Answering questions about working with the mobile DSP and in-app

My colleagues at Adsbalance agency and I decided to answer questions from e-commerce advertisers about in-app traffic, programmatic buying, and DSPs.

First, about how important this traffic is in general (spoiler - crucial). Almost any service has a mobile version: a fashion store or a premium delivery service. Along with the development of the mobile ecosystem, brand advertising in apps is gaining momentum. There are now many tools to analyse the effectiveness of in-app promotion and verify traffic, and new advertising formats and platforms for buying inventory have emerged. But sometimes advertisers don't know all the details about the right traffic for them, which is logical. So here are our answers to the main questions.

Why shouldn't we start buying traffic through a DSP right away under CPA?
Some advertisers in the hope of securing their marketing budgets and not wasting them want to buy in-app traffic through DSP right away under the CPA model. The nuance is that attributing traffic from apps is different from attributing traffic from social media. In the case of in-app traffic, purchasing by CPM is the right and far-sighted solution. The thing is that there are a lot of parameters that influence the rates at advertising exchanges: the number of advertisers and which verticals they belong to, time of year or month, the audience for targeting, advertising formats of creatives, and so on. In the long run, in most cases, buying by CPM leads to more rational and even lower eCPI, and consequently to a lower eCPA and higher ROAS. If you don't focus on a fixed eCPI or eCPA, but rather assume that it can be slightly higher than planned and run dynamic campaigns, you can test a lot of creatives, different ad formats and approaches, different categories of applications, exchanges, and SSPs.

Continuously focusing only on low CPI can result in missing the sources and audiences that can provide the best LTV: subscription rates, purchases, and so on. When running campaigns with a strictly fixed cost per install, it becomes more difficult, if not impossible, to test premium placements, narrow audience segments, or certain creatives, as this can lead to a higher cost per install and "waste" the budget, even though such traffic will be of quality and the audience will be more loyal and payable. It is possible and even necessary to work with CPA. But it's a gradual process that requires time and investment to train the platform, and predictive algorithms, and obtain data: impressions, clicks, and so on.

Why is in-app installs more expensive than social media?
Social media is great for targeting specific audiences, but it's hard to scale there all the time, as they run out of volume sooner or later. It turns out that the price per install may be low and acceptable at first, but eventually it is likely to multiply as the audience is "burned out". In-app, on the other hand, allows a wider audience to be reached and is almost infinitely scalable as the number of applications grows constantly. Quality learning algorithms do require a significant volume of impressions and targeted actions - on a small geo these will be problematic to obtain. Cheaper installations do not at all mean the success and effectiveness of the advertising campaign. Users may delete a freshly downloaded app after two days. And with the help of trained predictive algorithms, there is communication with highly relevant users.

Is using a mobile tracker necessary?
For those advertisers who are used to counting their unit economy, a reliable and quality mobile tracker is as essential as air. Mobile Measurement Partner helps correctly attribute traffic to ad campaigns and shows which stages of the sales funnel to focus on. The advertiser understands which apps, creatives, and approaches work best, and can use that knowledge for their other advertising activities.

Does in-app fraud exist?
This scary story was popular a few years ago. Things are very different now - all trustworthy ecosystem players are monitoring the quality of their inventory. But if you're worried about fraud, find out what analytics services DSPs are integrated with and what third-party verification tools they partner with.

Why buy traffic through DSP, when you have direct access to exchangers?
Working with DSP allows the advertiser to test multiple sources of in-app traffic. This means more time for other important tasks - improving retention and return metrics, or focusing on other sales funnel events.

What is the test budget for in-app promotion?
Marketing budgets for in-app promotion depend on several factors. For example, it depends on the country of targeting, the features of the app being advertised, and other nuances. Initial budgets are prepared for each advertiser based on the brief and information they provide.

What geos are available for targeting?
In-app traffic is everywhere, there are smartphone and mobile internet / Wi-Fi users. Targeting settings can be made as broad as the whole country, or you can focus on specific regions, cities, and so on. You can also exclude any specific locations and focus on areas that perform best.

Why shouldn't in-app creatives be changed too often?
Too frequent or premature rotation of creatives prevents the collection of sufficient statistically significant data for proper training of algorithms. We recommend rotating creatives for one or two weeks to find out which applications and categories of applications work best, so as not to miss the opportunity to find the best solution for the advertiser.

What is the difference between DSPs and ad networks?
Both platforms provide access to in-app inventory, but in the case of the ad network, the advertiser will only be able to show ads in apps with the SDK of one particular network. The DSP, on the other hand, provides opportunities for centralised inventory buying across many ad networks. In other words, to get the same reach as the DSP, the advertiser must integrate with each ad network individually, a process that is complex and time-consuming. DSP allows the advertiser to test multiple exchanges simultaneously and take full advantage of automated buying in conjunction with predictive algorithms, which results in high-quality users and large traffic volumes.

What can we say about the results?
The rise in popularity of mobile apps, their significant impact on the daily lives of the target audience, and closer contact with them is leading to a recombination of many brands' marketing budgets in favour of in-app traffic.

Benefits for advertisers:

• Wide channel reach, inventory of millions of popular mobile apps;
• Demonstration of ads to users with maximum interest due to the algorithmic purchase of traffic;
• Varying advertising formats that increase ad recall and stimulate the desired targeted action.

However, it is worth realising that in-app is not a panacea. To achieve their marketing goals, advertisers must be patient and willing to invest time and budget in training DSPs and predictive algorithms. This process should be approached as an investment in the future.