Business of Apps Podcast

#172: “RIP Fingerprinting in 2024: How should advertisers prepare?” live event with Branch, InMobi, and MobileGroove

This week we have another special episode for you, featuring our recent live event with Brach, InMobi and MobileGroove.
There are only two months left in 2023 and the most dramatic mobile attribution shift is about to happen - when Apple’s Privacy Manifests and Google’s Android Privacy Sandbox will be coming to life in 2024. For many mobile advertisers it is still uncharted territory and so we've summoned up experts from the leading mobile marketing and attribution platforms to share a strategy to tackle this looming challenge.
It was hosted by Peggy Anne Salze of MobileGroove and the guests were: Adam Landis, of Branch, Sergio Serra of InMobi DSP.
Links and Resources:
Adam Landis on LinkedIn
Branch company
Sergio Serra on Linkedin
InMobi DSP company
Peggy Anne Salz on Linkedin
MobileGroove company
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#171: 2023 Mobile UA and Monetization landscape with Renz Gonzales, Head of Biz Dev at PropellerAds

October of 2023 is almost over, Halloween is just a week away, Thanksgiving and Black Friday are coming - in other words we are closing this year. So we decided to take a look at what mobile user acquisition and monetization techniques worked this year.
Head of Biz Dev at PropellerAds, Renz is here to give us a tour.
Listeners can use the promo code BOAPROP to get  a $35 bonus* with $150 (or more) deposit for PropellerAds new clients.
 
*not available for wire transfers
Today’s Topics Include:
Renz Gonzales''s background
What is  PropellerAds today
2023 Best-performing ad formats and channels
UA campaign efficiency improvement
Improving app monetization
The role of Generative AI in UA and app monetization
Takeaways
Android or iOS?
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Renz miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Renz Gonzales on LinkedIn
Renz Gonzales email
PropellerAds company
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Renz Gonzales:
"Many advertisers utilized the power of social media and that definitely paved the way into different types of marketing, influencer marketing is really-really trending. I would say for 2023 in thus far - it's been TikTok, Instagram, Facebook - all of the social media have been used fully for their advantage."
"With app monetization it really has to do with the balance of user experience. We don't really want to have a lot of ads bombarding the users with different types of  ads units."
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#170: ”User Acquisition for Subscription Apps:” App Promotion Summit San Francisco panel

This week we have a bonus episode for you. During this September’s App Promotion Summit San Francisco we had a great panel we want to share with you.
It was hosted by Carolyn Bao of AppsFlyer and the guests were: Annie Wang, Senior User Acquisition Manager at Picsart, Nick Candler, Consultant and Advisor and Zamir Wassermiller, User Acquisition at TextNow.
Links and Resources:
Carolyn Bao on LinkedIn
AppsFlyer company
Nick Candler on Linkedin
Annie Wang on Linkedin
Picsart company
Zamir Wassermiller on Linkedin
Textnow company
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#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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