AppMonet Blog

Changes to IDFA in iOS 14 and SKAdNetwork Explained   One of the most significant updates from WWDC this year regarding iOS 14 was Apple's announcement that access to the IDFA now requires explicit permission from users, and—as they allude to—the upcoming constraints of the IDFA and tracking ad entities. If every app is required to get explicit permission from the user before tracking them or accessing their device’s advertising identifier (as pictured below), a recent survey from TapResearch suggests that the opt-in rate will be well below 30%, which would make the IDFA essentially obsolete for tracking users at scale. Apple’s IDFA is the primary identifier used for ad tracking and attribution on iOS. SSPs, DSPs and ad networks have been using IDFA for ad targeting and retargeting, frequency capping, campaign measurement, attribution and fraud detection. Without IDFA, the mobile adtech industry will have to build new tooling and rethink current industry conventions and strategies. In a more privacy-conscious environment, SKAdNetwork will become the new standard. Apple’s SKADNetwork API was first introduced in 2018. The concept was to rely on an API to attribute installs rather than the IDFA. Instead, app publishers will receive aggregated, anonymized data from Apple to track the install directly, such as the ad network ID and campaign ID and publisher name. As of iOS 14, new parameters will be added to SKAdNetwork that provide information around the source publisher, and a conversion event.  There is no personally identifiable information or device IDs passed along with the attribution notification. And campaign IDs are limited to 100 per ad network, which means a severe check on the level of detail available for tracking. What is AppMonet doing to prepare for this change? At AppMonet, we are adopting a unified approach that allows our buy-side partners to maximize campaign and creative optimization. We are dedicated to ensuring SKAdNetwork is adopted in an efficient and optimal manner for all partners. We’re releasing reference code for those who want to start experimenting with SKAdNetwork. AppMonet proposes to support SKAdNetwork attribution by allowing DSPs to submit signed clicks to the SKAdNetwork API. DSPs that register with Apple may: Obtain a SKAdNetwork ID Obtain a private key that allows them to sign their key that can be verified by Apple Specify a postback endpoint to receive install attribution notifications. If a DSP wishes to use AppMonet’s SKAdNetwork solution, after registering with Apple, they should provide AppMonet with their SKAdNetwork ID. AppMonet would publish a list of the SKAdNetwork IDs of our DSPs, and our SDK integration guide would instruct publishers to include these IDs in their Info.plist, which is required for SKAdNetwork to work. We would flag which bid requests have SKAdNetwork support so DSPs can bid accordingly. AppMonet proposes new objects in the OpenRTB bid request and bid response to facilitate this, which are detailed in our documentation. In the midst of this industry shift, we’d love your feedback on this. To let us know what you think, or ask any questions, please send us a note at contact@appmonet.com! Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Bring Your A Game: 2020 App Monetization Best Practices   If you’re an app publisher who relies on in-app monetization, you might be debating over how to gain more revenue without interrupting your apps’ user experience with mobile ads. Especially during this lockdown period when people are confined to their homes, they are turning to games or socializing online for a sense of camaraderie and to help pass the time. To help publishers on our network succeed, here are AppMonet’s tried-and-true tips for mobile app monetization that can make you more — without sacrificing your users’ user experience!  Tip 1: Placement is king. Ad fatigue and ad blindness are very real. As with any mobile app monetization model, the user experience is critical when it comes to in-app ads. In-app ads don’t have to be intrusive or pushy — when ads are highly targeted and present the right offers to the right users, they can add value for both the advertisers and the users. The wide variety of ad formats allow apps to accommodate the user experience in a way that isn’t disruptive. Check out AppMonet's diverse ad format! Tip 2: Maximize reach with banners Don’t just chase after the highest paying ad format. Because of the high CPM, your request won’t get filled all the time. On the other hand, although banners are the oldest mobile ad format, they are still an effective monetization tool for apps. Due to their small size, banners are often the easiest ad format to implement. And since these ads can often fit on-screen alongside the main screen, they are also able to reach a high number of the app’s users. So, despite relatively low eCPMs, banner ads still have huge potential to be an effective driver of your ad revenue. Tip 3: Diversify revenue with more partners Choose a few reputable SDK partners that are complement to your adstacks, or even start with a JS tag so you could start monetizing from day 1 while your engineering team is working on integrations. Each ad network has their secret source so it doesn’t hurt to monetize with multiple partners. For example, being in the center of NYC, AppMonet has built close relationships with the largest brand advertisers and agencies which created unique brand advertising demand. With one unified SDK, AppMonet supports all major video brands while maximizing and diversifying apps' brand advertising demand sources. Apps usually earn 25%+ more after working with AppMonet. Tip 4: Know your users  Knowing the demographics of your users and being able to share this first-party data with advertisers is vital for attracting the ad budgets of top brands.  According to Smaato’s research, music apps that provide gender data to advertisers have +271% higher eCPMs than music apps that do not provide this data. Passing age data from music apps resulted in +155% higher eCPMs than the apps that did not. Music apps that provided location data had a +126% higher fill rate than those without, as advertisers were eager to target users based on location. If you’ve built an app and have followed your app marketing strategy to [...]

