Yeahmobi

Forbes announced its list of “Forbes 30 under 30 Asia” of 2017, the annual ranking of Asia’s brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers. Yeahmobi CEO Xiaowu Zou is named in the list, based on his outstanding performance on entrepreneurship.

Forbes sifted through thousands of nominations and then convened a panel of judges – from Kaifu Lee and Jean Liu to Jimmy Choo and Sonny Bill Williams to bring out the list.

The Asian list is a continuation of the global expansion of the Forbes 30 under 30 franchise – a franchise that includes alumni such as Palmer Luckey from Oculus, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy from Snapchat, basketball superstar LeBron James and K-pop star G-Dragon.

Forbes’s announcement remarked Zou’s outstanding performance managing Chinese marketing company Yeahmobi. The company reported a profit of $13 million on revenues of $93 million last year.

Throughout the process of startup, Zou holds on to one opinion: to find the thing he truly loves. As the now 29-year-old entrepreneur said in an interview, startup is a long and arduous paths, with numerous setbacks and obstacles awaiting. The weapon used to conquer the route is to be clear that what you do is what you truly love to do. Zou claims he made through the difficult path bearing in mind that marketing and connecting good products with potential users is where his true passion lies on.

Like many young Chinese students, after obtaining Bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Zou chose to seek further education abroad. He went to the University of Arizona and obtained Master’s degree there. During his studies abroad, Zou started the business specialized in marketing, monetizing traffic of his blog. He soon accumulated his first bucket of gold, and went back China to found his overseas marketing company Yeahmobi with several friends.

Mobile performance marketing network Yeahmobi has just raised RMB ￥639 million (about $100 million), to bolster its global expansion. The company now values at about ￥5 billion (about $720 million).

The funding is said to be used as working capital needed in mobile advertising business in subsidiary companies and branches, and as reserve fund for future mergence and acquisition of companies in the relevant industry.

Launched in 2011, the company is an intelligent mobile advertising platform designed to help mobile technology companies reach global growth, acquire active users and monetize inventory. It operates in the field of consumer apps, mobile games, cross-border ecommerce, internet finance, lifestyle, travel and other industries, covering over 200 countries and regions, and delivering global coverage at large scale.

The last funding round of the company was closed in April 2016, and raised $25 million through equity funding, led by Chinese tech giant Xiaomi and its CEO Lei Jun.

In profitability, the company reported half year result of 2016 by making $97 million revenue and $11 million net profits, sustaining growth in business operation.

Yeahmobi has also just awarded Mobile Champion of China Channel Partner by Google in Google’s annual Channel Partner Summit. The winning was given according to Google’s international performance standards, criteria including traffic volume, number of active users, reach of service and so on.

China-Malaysia Mobile Internet Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently. The conference was hosted by government organization CAMIA and Shangfang Media. Developers and entrepreneurs of internet companies from both countries converged and forecasted future development of mobile internet. Yeahmobi’s VP of international business Daisy Wu was invited to the meeting and addressed the attendees.

Malaysia is the youngest mobile internet market in the South East Asia, with high mobile Internet coverage, and 500% growth in last 10 years. Data suggested, Malaysia has 21.35 million Internet users, covering 70% of the population. Among them, 41% are male users, while 59% are female. The country has 41.8 million mobile phones, and some citizens use more than one phone. 77% of phone owners use a prepaid mobile phone, while the rest pay after spend. In mobile internet field, 79% of mobile internet users are under 35 years old, making the country the youngest market in SEA. Until now, all major cities in the country have 3G coverage, and some areas have access to 4G service. Wifi is also available in big cities, and still growing. Residents or tourists can easily find a restaurant or café with internet access in cities.

As one of the biggest mobile internet market in the world, China has a huge user base and generated a lot of excellent apps, services or business models which impressed the world. Outstanding products gain confidence and wish to test their products in a bigger market. On such basis, China and Malaysia has rich cooperation opportunities and spaces.

Yeahmobi’s VP of international business, Daisy Wu addressed the attendees

Yeahmobi’s VP of international business, Daisy Wu shared Yeahmobi’s experience on internationalizing mobile apps, and shared her thoughts on how to boost cooperation on mobile internet fields between the two countries.

GamesBeat Summit organized by tech media VentureBeat was held in Sausalito, California from May 3 to 4. Yeahmobi was invited to the event as golden sponsor. The event is about the global business of gaming. It brought together 180 gaming executives from all segments of the gaming ecosystem to develop a blueprint for the industry’s expansion in 2016 and beyond.

