We are living in a mobile world and it is no more a secret. In 2022, everything seems to be going mobile. Over 52% of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile devices. This is more than double the percentage of traffic as compared to the previous five years. As those numbers continue to grow, so does mobile advertising.
Moreover, publishers and marketers recognize the prerequisite to targeting the platforms and devices consumers use most. US consumers spend 35 hours a week on their mobile devices. Ninety-two is spent on apps during their mobile time. Today it is difficult to define a large number of mobile ad networks with extensive capabilities. This is an area that I think needs a little explanation. Here’s an overview of the largest mobile ad networks and examples of how they work. Let us know if you find something you like.
Best Mobile Ad Networks in 2024:
Here is the list of 20+ Best Mobile Ad Networks in 2023 and 2024:
- Google Ads
- Facebook/ Instagram
- Amazon Publisher Services
- Snapchat
- SmartyAds
- Google Marketing Platform
- Appnext
- Media.Net
- MOLOCO
- Chartboost
- Mintegral
- InMobi
- AdColony
- MobFox
- Flurry
- Unity Ads
- StartApp
- TikTok for Business
- Apple Search Ads
1. Google Ads:
As you know, Google is a leader in several areas of Android devices. One of them is user retention. Currently, Google ranks first for all types of apps. However, its growth was primarily driven by gaming apps. Much of this growth is due to Android-driven emerging markets such as Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia. Google has focused on two main pillars that have been number one for years. Machine learning and video creation for app campaigns.
Google App campaigns are driven by automation. All you need to do manually is select your campaign objective (installs, in-app conversions, or action value). Next, you’ll need to decide on your budget and bidding strategy, and upload your visuals and text. Your App campaign is ready. Since then, Google has taken the lead. It works by creating a portfolio of top-performing advertising assets and showcasing them across multiple properties.
2. Facebook/ Instagram:
Facebook is one of the most valuable mobile advertising platforms. This is due to the huge audience that the platform offers. Based on the number of users on these social media platforms alone, Facebook and Instagram offer a larger audience than any other mobile advertising platform. Facebook also offers advertisers the option to choose from multiple app campaign objectives, such as in-app conversions, app installs, traffic, and app engagement, as needed.
Its accomplishments are due to sophisticated targeting options and multiple ad formats. Plus, it’s super easy to promote on Facebook and Instagram. Advertisers can easily create highly personalized campaigns by selecting target audiences based on a variety of factors.
You can filter your audience based on demographics such as age, gender, religion, location, hobbies, interests, education, occupation, relationship status, and connected devices. You will also find very attractive and eye-catching ad display formats.
3. Amazon Publisher Services:
Amazon Publisher Services is the trusted name in mobile advertising networks for publishers, offering three types of services depending on publisher size. These facilities include:
- Transparent Advertising Marketplace (TAM) – for large publishers
- Unified Advertising Marketplace (UAM) – for small and medium-sized publishers
- Market Connect – Find all vendors in a single market.
APS is useful because it allows publishers who want to bid on Amazon to place Amazon ads on their website or mobile app. This is the reason APS has reflected the most selection for major publishers around the world. It also offers in-app header bidding, allowing publishers to display ads without compromising the user experience.
It also provides a seamless interface with auction-level reports showing the highest bids. Key benefits are TAM’s powerful reporting tools, TAM’s greater transparency, and access to Amazon Advertising. The downside is that TAM has multiple payments for one SSP and UAM has poor reporting tools.
4. Snapchat:
Snapchat is another social media network that has successfully acquired premium app users. Ad networks are particularly good at delivering non-game applications to users. One of the reasons is Snapchat’s growing user base. In 2021, during the first quarter, the ad network had 280 million users. Through this spot, Snapchat users on Android surpassed iOS users (The Verge) for the first time.
A quick explanation of how Snapchat ads work. When creating an App campaign on Snapchat, you can choose between two campaign objectives.
- Install apps
- Application traffic generation
Then you can choose from a variety of ad formats that support app installs and deep linking via ad networks. It has many quick and easy features to help you choose your target audience and create your ads most effectively. Snapchat Ads can be used as a great advertising network to monetize your mobile app.
