As part of App Marketers Unplugged, Leandro Zeballos (Product Operations Manager at Jampp) interviewed Fyber’s Offer Yehudai, MoPub’s Amy Auranicky, and Smaato’s Umair Malik. 

This group of app marketing experts shared their insights on the hottest ad formats, the adoption of Supply Path Optimization and in-app bidding, and best practices for iOS 14.  

Here are the main takeaways from this session:   

Hot Ad Formats 🔥

While building the right ad ultimately comes down to creating a highly engaging experience, there are some ad formats that have been gaining traction in 2020, including: 

  • Videos
    • Short-form videos: shorter videos (6-15 seconds long) are dynamic enough to catch users’ attention while maintaining a non-disruptive user experience and increasing engagement. 
    • Rewarded video: everybody loves freebies—and when a video offers a reward, users view the ad until the end to claim their prize, which translates to higher completion rates. 

“It’s not surprising to me that MoPub has seen about a 15% increase in the number of uniques to this ad format [rewarded video]. Another interesting stat is that the uniques to start video have grown 25%. This is really meaningful for advertisers because it indicates that consumers are actually watching or interacting with your ads, whether it’s a playable or a video.” — Amy Auranicky, Sr. Strategic Partners Manager, MoPub.

  • Playable ads: playables are harder and more expensive to build, but when done right, they can engage users with a short and simple version of a mobile game. Playables also offer testing capabilities based on different combinations of aspects such as characters, themes, and difficulty, among others, providing greater room for optimization. 
  • A combination of both: the next big thing might be the convergence between rewarded video and playables. This is the case of rewarded videos with a playable end card, connecting a 30-second unskippable ad with a card that allows users to explore the experience of a game.   

Gaming Audiences 👤

Gaming has been among the fastest-growing verticals since the start of the pandemic. After all, everybody plays games: in 2019, Mobile Marketer reported that there were 1.4 billion gamers worldwide; in 2020, HubSpot reported that there were 2.2 billion.  

“In Smaato, we are seeing that brands are getting into this gaming environment and they’re exploring these highly engaged and huge audiences, and I think that’s the best way to get your messages across different audiences.” — Umair Malik, Head of Programmatic Strategy, Smaato.

Many non-gaming advertisers sometimes hesitate when buying programmatic Gaming inventory, even if that’s where audiences are spending most of their time—but there are many benefits to Gaming inventory: 

  • Brand-safe environment: inappropriate or low-quality content is no longer a concern since the inventory is part of users’ favorite mobile games.
  • Highly engaged users: marketers get to position their brand across mobile games that are top-of-mind for their audience. 
  • Scalability & budget diversification: increased reach opportunities outside of social networks and paid search.

Practical advice for iOS 14 📋

Changes on IDFA have been temporarily pushed back, so it’s time to use the “extra time” for testing. 

  • Test the message: since Apple will allow publishers to gate users’ consent behind their own internal messaging system, publishers should set up, test, and fine-tune their user consent messaging to try and get more users to opt in. 
  • Set up differentiated waterfalls: by creating a waterfall featuring device IDs and one without them, publishers will be able to A/B test and conduct optimizations once the changes in iOS 14 are live.
  • Buy LAT traffic: the more marketers start experimenting with LAT (Limit Ad Tracking) traffic, the more prepared the industry will be for iOS 14. Even if CPMs are expected to drop, this trend is likely to revert and normalize the ecosystem, but it’s important to start testing in advance.

“Within the last 45 days or so, we were looking at LAT traffic, it’s like 25% in the US. And you can see how fill rate on LAT traffic almost doubled in the last 45 days and win bids and clear price went up about 66%.” — Offer Yehudai, President, Fyber. 

  • Start testing SKAdNetwork: in spite of SKAdNetwork’s limitations (such as the 100 campaign limit per network), growth partners and developers should make sure their apps and platforms are compatible with this new framework to start testing as soon as possible, before the privacy changes in iOS 14 go live. 

Watch the full interview

If you enjoyed this article, watch the full App Marketers Unplugged session, listen to the podcast, or browse the App Marketers Unplugged agenda to find other video podcasts featuring industry experts.