Through years of development, gaming industry is now a huge one. It began from consoles, but now was extended to everywhere, from mobile, virtual reality to augmented reality. These new platforms and gears opens up expansion route and opportunity for game companies. They are constantly energize developers, to make continuous growth in this huge market.

Mobile market alone, was predicted to generate a revenue of a $36.9 billion worldwide this year. A lot of former console manufacturing companies turn to iOS and Android devices, like Nintendo. They have larger potential to engage more audiences. Marvel Entertainment gaming manager Peter Phillips said in the Summit that today, gaming in the Marvel universe is all about mobile end, instead of big-budget console games they did before.

However, as more and more players entering mobile gaming industry, the cost of acquiring user is growing higher. To deal with this, speakers at GamesBeat Summit offered their views. Nexon Chief Executive Officer Owen Mahoney thought rising marketing cost was destroying profit margins. The reason why this happens is because many mobile games are similar. He believed mobile games should not be treated like a commodity, but a piece of art. If publishing companies can make game fun and different, customers will like it without spending too much on differentiate it with others.

Founder of N3twork and Ngmoco Neil Yong was very optimistic on mobile gaming industry. He expected more revenue to be generate this year. He put forward a novel view that instead of spending large amount of acquisition cost, developers should create games that maximize life span, and encourage people to spend. He encourages game makers to use different techniques to get players to spend, like introducing new way of purchase. Through this method, even there is not many people playing, but the average revenue generated per user is increasing.

Samsung is a tech giant in terms of its device, but it also introduces its own Galaxy App store. It announced a scheme “Made for Samsung” to help mobile apps develop, promote and distribute, including products by independent game developers. The program offer faces to contents that can differentiate Samsung’s ecosystem, and gaming is an important part of that, Vice president at emerging platforms at Samsung, Mihai Pohontu said.

Yeahmobi has also paid large attention on help developers solving the problem of high acquisition cost. We promise that developers only need to focus on their products, and Yeahmobi will help do the others. From earlier this year, Yeahmobi introduced Cost-effective Campaign which aims to increase app installs with lower amount of marketing spend.

Since the beginning of 2016, India has been repeatedly mentioned in all kinds of articles discussing technological development, start-up environment, and VC focus. The whole world has realized the strength of the second-populated and yet-to-be-developed market. VCs are looking to latch on to the opportunities in the India startup space. Two investment-related events were held recently to showcase what the investment environment of India is really like.

The first one is Chindia TMT Dialogue Conference held on May 30. The event is to “Connect the top rising economics, inspiring the future world”. It was supported by Chinese Embassy in India, and Foreign Investment Administration of Ministry of India. Government support obviously highlights the depth of the event. Other attendees included senior managers from Alibaba, SnapDeal, PayTM, Xiaomi, SHAREit, UC and so on, and VCs like Sequoia, Lightspeed, Bertelsmann India, Fosun, and Heli.

Chief Business Officer of Yeahmobi, Sun Han was invited to the event (middle)

The participants shared their thoughts on investment future of India, and cooperation and development of Chinese and Indian Internet industry. Mobile marketing service provider Yeahmobi was invited to the event. Its Chief Business Officer in India, Sun Han said, “India is a fascinating place to learn from and communicate with. We need to penetrate into the India market, to work with local people, and to learn from our local partners, in order to truly understand it and conduct business there”.

Localization was believed to be a key issue companies entering India should consider first. The Indian market has its unique features, like multi-lingual factor, complicated religious communities, distinctive lifestyle, and relatively underdeveloped infrastructure. However, the market did show great potential on ecommerce, online payment, cloud service and so on, which are fields VCs are eager to latch on to.

The second event is a series of Investment Roadshow co-organized by Yeahmobi and Indian tech media Onionfans starting from May 1. The event introduced Chinese investors to Indian start-ups.

Startup company presenting business to potential investors

Startup company preparing for presentation

According to Global Economic Conditions Survey, though world economy seemed to gloom, investment in South Asia did not slow down. Some statistics show that the least number of companies in South Asia cut back capital expenditure. On the contrary, it had the second largest number of companies increasing their expenditure, right after North America.

CEO of Paytm Mr.Bhushan introduced investment opportunities in India to Chinese investors.

