Programmatic advertising is advertising conducted using software; it increases its efficiency and generated revenues by automating the process of connecting publishers inventory with advertisers needs to reach a specific audience.
It includes both real-time bidding when advertisers bid for impressions in mobile or desktop publishers inventory and buying ad impressions in advance from specific publishers. Over time programmatic advertising is replacing all aspects where manual intervention was necessary.
How programmatic mobile advertising works
Source: Cardinal Digital Marketing
Programmatic mobile advertising benefits
In the world of programmatic advertising, SSPs help to support mobile publishers and their inventories by selling their space through an ad exchange. DSPs, (Demand Side Platforms), on the other side, find the best ad inventory and the highest bidder wins that space – this could be on a website or inside a mobile app.
The key benefit of SSPs, other than giving mobile publishers more control over their inventory, is that they can achieve a high fill rate, so mobile ad space that could be used isn’t wasted. In theory, everyone wins in this setup, with advertisers also getting quality inventory for their campaigns.
Programmatic advertising benefits include:
- Sells mobile ad impressions for the highest price possible
- Connects to a considerable variety of different mobile advertisers
- Mobile publishers can set their prices and have more control over their space
Below we’ve listed the best mobile programmatic networks so you can get up and running without fuss.
List of programmatic ad platforms
PubMatic delivers superior revenue to publishers by being an SSP of choice for agencies and advertisers. With our leading programmatic mobile advertising platform, publishers and app developers can leverage the open exchange as well as advanced deal models to maximize their monetization and gain access to brand budgets.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPI, CPL, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Banners, In-App, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Publisher, Geo, Audience Segment, Ad Format, Platform, Domain / App, Viewability
- Key markets: Global
| 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 | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 400 | $192m+ | 25k | 4m+ |
Founded in 2011, AdColony was created by mobile developers, for mobile developers and has grown into one of the largest mobile advertising and monetization platforms in the world with a reach of more than 1.5 billion users globally. AdColony is known for its exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video, Aurora™ HD Interactive video, and playable technologies, its global performance advertising expertise, its programmatic marketplace, and its extensive ad SDK footprint in the top apps worldwide.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPM
- Ad formats supported: Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Demographic
- Key markets: US
| 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 Jampp
Splicky is the new Demand Side Platform (DSP) for the mobile channel using proprietary Real-Time Advertising (RTA) technology. Their technology makes it simple to buy mobile ad impressions and clicks within mobile sites and apps – in real-time. Using just one platform, you have immediate access to all global mobile inventory which uses Real-Time Bidding (RTB) technology. Within a matter of minutes, your mobile ad campaigns can be displayed on a Cost Per Impression (CPM) and Cost Per Click (CPC) basis. Our platform allows you to target on individual Mobile Sites and Apps, giving you total control at campaign management-level. Our detailed analysis gives you full insights on campaign performance enabling you to maximize your ROI.
- Easy to use interface with a self-serve platform and real-time analytics
- Worldwide reach across a transparent publisher set
- Wide range of targeting options including Geo+hyper location and support for mobile retargeting
- Range of formats supported including banners, interstitials, rich media & video
Criteo Dynamic Retargeting is an online retargeting platform for the ad solution from Criteo – one of the leading commerce marketing companies, founded in Paris, France. It went a long way from being a small start-up to the company with 2,700 employees in 30 offices around the globe and 1,2 billion ads served in 2017 alone. The platform is used by more than 18,000 marketers all over the globe that rely on displaying their video and display ads on publisher’s premium mobile, tablet and desktop ad inventory. Criteo Dynamic Retargeting platform helps brands to re-engage 90% of their target audience and increase their ROI up to 13 times.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS,
- Campaign types: CPC, CPM,
- Ad formats supported: Banners, Video
- Targeting: Custom
- Key Markets: Global
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 11-50 | 3k |
ConsoliAds Pte Ltd. is MENA and APAC’s mobile ad mediation and promotion platform. It provides advertisers with access to publishers inventory in more than 12,000 apps that deliver over 350 million ad impressions and helps to reach impression-to-install conversion up to 10%, the platform is capable to deliver CPI around $.0.40.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS, Mobile Web
- Campaign types: CPC, CPI, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Native, Video, Interstitial, Rewarded Video, Banner and Icon
- Targeting: Country, Demographic, Device, Geo, OS, Time
- Key Markets: CPC, CPI, CPM
AdTiming is a mobile marketing platform that is focused on using Big Data to run ads geo-targeted in 200+ countries. With AdTiming advertisers can choose from 20,000 tags to laser focus their mobile app ad campaign in time to reach a particular target audience.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPI
- Ad formats supported: Banners, Native, Rewarded Video
- Targeting: Device, Operator, OS
- Key Markets: Europe, India, Japan, Middle East, USA
Spotx is the leading global video advertising platform that enables media owners and publishers to monetize premium content across desktop, mobile and connected TV devices. SpotX ad server features programmatic infrastructure, data enablement, and monetization solutions for OTT, outstream, and addressable TV. It gives media owners and publishers the control, transparency, and actionable insights needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue.
