le Ad Platforms that are the Best for Digital Marketers
Surprised to learn that mobile devices can support desktop purchases, despite having more web traffic than desktop. Conversion rates on desktop devices are twice as high, but consumers prefer to browse on their mobile devices before making a decision.
With people spending more than 5 hours per day on smartphones, companies have a great opportunity to advertise their brand and attract new customers via mobile advertising platforms.
What type of ads are you able to deliver?
There are many types of ads, but these are the most common.
- Google search ads
- Facebook ads
- Instagram ads
- Mobile in-app ads
These ads can all be delivered using a mobile advertising platform, also known as a mobile network. Google Ads and Facebook are two of the most popular options.
What is a moA platform for mobile advertising? It acts as a broker between advertisers and publishers looking to advertise on popular apps.
Learn how the top mobile advertising platforms work and discover the top mobile networks. Also, learn what these networks have in common. Finally, find out how to choose the best platform for your company. We’ll be covering eight specific ad platforms in this article:
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
- Bing Ads
- AdMob
- AdColony
- Tube Mogul
- Airpush
- Apple Search Ads
What is a mobile advertising platform?
Techopedia describes a mobile advertising platform as “intermediary between mobile publisher and advertisers.” It is a place where advertisers are able to purchase ads spots that will be delivered via mobile apps and websites.
Many top platforms, such as Google and Facebook, offer an ad management panel which allows you to create and manage your own ads. This allows you to view information on impressions and click-through rates, as well as data about conversions, clicks-through-rates, and other relevant statistics. All of this data can be tracked by the ad platform.
You can often set a limit on a campaign’s spend with multiple bid options, such as cost per-impression (CPM), or cost per-click (CPC).
A mobile advertising platform can be used to target many channels, including:
- Google mobile searches
- Facebook’s mobile feed
- Instagram’s mobile feed
- Mobile app specific in-app ads
These platforms function in two ways. These platforms allow publishers to sell ads and earn advertising revenue. Advertisers can serve ads to potential customers to showcase their brand and advertise on them.
Let’s start with the basics. Now let’s look at the top mobile advertising platforms.
1. Google Ads
Ads can be displayed on desktop and mobile devices with Google ads. display advertisements can be used to target only tablet and smartphone users. device targeting is also available. This platform allows you to publish ads in apps, browsers and Google search results.
These are some examples of ads that you can place on tablets and smartphones:
- Adverts with text and images
- Promo ads for image and video apps
-
True View ads to promote apps
Google Ads’ key advantage is its ability to access the most popular search engine. This allows advertisers to place their ads in front the largest number of people on the planet.
2. Meta Ads
The social media giant created Audience Network to serve its large user base. This ad platform allows you to post Instagram and Facebook ads.
Meta is well-known for their many advertising targeting options. Now, advertisers have the option to choose one of the following ad type:
- Native ads
- Interstitial ads (full-screen ads)
- Banner ads
- Video ads in-stream
-
Rewarded video advertisements
Another option for advertisers is Instagram. It’s a mobile-first platform that was designed with the mobile audience. Meta’s advertising platform allows you to manage both Instagram and Facebook ads.
3. Bing Ads
Although Bing has a smaller market share than Google’s, your advertising budget may be more spread on the 2nd-place search engine. Bing Ads will cost you 70% more than Google. This is a huge value for a search engine that receives 5,000,000 searches per month.
However, lower costs are not the only benefit of Bing’s mobile advertising platform. You have greater control over the language and location of your campaign with Bing Ads (as these can all be set at the ad group level, not the campaign level in Google). To drive traffic to your social media accounts, you can use the Mobile Extensions app
Over the years, Bing has also established some important partnerships. Bing is the default search engine on Kindle Fire devices, so it’s a good idea to target Kindle users.
You can read ” Bing Ads Vs. Google Ads: The Benefits and Cons of Each Platform” if you are deciding between Google or Bing ads.
4. AdMob
AdMob, which was acquired by Google in November 2009 has been one of the most well-known mobile ad platforms. This platform is great for companies looking to monetize their mobile apps by showing ads .
AdMob lets users choose the type of ads they wish to display and set filters to ensure that only relevant ads are displayed.
