Public vs. Private Mobile Ad Exchange Comparison · RTB Spec: 2.1 Open RTB Auction Mode: Second...

TapSense Research:

Public vs. Private Mobile Ad Exchange Comparison

By Gregory Kennedy and Ash Kumar

Introduction

There is still much confusion when it comes to the differences between public real-time bidding (RTB) and private RTB in mobile. Historically, RTB exchanges such as Google AdX have been viewed as a sub-optimal monetization solution for publishers. On the web, poor public RTB implementations, combined with a massive volume of undifferentiated inventory, resulted in downward pricing pressure on publishers’ CPMs. The private model used by large publishers such as eBay, News Corp, and others, has emerged as a solution to help mitigate these problems for premium publishers.

We conducted this research to provide an in-depth analysis of how private and public RTB platforms perform, and to show the benefits of private RTB in mobile.

3Public vs. Private Mobile Ad Exchange Comparison

Research Findings

TapSense private RTB monetizes significantly better than public RTB

across all markets. TapSense eCPMs are nearly five times public RTB in

some markets. TapSense private RTB users tend to be more engaged,

with CTRs nearly triple that of public RTB in some markets, and higher

CTRs across all markets.

In the U.S., which is a highly competitive market, TapSense private

RTB eCPMs was 213% greater than public RTB. TapSense private

RTB monetization was extremely strong in Australia and Canada, with

private RTB eCPMs exceeding public RTB eCPMs by 513% and 325%,

respectively.

Why TapSense Private Mobile RTB Monetizes Better than

Public RTB

Advertising performance is driven by two major factors: technology and

inventory quality.

Technology

Mobile technology landscape is highly fragmented as the network

speeds can vary a lot, mobile users might be distributed across 100s

of countries and in-app SDKs need to be very reliable. Platforms that

can perform core ad serving functions faster and better at large scale

in this fragmented landscape than other platforms have a distinct

advantage over competitors. Additionally, private RTB enables a premium

Public vs. Private Mobile RTB Ad Exchange Comparison


publisher to use first-party data in a controlled environment to increase

monetization and competition from the buyers. .

Inventory Quality

High quality inventory simply performs better, and can be defined in

many different ways. The definition of “high quality” varies for each

advertiser. There are some fundamentals, however, that help determine

inventory quality. Important factors include: a wide variety of highly

engaged users at scale, ad placement to optimize the end user

experience and a well implemented, low latency SDK to ensure high-

speed delivery of ad creative.

It is our conclusion that the private mobile RTB set-up drives significantly

better performance because it is able to accelerate advantages from

both technology and inventory to maximum capacity. This is because

the private RTB technology provider works closely with publishers to put

parameters in place that help maximize advantages in both areas.

Methodology

All data referring to private RTB is sourced from the TapSense platform,

which provides private mobile RTB software to a variety of first-tier apps.

Public RTB data was collected through TapSense research sourced

from publicly available data. All data has been indexed to obfuscate the

absolute numbers. This was done to ensure that third-party sources

were not singled out, and to protect their customers from data leakage



that might violate a given platform’s terms of service. TapSense platform

data from April 2014 has been included in this document to help provide

more insight into how the TapSense RTB platform performs.

About the TapSense Private Mobile RTB Exchange

The TapSense RTB exchange is used by mobile app publishers to

manage advertising. The private RTB set-up allows publishers to choose

the buyers and put parameters in place to control how buying works

on their inventory. The platform supports a wide variety of ad formats

such as IAB banners, full-screen interstitials, native ads, video and other

innovative custom formats. In April 2014, the platform saw over 10 billion

ad requests total, across all regions.

Platform Stats

Queries per Second (QPS) levels: 30K QPS

RTB Spec: 2.1 Open RTB

Auction Mode: Second Price Auction

CTR range: 1.5% to 15.25%

Inventory: Top 25 App Store Apps

Platforms: Android and iOSvt


TapSense Private RTB eCPMs are 213% Higher than Public RTB in the U.S.

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs in the U.S. are 213% higher

than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs on iOS globally are 223%

higher than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs on Android globally are 197%




TapSense Private RTB CTRs are 278% Higher than Public RTB in the U.S.

• TapSense private RTB CTRs in the U.S. are 278% higher

than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB CTRs on iOS globally are 250%


• TapSense private RTB CTRs on Android globally are 336%




Public vs. Private Mobile RTB Analysis: Top 5 Countries by eCPM

United Kingdom

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs in the U.K. are 122%


• TapSense private RTB CTRs in the U.K. are 185% higher

than public RTB

Canada

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs in CA are 325% higher

than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB CTRs in CA are 318% higher than

public RTB

Australia

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs in AU are 513% higher

than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB CTRs in AU are 179% higher than

public RTB

Germany

• TapSense private RTB eCPMs in DE are 235% higher

than public RTB

• TapSense private RTB CTRs in DE are 267% higher than

public RTB



TapSense Private Exchange April 2014 Data Release Analysis


Major findings from the April data analysis are:

• iPhone eCPMs continue to be the highest, with the average

iPhone eCPM 111% higher than the TapSense platform’s

overall eCPM

• Competition across the top Demand-side Platforms (DSPs) is

strong, with the number one DSP’s eCPM indexing 240% above

the TapSense platform’s overall average eCPM

• The average CPM of the Top 5 DSPs is 176% higher than the

TapSense platform’s overall eCPM

• iPad CTRs index lower than all other platforms, but eCPMs remain

strong, at just 4% below the iPhone eCPM index



TapSense Private Exchange April 2014 Data Release: eCPM Index

• The average iPhone eCPM is 111% higher than the


• The average Android eCPM is 65% of the TapSense

platform’s overall eCPM



TapSense Private Exchange April 2014 Data Release: CTR Index

• The average iPhone CTR is 112% higher than the TapSense

platform’s overall CTR

• The average Android CTR is 122% higher than TapSense

platform’s overall CTR



TapSense Private Exchange April 2014 Data Release: Demand-side Platform eCPM Index

• The highest DSP eCPM is 240% higher than the TapSense


• The fifth highest DSP eCPM is 140% higher than the TapSense


• The average of the Top 5 DSPs eCPM is 176% higher than the



Public vs. Private Mobile Ad Exchange Comparison · RTB Spec: 2.1 Open RTB Auction Mode: Second...

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