Some representatives from Chinese VCs also showed faith on Indian start-up economy. CEO of Incapital, Xiang Jianbiao said, in his view, Indian Internet businesses stand a great chance, as they generally have International vision and do not have language barrier in international expansion as Chinese companies have. This will be a huge strengthen in accelerated development stage.

Start-ups from online healthcare, ecommerce, utility, socializing, and cloud service won the most attention. One of the ecommerce platform reached initial funding agreement with investor right after presentation.

Director of investment of Yeahmobi, Huang Shuozi shared thoughts on cross-border investment practices.

Yeahmobi Indian team and startup representative

GMIC Beijing was a huge success as leaders in Mobile Internet industry, representatives from tech companies, elite developers and many more crowed the National Convention Center of China in Beijing. This year, the theme of the convention is “Mobile Infinity”. The topic certainly echoes with the enormous market tide happening right now in the whole world.

In the beginning of year 2016, Yeahmobi was successfully listed on NEEQ stock market of China, and announced the next move of the company – to help Chinese enterprises with their international expansion. Here in the convention, we were so glad to see so many Chinese enterprises do well in their businesses and so many attract attentions from outside the country. As a service provider, Yeahmobi will always be with our clients when they introduce their outstanding product or service to a larger market.

Yeahmobi also had a great time at GMIC with our friends!

Yeahmobi, a leading mobile performance marketing company, has announced that it has merged with traditional equipment manufacturing company Gaoman Zhonggong and founded a new company – Yidian Tianxia Internet Technology Co. Ltd.

After the merger, the new company issued private placement on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) of China (stock symbol: Yidian Tianxia, code: 430270). NEEQ is China’s newest stock market, also known as the third board. It is an equity transaction platform that allows non-marketable corporations trade their shares. Most companies listed on NEEQ are high-tech companies, and small or middle-sized companies.

The new company Yidian Tianxia issued 10.04 million shares of private placement, at a price of 9.5RMB (1.45USD) per share, tailed to Kingsoft Security, Jinxing Investment, and Chizhou Investment. Among the three investors, two are related to Xiaomi Tech, one of the largest smart products developer and manufacturer in China. Xiaomi Tech is the sole owner of Jinxing Investment, while Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun assumes the office of Executive Director in Kingsoft Security.

Media reports pointed out that Lei Jun’s investment in Yidian Tianxia symbolizes his faith in the promising future of mobile marketing. This is backed up by statistics from eMarketer, its report predicts the mobile marketing spend in APAC in 2015 to reach $25.4 billion, a 92.8% increase from the previous year. In 2019, the spending amount is predicted to be over $83.1 billon, taking up 42% of world’s total. Based on the numbers, it is fair to say the mobile marketing industry in China will maintain a positive growth in years to come.

Yeahmobi was founded in 2011, and now becomes one of the largest international mobile performance marketing service providers. Its range of services include Performance Network, Social, Search, Display and Offline, as well as providing ad-based monetization solutions for mobile apps through proprietary SDK and API feeds. It operates in the field of mobile games, apps and international ecommerce products from over 200 countries, including Yahoo, Cheetah Mobile, Baidu, VK, Paytm, Line, and others.

In 2013, Yeahmobi became one of world’s largest mobile affiliate networks by trading scale. In 2014, Yeahmobi placed the highest amount of ads on Google and Facebook platforms in China. In 2015, it was named “China’s Best Overseas Marketing Channel” by TFS, and been awarded the titles of “The Best Mobile Ad Service Premier Partner” and “The Fastest-Growing Premier Partner” by Google.

At the end of flying-by 2015, when we trace back, we see one exciting year for mobile marketing. But as most veterans in this field say, 2016 will be an even better one, with the market space continues to mature and grow.

Several years ago, we were using feature phone, and stressed about the limited memory to store all text messages our loved ones sent. Now, smartphones take over the world, we indulge in various apps, and are constantly on the small screen. In the past three years, smartphone media consumption surpassed consumption of television. In the first quarter of this year only, mobile commerce grew 123%. Along with the booming mobile industry, mobile ad is forecast to reach $100 billion in spending in the coming year.

In the promising future of mobile ad industry, we should not neglect these important trends.

Ad blocker

There is a simple reason why people use ad blocker – to avoid being interrupted and annoyed. Mobile users in UK who use ad blockers has grown from 15% to 18% between June and October 2015. In this conflict between users against publishers and advertisers, countermoves have already been taken. The Washington Post and Yahoo denied users from their content and service if ad blocker was deployed. While both parties feel their moves justified, in-app ads feel relieved at the moment. They cannot be blocked, and they await a big jump next year.

