Instagram’s US user growth rate sharply decelerated last year, from 10.1% in 2018 to 6.7% in 2019, according to eMarketer’s latest social benchmark report. EMarketer is also lowering its Instagram growth forecast, revised down from 5.4% to 4.5% in 2020, and 3.2% instead of 4.1% in 2021. The main reason why Instagram’s growth forecast in […]
The next version of the IAB Tech Lab’s open-measurement SDK (1.3) debuted on Tuesday, with support for in-app audio, more granular brand safety controls and a fix for impression counting discrepancies between vendors. But despite progress on the supply side, “very few DSPs are making use of OpenRTB signals for open measurement,” said Joe Ranzenbach, […]
The online travel search engine Kiwi.com wants to retarget users in a personalized way that’s ROI positive, said Mark Calzaverini, the company’s head of performance. “At the very least, we need to be able to identify users, make sure we’re not selling them the same thing twice,” he said. For the last year and a […]
On Monday, Activision Blizzard Media, the advertising and media arm within Activision Blizzard (parent company to juggernaut game studio King), launched King’s Council, a panel comprised of around 5,000 of its most engaged and active players across the United States and the United Kingdom. The purpose is to conduct user research and to test ad […]
Ad networks are on the outs in the desktop world, but they still have a stranglehold on the mobile app ecosystem. That’s beginning to change, though. Mobile app publishers are transacting more of their impressions through programmatic auctions in a setup that mimics header bidding on desktop. The momentum has been growing over the past […]
For Placed, life at Foursquare is a lot different than life was at Snap. Case in point: Foursquare and Placed completed the integration of their first-party audience data sets into a single attribution product within 90 days of the acquisition, which closed this summer. Snap sold Placed to Foursquare in May after acquiring the company […]
Snap outpaced estimates for its quarterly earnings released Tuesday, bringing in $446 million, a 50% jump compared to last year. But the company has a long way to go before it’s in the black. Snap’s net losses in Q3 were $227 million, though that’s a $98 million improvement from Q3 2018. Snapchat’s daily active users […]
Mobile performance marketers like DoorDash are hungry for more video ads to feed their paid social user acquisition (UA) campaigns. Problem is, internal creative teams lack the bandwidth to meet the demands of their colleagues in performance, said Justin Neustadter, head of mobile consumer acquisition at DoorDash. Quality video creative is expensive to produce, and […]
After a slowish start, App.ads.txt adoption is surging, but there’s still an enormous longtail of apps that shrug their collective shoulders at the industry spec designed to cut down on app ad fraud. App-ads.txt is an IAB Tech Lab initiative that involves app publishers providing text files listing the ad networks and other sources that […]
Most mobile user acquisition (UA) managers, like the ones who work at LA-based mobile game studio Jam City, are highly analytical creatures whose job is to dig into the data, analyze ad spend and manually adjust bids. But there’s increasingly less and less for them to do. Facebook and Google are systematically introducing more and […]
This is not a test: App messaging platform Airship is buying Apptimize, an A/B testing platform that helps mobile marketers rapidly run experiments across apps and sites, including OTT apps. Airship, which rebranded from Urban Airship in April, declined to share terms for the deal, which was announced on Tuesday. But around 20 people from […]
“Guys, it’s that time of the month … no not that time. It’s time to spin some more BS to Uber to keep the lights on.” That’s an excerpt from an email sent on Oct. 31, 2016 between two employees at Phunware, according to a lawsuit filed by Uber on July 12 in San Francisco. […]
Fake installs on Android are costing mobile app marketers beaucoup bucks and messing with their data sets. On Wednesday, mobile marketing analytics company Singular released a tool that deterministically validates whether an Android install is real or bogus before the install gets attributed. There are other tools on the market that aim to do the […]
The news: Facebook is suing two shady developers for using Audience Network to gin up fake clicks on Facebook ads. What isn’t news: Audience Network, which advertisers use to extend their Facebook campaigns to third-party sites and apps, can be a conduit for ad fraud and fake traffic. The developers, Hong Kong-based LionMobi and Singapore-based […]
Google added a slew of new solutions, ad formats and targeting options to its automated app ad platform and to AdMob, the company said on Wednesday. And there’s a theme: Automation and machine learning are becoming increasingly central to Google’s vision for app advertising. Advertisers can use automation to be more efficient with their user […]