An Updated Look on Q2 2020: CPMs Are Back Up!   Let’s take an updated look as COVID 19 continues to spread around the globe and civil unrest surges in the U.S. We have compiled a curated list of data from our partners and our own data to paint the current landscape in light of the global spread of the coronavirus and its effects on consumers and businesses.  U.S. ad spending may drop 13% this year, per a forecast by media agency GroupM, though analyses indicate that ad spending has potentially hit bottom, positioning the battered marketing sector for a rebound in Q3. According to an IAB survey, half (51%) of the big brands surveyed expect that total ad spend in 2020 will be less than it was in 2019. Nonetheless, many brands expect to increase their spend across digital channels, including CTV/OTT (59%), non-CTV/OTT digital video (56%), social media (56%), podcasts (52%), digital audio (45%) and paid search (40%) in the second half of 2020. Certainly, the effects of the pullback are likely to be uneven among media platforms, of which, the app advertising market has rebounded quickly compared with other media platforms that forecast steep declines for the rest of the year.  CPMs almost recovered to pre-pandemic level  The recovery in CPMs bodes well for apps. As a growing number of countries are easing out of lockdowns, prices across mobile ad networks are picking up. According to data from Consumer Acquisition, CPMs grew 100% to $10 in May, up from $5 at the start of lockdowns. The study also noted that some individual advertisers had seen CPMs rise between 284% to almost 300% from March to June. As you can see from the graph below, 2020 CPMs have normalized to June 2019. Similarly, video ad CPMs for publishers on Facebook increased 28% last month from April, though they are still 20% lower than in February, according to data cited by Digiday. On Snapchat, revenue per thousand unique views (RPMs) this month recovered to $3 from a low of $1.50 in late March and early April, almost reaching a pre-pandemic level of $3 to $4. YouTube's CPMs are now about $23 after falling from $25 in March to $20 in April, Digiday reported. Global App Revenue Up 23% Year-Over-Year On the app usage side, Preliminary Sensor Tower projections through June 30 show that consumers spent a combined total of $50.1 billion worldwide on the App Store and Google Play in the first half of 2020. This total is 23% more than the $40.6 billion estimated during the same period in 2019. Previously, revenue had increased by 20% between the first half of 2018 and 2019.  2020’s significant growth reflects a trend of greater overall spending as a result of COVID-19’s impact on global app usage. According to Sensor Tower’s data, app installs reached 71.5 billion during the first half of 2020, up 26 year-over-year. The App Store accounted for 18.3 billion representing a 23% growth year-over-year. Google Play garnered 53.2 billion downloads which is a 27% jump from, same period in 2019. The number of downloads from Google’s platform [...]

