn’t try a own forum so far, I think this suits best for complex apps with a huge number of use cases or games with lots of levels.
FAQs can usually answer the most questions users have, but a developer that replies is definitely a better experience for them.
Did you try anything like that so far?

Stay away from Mobclix, they do not pay, apparently:

http://www.androidsx.com/cant-get-our-money-out-of-mobclix-updated/

Lot's of possibilities named in this one:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5563859/alternative-mobile-advertiser-networks-for-android


This great link:

https://www.mylookout.com/appgenome/

shows a lot of statistics about both the iOS and Android markets. adMob is the biggest player in both markets, but iAd is quickly overtaking them. I read somewhere that iAd is pretty good.

Still - there is the bit about using all of the networks with, what is, mopub? But, admod, sucky as they sound, apparently will pay when you hit $20; but then, there is that lock--whatever.

http://androidforums.com/developer-101/235948-admob-alternatives.html

Somebody in the above said jumptap was no good.

Pontiflex advertising.

Someone seemed to say admod was only good for u.s.? That doesn't work for me at all.

Hi,
I'm working on a widget that allow Android developers to get and show ads from another ad distributor in US. It can be used by itself, or with AdMob -- one is used as backup of another. This distributor payes better per click (sometimes much better) than AdMob. I'm not ready to release it yet, but if you or other developers interested to be beta user, I can send you something in next couple days or so. At least you could get a feel on how much they pay. You'd need to get an account from them similar to what you do with AdMob. I will not take a cut of your ad revenue.
Oh, very important -- they don't pay you if a click comes from outside US. So there's no benefit if most/all of your application/game users are not in US.

That was 2009...

Ok. This post is pretty good. It talks about the 5 players in the mobile demand mediation area:

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5315596295108076178

Here is the whole thing:


James Hritz, Someday all advertising will be perfo...
7 votes by Jennifer Lum, Rama Roberts, Maria Alegre, (more)
In the mobile demand mediation space, there are basically five large players. They are all good for various reasons and they differentiate in different ways:

AdMarvel: Mostly devoted to

gold standard publishers // publisher is someone who publishes ads - not the advertisers!

who can afford their ad serving prices. // The bring you the ads to publish!


So, if your are a mobile publisher like Forbes, The Wall Street Journal or Economist

and you want and have the option to work with top tier advertisers, then these are your guys.

The key here is, your app has to be able to command brand dollars to make their mediation prices make sense.

// So, AdMarvel is out

MobClix: (disclosure: I am current customer) I've personally had an incredible experience with the MobClix team. The key here is they focus on publisher service.

// That's good.

The team is always on point, always has time to pick up the phone and answer any questions you have. I cant under sell the value of their experience in helping with this ever changing space. With that said, they have reasonable ad serving prices that work really well for mid to long tail mobile publishers.

// Still unclear, but this whole thing is about ad prices. Do I have to pay them? I'm definitely long tail.

Another key reason I chose Mobclix was their acquisition by Velti, the world's largest mobile advertising company. The combination of Mobclix's technology and Velti's market foot print is very potent



.
MoPub: (disclosure: I also am current customer) MoPub is not so much a turn key demand mediation service like Mobclix, AdMarvel or Burst.ly, but more of a do it yourself open source, full featured ad server for mobile.

// I prefer turnkey

The interface design is great (I've seen a lot of consoles in my time) and the technology works super well given how early they are in development. If you have an experienced ad hand on staff, then I'd highly recommend this solution.

// don't.

If you are new to advertising,

// am

I would not suggest this solution because you are still going to have to go out and make ad network and advertising relationships on your own for now.

// Forget.

Working with mobile ad networks is not as simple as just flipping the switch and watching the dollars roll in.

// if it was ad publishers, then that would be orders - wouldn't it? Or would it?

I expect the team at MoPub has plans for more service on demand mediation, but that is not yet in place. MoPub is free up to the first 90M impressions. If you get past 90M monthly impressions with your app, then I expect, you'll be more than happy to pay any fees associated with serving. One more thing, the team (James Payne, Nafis Jamal & Bryan Atwood) is fanatically devoted to helping with any questions you have as publisher. I am big fan of the MoPub team and platform and think they have a big future.


Burstly: Is more of a true demand mediation platform like MobClix or AdMarvel. I believe Burstly has some incredible platform features that can be specifically valuable for mobile game developers (custom ads etc). In my own view, if you are a game developer and you don't use these guys, its a very poor decision.

// ok, this thing is for developers

This doesn't mean that Burstly cant help other publishers, but I really do believe their platform and its capabilities lends itself particularly well to game developers who need to focus on things like retention and cross promotion within apps.

// I'm not a game developer; retention won't be a problem for long term study

The team at Burstly (Evan Rifkin and Ryan Rifkin) have a long, long history and experience in the ad serving business and its a very, very good thing to have these guys on your team.


Nexage: (disclosure I am a customer) I use Nexage primarily for my Blackberry, Symbian and feature phone inventory.

// I'm not there yet

The experience has been tremendous. Immediately, Nexage was able to bring advertiser and campaign diversity to my advertising for these platforms.

// to my *advertising* - to the ads displayed? Shouldn't that read *on* these platforms? Unclear again.

This has resulted in a 10x+ lift in CTR on my apps.

// CTR - click through rate. On my apps, not my ads. So, it must be a developer.


I was thrilled. The team has been very customer service focused and transparent with me. Blackberry's Founder's Fund is an investor in Nexage, so I choose to use them for my Blackberry inventory because they are probably the one player in this space that is incentivized to make Blackberry inventory work. Making non-smart phone inventory work from an advertising standpoint is tough because of the low advertiser demand and low CTRs on these platform. So far, these guys have been aces. I do not have experience with Nexage on smart phone inventory, so I can't specifically comment on how well they do, but I can't imagine given my experience on lesser platforms, they aren't in line with the rest of the players here.