However, it is obvious that ads that customers do not want to block are the future. Advertising industry should put more money and efforts into such creation. Creative ads, personalized feeds, or native ads that blend into content are all options advertisers can take. Well, question of Bob Knorpp of The CoolBeans probably cut right to the core of this ad-blocking debate, “how do we balance the right of the publisher to get paid with the right of the consumer not to get stalked and hounded?”

Personalization

Marketers wish to push right message to the right person and therefore generate good ROI, while each customers have their own interests and loathes. There, advertising is on a way of “tailored service”, to know who the customers are, to push the right message to the person who is in need of that information, and who would not get annoyed on that information. Customers’ interests and loathes create infinite number of data points that can be later drawn from to create a fuller picture of each one of them. In 2016, this move will be further emphasized and developed. Without intruding and crossing the line of knowing too much, of course.

Video

Since last year, global mobile data traffic grew nearly 70%, with 55% of mobile data traffic spent on videos. Facebook video receives 4 billion views every single day, and 75% of these happens on mobile. Ubiquitous mobile device usage and better broadband coverage facilitate this. In the near future, a 5-inch screen would be a common allocation for mobile users.

Now, with users spend around 86% of their time in apps, prediction is that in-app video will increasingly take a large share of total ad spend. Short but compelling ads have already seen effective returns, including message conveyed, brand name broadcasted and likeability of ads.

Psychology is playing a pivotal role in the shift of mobile digital marketing from traditional mobile banner ads to native ads. Yeahmobi is looking at how psychology can be used to optimize native ad displays, by both advertisers and publishers, to better engage users. Last time, in part 1, we took a look at how the components of ads could be better honed, discussing aspects such as color, style and display frequency. In part 2, here, we’re taking a look at how text can make or break mobile native ads.

This guide comes on the back of Sharethrough’s recent publication of an infographic on native ads neuroscience (based on their study with Neilson), and the release of the ‘IAB Deep Dive on In-Feed Ad Units’ – both excellent sources of information for businesses wanting to create highly-effective native ad campaigns or indeed monetize via in-app ad displays.

So getting to the point, what text should you be using in in-feed ads and what effect does it have? On the findings of their study, Sharethrough stated that: “Among native ads, the majority of explicit visual focus was on the ad's text rather than the thumbnail. The same was true for editorial posts.” It is crucial that when implementing native ads you use the most effective copy. Here’s how you might do that:

1. Get the length right

When you create copy for in-feed ads you want to make sure headlines inform the reader of your main point or about your brand in way that engages the user. Testing longer and shorter headlines can tell you which method works best for your ads and for your users. Sharethrough’s research actually suggests you use longer headlines as it leads to higher engagement rates – the highest engagement from tests came from copy with 61+ characters. Whilst longer headlines does give readers more information that can help associate your brand with the things you specifically want, the length might not work in all situations, mainly mobile phones and with gaming ads.

On mobile it could be better to keep headline copy short (but not necessarily sweet). Bearing in mind that mobile screens can often be quite small compared to tablets and desktops, longer headlines in ads might put some users off. Keeping text short can ensure that you get the key point across more clearly in the limited space available on a mobile screen. But if you use shorter headlines you need to make sure the brief copy delivers a greater impact. You could even try using negative wording, which is known to create more sharing. Social media marketing expert Pam Dyer suggests that using words like “No”, “Without” and “Stop” impact users and readers by tapping into our insecurities. A/B testing the length of text and words that stimulate sharing can gradually help build your brand and deliver high value to mobile marketing.  

2. Be real, be personal

You respond to information quickly and deeply if it relates directly to you. When you run ad campaigns, whether as monetization in your app, or whether you are creating headlines for your campaigns, it’s important to think about how you speak to your targeted customers. Using ‘we’ and ‘you’ in ad copy can help make ad dialogue seem like a more personal and natural dialogue. For app developers monetizing their products, copy personalization could be done in the ad disclosure text. Instead of ‘Sponsored’ on a tag, ‘Suggested for you’ might better engage users during in-feed scrolling.

Personalizing messages in advertising can also help offer users more value. Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers suggests offering a clear benefit in a headline to engage readers. A headline for a cleaner app advert reading “5 tips to increase your phone’s memory” is likely to have a stronger impact that “Read about this great cleaner app”. If you can offer readers valuable, useful information that is directly addressed to them, you are more likely to engage new users and build your audience.

