Overview

User acquisition through RTB channels can be challenging. It’s a data-heavy science that looks for trends and patterns that work. Without this data-driven focus, you just guess at what’s effective.

If you are just starting with mobile programmatic it can be tough for you to find and convert new users. With this guide we intend to provide you with the best practices in the context of media buying and campaign optimization which ultimately will help you to find and convince new users to install your app.

First, we start with basics on how to start a new RTB campaign on the GeoSpot platform. Second, we discuss UA tactics (specifically whitelisting / blacklisting). And lastly, we go through creative optimization.

To set up and run campaigns on GeoSpot, a campaign needs to be created first. See the following document for details on how to create an campaign: Additionally, it is required to have Suppression Lists: historical and dynamic (both are required):

Once you are done with setting up an order (and creating your suppression list audience) you can navigate to the GeoSpot Dashboard to create your very first RTB campaign.

In this section we provide you with effective UA tactics which will ensure that you have a successful onboarding/start on our platform. For illustrative purposes let us suppose you are running RTB campaigns on GeoSpot to find and convert new users for your new mobile game.

Steps to follow:

1. Identify similar categories / app groups

First thing you need to do is to identify lookalike categories / groups of gaming apps for which your target audience would show great interest. For instance, if your game falls into the adventure genre, a good way to start would be gaming apps in the Epic category. Once you have several categories figured out you need to source bundle IDs of gaming apps in those categories.

What is App Bundle ID?

App Bundle ID is the unique identifier for an app on all Ad Exchanges (unlike App ID which is an alphanumeric ID for an app and is specific to the Ad Exchange).

IOS:

Android:

You can do your research and assemble app bundle IDs for your desired categories. Alternatively, you can get in touch with the GeoSpot Success Team. Apart from bundle ID lists, our team will provide you with available inventory breakdown across all ad exchanges (based on the app bundle IDs).

2. Structure media inventory

Let us suppose you have 2 game categories, Epic and Adventure and 100 app bundle IDs per category. After you receive the inventory breakdown list from us it would look like the following:

Example:

It is always a good idea to structure your inventory: create separate campaigns per category and per ad exchange. In doing so, you will be able to observe and spot trends specific to each category and ad exchange. Such an approach will maximize your UA efforts; it will enable you to get learnings fast and put them in use by optimizing your campaigns accordingly.

Thus, it is highly advised to create your RTB campaigns in the following manner:

Campaign 1: campaign_adventure_Appodeal

Campaign 2: campaign_adventure_Unity

Campaign 3: campaign_adventure_Mopub

Campaign 4: campaign_epic_Appodeal

Campaign 5: campaign_epic_Unity

Campaign 6: campaign_epic_Mopub

§ In order to take advantage of highly sophisticated GeoSpot algorithm it is highly recommended to start CPI optimized campaigns; unless your goal revolves around branding and need to get visibility in front of broad audiences - in this case CPM optimized campaigns are recommended

Once you get your initial learnings (usually 2-3 weeks), you will be able to optimize your campaigns so that given the advertisement budget, available inventory and your goals you get maximum results with minimum spend.

3. Golden Rule

After running your campaigns (min. 10-14 days) long enough to derive meaningful decisions based on accumulated data it is time to deep dive into campaign reports. Download your campaign reports (for detailed instructions see Reports) and start accessing your placements’ performance.

Generally, the best performance indicator of your placements (CPI optimized campaigns) would be end to end conversion rate (eeCR), at the same time taking into consideration the scale. Depending on your goals you may also judge performance solely based on either CTR or CR.

eeCR = installs/impressions(%)

CR = installs/clicks (%)

CTR = clicks/impressions(%)

Steps to follow:

1. Identify the best performing placements based on your threshold eeCR.

§ What is the threshold of eeCR?

There is no given threshold of eeCR that you can benchmark. It depends on your goals and price of the inventory. For instance, if average CPM stands at 12$ and your target CPI is 6$ your eeCR threshold would be 0.2%, beyond this you would fail to meet your goals.

2. Group your placements in the following manner:

Best performers: eeCR equals or greater than your threshold eeCR

Bad performers: eeCR less than your threshold eeCR

Low spend placements: eeCR not available (installs=0) with few impressions (see details below)

3. Blacklist the placements below your threshold eeCR. (Alternatively, you can start a new campaign and whitelist the placements higher than your threshold eeCR).

4. Increase your target CPI (15-20%). With doing so, you give more room to the GeoSpot algorithm and ensure you get max scale out of these placements without failing to meet your targets.

