Ad Mediation Platforms - Your latest opinion?

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
1

Hello everyone,

Wonderful forum, thanks to admin and the community. This is my first post
I am about to complete my first game app and was planning to integrate an ad network but then I heard about Ad Mediation. So questions are:

[ol]
[li]Ad mediation vs Ad Networks alone? which one is better overall? (because i heard that even though fill rate is supposed to be high in Ad Mediation, practically it is not. Hence resulting in less money. But it assures that the income wont stop because some network banned us.)[/li]
[li]If I go with Ad Mediation, which brand will you suggest? I read about MoPub, AdTapsy, SuperSonic and Heyzap and got some bias towards MoPub. There are also arguments against MoPub that the fill rate is very low and their payments may be delayed or incorrect. Also they have this tendency to show majority of the ads from Mopub-MarketPlace (over other third party networks we added) resulting in greater share of our income for them. Back to point: which Ad Mediation platform is the best currently?[/li]
[li]Does Ad-Mediation platforms allow server side addition of Ad Networks? That is once the app is released, can I add a new third party network via server side without touching my apk? Similarly, do they allow removal/pause of third party networks?[/li]
[li]Which are the Ad Networks you will suggest at this point of time? Heard that LeadBolt was good last year but turned bad this year. Similar is the case with other networks - most start well and fade away. Is that the general trend? Then which network is the super-star right now?[/li][/ol]

Thanks in advance.

2

Ad mediation vs Ad Networks alone? which one is better overall? (because i heard that even though fill rate is supposed to be high in Ad Mediation, practically it is not. Hence resulting in less money. But it assures that the income wont stop because some network banned us.)

It really depends, but in general, a mediation platform will provide better results. It is nearly impossible for an ad network to have the best CPM and 100% fill rate in every country.

A mediation platform will allow you to work with more networks, allocate your inventory wisely, and manage it from one UI.

If I go with Ad Mediation, which brand will you suggest? I read about MoPub, AdTapsy, SuperSonic and Heyzap and got some bias towards MoPub. There are also arguments against MoPub that the fill rate is very low and their payments may be delayed or incorrect. Also they have this tendency to show majority of the ads from Mopub-MarketPlace (over other third party networks we added) resulting in greater share of our income for them. Back to point: which Ad Mediation platform is the best currently?

Depends what you are looking to integrate.

Do you want to integrate banner? There are a few platforms good at that: admob, mopub, mobfox, aerserv, heyzap, etc.
Do you want to integrate video? That limits the list a bit more. mopub, mobfox, aerserv…only a few that do this well.
Do you want to integrate native ads? That limits the list. Mopub, mobfox
What ad networks do you want to integrate? All mediation platforms offer specific networks. So you’ll need to consider which platform offers the networks you want, and continues to add more.

Other things to consider: customer support.

Does Ad-Mediation platforms allow server side addition of Ad Networks? That is once the app is released, can I add a new third party network via server side without touching my apk? Similarly, do they allow removal/pause of third party networks?

Some do, some don’t.

For example, Admob does not. They are all client-side ad networks (SDK). Mopub has a mixture, but the ad networks offered via server-side (non-SDK), are limited. AerServ has a combination of both. Mobfox has a combination of both as well.

Which are the Ad Networks you will suggest at this point of time? Heard that LeadBolt was good last year but turned bad this year. Similar is the case with other networks - most start well and fade away. Is that the general trend? Then which network is the super-star right now?

That depends on a ton of factors.

Where is your inventory (GEO)? What type of ad units do you want to run? How does your inventory typically perform (clicks, views)? What vertical are you in? Are you rewarding users for viewing ads? Do you want performance based ads(CPC, CPC), or brand based ads (CPM)?

3

Hi DroidHeaven,

Just to let you know that at Airpush, we just released a new Mopub plugin for our SDK, so you can use us as one of your mediation options.
If you don’t want to use mediation, our SDK also includes call back listeners, so if we are unable to fill an ad request, you can cascade down to another network to fill the request.

Check out our demo site showing our new 360 banners and our smart wall - Airpush Publisher Demo
Shoot me a PM if you want to test us out.

Cheers,
Airpush Nick

4

In my experience, most of the interstitial ad network that I used now doesn’t have any issue on fill rate. So, mediation doesn’t help much and it took time. Not sure on banner.

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Thanks asag for the detailed response. Thanks to Nick and shuiwo too.

One more doubt: If I go with a mediation service like MoPub, who will give me the payout? Will the Mediator aggregate all the revenue from the 3rd party networks and then pay me according to the mediator’s payout conditions? Or each 3rd party network will pay me separately, which I believe is the case?

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@droidheaven - each ad network will pay you separately. MoPub has it’s own network - MoPub Marketplace - which will also pay you if you turn it on.

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Thanks Magnesus! :slight_smile:

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@droidheaven,

Thanks for asking these questions. Mediation is a extremely powerful tool that will enable you to achieve higher CPMs and fill rate as you can allocate specific inventory to specific ad networks that perform best in your regions. For instance if you had 50% traffic in US and 50% in China, using a single ad network would probably result in overall poor fill rate as not all ad networks are strong in the China region. With Mediation you can pick and choose who you send inventory to.

Some keys factors on why you’d want to consider using AerServ mediation:

1.) Majority of our ad networks integrations are S2S based so we don’t require you to download additional SDKs such as Admob. This means you don’t need to worry about constantly republishing your app on googleplay/Appstore. This also cuts down on APK size.
2.) We specialize in high paying video ads and currently offer the most video ad sources on any platform. Additionally offer other high paying formats such as MRAID and VPAID.
3.) You can easily change the priority of your waterfall with our simple drag and drop feature. You can even change the priority of the AerServ market place (AerMarket), MoPub doesn’t allow this.
4.) Control and manage all ad networks through one simple to use UI. See which networks are yielding highest CPMs and Fillrates and then easily reprioritize your waterfall. This allows you to continue to constantly optimize your revenue.
5.) Currently offering $6 guaranteed CPM for video interstitial impressions. (US traffic only).

Feel free to learn more at AerServ

Email or ping me, I’m more than happy to give you a demo of our platform

[email protected] or via skype: Philiptse85

Cheers,

9

Are you making payments or have we get them seperately ? If you are making what are your conditions ? minimum payout, net45 or 60 ?

10

In my experience, most of the interstitial ad network that I used now doesn’t have any issue on fill rate. So, mediation doesn’t help much and it took time. Not sure on banner.

I am guessing that’s because they were performance based. They have no shortage of ads…but unless the users click, install, etc, you won’t earn anything.

In this case, mediation would help to determine which interstitial network gets hit first, and in which countries, and for which apps. You can use targeting and waterfalling to maximize your revenue.