3. Use the brand’s name and key words

Sharethrough’s study also found that descriptive language in in-feed ads creates associations with brands. This is crucial for brand recognitions and stimulating organic user growth from ad campaigns. Including the advertised brand name and key words related to the brand can create an impression that lasts beyond the view of the ad itself. For example, if you are promoting a mobile racing game, you might want the audience to associate with a phrase like ‘turbo pace’. By including the phrase in ads that users and prospective users see, those same viewers are more likely to associate ‘turbo’ and ‘pace’ with your game when they see the words after the ad.

Psychology is playing a pivotal role in the shift of mobile digital marketing from traditional mobile banner ads to native ads. Yeahmobi runs various forms of mobile native ads and for one format, the in-feed native ad, understanding the psychology of users can seriously affect the success of mobile advertising. We’re here to give a quick guide to using psychology to optimize ad displays, for both advertisers and publishers.

This guide comes on the back of Sharethrough’s recent publication of an infographic on native ads neuroscience, and the release of the ‘IAB Deep Dive on In-Feed Ad Units’ – both excellent sources of information for businesses wanting to create highly-effective native ad campaigns or indeed monetize via in-app ad displays.

Yeahmobi is offering quick tips that could help you implement a psychological approach to effectively using mobile native in-feed ads to advertise or to monetize your ad inventory. And we’re doing it in 3 parts.

In Part 1, here, we’re looking at optimizing native ads components. What do we mean? By ‘ad components’ we mean the color of ads, their style and composition, and the frequency at they are displayed. All of these aspects can be influenced by both advertisers, who can edit the components in the content of their ads when creating a campaign, and by developers, who can control the components in the ad display unit in their apps. The arrangement of these components can lead native ads to trigger deep responses from users. They can create memory associations and emotional responses.

So, what can advertisers and developers do to optimize the components of in-feed native ads on mobile?

Color

You can influence emotional responses in users by optimizing color. For example, red is often associated with intensity, energy, passion and even danger. Using strong reds is likely to ignite such emotions in users. It could be a brilliant color for promoting action games like Fire Age. Blue, on the other hand, is associated with the sea and the sky, things people can trust that are stable and tranquil. It is commonly used in the branding of tech companies, and would be ideal for ads promoting utility apps where you want to evoke a sense of reliability in your users.

Choosing the right color can influence the way users react to ads displayed in an app’s feed, whether it's a content feed, social feed or product feed.

Style and Composition

You can change layout of ads, for example by having pictures before text, or vice versa. Although to make ads ‘native’ you don’t want to stray too far from your main content in terms of structure, you can play with it to achieve different effects – there’ll more on this in Part 3.

You can make the style more or less in line with your app feed’s main content. Optimizing both style and composition can influence the depth of engagement with an ad and how users connect ads with the content in which promoted content is imbedded. If your app’s feeds display copy before images, then you can either keep ads the same, or reverse them so the show images first.

The ad that remains the same would require the user to engage with the copy of the native ad in the feed, and would therefore need to provide high-value information to the user, which could be useful for ads aimed at gaining longer term user engagement and direct ROI. Reading a headline yields more than 300x consumer attention than showing an image – so users are more likely to want to go on to do something with an ad focused on copy than one on image.

Alternatively, by reversing the order from that of the main feed – displaying an image before the text – you could make ads stand out more. These ads would still be native because they placed in the users main feed of information and they match the feed by containing the same components, i.e. copy and image. In fact, the reversal of order could be an interesting way of declaring the ad as an ad, which is advisable certainly according to IAB guidelines. Native ads achieve 2x more visual focus than banners, and making the ad stand out in this way would attention to the immediacy of the brand being advertised, rather than encouraging very deep engagement. Attention for the brand could benefit advertisers trying to promote their name over their particular products, useful for apps that aim to cover a large audience, and for developers looking to monetize by maximizing impressions.

Frequency of Display

Adjusting the frequency with which ads are displayed can seriously affect the emotional response of users. Too few and far between can lead to ads seeming surprising and interesting, yet go too far and they might confuse users. Place them together can create a sense of urgency which can stimulate users, but too many can infuriate them.

