If you are reading this, then you might be interested in either of these
1. To promote your business/ products/ services through mobile ads or
2. To earn some cash through the mobile app ad network by placing them in your app.
Whatever might be the need, you can do both using the mobile app ad networks. Now as you got to know that your requirement is going to be fulfilled when you complete reading this piece of information, let’s begin the discussion with the detailed explanation of the mobile ad networks.
What Are Mobile App Ad Networks?
Have you even installed a mobile app that’s packed with several advertisements in the app layout? I feel the answer would be “yes”. It’s true that sometimes those ads are annoying, creating a disturbance when we try to navigate through the app. These are nothing but “mobile app ads” and the companies involved behind showing these ads on the mobile app interface, are none other than the “mobile ad networks” the topic of our discussion today!
Here in this discussion, we’ll quickly cover short overviews of some of the best mobile app ad networks in terms of profitability for both the publishers as well as the advertisers. But before directly jumping over to the list of ad networks, you need to understand the entire concept behind this process- not to worry, as we’ll be covering the entire story here. So stay tuned till the end!
How Do Ad Networks Work? How Do They Pay? And Why?
The ad networks are basically the platform that connects the publishers and the advertisers.
Who are the Publishers?
The ones who create and publish a mobile application either on Google Play Store or on iOS, or on both. They opt for giving space for the advertisements to be shown in their app’s layout. So when a user browses through the app, he/she sees the app. If the user clicks, for each click the publisher receives some income.
Who are the Advertisers?
The ones who promote their business/services/products through paid ad campaigns are the advertisers. They contact the ad networks and according to their budget, they run the campaigns.
What is the Role of Ad Networks?
The ad networks act as a platform that connects the requirements for both the advertisers and publishers. They charge the advertisers for running their campaigns, while they pay the publishers for showing the ads to the viewers. And that’s how the entire process goes on.
So from here, you can find out that the ad networks play the main role in online marketing. Thus we are here to know the best ad networks which occupy a major role in all forms of digital marketing. There are thousands of ad networks available today, and every single day the number is increasing. Depending upon their budget/ ad campaigning schemes/ profitability the advertisers choose their favorite ad networks.
Similarly, depending upon the approval process and profitability the publishers select their ad networks. It’s like, the famous ad networks are all good at their own field. It’s based on the user’s requirement which one suits his needs the best. Also, unless the publisher or the advertisers are a little experienced in the online advertising field, they might find it difficult to click right from the beginning.
Here below we will be discussing the famous ad networks one after the other. Some might click for you, I hope it clicks!
Just one more thing is still left out. What’s that? Let’s go through the ad formats very quickly so that you can place them on your app appropriately and get the most profit out of it! Different ad formats serve different purposes, let’s have a quick glance at them.
Ad Formats
1. Native Ads
These types of ads are beneficial when you don’t want the visitors to get disturbed with the annoying ads as they appear exactly as the same look and feel with the app’s interface. It’s like the ad is a part of the app, it matches with the design and the layout of the app.
2. Interstitial Ads
These ads are placed between the transitions when the visitor navigates from one page to another. They appear in between containing the entire layout of the app.
3. Banner Ads
These are the generally rectangular or square ads that can appear anywhere in the app’s layout. When a visitor navigates through the app, these ads are visible throughout the navigation unless it gets refreshed from time to time.
4. Video Ads
Matching with the content of the app, when the ads appear as videos, these are those ads.
5. Link Ads
These are the ads that provoke the user to click on them as they look like links redirecting to some other platform on the web. If the link text is interesting to the visitor, you get a sure click!
6. Matched Content Ads
These ads appear as if these are the original content of the app. The visitor unknowingly clicks on it, while you get a click. These types of ads get a very high rate of conversions.
7. Offerwall Ads
These types of ads appear as if they are providing some offers. And as you know people always look for new offers. So you might be lucky to receive a click-through of these ads.
These were the types of ads you can create on your mobile app so that you can earn some cash through the ads. I hope this part of the introduction was able to provide you a basic idea of what are ad networks and how do they function. And also, how to earn through your mobile app using ads.
So Now Let’s Get to Know the Famous Ad Networks One by One. Here We Go!
1. Admob
It’s the most famous mobile app ad network designed and formulated by Google developers. They provide you to add a variety of ad types as discussed earlier in this post. When you already have a Google Developer Console account and an Adsense account, it is very easy to get Admob approval. Just you need to have an Admob account and you are good to go with inserting ads in your app. You can earn a good income as your app becomes popular- the ads by Admob are quite engaging.