WWDC 2020: A Privacy-Conscientious App Environment Is Coming Its Way   Apple dropped a bombshell for third-party mobile ad tech during its 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday. From what we cobble together, Apple seems to be bidding on a privacy-conscientious app environment. According to Apple, starting with iOS 14, which is expected to release in the fall, Apple will require developers to self report their privacy practices, clearly indicating their privacy information in the App Store so users can see before downloading the app. Apple compared the required information to nutrition labels. Developers will need to detail which types of data the app collects and whether it will be connected to a user's identity for tracking. Developers will also have to spell out the third-party software development kits (SDKs) and other modules incorporated into their apps, what those components do, what data they collect, and how it will be used. Though the first step towards more transparency relies fully on developers’ candidacy. Apple claims they are giving transparency and control back to users so the policy will require apps to ask before tracking you across apps and websites owned by other companies. It will be easier for users to see and control what data an app is collecting about them with just-in-time notifications. The notifications will alert users when an app wants permission to track them across sites and apps followed by two options: “Allow tracking” or “Ask app not to track.” In addition, users will see an indicator in the status bar when an app is using the device's microphone or camera, much like the green light that goes on when a MacBook's built-in webcam is in use. And you'll be able to share an approximate location with apps, within about 10 miles, rather than giving away more precise data. This way apps can’t pinpoint your exact location. In more technical terms, Apple is lifting Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) functionality from where it’s currently buried within a phone’s Settings menu and calling attention to it at the moment of use, which will likely make people more cautious about sharing their private data. Last but not least, iOS 14 will introduce a “privacy dashboard” that will allow users to understand the information that various apps are tracking such as contacts, browsing history, identifiers, purchases, financial information and location. Users will be able to revoke access to this data from the privacy dashboard, even if those apps had been previously given access to it. Given how entrenched in the app ecosystem user tracking is, advertisers must reckon with the consequences of those changes for their business and think about how their business can endure in the wake of the inevitable IDFA’s deprecation later down the road. IDFA ties into basically every aspect of mobile marketing: targeting, attribution, re-engagement. It seems like a logical next move for Apple to start requiring apps to ask users to consent before using an identifier, such as IDFA, for ads. Without allowing a relative data-sharing free-for-all linked to the IDFA (which is a more persistent identifier than a cookie), mobile advertising is in need [...]

AppMonet's Thoughts on App-Ads.txt IAB Tech Lab’s OpenRTB working group released the final version of the app-ads.txt specification back in 2019. AppMonet has adopted the practice and encourages all of our partners we work with to sign on to ensure a more transparent exchange environment for all stakeholders. What exactly is App-ads.txt? It is essentially an IAB Tech Lab initiative that helps ensure that the digital ad inventory is only sold through sellers (such as AdSense, AppMonet, InMobi, etc) who you have labeled as authorized in your app-ads.txt page. Having your own ads.txt file gives you more control over who is allowed to sell ads on your site and helps prevent fraudulent inventory from being presented to advertisers. How does it work? Publishers can generate a text file on their web servers that lists all of the companies that are authorized to sell the publishers’ inventory. Similarly, programmatic platforms also integrate ads.txt files to confirm which publishers’ inventory they are authorized to sell. This allows buyers to check the validity of the inventory they purchase. How can buyers use ads.txt to check who is authorized to sell? Bidders can check their tags for the presence of an ads.txt file to verify that the exchange and publisher have a legitimate connection to each other. Why does this matter? Unauthorized reselling is a major drawback in programmatic advertising, and unless buyers contacted publishers directly, they would have had no way to know which SSPs are authorized to sell a particular publisher’s inventory. Creating a depository of authorized sellers should help buyers determine which programmatic firms have legitimate access to the inventory they seek. If you are interested in working with AppMonet, we highly recommend you create an app-ads.txt file if you haven’t already. Sharing with us the link to your file - example.com/app-ads.txt would rapidly streamline the onboarding process. As a verified vendor with IAB, we are all in this initiative to build trust, create the network effect and hence make the adtech industry more transparent and efficient! Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

