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An experiment in iAd

blog.metarain.com

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: An experiment in iAd

#11

25 downloads on 1 million impressions. Damn, that's sad.

It used to be much worse. Read this http://rayvinly.com/iad-workbench-campaign-performance-analy... Compared to other mobile Ad networks is this bad? Remember this is not taps, this is actual downloads...

Yes, compared to other mobile ad networks this is bad. People aren't rocketing up the install lists by having their $10 a day budgets not being filled.

> We chose to run the ads on apps from the following categories: Photo & Video, Social Networking, Entertainment, Games, Food & Drink and Utilities.

Those are some of the very largest targets you can have. Apple was unable to provide enough impressions to meet $10 a day.

Re: An experiment in iAd

#12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be much worse. Read this http://rayvinly.com/iad-workbench-campaign-performance-analy... Compared to other mobile Ad networks is this bad? Remember this is not taps, this is actual downloads...

Yes, compared to other mobile ad networks this is bad. People aren't rocketing up the install lists by having their $10 a day budgets not being filled. > We chose to run the ads on apps from the following categories: Photo & Video, Social Networking, Entertainment, Games, Food & Drink and Utilities. Those are some of the very largest targets you can have. Apple was unable to provide enough impressions to meet $10 a d…

Agreed. The thing is that after they have put the price to 50 USD it incentivises indie developers to test it out, which intern results in a higher fill rate for the apps. I think this is just a start, maybe there is a lot more.

Just a question is the CPA also really bad compared to the other ad networks?

Re: An experiment in iAd

#13
post #4

They used to ask a million dollar minimum spending? That's insane, right?

It's a high ask, but there's a fundamental difference between iAd talked about in this article and the million dollar commitment iAd they started off as. The original vision for iAd was branding campaigns ie-tv and magazine like campaigns. A million dollars minimum and from Apple isn't crazy at first glance. What they're focused on now, especially in this article, is CPI app installs. Totally different markets.

Re: An experiment in iAd

#14
post #9
post #4

They used to ask a million dollar minimum spending? That's insane, right?

No, it's perfectly reasonable. They wanted to jump start the service with few select big clients, like Nike, Coca Cola, Disney etc. For those kind of companies, 1 million for an ad campaign in a major mobile platform is small change.

Except that didn't happen and they had no ads to run on their highly touted network. If you want to jump start the service with a few big fish you sign deals with a few big fish. You need to have ads to fill inventory or there will be no inventory to sell.

Re: An experiment in iAd

#15
post #14
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's perfectly reasonable. They wanted to jump start the service with few select big clients, like Nike, Coca Cola, Disney etc. For those kind of companies, 1 million for an ad campaign in a major mobile platform is small change.

Except that didn't happen and they had no ads to run on their highly touted network. If you want to jump start the service with a few big fish you sign deals with a few big fish. You need to have ads to fill inventory or there will be no inventory to sell.

>Except that didn't happen and they had no ads to run on their highly touted network.

Nope, it did happen. When they started it they had quite nice rooster of collaborating companies, and quite good conversion rates. At some point, they had 15% of the mobile ad market.

Plus, they didn't just go from 1M to $50 because nobody came to them at $1M. That was the inital price back in 2010, and just for the launch. Afterwars it was a gradual progress of opening the service and letting more advertisers in (went to $500,000, then to $100,000 etc)

Re: An experiment in iAd

#16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, compared to other mobile ad networks this is bad. People aren't rocketing up the install lists by having their $10 a day budgets not being filled. > We chose to run the ads on apps from the following categories: Photo & Video, Social Networking, Entertainment, Games, Food & Drink and Utilities. Those are some of the very largest targets you can have. Apple was unable to provide enough impressions to meet $10 a d…

Agreed. The thing is that after they have put the price to 50 USD it incentivises indie developers to test it out, which intern results in a higher fill rate for the apps. I think this is just a start, maybe there is a lot more. Just a question is the CPA also really bad compared to the other ad networks?

It doesn't seem bad, but the CPA doesn't really matter if they can't fill. If Apple is leaving money on the table that means they just don't have the impressions (which is believable, you don't see iAds in a lot of apps).

It could also be a targeting problem (they don't know who is most likely to download), but iOS users are pretty app happy so I would imagine this is the easiest type of ad to convert with. Apple has a huge advantage here as the control the whole ecosystem and are the only ones in the world who can optimize the App Store. Just 25 installs after 1,702 taps for a free app with good reviews seems depressingly low.

Re: An experiment in iAd

#19
post #4

They used to ask a million dollar minimum spending? That's insane, right?

That's pennies. Broadcast TV can be more than $40 cpm, often going above $90-100. Cable has a lower average which still exceeds the price of most online inventory.
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