My name is Rudis and I work for a new push/icon ad network for Android called AppBucks. We’re at a stage now where we would really like more developers who are experienced with other similar networks to try us out and give us feedback–we’re still shaping a lot of things and want to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the developer as much as possible going forward.
A little bit of info about the network–average CPMs for icon ads lately have been around $5-$6, and for push ads is around $2-$3, however we pay out on a rev-share basis so developers with higher quality traffic (ie, apps that keep users around for longer and that convert more consistently) have seen upwards of $10 cpms on icons and $6 on pushes. Likewise, there are some apps that do worse than that, so YMMV. If you do try us out and you are particularly happy or unhappy with the CPMs, please let us know. We’re constantly tuning dials and working on adding new advertising partners to the network, and striving to keep everyone making money and as happy as possible.
I know that there’s usually some fear about new networks like this being scams or fly-by-night operations… the only assurance I can really give you is that we’re a division of Adknowledge, who’s been a major player in the online advertising industry since 2004.
We’re all really impressed with the quality of discourse at the Making Money with Android forums, so as a friendly incentive we’d like to extend a promotional offer to you guys. If you sign up with the link below, integrate our SDK (it’s super-easy), and go live with an app that gets at least 1000 impressions before the end of March 2013, we’ll credit your account with a $15 bonus.
In addition, I’d like to extend my own offer to answer any questions you guys might have about AppBucks or Android ad networks in general. I wear a number of hats at AppBucks, but my primary one is as a developer, so my perspective might be a bit different than some of the others you’d get from less technical representatives coming from this side of the fence. Feel free to pick my brain!
I signed up last month with one of my smaller apps to trial you guys out! I’m seeing eCPM $2.62 for Icon and eCPM $1.87 for Push on this app, which is acceptable. Does geography affect the traffic quality? This app is downloaded mostly in the US and EU, so I was thinking it would be a bit better in terms of eCPM for that. The app currently has a 40% user retention rate and the user base is very active on the app due to it’s “reference” nature, i.e they will need to come back again and again to make good use of the app, which they do.
Will things like the Dashboard and additional customisable settings improve over time?
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but the reporting feature seems to be glitched, in that selecting “yesterday” seems to include parts of other day’s data? I keep having to select actual days ranges from the “custom range” drop down list to see actual data for a given day.
Glad to hear you’re satisfied with the performance so far, A1ka1inE
Geography will play a minor factor, as we have a bit more ad inventory in US/CA/GB than other geos, and a lot of our advertisers will pay more for those users. We do have pretty significant international coverage already though, plus a few new advertiser partnerships in the pipeline that should flesh it out even more down the road. For a little more technical color around how we select ads for users, when a user’s device calls up to request ads, we check their country (along with a few other targeting parameters) and make sure to serve them the highest performing ad that we can serve to them first. Measuring the performance of the ads is one of the things we’re still tweaking, since the highest payout doesn’t always equate highest performing. Calculating real ecpms for thousands of continuously changing ads in real-time on an increasingly active network like this can be a pretty fun problem to solve
As for the dashboard, we have a lot of improvements planned for coming weeks. A big one that people are waiting on right now is the ability to page apps, since some of our users have a lot of apps and the dashboard can take a while to load when it’s grabbing stats for a couple hundred of them at the same time. We’re also looking at calculating fill rate, improving the revenue estimation for the current day, and fixing the glitch that you mentioned where looking at some of the pre-built date ranges includes the current day in the stats when they really shouldn’t. (In fact, that should be a really easy one to fix so I’ll probably go knock that one out right after posting this.)
We’re also planning on running some tests with how many ads we deliver, the delay time to showing the first ad, and beta testing some new ad formats (push banners, offer wall, etc.) to see how those affect performance/payouts. We’re very data-driven here so we do a lot of smaller-scale A/B testing and then roll out any changes to the whole network which we find will improve things.
Correct, currently our SDK only pulls in icon and push ads. We are working on building out and testing a few additional units, including an in-app offer wall (which could be used as an interstitial ad or pulled up from a “more apps” tab, for example), but these are still in their development/testing stage so it’s hard to give an ETA right now. As soon as we have new units ready, we’ll most likely reach out to our existing devs to run an internal beta first before plugging them into the public SDK.
We’re also open to suggestions for different ad units if there are any that devs are particularly excited about or have seen perform well on other networks. We’re very open to trying out new stuff, particularly if we think it’s going to make everyone a lot more money!
Hi Rudis!
Could you please explain what this Merchant account entails? It’s a requirement for Net7 payment terms, yet I couldn’t find too much available information about it.
I had to ask around because I’m not super familiar with that side of things, but I think I got it now
Having a merchant account just means you need to be able to process credit card payments… if you don’t already have one, something like a Square account would work fine. The reason you need that is because of how we pay out on Net 7 terms:
We issue you a 16 digit card number
Every week we send you an email letting you know how much you earned
You get the money by charging that amount to the card number we gave you
I’ve just been doing some analysis and it looks like your SDK bypasses all those stupid Anti-virus apps! I’ve done scans using different Anti-virus apps and various quality assurance services and your SDK is never considered a threat!