A Letter from AppMonet: Black Lives Matter Today, many are scared, angry, exhausted, and isolated. As evidenced by the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many more whose names we do not know, systemic racism continues to perpetuate hate, inequities, and inequalities in our country and elsewhere. We can do better, and we must do better. As a company, we stand against police brutality in all forms. We stand against a criminal justice system that disproportionately targets the Black community. We stand against the widespread disenfranchisement of Black and Brown communities whose voices are silenced at the polls. We stand in solidarity with our team, clients, partners and communities who are voicing their anguish, anger, and deep frustration with systems that oppress and devalue Black lives. We stand in solidarity as we seek to work together to heal our country. And acting with humanity and purpose strengthens our conviction. It is critical and urgent to provide timely support to organizations working tirelessly for criminal justice reform and those that assist Black-led institutions. We are donating to organizations combating racial injustice & police brutality and we encourage our community to join us in supporting these important organizations. AppMonet is built on the belief to challenge the status quo and make things better, in adtech and in other aspects of our lives that matter to us. Change is hard-fought, and we are committed to this fight. We’re all in this together! With hope and love, AppMonet Team Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Understanding Mobile Cookies It is a common misconception that cookies don’t work on mobile devices. It is not that mobile cookies don’t work, it simply means cookie tracking on mobile devices can only work in specific situations, but other tracking methods are needed to more reliably track ad campaigns across environments. Most mobile web browsers accept first-party cookies (explained in our previous blog post), while different mobile browsers can choose whether to accept third party cookies. Now with Google’s announcement that it would be phasing out its Chrome browser support for third-party cookies in 2022, it adds additional challenges to track mobile cookies. On the other hand, mobile apps have their “sandbox” environment and use a technology referred as “webview” to show online content, whether it’s a website or an ad in a mobile application. Cookies can be stored within a webview similar to the way they are stored in a browser setting. However, any given webview and, consequently the cookies stored in it is unique per application. Therefore mobile apps cannot share cookie information with other applications or with the device’s mobile and web browser.   So what is the industry working on to overcome the gap left by cookies. In February 2020, the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) introduced a new initiative entitled Project Rearc (i.e., Project Re-architecture). The aim is to satisfy the needs of addressable advertising and to work across different browsers while meeting the requirements of various privacy regulations. As we can see. a long term solution is needed to find a balance between user privacy and the relevance of ads as well as the sustainability of the adtech industry.  Meanwhile, there are a few alternative tracking methods we could consider or use a combination of them to fill the mobile cookies gap.  Email or phone number: Use a user’s encrypted email or phone number as an identifier. This “identifier” would then be passed through the standard programmatic supply chain: publisher to SSP to DSP to marketer. However, this form of solution would require publishers to create registration walls for users to access their ad-monetized content and may not facilitate the tracking of users across sites. It enables companies with this type of universal login to gather data across applications and devices.  Client/Device Generated Identifier: A device identifier (ID) set and/or made available by the operating system. Examples include: Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), Google’s Android_ID, Universal Device ID (UDID) and MAC Address. Users may or may not be able to control or change a device-generated identifier.  Statistical ID: A server-side algorithm for identifying a device or user based on the values of a combination of standard attributes passed by the device. Typical device attributes include: device type, operating system, user-agent, fonts, and IP address. Those attributes change over time due to device changes or updates.  HTML5 Cookie Tracking: Involves storing a cookie-like file in HTML5 local storage on the device. These are similar to traditional cookies, but can only be set or retrieved when the browser is open and running.  With partnerships with multiple data vendors, AppMonet is dedicated to fight ad fraud and uphold ourselves [...]

