Monetizing apps without alienating users: A chat with Receptiv
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
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Richard Harris |
Monetizing your application without causing mobile users to get annoyed.
We recently sat down with Receptiv, the company formerly known as MediaBrix, to learn more about how they work with app developers monetize their products. Receptiv is an in-app mobile video ad platform that connects brands to app users to increase ad performance. Founded as MediaBrix in 2011 and named an Adweek Top Mobile Innovator, they are available via both programmatic and managed service to create contextualized brand engagements during 500 million key moments every month, across more than 1,300 premium apps.
Santos: Receptiv is a newly branded company (formerly MediaBrix) that just recently launched a new product suite: Receptiv Video Marketplace for programmatic buying and Receptiv Solutions for managed services. Receptiv’s third-generation product suite now accommodates IAB standard units, across both divisions. We also just launched Motiv, our first-party data management platform (DMP), built on billions of mobile data points across more than 1,300 premium apps and 150 million DeviceIDs. Why did we choose the name Receptiv? Our mission has always been to create the most receptive ad experiences for users - and by tapping into data and insights around user experience to truly engage the user, we’re able to precisely target with contextually relevant ads.
Santos: Receptiv is unique in that we are the premier solution to provide brand demand to publishers. What does this mean? It means we help publishers monetize (primarily through video) without deploying user acquisition ads. With our focus on brand demand, we’re able to make user experience the most important factor when delivering ads. If you compare this with direct response ad units - which are designed for immediate clicks and downloads rather than long-term brand-user relationships - it means no more eyesore ads that annoy the user. After all, Receptiv doesn’t do full screen interstitials. Instead, the Receptiv ad unit is inline to the ad container, which has been designed to be transparent so that the user never feels like they’ve been taken out of the app journey and experience, not to mention delivered during moments in the app journey when users are most receptive to ads.
Santos: Receptiv helps developers monetize apps across several key categories, including entertainment, utility, fitness, and messaging. These are the categories that are most successful, as they tend to have higher time spent and more virtual goods available to reward users for paying attention to ads - especially in the entertainment and messaging categories.
Santos: The key to advertising without alienating is matching ad formats to the type of app you are developing. For example, apps with very short and frequent sessions would benefit most from ads after each session with the app. So for a puzzle game, once a user has finished a puzzle, an ad makes sense as a ‘natural game break.’ You also have to contextualize the ad format to the app environment, so the user is more receptive to your message - this means integrating natively and leveraging app assets and branding in your ad container.
Another strategy is to offer rewarded video, wherein you offer something of value to the user in exchange for watching an ad. It’s key to make the advertising work for the user, because they opt into the experience and don’t feel forced to view an ad. Developers should also consider giving users currency or virtual goods that are important to the users’ activities within the app. The sooner they can use that currency or virtual good once they receive it, the more value the advertiser has offered.
Santos: A major trend with developers is to integrate some sort of ad mediation platform. This will allow you to have multiple ad providers bid on a single impression, therefore ensuring you have better chances to fill an impression at a higher rate. It’s also important to make separate efforts for each territory, or geo, that your app is strong in. Focusing on your top 3 geo-s, for example, would help you engage ad providers that may do better in specific territories, and your mediation for each geo may have a separate stack of ad providers bidding on that impression.
Santos: The key here is for developers to be able to segment their users into cohorts, and the most important cohort is paying versus non-paying. Developing logic behind predicting a potential paying customer is important early on, and there are many different metrics that publishers use for this type of calculation, often different based on the type of app and audience that you have.
Santos: First and foremost, it’s important for developers to understand that programmatic is not a new product; it’s actually an alternate buying channel for brands to reach their audiences. Putting your inventory in the open market (or RTB) is detrimental to the value of your inventory - over time, the cost per impression (CPM) you garner will decrease, as bidders drive down the price of your inventory. For developers, the key to generating revenue is to find a partner that understands your app and its audience. That partner should be able to include you in private exchanges that protect your inventory from being devalued in the open market.
Santos: Developers need to find partners that will offer brand demand, so getting an understanding of a potential partner’s efforts with brands is important. Partners that have direct relationships with brands and media buying agencies, not to mention quality assurances like an always-on viewability solution, are ideal. Also ideal is to establish a direct relationship with an advertising partner, since having an account manager or other contact to work directly with you will help you get higher CPMs and more demand.
