What is Mobile traffic?
As the name suggests mobile traffic is traffic that exclusively for mobile devices. Mobile ad inventory usually comes from mobile apps & websites. The ads can be in the form of banner, text & even multi-media such as video. Some networks even take advantage of features built into the phone such as push notifications. Mobile ads are perfect if you’re looking to drive traffic to your mobile app, website or running click-to-call offers.
inMobi
Pros:
If you’re looking to run mobile traffic then inMobi’s impressive 1 Billion Monthly Uniques is a place you’ll want to be. inMobi has some exclusive deals with some large app publishers that you won’t be able to advertise on anywhere else. inMobi also has super high-quality traffic in India & the Asian pacific all with an easy to use interface.
Cons:
Unless you’re spending some serious volume with inMobi, then you’re going to have a tough time with this network. A large majority of their traffic comes from exchanges since as Google’s Double Click. If you’re advertising in the United States, for example, a large majority of your traffic will be 2nd tier. inMobi also has several different targeting options but have no dynamic tokens to track easily what is working.
Conclusion:
If you’re looking to run app installs, then inMobi is a place you’ll want to check out. Just note that the majority of your traffic will come from teir 2 apps which have much lower quality traffic in most regions. Make sure to get yourself a rep at inMobi and be prepared to have some serious spend to get your hands on their top tier traffic.
millennial media
Pros:
Has much higher quality traffic for the US and Canada than other mobile networks on this list. Since their review process is very strict, it results in a better for the users which means higher quality traffic. The platform is also very easy to navigate and set a campaign up for. Can easily scale your campaigns if you find a winner.
Cons:
Traffic prices are very expensive compared to others on the list. Unless you own the products you’re promoting outside of app installs, don’t expect to get a warm welcome. The majority of traffic is from the same exchanges as all the other RTBs fight over. Traffic prices are very expensive compared to others on the list. Unless you own the products you’re promoting outside of app installs, don’t expect to get a warm welcome. The majority of traffic is from the same exchanges as all the other RTBs fight over.
Conclusion:
This is a perfect network for app developers looking to grow their audience in the US and Canada. Unless you’re spending some serious money, you’ll have trouble getting an ad rep on the phone. I have however had a lot of success with millennialmedia with several of my campaigns.
AirPush
Pros:
Airpush has one of the cleanest interfaces that I’ve seen. They also have some of the best targeting in the industry with their AirDSP. It allows for real-time optimization all the way down to the device level. Airpush also has recently been introducing a lot of great new ad products such as, abstract banners. These will result in higher click-through rates than your standard mobile advertisements.
Cons:
Ever since Google officially killed off push ads back in 2013, Airpush appears to be ran by a skeleton crew. My campaigns have taken as long as a week actually to get set live and support tickets take well over a day or two.
Conclusion:
If you’re looking for a low-cost traffic source to test some mobile campaigns on, then Airpush is a great place to start. As long as you mind slow approval times and a lack of support, you’ll benefit from the easy to use interface and real-time optimizations.
Airpush Dynamic Tracking Tokens/Macros/Scripts
| Tokens | Description |
|---|---|
| %guid% | GUID is an unique variable generated by Airpush when a click happens. This is automatically generated by Airpush. |
| %d% | IMEI (MD5 encrypted) |
| %androidid% | Device android id |
| %carrier% | Carrier name |
| %device% | Phone model |
| %manufacturer% | Device manufacturer name |
| %campaignid% | Campaign Id |
| %creativeid% | Creative Id |
| %ip% | Device ip address |
| %state% | State |
| %city% | City |
| %dapp% | App Id |
| %pubid% | Application Developer/Advertiser Id |
| %framework% | Device OS Version |
Go2Mobi
Pros:
Much like AirpPush, Go2mobi has a super clean interface and has real-time campaign optimization. The traffic quality in my experience is much higher than other RTB networks for the price.
Cons:
I haven’t been able to scale a campaign over $300-400 a day on this source. If find a winning campaign you may not be able to scale this as much as you’d like. Also, this may not be a con but it should still mention, you’re only able to bid CPM on their network.
Conclusion:
I have had a few successful campaigns on Go2mobi, and it’s one of the better mobile networks out there. The staff is very helpful and reply very quickly. If you’re new to running mobile traffic, this is a great option to check out.
BuzzCity
Pros:
Buzzcity Unlike several others on this list, isn’t an RTB. All of its inventory is from direct relationships it has with mobile apps and mobile websites. Buzzcity also has more advanced targeting features such as custom based IP targeting, allowing you to geo-locate & carrier target at the IP level. Buzzcity is also extremely cheap allowing you to get traffic for as low as .01 CPC in some regions. Their traffic in Asia & Africa is high quality.
Cons:
Because it’s one of the older mobile networks, it’s age shows. It’s interface is extremely ugly and Buzzcity lacks many good targeting options found on other networks. It’s traffic outside of Asia and Africa is also very low quality.
Conclusion:
If you need traffic in Africa or Asia then Buzzcity is a great option for you to test. However with its lack of targeting options you’ll find it’s difficult to optimize your campaigns on the front end. Support from Buzzcity is almost none existent so expect to be on your own when running campaigns.
Buzzcity Dynamic Tracking Tokens/Macros/Scripts
| {clickcode} | To substitute the unique click code value associated with this click |
| {pubid} | To substitute the publisher ID associated with this click. You need special privilege to use this parameter. |
| {random} | To substitute a randomly generated value associated with this click |
| {timestamp} | To substitute an unix time value associated with this click. E.g. 1379453899 – Which represents ISO 8601:2013-09-17T21:38:19Z |
TapJoy
Pros:
If you’re looking to grow your install numbers on new apps then Tapjoy is great. Using Tapjoy to inflate your installs also works very well in helping your apps on the Play Store rank organically. I’ve averaged $.30-.40 cents an install for US traffic, but you can get these numbers much lower if you go after Teir 2 & 3 countries.
Cons:
Incent traffic is low quality in nature. Expect a large % of your install base to uninstall your app shortly after. Be sure that whoever you’re sending traffic to allows incent as several companies don’t allow this.
Conclusion:
I personally am not a big fan of running incent traffic, however it does work. If you’re looking to get a fast user base of installs on your app, then Tapjoy is the place to be. They can easily send you 10,000+ installs a day which is nothing to gawk about.