A Cookie-Constrained Future When Google announced that it would be phasing out its Chrome browser support for third-party cookies in 2022, the message sent ripples of uncertainty throughout the ad tech industry. And now 3rd party cookies are on the way out, the industry is preparing for a future without 3rd party cookies once they are completely deprecated. It is crucial to understand the impact and find alternative solutions for advertisers and marketers. It’s time to reimagine a future with cookieless identity data products to combat marketers’ dwindling reliance as browsers like Chrome stop supporting third-party cookies.  First and foremost, what are 1st and 3rd party data/cookies? First party data is any data collected by the brand who owns the relationship with a consumer and used by that brand to enrich that consumer's experience. A few examples of this data include a brand loyalty program, purchase history, communication preferences, or consumer-supplied demographic information. Though there are limitations to 1st party cookies as they are limited to same-site tracking and activation, which cannot be leveraged for tracking across the web and sold to other parties.  Third party data, on the other hand, is information that was aggregated and made available for purchase. A few examples of this data include publicly available demographic data, online behavioral data, or consumer preferences. Traditionally, it is very common for brands to use a combination of 1st party and 3rd party data to drive deeper relationships with their consumers and serve relevant ads based on those data.  The new reality is to get past an environment where advertisers rely on third-party cookies by linking a hashed email to a device ID without disclosing the owner. As the industry evolves to embrace alternative identity standards, it looks like we would rely heavily on first-party cookies and find alternative ways such as hashed emails, PII-match, segment-level data activation to replace 3rd party cookies. Though any new product would have to address the vulnerabilities in the cookieless world:  scale, fraud, or future-proof. The next blogpost will focus on the future of mobile cookies. Stay tuned! Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Q2 Adtech Q&A with AppMonet What has been the ad spend trend in Q2?  One month ago, 24% of ad buyers had paused their campaigns, according to an IAB survey on how COVID-19 has impacted spend. That number has since increased to 37% of buyers, according to the trade org’s latest survey. The coronavirus pandemic brought everyone online, leading to a surge in traffic .But CPMs are falling industrywide. Ad prices drop when marketers lower their spending and demand for digital ads decline, and it will likely continue through Q2 as we expect pricing to remain low for the foreseeable future. At a point in time when marketers & their agencies need to extract as much value from their limited marketing budgets as possible, the practice of programmatic buying has never been more important to maximize revenue opportunities.    Any apps/tools AppMonet is loving this season?  Any tool that helps us collaborate, hang out, have virtual happy hours more easily online. We love Slack, Trello, Periscope and Airtable to keep us productive! This is a weirdly addicting game by one of our partners - Mazes & More   Any recent win/success story to share?  We are so grateful that as a team everyone is staying safe and healthy. We have had several new apps come onboard since March and they are already generating decent cash flow from AppMonet. We add fresh new and incremental revenue sources to those apps, which is key to stay ahead of the curve during this special and turbulent time.    “SDK stability and revenue increase are the two most important factors we look for when evaluating the right monetization partner to work with, AppMonet did both for us" - from a happy mobile gaming app Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

A look inside AppMonet’s #WFH - Winning From Home We’ve reached a turning point - and distributed teams are becoming the new norm. As individuals, organizations and governments continue to adapt in response to COVID-19, the traditional stigmas and barriers associated with working virtually have all but vanished. The closing of non-essential offices, increasing travel restrictions and shelter-in-place mandates have forced a staggering number of businesses to rapidly virtualize and distribute their workforces. Today, remote work isn’t reserved for freelancers looking to avoid a 9-5 grind. Advancements in technology and business practices - dramatically highlighted by the unexpected spread of the novel Coronavirus - are showing just how capable we are of acting as virtual employees. For many enterprises, this sharp and unplanned transition to #WFH is disrupting ongoing projects, processes and workflows. At AppMonet, we rapidly embraced this new norm since the COVID-19 outbreak and made the call to let everyone work from home at the end of February. We quickly realized we could make remote collaborations work and turn it into an advantage for us. Now our new routine has been to check in at 11am and host a virtual standup on Google Hangout to share what we have worked on, what we are going to do and what is blocking us/what we need help with. We also developed new processes to clearly explain our thinking in writing and documenting all the key business practices for everyone to get on the same page. As a company, we realized we have to be more deliberate with our communications than we do in an office setting, but overtime this new practice makes us a stronger team and company. In terms of client communications, we have been relying on Slack, WeChat and Skype but made a more conscious decision to check in more frequently. We’re sending frequent updates, being transparent, sharing good news, and just making sure everyone is in good health and spirits. As a team, we are also implementing virtual happy hours and game times every week. Pushing the next level connectivity has been a bright spot in a dark time so that we can accomplish working — and winning — from home. Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Coronavirus's impact on mobile ad spend and monetization Have you stocked up yet? 🤔 We have seen cities, even countries like Italy in lock down mode right now and millions of people are affected. It has become a global pandamic which not only has dramatic effects on people’s lives (think work from home and the Netflix-and-quarantine life style) but also on the global economy.  And this leads to a thought about our own industry - adtech. How would this pandemic affect mobile ad spend and ad revenue. If revenues are in free fall given the stock market performance and other factors, big spenders' marketing dollars might be budgeted in for later. However, AppMonet noticed that our publishers are actually in an entirely different situation. We serve ads mostly for self care, self education, casual games and news & entertainment apps. These industries will probably even benefit from this crisis. AppMonet saw at least 10% more app bid requests in the past few weeks compared to December. It is evident that mobile usage has been going up during this period.  And according to Apptopia’s data, we saw significant increase of usage and installs on work from home and online education apps. In addition, as you can imagine, people who are quarantined need to be entertained. Sessions of China's top streaming video apps were slowing but experienced a rebound as the severity of the virus increased. And in South Korea, the usage of Netflix soared.  So publishers, what can you do to succeed during the turbulent times? There are two sides - user acquisition and app monetization. It seems to be the time to scale budgets in countries that have been hit hard by coronavirus - at least for those apps that benefit from people in idle mode. We have seen a declining CPM in terms of acquiring users because many big players have put a pause on marketing spend (reference). On the app monetization side, the first and foremost, even if your entire office is working from home, make sure your app is working! Make sure there’s no issue with your server or services so that people can enjoy using your apps with no interruptions! More importantly, it’s time to optimize your monetization strategies. If you rely heavily on ads, it is time to optimize your ad placements and units, your eCPM, and the mobile ad network partners you choose to work with.  AppMonet connects developers with the largest brand advertisers for higher revenue. Being in the center of NYC, AppMonet has harnessed relationships with the largest brand advertisers and agencies which created unique brand demand. With one unified SDK, AppMonet supports all major video brands while maximizing and diversifying apps' brand advertising demand sources. We have been a trusted partner for many world renowned apps and we are certainly here to help! Get in touch today if you are looking to make higher revenue for your apps! Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

What apps can do to get a boost during the Coronavirus outbreak? Before we start, lysol your phone please.  In hard-hit areas that Coronavirus has widely spread, increasing people are confined to their homes. Employees will be working from home and students are taking classes via live streams. During the coronavirus outbreak last month, app usage in China has surged during the period when major cities were locked down. People are turning to games or socializing online for a sense of camaraderie and to help pass the time. Total game downloads on Apple's app store in China increased 27.5% year over year and revenue rose by 12.1%, according to market research firm Sensor Tower. Douyin, China’s TikTok grew by 102% as bored teens went to cloud raves, created humorous videos about their isolation. Video games such as PUBG by Tencent saw a significant increase in playing time and in-app spend.  While more people are stranded at home instead of traveling or socializing outside of the home, smartphones offer a way to connect with friends, alleviate boredom, or find crucial information on the Coronavirus outbreak. So what can your apps or games learn from Chinese apps’ success during the Coronavirus outbreak? AppMonet has put together a few key strategies to help you better engage your users and give them a peace of mind.  Make your app free or extend your promotions  Many Chinese video game companies have responded to the coronavirus outbreak by extending or introducing new promotions. Some games even changed their business models to make the games free with the option to make in-game purchases, as noted by Omdia, a tech research service. Make your users happy, help them connect for a much-needed dose of human contact, your sales would be soaring as people locked up in quarantine would pounce on anything to keep the blues of isolation away. A friendly reminder conveys your company value If you are a news or information related app, make sure you prioritize your information related to the Coronavirus virus so people would turn to your app to check the latest updates on Coronavirus. Even if you are not in the news/information category, a friendly reminder/push notification on following good respiratory hygiene shows you care about your users and reflects good company values.  It’s time to optimize your in-app advertising  With increasing time spent in the app, it’s time to think about how you could maximize your ad serving. Mobile advertising has now overtaken in app purchases as the primary money maker for app publishers. In-app banners and video ads are great ways to monetize your app but you need to be smart about the mobile ad network you decide to partner with. In addition, think about the ad formats that best fit your apps. In-app ads don’t have to be intrusive or pushy — when ads are highly targeted and present the right offers to the right users, they can add value for both the advertiser and the user. The wide variety of ad formats allow apps to accommodate the user experience in a way that isn’t disruptive. With unparalleled 3rd party [...]