People also get used to – read bored of – the same thing over and over. So if ad displays aren't updated regularly enough, displaying ads in a stream of news or posts from friends could fatigue the user and lead to banner blindness. It is crucial that as a developer implementing ad displays, or as an advertiser creating an in-feed ad campaign, you think about often you need to stimulate a user’s interest and how long it will be before your potential users are bored of your announcements. You have to find the right balance, to achieve the right psychological reaction and ultimately the right result.

Overall Conclusion

Following on from our post ‘Mobile Interstitial Ads – Industry Guidelines’, we at YeahMobi are going beyond industry standards to bring you ways of optimizing interstitial display. And drive more revenue. This week we bring you some key DOs and DON’Ts for mobile interstitials. Whilst tips and guidance on native advertising are getting covered more and more in tech media, mobile native ads need a bit more exposure. Where native advertising (as a form of branded content) revolves around advertising via media channels like Buzzfeed, mobile native advertising is about fitting in with the myriad app formats and functions available. The two are quite distinct. So here are some tips for app developers looking to get the most from monetizing their app with interstitial ads.

DO! Test, test, test, refine and then test some more. Running A/B testing on interstitial displays in your app will help you optimize ads for your audience, and ultimately increase revenue. It seems obvious and sounds easy, but it does take time. Putting in the effort to make sure your app is displaying ads that do well can pay dividends. And at the same time, if users are clicking on one ad more than the other then it means they like that advert more. If you can increase the CTR on your ad displays, then it means you are showing things that users enjoy and you are more likely retain those users.

Get the timing right. Mobile native ads should blend in seamlessly with your app, and for interstitial ads this means getting the timing displays at a moment when it can best engage users. Think about your app from your users’ perspective. If they have a moment when they are concentrating on the app’s core functionality, such as a high-point in a game or clearing files in a cleaner app, an interstitial could be distracting. But if a user has a moment of rest in an app, such as when they are waiting for a new level in a game to load, or a mobile web page to load, displaying an interstitial can help fill the void. Think about when you, as a user, might be happy to see an ad.

Make visually appealing ad formats in keeping with your app. Just as timing ad displays right helps them blend into the apps flow, get the appearance right on the interstitial format can help the ad instantly seem like a formal and legitimate part of your great app. Mobile native ads works by sending advertising information and links into the coding of your app, so that you can package information and format ad displays in accordance with your own app’s style. So it’s worth taking the time to really hone ad formats so that they look smooth and natural. For example, if you app uses loud colours and exciting visuals, think about putting fun and bright borders around the ad, or alternatively if you app is more demure then think about how ads could be displayed in a subtle box. Display smoothly styled interstitials can also ensure that the ads seem legit, which in turn makes your app seem more credible.

DON'T! Settle down with one ad display setting. When you integrate with native interstitials, you will face myriad options for what category of ads you want to display, not just ads for games but for categories like health and fitness, shopping, education and lots more. You can also enter details about the audience that you are likely to target based on information like age range, interests and location. These options offer huge potential for optimizing you ad display to improve relevance for users, interest and ultimately revenue for you. But once you’ve found the right ad display, it’s still important to remember that tastes change. Although native ad platforms generally automatically cap the number of times any one ad can be displayed, it can still help boost interest if you explore some related, alternative ad display settings. Users that see new ads with a greater variety of products (within reason) are more likely to be curious and engage with the ads.

Overload your app with interstitials. Timing is everything when it comes to interstitial ad displays, so it’s important not to get it wrong with your users, or more specifically, don’t show too many ads. Mobile native ads are committed to advertising to users in a natural way that fits the app’s form and function. With native interstitial apps, it’s best to focus on the app’s natural pauses and breaks on the user’s journey. For example, if you have a puzzle game with levels, it would be natural to offer the user breaks in between levels. These gaps provide the user a chance to rest and readjust, and can be an opportunity to display an ad that can engage users in a way that helps them rest. Showing interstitials on a timed loop in this sort of app is sure to infuriate and lose them.

Lastly, don’t start or end the user’s journey with interstitials. Just as timing interstitial ad displays in the app is important to optimizing user experience, avoiding interstitial displays when users launch or leave an app can make the app smoother and avoid bother with app stores. In fact, app stores are now putting in regulations against apps displaying ads at launch and exit. Displaying an interstitial, modal ad outside of an app is a policy violation for apps on the Google Play store. To avoid getting into hot water with the app store, its best to ensure a top-quality user experience by ensuring interstitial ad displays are well within the app itself. Besides, well-timed ads displayed within the app are likely to get better CTRs and drive more revenue because they give the user a better experience and keep users coming back.