5. SmartyAds:
Another significant type of mobile ad network is SmartyAds. The site proposes a suite of ad tech tools to help you monetize your app or website. Registering for Smarty Ads gives you access to campaigns from premium ad networks, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and advertising agencies using Smarty Ads DSP via the OpenRTB protocol.
Advertisers and Publishers can take advantage of voice services provided by Smartyads. This comprehensive stack gives you instant access to other platforms and tools to buy and monetize your media.
SmartyAds SSP is an all-in-one solution to reach multiple brands and monetize your content. White Label Solutions offers personalized advertising solutions that put you in complete control of your advertising. Real-time quantum analytics provide actionable campaign insights.
Compatible with DMP, SSP, ad server, ad network, and payment system. Offer campaigns in CPI or CPM format using banner, in-app, interstitial, native, video, and rich media ad formats.
6. Google Marketing Platform:
The success of the platform (formally known as AdMob) is no surprise. Because all Google products traditionally run on Android. Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) platform enables marketers to create programmatic display and video campaigns. To do this, the platform offers access to exclusive showcases, videos, and mobile inventory. This demand-side platform shares some boundary similarities with the Google Ads platform.
On the campaign side, you need to set the budget, targeting, KPI selection, campaign objective, etc. Video and display 360 has a much wider reach than Google Ads’ Display Network. Reach nearly 1 billion websites through integrations with over 90 other ad exchanges.
Another difference is that Google Ads is based on real-time bidding, while DV360 allows you to target premium inventory through direct deals. Google Ads allows you to target users based on the mobile platform, interests, operating system, connection type, location, and device.
7. Appnext:
Appnext ranked retention for the first time in the previous Retention Index. This time we took it to the next level and entered the top 5 Android. Founded in 2012 by Elad Nantason, the app research firm has a comprehensive database of nearly 700 million app users.
We have an association of over 30,000 developers working in over 180 countries. The ad network makes it easy for novice advertisers to access insights from other developers and valuable tips on creating ad campaigns.
Appnext is a mobile search platform that enables in-app and on-device searches. You can recommend apps on Samsung, Xiaomi, and Oppo devices and 60,000 apps. All of these things help the app reach over 750 million users worldwide.
This ad network is perfect for acquiring new users, re-engaging existing users, and increasing mobile transactions. Appnext also helps publishers monetize their mobile apps with carousel widgets, native ads, banner ads, interstitials, and featured apps.
8. Media.Net:
As one of the oldest and most popular mobile ad networks, Media.net is used by many popular publishers and websites such as WebMD, Forbes, MSN, and Elle. Additionally, this technology does not rely on cookies, so you don’t have to worry about user permissions to find them.
We offer ad formats such as display ads, native ads, contextual ads, and video ads. High contextual advertising leads to relatively high CPM rates and high conversion rates.
Ads can be customized to match the overall look and feel of your website, giving the impression of native content. This was the first platform to design a display search (D2S) approach. D2S filters user intent to improve your site’s ad targeting. The final you can earn higher profits.
9. Twitter:
Another effective platform could be Twitter Ads for increasing app installs and re-engaging users. This allows the user to proceed with the installation. The previous index had Twitter in the same position, but combined Android and iOS.
But this time it’s Android leaderboard only. Not sure how Twitter ads work? The ad format Twitter uses for app ads is called App Cards. There are two ad formats: video app cards and image app cards.
These ad formats allow users to preview your app’s images and ratings. You can also open and install apps directly from your timeline. Finally, Twitter Ads supports multiple bidding options to get the best ROI for your App campaigns.
- App CPC bidding: bidding based on app clicks, CPC bidding
- Bid optimization: Bid on installs, but pay for clicks.
10. MOLOCO:
MOLOCO was in a similar situation as it was in the last index retention, but the list contains data for iOS and Android. At this time, we are only building an Android list. This platform leverages machine learning to acquire app users. It also helps you attract users and monetize your app. The platform is integrated with Google Cloud, giving access to over 90% of mobile devices worldwide.
Moloco is in the top 5 personal ad networks and it has been featured 24 times. Moloco’s demand-side platform is designed to drive inventory buying and growth for advertisers of all sizes. To achieve this, we offer Moloco Cloud, a cloud-based advertising solution that leverages first-party and contextual data from the programmatic ecosystem.