AppMonet Joined IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework  New York, NY, Feb. 18, 2020 -- Today, AppMonet announced our approved status as the latest VENDOR to join IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent framework (the Framework). The framework, which was launched in April 2018, is designed to help all parties in the digital advertising chain ensure that they comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive when processing personal data or accessing and/or storing information on a user’s device, such as cookies, advertising identifiers, device identifiers and other tracking technologies. The Framework was developed by IAB Europe in collaboration with organizations and professionals in the digital advertising industry. It provides transparency to consumers about how, and by whom, their personal data is processed. It also enables users to express choices. Moreover, the TCF enables vendors engaged in programmatic advertising to know ahead of time whether their own and/or their partners’ transparency and consent status allows them to lawfully process personal data for online advertising and related purposes.  Through the Framework, publishers can continue funding themselves through relevant online advertising, and brands can continue to reach their audiences. All the while and most importantly, consumer privacy is protected.  AppMonet believes that the IAB framework is the best way for everyone — advertisers, publishers, and consumers — to be on the same page concerning GDPR and consumer consent. The added registration of AppMonet to the Framework, further bolsters IAB Europe’s mission to raise the standard and trust in digital advertising across Europe.  Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Meet Our New and Improved Dashboard AppMonet, a trusted mobile ad network, is excited to announce the launch of our new dashboard, which is now available to all AppMonet publishers! The new dashboard was built with our 200+ publishers at top of mind, taking into account the leading metrics and reports that our publishing partners have generated in 2019. Our goal is to give them a clear overview of all of their activities on the AppMonet platform, and increase the amount of control that they have.  What you will see on the new dashboard The publisher dashboard is comprised of in-depth and intuitive, charts, tables and graphs. They map out the main metrics and data points AppMonet publishers use on a daily basis. The key metrics include Clicks, Bid Responses, Requests, Impressions, Efficiency, CTR, Bid CPM, Winning CPM, Revenue, Fill Rate. It can also be customized to any timeframe and filters including Demand Partner, Creative Type, Country and Ad Unit.  For any feedback or questions about the dashboard, please reach out to support@appmonet.com. Drive revenue and boost engagement. Find out how. {{ vc_btn:title=Get+in+touch%21&style=custom&custom_background=%231e73be&custom_text=%23ffffff&size=lg&align=center&link=url%3Ahttp%253A%252F%252Fappmonet.com%252Fcontact%252F%7Ctitle%3AContact%7C%7C }}

Using Closure Compiler With Webpack + Typescript via Tsickle   Written by Nick Jacob At AppMonet we serve hundreds of terabytes of javascript each day to tens of millions of devices. Our SDK is deployed in hundreds of top apps; sometimes in multiple apps on the same phones. It’s critical that we minimize our the impact of our SDK — ads should consume as few resources as possible. Javascript bloat plagues the open web; the average webpage has 350kb of gzipped Javascript (Addy Osmani has an awesome talk about why JS file size is so problematic on mobile). Because AppMonet is mobile-only, we’re especially sensitive to the size of our Javascript files—besides lower network speeds, we’re also running in resource-constrained devices with slow javascript runtimes (Android pre-lollipop, iOS UIWebview). Closure Compiler ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS Fortunately, we’re not the only ones with this problem! Besides terser (fka uglify-es) and babel-minify, Google has its closure-compiler, which can perform a lot of really impressive optimizations. Closure-compiler includes dead-code elimination, some runtime optimizations similar to prepack, es5 class transpilation, runtime shimming/polyfills, and minification/mangling. The closure-compiler used to require running a jar (wrapped by a node module)—it’s now also available as a native binary or pure-javascript library, giving much better compile times. In a lot of cases, closure compiler is similar in performance to uglifyJS/terser—especially if you’re able to mangle properties in uglifyjs. However, there is a special mode—ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS that is really the holy grail of javascript optimization. From the closure compile docs: The ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS level compresses JavaScript well beyond what is possible with other tools. Closure Compiler Compilation Levels | Google DevelopersThe Closure Compiler lets you choose from three levels of compilation, ranging from simple removal of whitespace