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
| 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+ |
AdColony (formerly known as Opera Mediaworks) is one of the largest mobile ad networks globally. Its reach, 1,4 billion users globally, what sets it apart from other ad networks. Known for its unparalleled 3rd party verified viewability rates, exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video technology, proprietary rich media formats, its global performance advertising business and programmatic marketplace, and the company extensive SDK footprint in the Top 1,000 apps worldwide. A fully-owned subsidiary of Otello Corporation ASA, AdColony is a global organization with over 20 offices worldwide.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPM
- Ad formats supported: Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Demographic
- Key markets: US
| Founded | Employees | Social | Traffic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 101-200 | +25000 | +250.000/month |
+250,000 developers, from indies to large enterprises, trust in Appodeal to manage their Ad Monetization. A light full-stack ad monetization solution that puts app publishers first – the way it should be.
By just integrating one simple SDK, you will gain access to +70 ad networks & demand sources, competing against each other in a real-time auction for every single ad impression.
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | - | - | - | - |
Gimbal translates location data into intent, conversion, and insight for marketers trying to reach consumers and businesses wanting to improve their customers’ lives.
Highlights include the following:
- Location-based marketing
- Identity-based platform
- Foot Traffic Analytics
- Custom Audiences
PubMatic
The platform to help you outperform. The partnership to help you connect. The expertise to help you grow.
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
Veziron Media DSP
Combines unique data with a new ML optimization platform to deliver on complex branding and performance goals
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 100-125 | 12k+ |
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
| 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
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.
Learn more about Splicky