Business of Apps Podcast

#169: Winning attention of mobile audiences with Mark Slade, VP Brand at Digital Turbine

“May I have your attention please?” - how many times did you hear this ask?
When you look at the screen of your smartphone, tablet or computer, nobody is asking for your attention, companies just fight for that precious 10-15 seconds of your attention when it comes to ads in Instagram Reels or like 43 minutes when it’s about an TV show episode on Netflix.
I know you can’t answer me now but I’m going to ask this question anyway - do people pay attention to ads they see on the screen? So we invited Mark to answer this question and talk about winning attention of mobile audiences.
Today’s Topics Include:
Mark Slade's background
What is Digital Turbine today
The industry KPI measuring transition: viewability to attention
Digital ads concessions
The cooperative model on TV
Mobile gaming as a mobile example of the cooperative model
The takeaways
Links and Resources:
Mark Slide on LinkedIn
Digital Turbine company
Google may have misled dozens of advertisers and violated its own guidelines - report
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Mark Slade:
“I think they do pay attention to advertising. I think they pay attention to advertising that's creative, emotive, uses sounds, uses storylines, tells stories. The best advertising has been proven by people like Orlando Wood and System One. It's the one that has all of those components built into the advertising network, and that's what gets people to remember the ads and you get all of that brand uplift.”
“Viewability by the definition of  IAB is fifty percent in view. So fifty percent on screen for two seconds. So this is kind of where the foundation of the problem starts.”
“So it makes it even worse. And then the advertiser really makes the ultimate concession in digital video because they're having very little audio, very little completion and very little remote screen real estate. ”
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#168: Using AI to streamline your Mobile marketing operations with Fouad Saeidi, CEO at App Growth Network

Today people find use for Generative AI tech for so many things - entertainment, science, art and, of course, work. For the first time this tech can actually find applications for people's daily lives, it's easy to use, for the most part, it's free. Yet. Just like any new tech, of course there is a flip side - Generative AI tools like ChatGPT used by hundreds of millions do threat many jobs to go extinct.
But today we want to talk about how Generative AI and AI in general can help to make life of a mobile marketer easier and we have Found Said, CEO of App Gardens to cover for us a few major components of mobile marketers' workflow that can be streamlined by AI.
Today’s Topics Include:
Fouad Saeidi's background
What is App Guardians today
Fouad's take on ChatGPT
How AI can help with mobile ad campaign personalization
The use of AI to analyze app installs and post-install events
The role of AI in combating mobile ad fraud
How AI can help to improve mobile ad campaign performance
Can AI be instrumental in dealing with ad campaign reporting?
Links and Resources:
Fouad Saeidi on LinkedIn
App Guardians company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Fouad Saeidi:
"Leverage AI for your future refined adjacent creation"
"There will always be demand for insights and expertise; the right AI usage can just enhance our productivity"
"UA Campaigns are all about validating the who/what/when with proven hypotheses, The right Ai usage can accelerate us."
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#167: Monetization tool stack best practices, Alex Kudelka, Co-Founder & CRO at Glassfy

Morning. You wake up, go to the gym (hopefully), take a shower and sit at your desk to continue to push the envelope of your app business.
You maybe at the very beginning of your app project journey or not - regardless, the notion of monetization is on your mind. Am I using the right tools? Am I missing something? Do I see the accurate picture of what’s going on?
In this episode, Alex is here to share monetization tool stack best practices.
Today’s Topics Include:
Alex Kudelka's background
Glassfy brief intro
Monetization tool stack definition
How to build monetization tool stack
What tools to include into the stack
What mistakes are made when it comes to building the stack
What Alex would like to change about tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Alex’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Alex miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Alex Kudelka on LinkedIn
Glassfy company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Alex Kudelka:
“If you are in that first stage of looking to monetize, the very first decision you need to make is - I need a tool that that will to build app revenue. "
“If you are a solo developer or if you are a new app within a larger company, essential question you should be asking yourself is this a core competence in our team? Is somebody in our team an app revenue expert?"
"If it's not your core competence, chances are you aren't gonna build something as good as a tool that is specifically meant for that problem."
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#166: State of playable ad formats and creatives with Greg Castro, VP, Global Partnerships at Mobvista