As a mobile publisher choosing a demand mediation platform, the choices in the space are all good, it is just a matter of you, as a publisher, figuring out where you belong and picking the right partner(s). One other thought, when choosing a demand mediation platform partner, do not look at it as choosing some "super" ad network. Instead, look at it as outsourcing your ad serving technology and sales team to a trusted partner who will become part of your company.

// ad serving technology - sales team - must be an advertiser - for apps. But this

This link:

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-store/82505-anyone-still-having-late-non-payments-mobclix.html

Says admob with adsense works for him and it's recent: 6/9/2011 And he says he's not getting pad by mobclix.


Same post:

"Many of the networks on there are professional and pay like clockwork though. Such as Jump Tap which is a wonderful network and always on time with great revenue and inventory."

Likes jumptap. Hmm... I'll have to run that one down.

First, adsense:

http://helpcenter.admob.com/content/enabling-google-adsense-ads-your-applications


"Some Android and iPhone application developers now have the option to serve Google AdSense ads when an AdMob ad is not available. With this option set, we will attempt to fill your ad request with an ad from the Google network if an AdMob ad is not available at the time. Enabling Google AdSense ads provides a great opportunity for publishers to increase their fill rate and revenue. The following FAQ provides more details on this exciting new program.

How do I enable AdSense ads for my application?
Publishers can enable or disable AdSense ads by clicking the "Manage Settings" button under their app's name in the Sites & Apps tab and then clicking the App Settings tab. Please note that all publishers utilizing AdSense ads must comply with the Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions, and any accompanying policies, including content policies.

I don’t see the option to enable AdSense ads. Why am I not eligible?
The option to show AdSense ads will only be available to a subset of AdMob publishers initially and will be rolled out more broadly over the coming weeks on an app by app basis. If your application does not meet Google AdSense terms for any reason you will not be eligible."

So, if add sense is available - and that's a big if - it looks like admob could be the way to go. I think I'm going to shoot for that first.

But, let's follow up on JumpTap....

Jumptap has hired 25 executives??? so far this year. Wow. They are right in Cambridge, Ma. I haven't heard a bad thing about them so far. They are growing. They just had a meetup last week. The work on IOS as well; but IOS will clearly be iAdd.

This thread says you can't make money with jumptap or Admob. But, it's over a year old. Also, Jumptap specialize in *targeted* ads, which is very good for my app. What I need to do is integrate both jumptap and Admob/Adsense - with mopub? Youch. How does that work?

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-store/47755-mobclix-vs-admob-vs-adwhirl.html

"Honestly the only ad provider worth my while right now is Apple iAds. I really need to find a secondary that can at least come close to Apple's eCPM. To give you an idea I'm using JumpTap now as my secondary. I got very similar impression numbers yesterday. Jumptap gave me $20. iAds..$300. I just feel like I'm wasting 1/2 of my ad impressions. Admob is even worse.

I'm considering using greystripe as my secondary. Anyone have experience with them? Is there any way to get iAd-level eCPM and fill rates on another platform?"

Greystripes:

"I have been with GreyStripe for about a month. They are just bad as the others. They promise 100% fill rate and the highest eCPM's but give you no way to know if that is true. They do not let you see your fill rate because they say that most developers do not want that information. Also, they seem to give away a lot of clicks for free - one day one of my apps had 50 click-throughs and generated zero revenue. When I questioned them they said that those were "public service" banners and they did not pay. I suggested that they might want to have the guy who designed those public service banners design some of their paid banners since the paid banners had a 0% click-through rate.

Also, my busiest app had two different days of no impressions due to an "unusual server outage" in the past month.

I am showing both banner and "rich media" ads. The rich media ads pay more and have a higher click-through but you can only show one every two minutes or more so you have less impressions.

eCPM for 2,000,000 impressions is $0.25

Anyone using JumpTap or Millenial?"

Rich media adds are better...

:that is a very good question. You're essentially asking what's the difference between an ad mediator (AdWhirl) vs an Ad exchange (us, mobclix).

Check out the following blog post. Consider the source but it's fairly straightforward.

http://blog.mobclix.com/2010/11/10/monetize-ad-network-vs-mediator-vs-exchange-and-what-it-means-for-you/

That was pretty good. Mobclix is starting to sound better, at least.

Here's a suggestion:

"I took a hybrid approach, integrating iAd manually as a first-preference network and then switching to Mobclix when iAd does not fill. This way you do not worry about any SDK issues interfering with your iAd performance, but you still have a fall-back for the MANY times when iAd does not serve any ads.

If you do this, be careful to manage the mobclix and iAd delegates very carefully. In particular, you'll need to call cancelAd on Mobclix any time iAd fills an ad, and then resumeAutoRefresh anytime iAd does not fill."

For me, it would be addMob. God, I need to get this app into the App store.

Again, the adsense is productive...

1. Admob works great and they are pretty quick on payment. Now that they are starting to integrate Google Adsense into Admob the fill rate is much better.

2. Adwhirl, good but some of the networks can be a "delayed" on payment, but it varies by network.


That was a good thread.

This guy says you need a website or market url:

http://www.android.net/forum/android-apps/60981-admob-jumptap.html


According to this

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/822841/android-recent-apps-seem-to-have-google-provided-ads-is-there-some-new-api-for

I need to generate 100k page view per day for ad sense. Yikes. Maybe if I just made it free and didn't try to sell it...or just upgrade to no apps.



Also can't forget mobfox