Programmatic marketing is gaining traction in the marketing industry. Business Intelligence has recently reported that advertising via real-time bidding platforms will account for over 33% of US digital ad sales in 2018 – having grown from 3.1 billion US in 2013 to 18.2 billion US. That is a humungous shift, and it shows that automation in marketing is gaining more interest, trust and ultimately investment in the marketing industry.

And at the heart of any programmatic form of marketing is data. For mobile marketing platforms, a robust data processing and analytics system is essential. A system that can feed back strong predictive information on downloads such as user retention and purchase information can help business market precisely and see better ROI.

But what is the current state of data analysis in mobile marketing tech – how do mobile platforms process their data? And how can understanding the data analytics practice of mobile marketing platforms help mobile businesses expand and drive more business?

What does a mobile marketing platforms data system do?

As mobile marketing platforms branch out and provide more products to help app developers acquire users, the marketing agents need more robust data systems that handle a myriad of information sources and types of metrics. In a nutshell, a data system gathers data, unifies them, stores them, conducts predictive analytics on them, updates data with real-time inquiries, calculates specified metrics offline and finally displays the data’s results in an (ideally) readable format.

The data system will sit at the heart of a mobile marketing platform and help the rest of the company’s organs, such as the performance marketing network or ad display network, perform and optimize their operations. By processing data that comes from tracking app ad displays through to installs and actions like payments, a data platform can guide advertisers on which ad display channels are performing well, and which are lagging, and ultimately give guidance as to where ad display budgets should be allocated. At the same time, publishing channels can also get metrics that help them better understand which ad display perform better than others so that they can optimize monetization. Not only can a strong data system offer huge benefits to mobile advertisers, it can also offer important insights into the mobile marketing industry – like what kind of apps do well and where.

 How does mobile data analytics enrich an advertising campaign?

A key aspect of data platforms is their ability to support advertising automation. The data, when processed, can allow ad display systems to automatically select the optimum ad creative in real-time. A data analysis platform can be plugged into the various components of a marketing ecosystem to help bolster real-time bidding (RTB) in automated advertising. Data systems support demand-side platforms (DSPs), digital market places (DMPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs).

For example, an advertiser on the demand side can create ad campaigns according to specific requirements. These requirements, such as targeting a specific GEO or an age range of users or particular user interests (fashion, sports and RPGs etc.), will then determine where the client’s adverts get displayed and to whom. The marketing platform’s data provides detailed information based on previous campaigns and publisher network statistics to ensure that the client gets an ad placement at the right time and the right place as soon as the opportunity arrives. Ultimately, automated displays are highly precise and lead to not only more app downloads for clients, better results (ROI) from those new users.

What’s next for programmatic data analysis?

Interstitial adverts drive heavy percentages of ad income for app developers, but optimizing their displays is key to achieving ad revenue success. Google has recently updated its guidelines about how interstitials should be displayed, so we at YeahMobi are going to take a look at what the latest standards are for implementing interstitial ads in apps.

What are mobile interstitials ads? Interstitials, in mobile apps and on mobile web, are ads that pop up over a user’s screen. Normally, users can either click on the content of the ad or can click on the “x” to close it the display and continue using the app or game. As the formats for interstitials can vary from device to device and even ad network to ad network, the main standards organization in digital marketing has set down guidelines about how interstitials should be displayed on smartphones.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) released guidelines for displaying static interstitial ads and rich media interstitial ads. For static interstitials, the IAB recommends a max file size of 30KB and a max animation length on the ad of 15 seconds. At the same time, the organization suggests using the “Close X” button to clearly mark out how to leave the ad and ensuring that both the image and its corresponding landing page is web-optimized. For rich media interstitials, the IAB sets 35KB as the max file size, 15 seconds max for animations but 30 seconds for max video playback length. They also recommend mobile-optimized imagery and landing page, and set guidelines for the standard “Close X” button suggesting that it needs an “Expand” function on collapsed panels.

Google has also recently updated its guidelines for interstitial display ads on mobile. They advise not implementing interstitials when a user starts an app or exits an app. And never outside of an app. Another point is that publishers and developers should avoid setting interstitials on timers, where they pop up every, say, 45 seconds. Doing so can seriously harm the user experience, which could in turn lead to poor app store feedback and ratings, and ultimately a drop in user numbers.