This network utilizes proprietary machine learning techniques to support a wide range of features such as user acquisition, mobile retargeting, and programmatic campaigns.
11. Chartboost:
Chartboost has brought together an impressive clutch of mobile game developers as clients, their range is from Rovio to DirtyBit. It offers interstitial and video ads and is very easy to integrate, which means you can start monetizing your ads in just 5 minutes and 10 lines of code.
Revenue sharing is one of the cornerstones of advertising activity. Developers keep 90% to 100% of the revenue, which is a staggering number. The only cost of using this network is that they charge a 10% rebate on every transaction they process on your behalf.
Not only does Chartboost excel at cross-promotion, but it also offers the most popular mobile advertising platform for gaming apps and is said to work with 90% of the top 10 mobile game developers. This empowers game developers and their developer partners to make informed decisions about their advertising campaigns based on a data-driven and transparent platform.
12. Mintegral:
Mintegral is an Asian advertising network with global coverage. It excels in all regions and all types of applications, and utilities, including games, social networks, entertainment, and businesses. Of these 43 rankings, 10 are located in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to Adjust’s report, Asia-Pacific is the largest region for gaming user acquisition, accounting for 64% of the advertising spend breakdown. We currently work with more than 26,000 app partners and work along with over 20 international Ad Exchanges.
It acts as a supply and demand platform for publishers and mobile advertisers. If you’re an app advertiser looking for a “smart” platform, this is the place. Advertising campaigns are programmatic and interactive. When you create a Mintegral ad campaign, our machine learning system will do its best to serve the best ads to the right people.
Of the previous participations, Mintegral was not on the list. However, the ability to provide quality service to long-term app users has increased.
13. InMobi:
InMobi is a great option for monetizing mobile websites/apps for publishers. We offer an extensive inventory of over 200 DSPs and over 5,000 programmatic buyers representing the world’s leading brands across a variety of ad formats including display, native, and video. Numerous publishers such as abc, Shazam, Wattpad, and Blackberry have partnered with InMobi for their advertising needs.
It supports advertising oniOS and Android and mobile web and offers pricing models such as CPI and CPC. Use app graphic targeting. This means that you will see more relevant and contextual ads on the apps and websites you are using.
For example, a shopping app can advertise to other apps that offer deals or discounts, other apps that sell men’s or women’s clothing, or users who interact with products that interest them. This network with many target filters has many advantages. Automatically update banner ads and customize default ads. The downside is fewer anti-fraud checks.
14. AdColony:
One of the best mobile advertising platforms is AdColony. We work with top mobile publishers/developers such as ABC News, Glu, Flixster, History, and more. The company claims to provide creative advertising ideas to meet the needs of advertisers around the world.
This network supports cross-platform monetization via iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. Publishers can customize fonts, text, and colors in graphic designs to increase engagement. For video ads, this network provides creativity in HD quality.
This network is a mobile app advertising platform built by app developers for app developers. Aurora™ HD, Instant-Play™ HD video, interactive video, and other playable technologies for video advertising. This increases engagement with mobile app ads and shows only premium ad content.
AdColony primarily uses the CPM model but also supports other models such as CPC, CPI, CPCV, and CPA. The Payments are made by check, PayPal, ACH, and wire transfer according to our monthly payment cycle.
15. MobFox:
MobFox is an advertising network for advertisers, publishers, and app developers to monetize their apps. Download the MobFox SDK to manage all ad formats. This SDK works with all major SDK support networks and plugins including AdobeAir, Unity, Cordova, and GameMaker.
The leading results-driven mobile advertising platform for app publishers, app developers, and advertisers. When implemented properly, it can monetize mobile traffic across multiple media such as iPhone, Windows Phone7, and Android. This platform effectively opens the vast world of advertising to mobile apps.
You can set filters by country, region, career/career/channel/IT, company, entertainment, and demographics such as age, gender, lifestyle, and education. Create a Custom Audience. The SDK supports all major formats including native, rich media, interstitials, banners, and videos. This activity uses detailed reports from Moat. GeoEdge provides ad-based authentication to ensure application and user security.