Read more: http://www.receptiv.com
ADM: What is Receptiv, and why did you choose this brand identity?
Santos: Receptiv is a newly branded company (formerly MediaBrix) that just recently launched a new product suite: Receptiv Video Marketplace for programmatic buying and Receptiv Solutions for managed services. Receptiv’s third-generation product suite now accommodates IAB standard units, across both divisions. We also just launched Motiv, our first-party data management platform (DMP), built on billions of mobile data points across more than 1,300 premium apps and 150 million DeviceIDs. Why did we choose the name Receptiv? Our mission has always been to create the most receptive ad experiences for users - and by tapping into data and insights around user experience to truly engage the user, we’re able to precisely target with contextually relevant ads.
ADM: How do you help developers monetize?
Santos: Receptiv is unique in that we are the premier solution to provide brand demand to publishers. What does this mean? It means we help publishers monetize (primarily through video) without deploying user acquisition ads. With our focus on brand demand, we’re able to make user experience the most important factor when delivering ads. If you compare this with direct response ad units - which are designed for immediate clicks and downloads rather than long-term brand-user relationships - it means no more eyesore ads that annoy the user. After all, Receptiv doesn’t do full screen interstitials. Instead, the Receptiv ad unit is inline to the ad container, which has been designed to be transparent so that the user never feels like they’ve been taken out of the app journey and experience, not to mention delivered during moments in the app journey when users are most receptive to ads.
ADM: What kind of apps and developers do you work with?
Santos: Receptiv helps developers monetize apps across several key categories, including entertainment, utility, fitness, and messaging. These are the categories that are most successful, as they tend to have higher time spent and more virtual goods available to reward users for paying attention to ads - especially in the entertainment and messaging categories.
ADM: How can developers advertise in their apps without alienating their user base?
Santos: The key to advertising without alienating is matching ad formats to the type of app you are developing. For example, apps with very short and frequent sessions would benefit most from ads after each session with the app. So for a puzzle game, once a user has finished a puzzle, an ad makes sense as a ‘natural game break.’ You also have to contextualize the ad format to the app environment, so the user is more receptive to your message - this means integrating natively and leveraging app assets and branding in your ad container.
Another strategy is to offer rewarded video, wherein you offer something of value to the user in exchange for watching an ad. It’s key to make the advertising work for the user, because they opt into the experience and don’t feel forced to view an ad. Developers should also consider giving users currency or virtual goods that are important to the users’ activities within the app. The sooner they can use that currency or virtual good once they receive it, the more value the advertiser has offered.
ADM: What can developers do to maximize their advertising revenue per impression?
Santos: A major trend with developers is to integrate some sort of ad mediation platform. This will allow you to have multiple ad providers bid on a single impression, therefore ensuring you have better chances to fill an impression at a higher rate. It’s also important to make separate efforts for each territory, or geo, that your app is strong in. Focusing on your top 3 geo-s, for example, would help you engage ad providers that may do better in specific territories, and your mediation for each geo may have a separate stack of ad providers bidding on that impression.
Art Santos, Senior VP of Business
Development, Receptiv
Development, Receptiv
ADM: How should developers target their users for ads? What can they do beyond demographics?
Santos: The key here is for developers to be able to segment their users into cohorts, and the most important cohort is paying versus non-paying. Developing logic behind predicting a potential paying customer is important early on, and there are many different metrics that publishers use for this type of calculation, often different based on the type of app and audience that you have.
ADM: What are the pros and cons of programmatic advertising for developers?
Santos: First and foremost, it’s important for developers to understand that programmatic is not a new product; it’s actually an alternate buying channel for brands to reach their audiences. Putting your inventory in the open market (or RTB) is detrimental to the value of your inventory - over time, the cost per impression (CPM) you garner will decrease, as bidders drive down the price of your inventory. For developers, the key to generating revenue is to find a partner that understands your app and its audience. That partner should be able to include you in private exchanges that protect your inventory from being devalued in the open market.
ADM: What should developers look out for in potential ad partners?
Santos: Developers need to find partners that will offer brand demand, so getting an understanding of a potential partner’s efforts with brands is important. Partners that have direct relationships with brands and media buying agencies, not to mention quality assurances like an always-on viewability solution, are ideal. Also ideal is to establish a direct relationship with an advertising partner, since having an account manager or other contact to work directly with you will help you get higher CPMs and more demand.
Read more: http://www.receptiv.com
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