When looking to advertise an app via other mobile devices, social media can be an excellent place to start. Comscore’s recent report on mobile usage in the UK proves that a social media focus in user acquisition can be essential, at least for growing a UK user base. Social media apps take up the largest bulk of app use on mobile devices in the UK, according to the study.

If you want to get UK users to download your app – you’ll find them on social networks on their mobile. The UK’s internet use is now predominately mobile, with 56% usage being on devices like smartphones and tablets, compared to 44% on desktop. Whilst on mobile devices, UK users are leaning heavily towards app use for accessing the internet (a staggering 81% of mobile internet access is via apps), and engaging in social media is the most common activity when using mobile devices – 31% of time on mobile.

So what social media platforms are popular in Blighty? Facebook got the lions share with 83% of mobile social media users accessing it, then came Twitter and LinkedIn with 44%, Google+ with 40% and Tumblr at 22%. Google+ did surprisingly well for getting use in the UK, especially after a rocky reception elsewhere. Even in the UK there have been concerns that the social media network was suffering a lack of self-esteem – as this comedy sketch about dating a social media app shows.

Developing campaigns that use social media platforms to promote app downloads can have a big impact on user acquisition. And there are many companies out there that help you navigate social campaigns. Whilst major platforms like Facebook and Twitter offer relatively easy access and navigation to potential advertisers, campaign management can be tricky when you might want to manage campaigns across several platforms. Risk of failure and acquisition optimisation can present problems for smaller advertisers with tighter budget concerns.

Mobile marketing platforms offer social media marketing campaigns make up for these problems by offering cross-campaign management and performance-based payment structures. So, with one account an app developer can track campaigns on both Facebook and Twitter and compare them from one dashboard. At the same time, when companies charge on a CPI (cost per install) basis they automatically nullify risk of failure. App developers can choose to pay only when they get their installs so they don’t spent money on ad placements which might not lead directly to acquisitions.

Mobile video advertising is the star of mobile marketing tech right now.  Mobile videos are now even pressing its way into TV video ads. On Device Research released a report in May 2015 in which 90% of respondents watched mobile videos at home, and 53% watched smartphone video at the same time as TV. With the adaption of mobile video in such a seemingly non-mobile place as the home, it’s no wonder that marketer and the media are focusing on the future of mobile video marketing.

Reports from eMarketer suggest that mobile is acquiring more video ad spending in the US than any other digital platform – with an average year-on-year ad spend increase of 22.3% from now to 2019, compared to 7.9% for desktop. But the understanding of and adoption of mobile video advertising still has its problems, and when it comes to metrics and ad placement pricing, some buyers aren’t convinced of mobile videos current ability to hit targeted ROI. Mobile video is indeed a different animal to TV, so we are having a look at what key points to be aware of in terms of using mobile video to better target your audience and achieve better results.

TV The way viewers interact with television is fundamentally different to mobile. TVs are static, meaning that viewers adjust their lives around the television (such as arranging a time to watch a program or by physically moving to where the TV is to watch it). While television has changed dramatically with various on-demand services, interactive functions and live-recording options, television still offers a more restricted form of interaction than mobile. Therefore, TV ads will tend to be far more one-way, where an ad placement will need to be relevant to and be relevant to the broadest segment of an audience possible. TV ads still have to be aimed at a much more general viewer, and as such are brilliant at offering brands the chance to broaden visibility. Commercials can also resonate with viewers due to the optimized content in which they are placed, such as the hilarity of this year’s Superbowl ad for Clash of Clans being perfectly timed with the electric atmosphere of the match and the anticipation of the year’s top ads by viewers. But where they fall down is being able to really understand each user and tailoring the right content for that viewer at almost any given time.

Mobile Video ads on mobile have the potential for much greater flexibility, and really the marketing industry is only touching the surface.  Even with viewers watching videos on their mobile at the predictable times – between 8pm and 11pm according to the On Device Research report – the relationship an individual has between her or his phone and the TV is in some ways much more personal and can therefore offer much more tailored ad displays. For advertisers, personalization could mean ensuring ad displays avoid repeating the same ads or advertising apps or other products that a viewer already has. Varying ads can be achieved by Whilst a viewer may tolerate or even enjoy a commercial on TV that gets repeated if it provides entertaining content, being repetitious on mobile could damage user experience, because users can expect their devices to adapt to their own user preferences. There is still a wide gap between the potential for personalization on mobile devices and on TV, and it’s important that advertisers understand how user behaviour can affect ad engagement on each platform.