That is fantastic in my eyes as currently the SDKs from Airpush, Sendroid and StartApp all give warnings in those anti-virus apps, which has created many negative reviews for us devs.
This is a big plus for me and if your eCPMs hold their ground I will definitely consider moving more of my traffic your way.
That is good news. While we haven’t really run into any issues on the Android side of things yet, the desktop apps department here at Adknowledge has pretty good relationships with several A/V companies in the desktop world. We work with a bunch of them directly to make sure our products are clean, and to avoid being flagged as anything worse than ad-supported software. Our approach with those kinds of issues has always been to correct the root problem (ie, fix the software so that it complies with the standards set by the A/V companies) as opposed to resorting to tricks to avoid detection. My personal opinion is that those kinds of cat-and-mouse games only end up harboring resentment on both sides, and can really only harm developers in the long run.
My apps are not of that high quality and bring most of the traffic from India
I am currently using push ads where I am getting cpm of $1.06, For my best apps, it is $5 but the average of all apps is $1.06
When users install my apps, they don’t get virus alert which makes appbucks stand out from the rest
The push ads have a star icon always before the text in notifications area. Probably appbucks can randomize this star icon to more custom icon depending upon the ad being pushed.
Will try icon ads now as they are saying that icon ads have higher cpm then push ads.
I hope they stay long and establish more trust with developer and advertiser community.
At the end of the day, its about the number of impressions that your app makes. My target is $1000 per month.
Calling those two methods should cause ads to start coming. If you are the same developer who sent a contact request this morning with your API key, I am currently looking into your impressions to see if I can track down why you’re not seeing any ads, and will get back to you shortly. Otherwise, if you send me your API key as a PM here or using the AppBucks contact form from the developer portal then I can take a look for you as well.
The requirements for Net 7 are 1) you must be located in the US, 2) you have to be able to accept credit card payments (merchant account, Square account, etc), 3) I believe the minimum payout for Net 7 is $50.
If you are on Net 7, you use your merchant account to charge our credit card number the way you would normally charge a customer’s credit card. For example, with Square you would follow these instructions from their website, entering our credit card details as the customer. Most merchant accounts (including Square) will have you link your bank account details to your merchant account so that they can deposit your money automatically.
We do have a PayPal option as well, but only on our Net 30 payout terms… credit card is the only payment method we currently support for Net 7.
You do know why that is right? All these malware and anti virus companies “flag” any and all ad units that are “outside” the app, thus those networks above are all affected. I think one has to take that into consideration. Some advice to AppBucks, Lose the Push and Icons, find other innovative ways to deliver ad content. Stay tuned gents I just partnered with a serious stand up developer that has launched a “FREE” ad network. Meaning NO FEE’s, NO SDK’s and Full control to the developer. Nothing I’ve seen in the marketplace. From what I’ve seen it address 99.9% “developer pain points.” PM me if you guys want to beta it… Thanks
@A1Kai1inE you do understand that all these anti-virus companies will flag any ad unit that is “outside” the app as malware of even virus. So it is only a matter of time before they do the same to AppBucks. I love when these new guys come and think because they were successful online that it automatically = Success in mobile. Completely different animal. The most important thing to consider is “developer pain points and address them accordingly.” Push notes, icons are very very short term. I don’t want to be the bear of bad news but they are and the companies that choose to innovate and create long lasting and proven ad types will end up winning. The great news is that I know a few that are real developers that have made bundles of money and understand the pain points and will be rolling out a solution soon- NO FEE, NO SDK, DEVELOPER CREATED… Stay tuned…
I don’t want to get in a pissing match with you because clearly I would have a leg up. I have been in the industry since 2008. I have built and create ad networks myself. I have made money monetizing with 3rd party ad networks my credentials go on and on. I know why anti virus companies flag strait up Push notes are considered to most as “Malware” and instrusive. I’m not knocking them I use them now but they are exactly that, Intrusive.
“. You’re clearly trying to sell something to us as you’re spamming this stuff all over the forums, so please stop it before you cause a fuss.” … Have you read what i’ve posted ?? None absolutely none has been Spam. That is silly you would mention that. If you read all my post are informative very informative. Again, I do this for a living, this is not a hobby nor is it “cool” I make money monetizing apps. I know the metrics involved I have used most all ad networks out their and as a developer and marketer I understand the developer pain points…because I live them. What part of NO FEE, OPEN SOURCE did you misunderstand?
Interesting, you say you don’t want to start a “flamewar,” and I agree with you on that point, but would ask you follow your own advice:
Wrongfully accusing me of Spamming and “selling” on the forum
Insulting on several occasions by saying that I’m "high and mighty"and “douche”
If a “flamewar” is not your intentions, then why resort to such insults? All I’m asking is for civil discourse, I had to point out what I have done simply to “qualify” myself as someone who “walks the talk” and not as a theoretical person. I will drop this for now and ask that you keep to your advice. I have quoted your words, so that you can read the level of insults you have thrown so freely. Thank you.
