Who Cares About In-App Advertising?

There are so many ways to advertise online. A smart digital advertiser can choose from amazing options like Google ads, retargeted display ads on search engines, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Pinterest ads…Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube…the list goes on and on.

But one ad format, in-app advertising, has been overlooked by many advertisers. In-app advertising allows marketers to run their ads on a variety of mobile platforms, notably within games. While mobile use has continued to skyrocket in the past few years, advertisers have been hesitant to embrace in-app ads, fearing that the audience was too young, too distracted, or even too small.

However, as more and more advertisers try in-app advertising, they find that the engagement and click-through rates can be exceptional. In-apps ads have definitely become mainstream.

What Is In-App Advertising?

In-app advertising refers to the type of digital ads that appear within apps on your smartphone. When you open a news app, for example, you often see ads embedded in the new stories. Sometimes you’ll see videos or pop-up ads. You may see a small banner at the top of your smartphone. When you play a free version of your favorite game like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, you might be required to view ads in between rounds of games.

Many free apps require views of videos or ads before, gating content or restricting next-level play until ads are viewed. Today in-app advertising a standard monetization model, and is the engine that has driven the explosion in free app development.

So while many people consider in-app ads to be an annoyance, they are, in fact, the tool that allows us to choose from the hundreds of free apps that do things like learn French for free on Duolingo or view video recipes on Tastemade or monitor calories on MyFitnessPal. Well-developed, sophisticated apps can be offered free to millions of people because of the funding in-app advertising provides.

Who Sees In-App Ads?

There used to be an assumption that in-app ads would only be seen by tweens and twenty-something boys. But those days are over. In-app advertising is now a great way to reach a wide variety of demographics and psychographics.

In a recent study, Google reported that 93% of smartphone owners use apps, and that over half of gaming app users are women. It also reported that users can come back to their favorite app two or three times a day and that the average smartphone users spend about an hour a day on news, sports, gaming, and entertainment apps

Image source: ThinkWithGoogle.com

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How Do You Place In-App Ads?

Most apps have some form of advertising attached, but if you want to target your ads, you can use place in-app ads through Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or you can use an ad placement tool like Taboola or Outbrain. Most in-app advertising tools offer display and video ad formats, as well as interstitial and banner formats.

In all of these tools, you can target different combinations of demographics, psychographics, and interests. You can use the pumped-up ad targeting tools within advertising giants like Google and Facebook to send your in-app ads to just the right audience.

Want to Get Started?

In-app advertising is a great way to build awareness, drive sales, and generate leads, but using an experienced marketing partner will help you get better results and higher returns. If you’d like to talk more about your marketing needs. Contact us today. We’d love to talk (and talk and talk.)

Want to read more blogs about digital advertising? Check out these Cup O Content articles.