With best-in-class tech purpose-built for video, SpotX’s holistic, brand-safe solution is employed by some of the largest media owners and publishers in the world including fuboTV, Microsoft Casual Games, Newsy, Samba TV, Sling TV, Vudu and partners with a variety of different companies within the digital video ecosystem including comScore, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, JW Player, MediaMath, MOAT, Nielsen, Oracle, and more.
- Key Features: works with OTT, addressable TV
- Tagline: Online Video Advertising Platform
- Platforms: iOS, Android and Mobile Web.
Adobe Advertising Cloud is a global cross-channel advertising platform from Adobe for brands and agencies to plan, buy, measure and optimize their ad campaigns. As an independent demand-side platform (DSP), Adobe Media Optimizer provides brand marketers with integration with the world’s best targeting, reporting and inventory partners. The major feature that sets it apart from other DSP platforms is that its programmatic sophistication allows marketers to run ad campaigns across digital screens, TV and out-of-home channels with a single dashboard.
- Highlights: programmatic ad campaigns capabilities that cover desktop, mobile, TV and offline out-of-home channels on a single platform and on a big scale
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline: One demand-side platform to rule them all.
Google Ad Manager (formerly known as DoubleClick for Publishers) is an ad server from Google for web and mobile app publishers. It supports video (from TV to short-form ad in apps), native and custom ad formats, provides unified control panel for multiple ad sources, powerful insights and brand safety.
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 51-200 |
Pocketmath is the world’s fastest self-serve mobile advertising platform for buying programmatic real-time bidding inventory, launched in 2011. With a headquarter in Singapore, Pocketmath operates on a global scale. The company’s mobile DSP offers extensive targeting options including location, device, cherry-pick apps, audience, competitor app targeting, retargeting, demographic, wifi/carrier, and time of day scheduling.
Learn more about Pocketmath
OpenX is the world’s largest advertising technology company. OpenX online advertising marketplace is built on the principles of the open web.
With OpenAudience™, publishers gain insights about their audience to be able to respect their privacy, build deeper understanding of people who interact with their ads and access custom audience profiles, built from OpenAudience data base.
On the advertising side, marketers can use OpenAudience™ to plan and buy with ease and performance on every screen across the open web. This is the tool for marketers to find the right person to approach with an ad, showcase their brand and hit their KPIs.
Learn more about OpenX
Smaato is a mobile advertising and app monetization platform. It features mobile-first ad network and ad server solution for publishers and app developers. Smaato hosts the largest independent mobile ad exchange with global reach. For advertisers it offers Smaato Demand Platform with advanced traffic optimization features, for publishers Smaato Publishers Platform that allows them to achieve high fill rates and yield high eCPMs.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS, Mobile, Windows Phone
- Campaign types: CPC
- Ad formats supported: Banners
- Targeting: country, publisher, app, ad format, device, connection type, GPS data, device ID
- Key Markets: Germany, global
Veziron Media DSP is a Demand Side Platform, formerly known as Oauth DSP, for advertisers to programmatically monitor, create and manage ad campaigns. The platform offers advertisers Native, Mobile, Video, Branded Content and Premium Integrations formats to launch ad campaigns.
- Highlights: 1 billion people reach, 200 daily cross-channel datapoint, unto 48% conversion increase thanks to ML algorithms
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: Southeast Asia/Up & Comers #5 (2018)
- Tagline: Connecting global brands to captivated audiences
Doubleclick Bid Manager is part of Google’s Display & Video 360 advertising solution. It is a Demand Side Platform for agencies, trading desks and advertisers to get access to ad exchanges with a wide range of exclusive video, display and mobile inventory from Google. Its targeting capabilities are defined by more than 100 ad exchanges and approximately 1 billion websites, opportunity to run ads across, desktop, mobile and tablet, multiple bidding strategies support and more.