We carry this small rectangular computer in our pocket or a purse. One moment we complain about how we would like to use it less and wonder how the world span before the smartphone, the next - we’re relieved that it is in hand, pun intended, to help us figure out so many things.
We have a bunch of apps on it and sure thing - we see a bunch of ads in those apps or mobile websites. And you know what? Some of those ads don’t quite look like ads, these peculiar species are playable ads and today Greg will help us to understand them better.
Today’s Topics Include:
Greg Castro's background
What is Mobvista today
The landscape of digital ad formats
What is playable ad format
The role of Generative AI in creating playable ads
Playable ads usage best practices, common mistakes
What Greg would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Greg’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Greg miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Greg Castro on LinkedIn
Mobvista company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Greg Castro:
“In the ever-evolving world of mobile in-app advertising understanding the role and effectiveness of various ad formats is really key. With banner ads, while they are one of the oldest formats their obtrusive nature still makes them suitable for certain campaigns."
“Videos ads have become an ideal medium for storytelling and building engagement across various types of apps, both gaming and non-gaming."
"Playable ads are perhaps the epitome of interactive advertising. They are especially prominent in the gaming industry. This try-before-you-buy model really offers potential users a taste of the actual product. "
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#165: The psychology of app user acquisition with Joe Schaeppi, CEO & Co-Founder at Solsten

App User Acquisition. Gosh, this topic has been covered so heavily precisely because only via acquiring new users for the app does it becomes possible to build a sustainable app business.
Fine.
So we’re talking about acquiring new users, and new people to use the app, right? But what happens when app marketers dive deep into their app marketing strategy, their investors’ expectations, and a ton of possible issues that may show up on the way to success? Right - they begin to think about people who will be using their app as numbers.
To be honest, it’s hard to blame them for doing that, it’s how our brain works - when it comes to planning it should be a rational cold mind to analyze the data. It is not prone to think about users who will be using the app as people, they become numbers.
But this is not to say that we shouldn’t resist this swap of notions and Joe will tell us today what exactly you should do.
Today’s Topics Include:
Joe Schaeppi's background
What is Solsten
The role of psychology in app user acquisition
How to build an app user profile using psychology
The Impact of psychology on ad creative creation
How psychology can help with a mobile app user churn
Takeaways
What Joe would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Joe’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Joe miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Joe Schaeppi on LinkedIn
Solsten company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Joe Schaeppi:
“One of the things we noticed that changed in the app industry after IDFA deprecation is we saw a big shift in our customer base. We saw pure UA folks getting replaced with agency people, people that came more from creative backgrounds."
“I looked at the audience, I looked at the highest LTV group there and then I looked at their highest-scoring trades. A lot of times when we design the psychology we want to think of the things that really stand out of our audience. So in this case, the specific group was off-the-charts in altruism."
"One day in the distant future marketing will be a gentle tap on the shoulder from a very good friend"
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#164: Fixing bad mobile ads with Jimmy Morrow, Director of Product Marketing at Moloco

Okay, let’s start with the obvious - nothing is perfect. By the time you get to your 40s, hopefully, sooner, you realize that as much as you try to do your best there is always a margin for error. But that is not to say that you shouldn’t try.
Speaking of something you should try harder - mobile ads. To me, it feels like nobody is even trying to make them good. How so? What are we doing about it? This is exactly what we’re going to tackle with Jimmy on this episode.
Today’s Topics Include:
Jimmy Marrow's background
What is Moloco
Why do we see SO MANY bad ads?
Digital ads' recent history
The story of ad click attribution
What's up with Click Arms Race?
What does Moloco have to offer to solve it?
What app marketers can do about bad ads
Android or iOS?
Jimmy’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jimmy miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Jimmy Morrow on LinkedIn
Moloco company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Jimmy Morrow:
“If you think about it, arguably it [digital advertising] is one of the most successful businesses for the past 30 years."
“Back in the day, it was pretty simple - advertisers had a good sense of their ROI in marketing and it made digital advertising an extremely lucrative business."
" From 2017, the pre-ATT era, to 2020 I would call it a kind of fat-thumb era, where is essentially like networks and other platforms started to introduce the idea - how can I get more credit in the ecosystem.
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#163: The challenges of a mobile game player support with Eric Vermillion, CEO of Helpshift

We all like it when things go smoothly and prefer it to stay that way but the Universe is messy so people’s experience with mobile apps and mobile games can be too.
As much as app developers do their best to deliver the best experience to the users, they are just human beings, even if the code is perfect - which is extremely rarely the case if ever, there are maybe issues with how people interact with the app.
The solution? A support system that will help you to resolve all those issues for your mobile game users. Today, Eric will tell us about the challenges of mobile game player support.
Today’s Topics Include:
Eric Vermillion's background
What is Helpshift
The challenges and requirements of mobile game support
What it takes to provide support for non-mobile game platforms
The role of Generative AI in a video game player support
Can Generative AI impact programmatic ad campaigns' costs
Generative AI impact on jobs in the programmatic ad sector
AR and VR games player support
What Eric would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Android or iOS?
Eric’s first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Eric miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Eric Vermillion on LinkedIn
Helpshift company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Eric Vermillion:
“I find mobile games incredibly interesting because having a nice chunk of my career working in a broader cross-vertical support environment where I've done banks, insurance companies, some legacy brands and sort of have this preconceived notion of how the support is delivered - you put a bunch of people in the building and you call them, you send out physical mail and that sort of stuff. Gaming moves faster than that!"
“For consoles, you aren't in the game, you aren't in the environment and so you have to depart and go engage and support in a different way."
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#162: Generative AI in mobile ad campaigns with Levi Matkins, CEO of LifeStreet

