Top 28 Mobile Ad Networks for App Monetization and User Acquisition (UA) in 2020

Today we are going to dive right into the world of advertising for mobile apps and list the best ad networks available in the market, so take a look and discover the wide range of possibilities out there for app monetization and user acquisition. Hard work pays off. Are you ready to be rewarded?

Mobile Ad Networks Guide: Before you start your App Monetization

The first and the most important thing is your product. You need to offer something exciting for your users if you want them to download your app or game. If you have a low-quality product that’s got nothing interesting to offer, the users will download it, check and delete it straight away. But you don’t want that – so make sure your product is unique and original.

As you might know, your next step is App Store Optimization, that would help you drive organic downloads. Remember, this is a process that takes some time, so be patient and dedicate some time to Research, Optimization, Testing & Tracking.

Mobile Advertising: 2 Sides of the coin

Once you’ve got a unique and optimized product it’s time to broaden your horizons and boost app monetization. How? There is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are various options out there and you have to stick to the ones that suit you best.

Mobile Advertising can be seen from two different perspectives. On one hand, it helps you with to raise up your installs volume as it allows you to reach out to new markets and promote your app across new audiences. And on the other hand, it helps you get some extra money by placing advertising from third party companies inside your app.

In this post we are going to share with you a list of the best 28 Mobile Ad Networks. Read and find out which one is for you.

The main types of display ads

Are you familiar with the different ad formats? In this section, we are going to go through the main types of display ads so take note and learn about their main features.

Native Ads

Native ads can adopt the format and function of the app they appear at. That is, they can be designed to look alike the design of the app. They would come into view as objects in which a content ad or download install button are inserted.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads cover the interface of the app they are appearing at and can be displayed at different transition points in the app. Users can either tap on the ad and be redirected to the download page or website, or close it and continue using the app they were using.

Banner Ads

Banner ads can be displayed anywhere in the layout. They come in rectangular images or texts, appearing on the screen while the users are viewing the app content. Often they are automatically refreshed after some time.

OfferWall Ads

OfferWall ads appear within the layout and intend to offer something to users in order to engage them. They are most frequently used in games, for instance, to advertise a series of games from the same developer.

Video Ads

Video ads come as short video-clips (around 60 seconds) that can appear anywhere in the layout and aim to promote a certain product or service.

Now that you are familiar with the different display formats, it’s time to find out what are the Best Mobile Ad Networks in 2020.

Best 28 Mobile Ad Networks in 2020

In this section we are going to enlighten you with our list of the top 28 Mobile Ad Networks (without any particular order), that would help you acquire new users as well as earn extra money out of your product. Don’t miss out a thing.

1. Facebook Ads (+Instagram Ads)

Facebook and Instagram are so far the biggest and the most powerful channels to reach a wide audience of mobile users, so they are good channels to market an app. Besides being social media channels, Facebook and Instagram (which is also owned by Facebook) let you run campaigns and target your public by location, gender, age, likes & interests, relationships status, education, and job. The number of people you can reach out thanks to these two networks is huge. They have very friendly and catchy ad display formats that work on every device and with different connection speed.

You don’t even need to have a lot of money because you can run campaigns depending on your budget.

2. Twitter Ads

Twitter is also a very powerful social media channel that works as an ad network at the same time. Thanks to this channel you can set your goals and focus only on what’s important for you, showing your ad across the people of your interest. You can shift the audience depending on their activity on Twitter, their interests and their location.
And another advantage is that you would only pay for the actions that you want people to carry out, as, for instance, downloading your app.

3. Snapchat Ads

If you are thinking that you don’t need that many social media advertising channels and you are underestimating Snapchat Ads, you are totally wrong. Snapchat is the only social platform that allows you to reach out to a younger audience (Gen Z). They also have very handy features that would guide you to select your target population and design your ads.

4. Apple Search Ads

Not long ago Apple launched its own advertising platform – Apple Search Ads, in which developers would only pay per install. Your app would appear on the top of the search results, driving a high volume of installs. Apple Search Ads platform allows you to decide what keywords and what audience you want to select, set up your budget and goals.

Unfortunately, Apple Search Ads is not yet available worldwide – so far it is active in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Do you want to know more about ASA? Read our guide.

5. Google AdMob

Google AdMob was acquired by Google some years ago and ever since is the predominant leader of the online advertising. We might claim that this is the best advertising platform for beginners. Its main advantage is a simple integration, and, in addition, you can easily deal with the selection of tools and features by yourself.