5. Start a new CPM optimized campaign on low spend apps and set target CPM higher (10-30%) than your average CPM for the original CPI campaign.

§ What is a low spend app?

Certain apps get low impressions and no installs, so that it is not possible to judge the performance based on eeCR. For instance, based on our example (CPM 12$/CPI 6$/eeCR 0.2%), the impression threshold would be 500 impressions. In other words, we would categorize apps that get below 500 impressions and 0 install as low spend apps (500 impr. 1 install would be also a low spend, however we would have included that in our best performers as eeCR equals 0.2%). You can adjust the impression threshold as you desire with an upper cap of 900 impressions - for instance, it would be up to you to include apps with 700 impressions and 0 installs in low spend or bad performers’ group.

6. Run a new CPM campaign and observe performance. Adjust target CPM further so that placements get enough impressions. (Alternatively, you can start 2 CPM campaigns – Group 1 high CPM, Group 2 low CPM, this way you can adjust target CPM more efficiently so that you would be able to observe performance and at the same time avoid overspending).

7. Once you identify best performing apps, update the original CPI campaign and pause/delete the current CPM campaign(s).

GeoSpot Data Science blacklists bad performing apps once it has enough learnings (2-3 days). Here, we discuss the ways you can take advantage of GeoSpot auto-blacklist tool (ABT) and internalize it in your campaign optimization.

Generally, ABT comes into play when placements get enough impressions to conclude that it is a really bad performing app, however there might be cases when apps get blacklisted under 200-300 impressions (this criteria depends on CPM, target CPI and eeCR). In this case, you can start a parallel (derivative) CPM optimized campaign and whitelist auto-blacklisted apps which you think got judged prematurely. You need to check ABT status (every 3-4 days) and keep the CPM derivative campaign in sync with the original CPI campaign. So that if the auto-blacklist status of an app is removed in the CPI campaign you remove the same app in the CPM campaign.

If you believe that certain placements definitely are not working, it is better to perform manual blacklisting, so that to make sure GeoSpot Data Science does not run them again after a while. Sometimes, when auto-blacklist status expires, the algorithm starts bidding aggressively on these placements and if these placements are high-traffic loss making, you risk burning the daily budget in vain.

TIP #1: If the winning rate of your RTB campaigns is low and you fail to get enough traffic to meet your goals, try to increase your target CPM/CPI/CPC.

TIP #2: Remember that the conversion rate of cheap inventory is relatively low. Thus, sometimes it is a good idea to increase your bid value and observe; this way you will be able to spot the trends in the context of inventory price and conversion rates. In doing so, you will find the right balance between the two and optimize your campaigns accordingly.

TIP #3: Successful CPI optimized campaigns may sometimes stop delivering. Time to time the algorithm tends to shift spend/focus from one group of placements to another (within the same campaign), which may result in temporal drop in scale, especially if the other group of placements is not converting as well as the previous one.

In such a case, you can whitelist placements which performed really good in the past but algorithm stopped/reduced spending properly on these placements.

i) Create a temporal CPM campaign (or CPI)

ii) Pause/delete the temporal campaign once the scale is back to normal in the original campaign.

Creative optimization plays an important part in UA. On the GeoSpot platform you have an opportunity to try out different types of creatives and tailor them to your specific campaign goals.

§ On GeoSpot it is possible to run one creative type per campaign. You can organize your campaigns based on different types of creative.

For instance: campaign_1_Playable, campaign_1_Video, campaign_1_Banner etc.

We also advise you to start out with rewarded inventory: Playable or Video. Rewarded inventory is a type for which users need to opt-in to watch the ad - having been incentivized to do so by being offered a reward such as an additional life in a game or in-app credit. Fact that rewarded ads have higher engagement rate compared to other types will provide you with a smooth start in terms of getting initial results/learnings.

In terms of performance between rewarded playable ad and video, playable ad tend to outperform video with higher CTR and scale (eeCR more or less same). For instance, if you run 2 campaigns, 1 video and 1 playable (clones - except creative type) you would achieve similar eeCR on average; however, the scale would differ. You will achieve greater scale with playable ad compared to video ads.

For detailed information about creative specifications and guides see Creative Specifications and Creative Guidelines

A/B testing is a great method to optimize your creatives. You can test your ad variations to see which ad brings in more converting users. Well-planned A/B testing can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your UA efforts. Narrowing down the most effective elements of your creatives and then combining them, can make your campaigns more successful.

Steps to perform successful A/B testing:

Once you are done with testing and you get initial results, it is time to make sure that those results are real and not a random chance. You can use the GeoSpot Statistical significance calculator to calculate the statistical significance of your results.

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