16. Flurry:
Flurry was acquired in 2014 under Marissa Mayer by Yahoo. The analysis part of Flurry is unique. It allows developers and enterprises to monitor their entire portfolio of apps deployed to various app stores across all platforms. Funnels also measure personalized consumer conversion metrics. As a full member of the Yahoo Developer Network and App Publishing, Flurry has great potential for high profitability due to its extensive analytics capabilities.
If you have the willingness and patience to constantly optimize and test your campaigns, you can make some very interesting observations with Flurry. Our proprietary analytics tools allow us to process almost any kind of data collected from our customers. For example, it provides the ability to measure consumer conversion rates, distinguish between paying and free users, and monitor app performance across platforms. Check it out for a great way to improve your marketing campaigns with analytics tools.
17. Unity Ads:
Unity Ads, one more ad network that specializes in mobile game ads, has made inroads into non-gaming listings. A key factor in the UnityAd ad network’s general success and effectiveness is its focus on native video advertising.
However, ad networks can also use different ad formats, such as banners and interstitials. When it comes to campaign type, advertisers can choose between CPM and CPI campaigns. This network gives help for the formats of video, interstitial, or banner.
If your mobile game needs advertising, you can’t beat Unity. The platform specializes in monetizing mobile games using video ads. Unity ads are friendly with platforms including Android or iOS and all game engines including Marmalade, Adobe Air, and Corona. You can also set up in-app purchases so your customers can make purchases without leaving your app.
The easy-to-read dashboard provides near-instantaneous reporting and lets you review campaign performance hourly or daily for more effective app monetization.
18. StartApp:
Start.io (formerly StartApp) is one of the top mobile ad networks for placing ads (also known as interstitial ads) between two pages when a link is clicked. Other ad formats include splash, rich media, 360-degree readable ads, video, MREC banners, virtual reality, and native ad blocking. They have dedicated ads aimed at getting more engagement with relevant ads that focus on the things workers to desire to perceive.
StartApp is an information-driven mobile technology company that claims to maximize engaged users, fill rates, eCPM, and revenue for publishers. This is achieved through advanced insight into the data companies use to serve ads through programmatic and direct deals.
Publishers also have a dashboard where you can access daily, weekly and monthly reports to track performance. A dedicated account management service is also available. This allows you to implement interstitial ads. This means that ads are temporarily displayed on the sections of a website screen between two pages or mobile applications.
19. TikTok for Business:
TikTok for Business is already a solid top performer in most rankings. This is especially effective in non-gaming applications. Although it is only 15th on the retention chart, TikTok is 3rd on the retention chart. This is due to a 130 percent growth in the share of non-game app installs on Android devices.
Advertising works on TikTok in a way: when on the platform of TikTok’s advertising a campaign is created, you have two budget choices to select from. Like most ad networks, it offers demographic and interest targeting. You can also create Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences to find the users most likely to install your app.
Moreover, TikTok offers a variety of ads you can choose to reach your audience, hashtag challenges, such as branded augmented reality (AR) content, branded ads, in-app video ads, or impactful content.
20. Apple Search Ads:
Through search, Apple Search Ads are designed to drive traffic to your app. The iOS app advertising platform attaches you to the relevant target audience and provides an efficient and easy way for users to find your app by typing relevant keywords in the app store. Many users search on Apple devices, so it’s a good idea to target them by integrating this type of ads into your app advertising promotions.
It’s the only advertising network that runs standalone on iOS and has full access to user data. It’s been a while since tech giant Apple launched an advertising platform. Here developers pay only for the number of downloads.
This can lead to a significant increase in app downloads when your promoted app appears at the top of search results. The platform allows you to choose your target audience, and keywords, set your budget, and of course your own goals. This network operates in 7 locations around the world.
My Final Words:
In short, it can be said that the networks listed here are trusted networks as they handle billions of ad impressions each time. All mobile ad networks offer different features, so it’s hard to say which mobile ad network is the best. Publishers should be selected based on business needs. Find mobile ad networks that offer high eCPMs, analytics reports, and a variety of ad formats.
We encourage you to sign up as a publisher and advertiser to maximize your app’s revenue. You can monetize your app by selling advertising space. However, you can also increase user acquisition by buying advertising space from other publishers to promote your app.