Despite the ease in use and integration, Google AdMob is often criticized because of the low-revenue benefits for users. Among its key characteristics, we would like to highlight the several ad formats, such as native, video and interstitial. Moreover, you can target your audience per country or region, carrier, OS version or device among others.

This is, probably, one of the most used Mobile Ad Networks to make money with apps / games. You should read this nice case study oh how to make money with AdMob.

6. Google Ads

Google Ads is an advertising channel that helps marketers or advertisers set their products on the top of Google search results. That way, users would be able to see your product anytime they are looking for something you are offering. You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad to visit your product page.

Related | Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads

7. AdColony (or Opera Mediaworks)

AdColony is the choice for top mobile publishers in the world. Among its characteristics, we can find rich media & video, demographic targeting and integration with both Android and iOS. This is the first advertising platform that offers Instant-Play™ HD video ad technology that works on every device no matter their quality and internet speed. It allows to select the quality of ad content, bringing high engagement. They also have a premium service that helps publishers or advertisers to target their audience very precisely, ensuring user-response.

8. Unity Ads

Unity Ads was launched by Unity Technologies in 2014 and it is a popular platform for games that allows developers to improve their monetization. How? By offering IAP displayed in videos (that could be rewarded or not) to players. As for the audience targeting, this ad network allows to target the ads to players that are the most likely to be interested in playing a certain game. And in addition, there is no need to integrate an additional ad SDK. It works with both Android and iOS and supports several display formats.

9. Chartboost

Do you have a game app? Chartboost is another popular solution for mobile games that allows cross-promotion and is used by the majority of developers of the top games. Among its features we find interstitial and video ads, as well as an easy integration, in which only one SDK is necessary. It is worth to mention that you would have the full control over your ad space, being able to decide who advertises in your app.

And on the top of that, the goal of Chartboost is to help developers make money while letting them keep the majority of the income.

10. Applovin

Are you interested in analyzing your users and acquiring high-quality ones? Then this is the ad network for you. With Applovin you can filter your users by country, analyze all ad campaigns and lead campaigns to users that are most likely to make actions inside your app. On top of that, you can mix advertising formats and chose the best combinations for you!

11. Appnext

Appnext owns a large database and has a global reach permitting businesses to get in touch with users at the right moment. They provide real-life experiences with apps and follow users’ actions to show them a content or a suggested action. They work with iOS, Android and Mobile Web and support interstitial ads and notifications. In addition, targeting can be done by country, device or channel.

12. Epom Apps

Epom Apps is an ad mediation platform with in-house experts who help developers generate revenue from their applications with the winning ad strategy. The main benefit of monetization with Epom Apps is that their team totally handles monetization process – from the selection of best-performing demand sources to include in your custom SDK to ad placements optimization.

Get trusted advertisers, benefit from AI-based optimization algorithm and receive competitive eCPMs globally with 98% or more fillrate.

 13. Mobusi

Mobusi is a leader company in both Spain and South America, however, they are known worldwide, reaching out to millions of users and generating high volume of daily conversions. They specialize in user acquisition and in providing marketing services, especially performance advertising. Mobusi supports various ad formats and both Android and iOS. In addition, they allow targeting by country, carrier, OS, device, browser, and connection.

14. YouAppi

This advertising platform focuses on user acquisition and retention. They study users behavior and show them recommended apps depending on their preferences. YouAppi also provides marketers with highly effective instruments, such as real time tools to monitor users behavior, tools designed to schedule campaigns and tools for push notifications. Many big brands work with this advertising platform.

15. Liftoff

Liftoff specializes in user retention as they analyze their behavior and create profiles taking into account age, gender, mobile behavior and other most used apps. In that way they help you build campaigns that will drive you high quality installs.

16. Taptica

Taptica focuses on user acquisition campaigns that would deliver the maximum ROI possible. Acquiring loyal user through different channels and providing full service monetization are some of their key features. The ads could be displayed as texts, banners or native videos in different devices as smartphones and tablets.

17. Vungle

Vungle is one of the best companies in acquiring and engaging users through their highly creative and enjoyable videos. Their in-house designers and artists are responsible for the success of this network, and it is already proven that users that have watched a Vungle video and arrived to a company’s website, show higher loyalty than others. You can also enjoy the customized targeting and use Vungle video in both Android and iOS devices.

18. Smaato

This mobile ad network provides you with real-time data for each impression. Smaato allows marketers and developers to carry out ad-exchange actions, offering high quality traffic optimization features and full pricing control at the same time. You can target your audience by country, app, ad format, publisher, device, connection type, GPS data and device ID! Do you need anything else?