ChatGPT from OpenAI, Bard from Google, Llama from Meta, and a decent number of smaller players are firing on all cylinders to power the Generative AI revolution that took off late last year.
Of course, for folks who had been watching the AI space, it was not a surprise but for the rest of us - it was. Generative AI based on Large Language Models is changing the business landscape. Today, we want to talk about its impact on mobile ad campaigns.
Today’s Topics Include:
Levi Matkins's background
Levi's take on ChatGPT
The impact of ChatGPT on mobile ad creatives production
Generative AI impact on programmatic bidding
The impact of Generative AI on mobile ad campaigns analytics
Can Generative AI impact programmatic ad campaigns' costs
Generative AI impact on jobs in the programmatic ad sector
What Levi would like to change about the programmatic tech sector the most
Links and Resources:
Levi Matkins on LinkedIn
LifeStreet company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Levi Matkins:
“As things stand today, I think it's in most cases it (Generative AI) is a very helpful tool for a design team to use both for ideation and production."
“We've been using deep neural nets for quite a few years at this point."
"This is an area (AI programmatic ad analytics) where we have done some investigations and thus far the insights we're able to see are not reliable enough today."
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#161: Building apps for a billion users with Rajesh Janakiraman, Engineering Manager at Gmail Android at Google

One of the things that set mobile apps apart from desktop software is the scale. Since 2008, when the mobile app stores were launched, and on, scale has been a crucial ingredient for any iOS or Android app project success.
For both Apple’s and Google’s app ecosystems to grow mobile apps had to be affordable for lots of people. But for app developers and brands to make app enterprises profitable, they had to acquire a large number of users.
And there is more - in some cases when we talk about a free app from one of the most influential companies on the planet - Gmail app, we’re talking about roughly 1.8 billion users. This scale implies some unique challenges we’re going to be discussing with Rajesh today.
Today’s Topics Include:
Rajesh Janakiraman's background
Definition of app onboarding
Challenges of building an app for billions of users - development and management-wise
Rajesh's Thoughts on Generative AI in Gmail
Toughest projects in Rajesh's career
What Rajesh would like to change about tech the most
Android or iOS?
Rajesh's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Rajesh miss most?
What features v would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Rajesh Janakiraman on LinkedIn
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Rajesh Janakiraman:
“Having a product [Gmail] maintained that reputation for so long is a very difficult thing to do"
“It's such a massive set of users that you see this whole spectrum of how they use the product."
"Just from your device perspective, you see the latest $1,500 Samsung device running the latest version of Android with hundreds of Gb of storage, so it's not gonna matter how much space you take up of their phone, with multiple processors so it's gonna matter how efficient your app is, all the way to the $10 no-name smartphone."
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A message from App Promotion Summit
Discounted ticket prices are currently available on all of our 2024 summits
https://apppromotionsummit.com/
 
London - 25 Apr 2024
NYC - 27 Jun 2024
San Francisco - 26 Sep 2024
Berlin - 5 Dec 2024
 

#160: App onboarding: solving the endless choice problem with Chris Dalla Riva, Senior Product Manager at Audiomack

Frictions. “The resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another” - this is the dictionary definition of what friction means in science. When you ask a mobile app developer “What do frictions mean to you?”, the answer is “any obstacle that prevents my app users from doing with the app what I expect them to”.
This notion sounds great but as with everything in our life, moderation is the key and today, Chris will give you an example of that.
Today’s Topics Include:
Chris Riva's background
Audiomack brief bio
Definition of app onboarding
Onboarding for the Audiomack app
Bad friction versus good friction
Takeaways
What Chris would like to change about tech the most
Android or iOS?
Chris's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Chris miss most?
What features Chris would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Chris Dalla Riva on LinkedIn
Audiomack app's website
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Chris Dalla Riva:
“One thing we noticed is that this notion of what follower means on social media or on various music apps - it doesn't always mean you can reach your followers."
“Our process is evolved pretty dramatically over the last four years. When I started the Audiomack the onboarding process was a novel onboarding process, the idea was to let the person in the app, start listening to the music, they're gonna stick, they gonna eventually create an account, start saving music."
"We just look at each step of the onboarding to see where the people stumbling, are there ways that we can improve those pages."
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A message from App Promotion Summit
Discounted ticket prices are currently available on all of our 2024 summits
https://apppromotionsummit.com/
 
London - 25 Apr 2024
NYC - 27 Jun 2024
San Francisco - 26 Sep 2024
Berlin - 5 Dec 2024