The mobiThinking guide to mobile advertising networks 2010: Blind Networks

This guide profiles 15 of the most important mobile ad networks. This section looks at four leading blind networks.

SECTION 1: BLIND NETWORKS

Blind networks in a nutshell:

  • Usually the largest in terms of publishers, advertisers and impressions. They serve a high volume of advertising to an extensive base of mostly independent mobile publishers (mobile sites and applications), supplemented by premium publishers’ unfilled inventory.
  • Advertisers can not (usually) choose specific mobile sites.
  • Plenty of options for targeting such as by country and content channels (news, sports etc).
  • Performance advertising is the norm, paid for by cost per click (CPC) – this is for marketers who want an active response to their ads such as clicking through a banner to the advertiser’s site, click to download/call etc. The CPC varies with supply and demand, determined through a self-service auction system.
  • The cheapest option is run of network (RON) adverts (i.e. no targeting), which in some countries may start at US$0.01 CPC.
  • Some blind networks also offer brand advertising, on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model – i.e. you pay X for every 1,000 devices that visit/download the page – this is for marketers that want exposure, maybe to create awareness of a new product.
  • Advertisers should expect a wealth of self-service tools that help you track and optimize your campaign in real time.
  • Publishers receive a revenue share, perhaps 55-65 percent of what the advertiser pays.



  • Mobile advertising network: Admoda; Adultmoda
    Type of network: Blind
    Established: 2006
    HQ: London
    Employees: Nine permanent staff, plus contractors, global resellers and affiliates.
    Thanks to: Terry Jackson, chief executive officer, Admoda
    Notes: Parent company MobVision runs two mobile ad networks a) Admoda targeted at family-friendly advertisers and publishers and b) Adultmoda advertisers and publishers that focus their services on those over the age of 18. The two networks are kept completely separate for brand protection purposes.
    Last updated: December 2009

    Q1. Annual revenue/turnover: N/A (Admoda and Adultmoda are privately funded and have been in profit for 3 years).
    Q2. Publishers on network: Over 2,000. Admoda/Adultmoda turn down 70 percent of sites that apply to join the network. The aim is to have the best quality publisher network possible. Publishers on Admoda include: Hi5, Vodafone, AdMarvel, eBuddy, Peperonity. Publishers on Adultmoda include: YouPorn, Peperonity, Fling, SexGoesMobile, WAAT.
    Q3. Advertisers on network: N/A. Advertisers on Admoda include: Gameloft, Buongiorno, Dada, Zed, Fox, MTV, Adidas. Advertisers on Adultmoda include: Private, Brazzers, Reality Kings, iPorn, mConnect.
    Q4. Mobile ads served or page impressions: 2.1 billion mobile ads served per month.
    Q5. Unique mobile users that see ads: N/A
    Q6. Geographical coverage: Top 10 countries (in order) for Admoda: South Africa, Italy, USA, UK, India, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Kenya, France. Top 10 countries (in order) for Adultmoda: USA, South Africa, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Norway.
    Q7. Specialism by publisher or demographic: Admoda specializes in quality non-adult sites with a focus on mobile ready brands, mobile entertainment, and mobile content. Adultmoda specializes in publishers with sites aimed at over 18s.
    Q8. Options for targeting adverts: Targeting is available by channel, country, carrier, device, platform (e.g. iPhone, Palm, Blackberry, Android), device capabilities (e.g. video streaming, video download).
    Q9. Tools to help advertisers optimize/track campaign: Admoda/Adultmoda gives advertisers tips and tricks on how to get more traffic and optimize CTR; and provides straightforward clear metrics, minimum and average rates, country inventory etc through the client communication tools.
    Q10. What proportion of your business is a) blind and b) premium advertising? The majority of business is blind, however for premium advertisers can choose to have ads placed on particular sites, and premium publishers can choose particular advertisers.
    Q11. Pricing models: 95 percent CPC (this is subject to change).
    Q12. Cost range for advertiser: This varies widely depending on the targeting options chosen.
    Q13. Estimated ROI for advertiser: The CTR is 0.8 percent, but this varies substantially from country to country.
    Q14. Remuneration for publishers: 65 to 85 percent of revenue goes to the publisher.
    Q15. Protection for publishers: Premium publishers can refuse advertisers.
    Q16. Tools for publishers: Publishers can select types of advertising by selecting channels and programming language. Average CTRs, eCPMs and CPCs are provided for each country to help publishers get the highest return from their inventory. Publishers can also drill down to the Top 10 countries showing them where they should focus to make the most money.
    Q17. Key differentiation: a) 90 percent of Admoda/Adultmoda clients rebook. b) Higher publisher payouts – up to 85 percent – than most networks to attract high quality publishers. c) Substantial reach with a global network of mobile websites and applications. d) Admoda specializes on mobile-ready brands, and the mobile content/entertainment market. e) Adultmoda is the largest adult mobile ad network in the world.
    Q18. