There are several business models that serve as a foundation for mobile app advertising. Each model defines for what specific performance or action an ad company charges advertisers. The most popular models are CPM (cost-per-mile), CPC (cost-per-click), CPI (cost-per-install) and CPA (cost-per-action).
Among these models, CPI and CPA are the most efficient ones for app marketers user acquisition efforts. They allow brands to measure actual ROI (return-of-investment) for a budget they allocate to advertise their apps. With a proper ad campaign data analysis, app installs ads allow app marketers to acquire high quality users and expand their app’s user base.
Since the dawn of both major mobile app ecosystems – iOS and Android – mobile user acquisition has been a challenge for app developers and brands. App stores alone weren’t sufficient to meet app developers needs in acquiring new app users, primarily because of the app discoverability problem. To meet this demand, co-called, Pay Per Install networks were launched that allowed marketers to buy app installs ads in bulk.
There are dozens of such networks that offer app marketers a technical platform to generate mobile app installs. The efficiency of these networks depends on their reach, ad formats and the number of different targeting options they support. In size such networks range from giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter that offer the best targeting options to smaller players that compete in CPI costs, better customer support or better reach in specific geographies.
Because of the overwhelming success of Facebook Ads that helped the company to generate the bulk of its revenue on mobile, other companies picked up the trend fairly quickly. The first one who followed was Twitter, with Twitter ads back in 2012, Pinterest with Pinterest for Business in 2014 and finally Snapchat joined the app install race the same 2014. The most recent addition to this family was TikTok in 2019 with is advertising platform for video ads.
All these platforms leverage their multi-million user base profile data to target app install ads like other advertising platforms simply aren’t capable.
Now the question is – how much do app marketers pay for a mobile app install on various app install ad platforms, as well as on Facebook? The following table presents CPI data points for iOS and Android for US app market in March of 2020.
An average app user acquisition cost
Mobile OS | US |
iOS | $1.45 |
Android | $1.05 |
Source: Chartboost
Meanwhile, according to BusinessInsider data, mobile app install advertising revenue jumped from $3.6 billion in 2014 to $4.7 in 2015. Also Business Insider Intelligence data reveals estimates for this and previous years – in 2018 app install advertising revenue reached $6.7 billion and in 2019 – $7.
Mobile App Install Advertising Revenue (US), in billions
Source: Business Insider
Of course today an app install and user acquisition are no longer the only app marketers concerns. App re-targeting or reengagement campaigns are increasingly common on app advertising platforms. One of reasons for the initial drive to get mobile app installs was to achieve high ranking on app stores with so-called burst campaigns.
Top App Install Ad Platforms
The idea of a burst campaign was simple – generate a big number of downloads within a short period of time and signal an app store algorithm that the app needs to be ranked high on a chart. As time went by, both Apple and Google became smarter about their ranking algorithms and so burst campaign became way less effective. It forced app marketers to change their app marketing strategy and ultimately they began to pay more attention to mobile app users engagement to retain them and counteract a mobile churn.
Below you can see the list of major networks and platforms that offer app installs – some of them work on a CPI model and others use a CPC or CPM based trading approach but with the focus on delivering app installs and users.
Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | 51-200 | - | - | - |
Zoomd is dedicated to helping advertisers and publishers achieve their key performance indicators (KPIs) through a patented, performance-based advertising platform. The Company’s User Acquisition platform unifies more than 600 media sources under one dashboard including Google, TikTok, Samsung premium inventory and much more.
- Business Models – Choose your preferred business model CPC/CPI/CPO/CPE/CPA
- Fraud – Detection as part of the platform, adding you an extra layer of safety
- Measurement – integrated to all major 3rd party mobile measurement solutions
- Cost-efficiency – Save countless resources by managing all campaigns under one screen
- Data Play – Enjoy machine decisions based on more than 500Million data points a day
Founded | Employees | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | 51-200 |
Jampp unlocks programmatic advertising to drive incremental performance.
A demand-side platform (DSP) at heart, Jampp leverages unique contextual and behavioral signals to deliver customers and in-app purchases through programmatic user acquisition and retargeting.
We simplify programmatic growth for some of the biggest names in mobile.
Learn more about JamppLiftoff is Cost-Per-Action optimized mobile user acquisition platform for app marketers. It provides CPI campaigns optimization via tracking post-install events for apps. It also provides retargeting features to bring mobile users back to a specific app and lookalike features to connect mobile apps with users similar to people who already use these apps.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
- Campaign types: CPI, CPA
- Ad formats supported: Custom
- Targeting: lookalike, retargeting,
- Key Markets: Global
Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | 3,900 | 3,000m | 57m | 4,000+ |
Twitter Ads is the Twitter advertising platform that allows app marketers to drive traffic to their apps from both on Twitter and off Twitter channels. In terms of targeting options and reach its rivals are only Facebook and Google. Twitter ads support deep linking technology that allows app marketers to link an ad to a specific part of a mobile app content.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android
- Campaign types: CPI, CPC, CPM
- Ad formats supported: auto-generated ads with creatives an app has on the App Store.
- Targeting: mobile OS, OS version, device (iPhone / iPad), location, gender, age, mobile connection type
- Key markets: global
Reddit Ads is an advertising platform from Reddit. It allows advertisers to reach specific audiences on the platform, either as self-service or via managed service. With Reddit Ads brands can tap into one of the biggest online communities that has extremely diverse set of interests.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android
- Campaign types: CPA
- Ad formats supported: Social
- Targeting: Custom
- Key markets: UK, USA
Promoted App Pins is a mobile app advertising platform from Pinterest. It allows app marketers to generate installs via pins. Pins associated with iOS or Android apps have an app icon and install button attached to them for mobile users to tap on and download an app. Among Pinterest mobile measuring partners are Adjust, AppsFlyer, Kochava, TUNE and Apsalar.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
- Campaign types: CPA
- Ad formats supported: App Icon
- Targeting: Custom
- Key markets: Global
Snapchat Ads is the Snap Inc. advertising platform that allows businesses to advertise on the platform with Snap’s unique ad formats and reach Millennials audience that has developed a high level of trust with the platform. Snapchat has 238 million daily active users that open the app 30 times a day on average and spend 30+ minutes with the app. Snap has partnered with multiple companies to better connect advertisers with snapchatters communities.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android
- Campaign types: CPI, CPC
- Ad formats supported: Snap Ads, Filters, Lenses
- Targeting: 300 audiences based on data derived from what content snapchatters watch, buy and post on the platform, demographics, lookalike audiences.
- Key markets: global, the Basic plan is US only.