and comments to aggressive code transformations. The WHITESPACE_ONLY compilation level removes comments from your code and also removes line breaks, unnecessary spaces, extraneous punctuation (such as parentheses and semicolons), and other whitespace. Unfortunately using it isn’t so easy—if you read the closure compiler docs about ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS, you’ll see that you not only have to carefully declare all of your “externs” (anything that can’t be mangled beyond recognition), but alsoannotate all of your code with jsdoc-like comments to achieve maximal performance. These comments are a very es3-centric way of expressing types: /** * A shape. * @interface */ function Shape() {}; Shape.prototype.draw = function() {}; /** * @constructor * @implements {Shape} */ function Square() {}; Square.prototype.draw = function() { ... }; But if we’re using typescript, doesn’t our code already contain all of this information about types and visibility? If we could convert typescript to this annotated javascript, we’d be able to use ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS without any changes to our code! Luckily, the angular team has developed a tool called tsickle, which does exactly that! From the tsickle github: * inserts closure-compatible JSDoc annotations on functions/classes/etc * converts ES6 modules into goog.module modules * generates externs.js from TypeScript d.ts (and declare, see below) * declares types for class member variables * translates export * from ... into a form Closure accepts * converts TypeScript enums into a form Closure accepts * reprocesses all jsdoc to strip Closure-invalid tags Awesome! Unfortunately, tsickle isn’t exactly mainstream: We already use tsickle within Google to minify our apps (including those [...]

How to maximize Kinesis write throughput with Elixir   Written by Nico Piderman At AppMonet we help mobile app developers maximize their advertising revenue by running auctions each time an ad slot is available on their users’ devices. This activity generates tons of data, almost all of which enters our system through AWS Kinesis. We write billions of events to Kinesis each day, and if one isn’t careful, this kind of activity can end up costing a lot of money. The most efficient way to use the service is demonstrated by Amazon’s official Kinesis Producer Library (KPL). However, this library can only be used with Java. The features of this library that we are most interested in include: Aggregating records to the optimal payload size Automating retries with exponential backoff with jitter strategy. Amazon also offers a series of aggregation libraries in several other popular languages which would allow you to aggregate your records using the same technique as the KPL, but leaves the actual transmission of the aggregated records to Kinesis up to the user. Sadly there is no official Elixir/Erlang aggregation library either. However, the fine people over at AdRoll also make heavy use of Kinesis streams, and have published several open source libraries to help the BEAM community efficiently interact with Kinesis. Erlmld and Exmld are two libraries made to help efficiently and safely consume Kinesis streams. Erlmld in particular, comes with a port of the Python implementation of the official Kinesis record aggregator. We extracted the producing logic and ported it to Elixir. We have begun to use it internally because we didn’t want to pull in the entire Exmld package, which is for consuming streams, just to use this one aggregation module. ProvisionedThroughputExceededException Once you start writing a non trivial amount of data to your first Kinesis stream, you will inevitably come across the “ProvisionedThroughputExceededException”. Don’t let this exception scare you in to scaling up your streams (and increasing your AWS bill) just yet! Instead, your application should retry requests that produce this exception. The ExAws Elixir library comes with a great implementation of exponential backoff with jitter, and for many AWS services, this retry strategy will kick in automatically. Unfortunately, we found that Kinesis Put Record API calls made with ExAwsKinesis do not trigger these automatic retries. We have patched the library and submitted our fix upstream and are waiting to hear back from the package maintainers. For now, we are using our patched version with great success and enjoying excellent throughput on a minimal number of shards! Practical Architecture So what does this all look like in practice? There are three main pieces in our application. Poolboy pool GenServers Module to manage the GenServer state We use a pool, mainly so no single GenServer becomes a bottle neck in our application. You can adjust the size and max overflow of the pool according to your needs. We use the fifo strategy, so that we round robin through the pool and use all of the GenServers. The GenServers look something like: This GenServer provides an API function, write/1 which will check out a process from our pool, and push a new record to the GenServer’s state, which uses our KPL aggregator to [...]