There are four types of ads available within the ad network:
- Banner ads
- Video ads
- Native ads
- Ads that cover the entire screen of a mobile device’s display (full page interstitials ads)
Advertisers who wish to take advantage these in-app placements may use Google Ads to appear in AdMob locations.
5. AdColony
AdColony, a mobile video advertising network, is used by many companies like Farmville, Adidas, Hilton Hotels and Hilton Hotels.
Publishers can use AdColony to show video ads within their app. Mobile game developers love the ability to show video ads after users have completed a task or reached a certain level.
You can target with the platform:
- Platform (Android, IOS)
- Device (iPad, iPhone, Android Tablet, etc.)
- Type of connection (4G or Wi-Fi)
- Geography (Region, Country, City, etc.)
- Demographics
- Content (entertainment, games, etc.)
6. TubeMogul
TubeMogul, powered by Adobe, is a demand-side mobile ad-serving platform. It started the nonhuman traffic credit program in 2016. because they were concerned about non-human traffic flooding their clients. This program detects fraudulent traffic using a sensor (e.g. Bot visits. This is a DSP which means it aggregates data from many sources and publishes them.
TubeMogul will show your ads to real people.
7. Airpush
Airpush is the second-largest mobile advertising platform for Android. However, you can also advertise through iOS.
There are 12 ad formats available on the platform, including:
- Push notifications
- Video ads
- Advertisements with overlay
- Rich media ads are ads that offer an interactive experience.
- Ads on landing pages
- In-app banners
8. Apple Search Ads (ASA).
iOS users can be a valuable source of customers for brands operating in the app space. There are many competitors in the app space. With at least 20,000,000 iOS developers enrolled, and 500,000,000 App Store visitors per week apps need to grab attention quickly to be noticed. ASA allows you to reach more people and help them find your brand in Apple’s App store.
What are the top mobile ad platforms?
No matter what ad type you choose, the best mobile advertising platforms share these common traits:
- A large selection of possible ad placements
- Targeting and advanced analytics
- Access to a global marketplace
- Support for all major operating systems via mobile
A large inventory is essential for an advertiser. This allows you to choose the placement of your ads (e.g. Search ads, display ads and in-app ads are all options. These ads make sense for you business.
Analytics and targeting are another must-have feature. Mobile ads can be a waste of money and time if you don’t know who is seeing your ads and which ads perform the best. CPC, CPM, total conversions and CTR are key metrics.
How do advertisers choose the best ad platform for them?
When choosing the right advertising platform, the most important criteria is to identify your buyer persona and then tailor the ad accordingly.
- They spend their time where?
- What devices are they using?
- What are their methods of finding answers to their pain points
Before you decide on a platform, it would be helpful if all these questions were answered.
Example
It is possible to determine where your advertising budget should be based on the fact that your target audience uses IOS devices, Bing to search, uses Instagram a lot, plays Candy Crush and Farmville, among other things.
This list of 101 questions will help identify your ideal customers if you have not yet defined your target audience.
It is important to consider your industry when choosing the right mobile advertising platform. Here is a list of the top ad platforms and their total reach to Android users. The percentage of this reach broken down by industry is:
The right mobile advertising platform should allow you to create high-quality ads and fit within your industry.
Which ad mobile platform is best?
This question is not easy to answer. There are many options available depending on your industry, budget and advertising goals. It’s worth taking a look at the statistics of each mobile advertising platform to get a better idea.
This chart shows the reach and number of mobile advertising platforms that are currently in use.
Build your best advertising stack
There are over 5,000 advertising platforms available. It can be overwhelming to find the right platform for your campaign. Google Ads and Facebook/Instagram Ads, Bing AdMob, Bing Ads, Bing Ads, Bing Ads, AdMob. The list goes on. It can be difficult to choose which ad platform to use and how much you should spend on advertising.
“The Advertising Strategy to Power Your $1M Ad Budget” is a guide that will help you understand the nine main software categories large businesses need in your advertising stack, and which ad platforms you should consider for each.
Learn how the #1 landing-page platform for marketers can help increase conversions and decrease your cost per click. Get an Instapage demo now.
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