19. MoBrain

If you need to focus on CPI, this is your platform! MoBrain was founded by Headway in 2014 and it presents an innovative fraud protection system which helps marketers reach out and engage with their users. The ads can adopt various display formats (banner, content, interstitial, native, video) and can be used in both Android and iOS platforms. It allows you to target your audience by location, operating system, OS version or carrier.

20. Fyber

Fyber is a monetization platform that permits advertisers and publishers carry out CPM and CPA campaigns. Four tech companies combined different solutions and capabilities to provide users with a single mobile ad platform. One of its best features is an automatic optimization of ad revenue sources. Installs and engagement are ensured with Fyber as it can reach over half a billion of users. This platform works with both Android and iOS and developers can run different campaigns, such as engagement and installs, in different formats: videos, interstitial.

21. Inmobi

This advertising network has set goals on CPC and CPI campaigns. Inmobi was launched in 2016 in the US and reaches millions of users all around the world. The ad SDK integration with your app is very easy and you can make use of different display formats, including access to rich media ad library. Android, iOS and Mobile Web are the supported mobile platforms. And as for the targeting, you can select to reach people depending on their carrier, country, device, OS, time and channel.

22. Tapjoy

Tapjoy has come up with a very engaging and innovative way of helping you with monetization. How does it work? Users are given virtual money in exchange for watching video ads, subscribing to some services or downloading promoted apps. They can use this virtual currency to unlock in-app content from publishers. This is a perfect way to catch users that are afraid of giving away their credit cards and personal details. Tapjoy works with Android, iOS and Mobile Web. The audience can be targeted in a personalized way, and the ad formats are interstitial, content lock, offerwall, and rewards.

23. Startapp

If you are looking for a self-service platform that at the same time gives you the chance of building your ad campaigns, control your audience, design your creatives and take over the budget here you have one. With Startapp you can go creative and design animated and interactive ads. As they know that your audience is important for you they let you target by app, carrier, competitors, connection type, device, gender, geo, and OS.

24. Airpush

Airpush supports only Android apps and gives developers and publishers the chance to set sign-ups, push notifications and icon badges. More than 40,000 developers go for this software in order to get more money from advertising, because Airpush allows to monetize all users, and not only the active ones. The targeting is customized and 12 ad display formats are available in one interface. In addition, their Airpush Detector helps you in finding out about other installed apps that use notification ads.

25. Leadbolt

Leadbolt focuses on user acquisition as well as on in-app monetization. You can reach and acquire users globally. Thanks to its high-quality targeting you would be able to get to the best audience for you and therefore guarantee user engagement. It supports Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms and your ads can be displayed in a variety of formats, such as native, video and interstitial.

26. Yeahmobi

Yeahmobi helps app businesses to acquire new customers and puts the spotlight on working directly with advertisers on CPI and CPA including different campaign types. Regarding the ad display formats, they specialize in Native ads, however, they do work with other ad formats as well.
As for the targeting options, Yeahmobi ads are supported by media platforms and besides helping you in acquiring new users, they strive to help you to maximize LTV.

27. Avazu

Avazu aims at connecting ad buyers with publishers all around the world. Their focus is to help their customers get the maximum revenue possible out of their campaigns since they would only pay per conversion. That is why the campaigns are linked to actions, such as a download or purchase, among others. Ads are displayed in banner, interstitial or text format and the audience can be targeted by device, carrier or OS.

28. Tappx

With more than 400B monthly ad requests and +25,000 app developers registered, Tappx provides a comprehensive ad tech solution designed for Publishers and Advertisers to excel across user acquisition, monetization and advertising campaigns.

PUBLISHERS: Maximize revenue with a GUARANTEED CPM model. Connected to hundreds of demand sources to provide the best ads for your audience. Also, get users for FREE by exchanging ads with other apps in the world’s biggest ad exchange community for developers. Fast and easy to integrate.

ADVERTISERS: A reliable way to access to app & mobile inventory from premium and middle case publishers. Launch your advertising campaigns in a secure and Brand safety environment.

Final thoughts on mobile ad networks & app monetization

In this article, we listed some of the most important ad mobile network platforms that will help you get more app downloads. We also gave you the most important features of each one of them so now you have to set your goals, set your budget and choose your platform.

User Acquisition is one of the most difficult parts when launching a new product and working with ad networks to get users can definitely make this task a lot easier. On the other hand, ad networks can become a vital part of your app monetization strategy and help you earn some extra bucks.

Remember once again, that before starting to think of possible ways to either boost installs volume by acquiring new customers or making money with your app, you have to make sure your product is worth it so that it would be appealing for your users.

We hope you found this article useful. What Mobile Ad Networks are you working with? 🙂

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