The Department of Justice gave final approval Friday to T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint. The third and fourth largest carriers in the United States will soon be one. But there are some caveats that come with the DOJ’s approval, including requiring both companies to divest some spectrum and certain prepaid wireless assets to Dish […]
When private equity firm Blackstone announced its plan this week to acquire video-focused mobile ad network Vungle, multiple sources pegged the deal at $750 million – a remarkably large price tag for a company that only raised a little over $25 million. The question is, why so high? Mobile gaming is massive For one, Vungle has […]
It’s hard enough to develop features that work well for one app or site – let alone more than 100. But that’s the task at hand for Kara Chiles, senior director of product development at USA Today Network, a national news service that shares content and resources between USA Today and Gannett-owned local properties across the […]
Any sign of bad traffic, and mobile game developer Glu flips the kill switch at the ad network and the publisher levels, said John Parides, Glu’s senior director of user acquisition. “This is something you need to be constantly monitoring,” said Parides, who’s been with Glu for almost five years, during which click spam became […]
Smaato has a new CEO. The mobile supply-side platform told employees Friday morning that Ragnar Kruse and Petra Vorsteher are exiting the company they co-founded 15 years ago. Arndt Groth, who joined Smaato as president in 2017, will succeed Kruse, who had served as CEO since Smaato’s inception. Kruse and Vorsteher are handing over the […]
Uber is suing five ad networks for squandering tens of millions of dollars on low-quality or fraudulent ads – and it’s naming names. The suit, filed in early June in a San Francisco court, calls out Hydrane SAS, BidMotion, Taptica, YouAppi and AdAction Interactive for purchasing “nonexistent, nonviewable or fraudulent advertising.” Users who did see the […]
Adjust raised $227 million in funding – and there’s no need to adjust your screen on the amount. The monster round, announced Wednesday, brings the Berlin-based mobile measurement company’s total funding to $250 million. It was led by new investors Eurazeo Growth, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and Sofina, and existing investor Highland Europe. Previously, […]
Facebook is bringing playable ads, an interactive format that lets users demo a mini version of an app before downloading it, to Audience Network starting Wednesday. It’s available within rewarded video and interstitial placements. In the coming weeks, Facebook is also planning to expand access to its rewarded video unit to all publishers across the […]
MoPub released an SDK update on Tuesday that gives app publishers access to impression-level revenue data. Historically, that type of data – which lets user acquisition managers attribute revenue and lifetime value to specific users at the impression level – has been hard to come by. Most third-party ad networks haven’t been set up to […]
Mobile growth marketers are going through a few growing pains in the transition from ad networks to programmatic. “There’s a lack of knowledge, a lack of resources, a lack of data and it requires a lot of research to find the right partners,” said Gabriel Sampaio, growth lead for digital channels at Rappi, an on-demand […]
Story updated to include comments and clarifications from Verve. Verve’s embrace of programmatic video last year may not be panning out. This week, less than one year after acquiring in-app video company Receptiv, Verve experienced its second round of layoffs in just three months, letting 30 staffers go this week, Adweek reported. Sources tell AdExchanger […]
Although Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are getting more expensive, they remain the go-to places for brand-building campaigns. That’s the approach being taken by Skullcandy, the maker of headphones and audio devices, as it looks to grow from its action sports roots to a broader audience, according to CMO Jessica Klodnicki, who was hired in […]
Jason Lapp, a longtime WPP and Kantar executive, is taking over as CEO of Kiip. Last Friday, a grand jury indicted Brian Wong, the company’s founder and now former CEO, on charges of felony sexual assault related to an encounter during the SXSW festival in 2016. An arrest warrant was filed in January. Wong has […]
Machine learning is becoming central to user acquisition and app advertising at Google. On Wednesday, Google introduced five game developer-focused ads products, four of which are powered by some form of machine learning. The first new release, called pre-registration ads, for example, allows developers to reach Android users across the Play store, YouTube, search and […]
Oracle has uncovered an ad fraud operation it calls “DrainerBot,” which siphoned off ad dollars and monthly data packages. Oracle’s internet infrastructure business Dyn originally discovered the operation after it picked up suspicious activity among some mobile apps using an SDK from Tapcore, a Dutch mobile monetization company. The apps obscured web data with proxy […]