2. Facebook Ads
Facebook has become the second most popular search engine, just after Google! It sounds incredibly wrong as you may know Facebook as a social media platform that connects people. You are absolutely right when you say that, but being so popular it has become a search engine too. People love to spend more time on Facebook and get engaged with browsing activities of their interests. So when an advertiser runs a Facebook ad campaign, he might expect a great outcome. The best part is you don’t have to spend a lot of money, the campaigns start with a very low budget.
3. Inmobi
Inmobi a 4-year old ad network that has come out to be a new trend in the field of advertising in recent years. The trend has been set through the powerful SDK insertion and integration with the app builder .apk file. As an advertiser, you can target a specific set of audiences based on your requirements such as based on the location, age, things they like, etc. So you can expect good profitability as an advertiser. On the other hand, the publisher gets a great CTR (Click-through-rate) and good earning! Unfortunately, the ad network doesn’t support iOS and any form of web browsers.
4. Startapp
StartApp network offers you to create your own ad campaigns as well as design animations, images, videos of the campaigns. You can target specific areas of the audience based on geographical areas, demographic concerns such as age, platforms they use, activities they are interested in, and career they look for.
5.Propeller Ads
Propeller Ads of the famous ad networks which serve a variety of ad types and pay the publisher for each click and impressions on the ads. A highly profitable ad network that charges a minimum amount from the advertisers and also satisfies the publisher’s needs. A recommended ad network for all the newbie and intermediate publishers. They have millions of advertisers connecting to the network worldwide.
6. Yeahmobi
Yeahmobi too works on the idea of paying the publishers even for the ad impressions and similarly charges the advertisers as per ad impressions. Even if you as an advertiser have a very minimum budget, you can run the paid ad campaigns with the help of Yeahmobi. Apart from CMP (cost per 1000 impression) campaigns, they also have CPC (cost per click) and CPA (cost per acquisition ) campaigns running.
The CPC model pays the publisher each time a user clicks on the ad. Also, it charges a specific amount from the advertisers for each click. Even if the advertisers want to run CPA campaigns when they will be charged only if the users perform a specific task. This campaign is extremely profitable for the advertisers who look for lead generation activities.
7. Instagram Ads
One more heartthrob of the online social hubs is currently adhering to a huge base of young crowd and consultants around the world. Billions of visits are happening every moment on this social media platform owned by Facebook, while Facebook itself is promoting Instagram largely. Being such an active platform Instagram offers a huge engagement of targeted audiences when an advertiser runs a paid ad campaign. Based on the criteria and target, an advertiser can easily reach a huge potential audience by running a paid ad campaign. Similar to Facebook campaigns, even Instagram offers low budget ad campaigns with high profitability.
8. LinkedIn Ads
If you want to target the professionals, LinkedIn is the platform you must be thinking of. LinkedIn is the largest social platform for professionals around the world. As an advertiser when your target audience is the office going people/ the business entrepreneurs or IT experts, then surely LinkedIn will be the best choice for you. Similar to most of the other ad networks, even LinkedIn ads offer you to create your own ad campaigns while you can select several filters and create your own engaging ads that meet your marketing needs.
9. Avazu
Avazu ad network works closely with the advertisers and publishers across the world having a huge base of satisfied clients from various industries. Instead of charging the advertisers for each ad click or impressions, Avazu charges them for each successful task completion. As we discussed earlier, this type of campaign is useful for marketers who aim for lead generations, so based upon the requirements, an advertiser can plan for the ad campaigns. You can select the target audience and create specific campaigns based on gender, location, platforms, devices, age, activities, etc.
10. Media .net
One of the most trending ad networks and Admob alternatives is Media.net which has been providing very high conversion rates nowadays. Publishers and advertisers both draw good amounts of profit from this ad network as the ads by Media .net are extremely engaging media content. They maintain high-quality video and image formats so that it attracts the visitors and makes them click on them.
They also pay publishers for impressions and charges the same way from the advertisers. All sorts of ad types are available in Media .net and it supports all mobile platforms such as Android and iOS.
Are These 10 Ad Networks Enough?
Well, I have covered the best ten in the list according to my knowledge. But yes, of course, there are many other mobile app ad networks that are also profitable for both advertisers and publishers. And I am sure that you might be looking for those as well. That is why, apart from these top 10 best mobile app ad networks, I have also created another list of best mobile ad networks. Please have a look at that as well. I hope this article to be satisfying your requirements and wish you great success as an advertiser/ publisher or both.
Dilip Tiwari
Dilip Tiwari is Digital Marketing Expert at USS LLC he likes to share Tips on Digital Marketing Services, Google ads management, Amazon ads management, and other blogs ideas.