- Highlights: connects to 100+ ad exchanges, allows to run ads across mobile, desktop and tablet, allows to buy brand-safe inventory for YouTube and TV ads programmatically through Google Partner Select, DBM’s premium video marketplace
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: Performance: Global, iOS & Android: All Categories: Power Ranking #2 (2019)
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 100 | $3m+ | 19k | 50,000+ |
mobusi, part of Fibonad group, is a Technology Media Company with a mobile-first and performance mindset empowering both Advertisers and Publishers to reach and exceed their high demanding targets. The platform obtains over 5 million leads per month worldwide. We maximize revenue obtained by our media partners thanks to our global coverage and optimization algorithms. In House Technology, own DSP and advanced antifraud system, Monetization Solutions, exclusive offers and premium traffic. A Mediation platform.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android
- Campaign types: CPM, CPC, CPI, CPA
- Ad formats supported: Interstitial, Banner, Video
- Targeting: country, carrier, OS, device, browser, wifi / mobile connectivity
- Key Markets: Global
Bucksense is the programmatic platform for digital marketers, launched in 2012 in Madrid, Spain. The company’s DSP solution operates across five channels – Display, Native, Video, Mobile and Desktop. With Bucksense, marketers ad campaigns data is collected and analyzed every hour, as well as a bidding strategy is being automatically updated.
- Highlights: provides access to more than 18 ad exchanges, retargeting, hyper targeting, multiple device and format optimization, Native Video format supply, proprietary Responsive Ad units, Rewarded Video self-serve early adopter, connects from 18 to 70+ ad exchanges, PMP deals, serves 350 agencies
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline: In-house marketing, done right.
Adelphic is a one of the leading people-based cross-channel demand-side platforms. It provides an enterprise-ready self-service software solution for agencies, brands and other large media buyers to make meaningful engagements with consumers across all devices and formats. The company’s platform is fully RTB-enabled and delivers global scale through access to all leading inventory providers. Adelphic’s technology overcomes the limitations of user identification across all digital devices, yielding rich, nuanced portraits of real people, instead of cookies. Adelphic is owned by Viant, a subsidiary of Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME).
- Highlights: the only subscription based DSP on the market, Viant’s people-based device graph powered by our 1st party data, ML
- Featured in an Index: n/a
StackAdapt is a Toronto, Canada-based programmatic native advertising platform that provides both self-serve and hosted DSP solution for advertisers. Among platform’s distinctive features its easy-to-use interface, Machine Leaning algorithms that power its efficiency, real-time campaign optimization, intent-based targeting and retargeting capabilities, state-of-the-art fraud detection, transparent user data & inventory, award-winning customer support and no monthly minimums.
- Highlights: native advertising, advanced targeting & retargeting capabilities, Machine Learning algorithms
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline: The #1 programmatic native advertising platform
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 100-125 | 12k+ |
Stack is an end-to-end SaaS-based solution (by the team behind Appodeal’s award winning ad monetization platform) that scales mobile app business growth and drive profit by synthesizing User Acquisition, Ad Monetization and Business Intelligence.
Stack is an independent ad tech market player that strives to clear the way for publishers and advertisers to collaborate directly. In an industry known for being opaque, Stack aims to increase transparency and empower mobile app businesses with the technology and data they need to thrive in a highly competitive landscape.
Learn more about Stack
Sovrn is an advertising technology company that provides Meridian solution – an ad server for publishers. The company’s mission is to help publishers to increase their revenue, get insights for their audience and comprehensive reporting on their ad campaigns, as well as acquire more knowledge about effective monetization. Meridian ad server provides a suite of advertising tools for display, mobile and video advertising.
- Key Features: header bidding, VPAID and VAST video support, OnScroll InView ads, integration with all major advertising buyer worldwide
- Tagline: Insights, audience access and advertising solutions that publishers can profit from.
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
Xandr is online advertising platform from AT&T. Leveraging multi-generational legacy of AT&T, the company provides a premium platform for advertisers and publishers looking to reach specific audiences at scale in brand-safe environments all through a powerful, unified platform. What gives Xandr a competitive advantage is a combination of data insights, premium content, powerful technology, and scaled direct-to-consumer distribution.
Learn more about Xandr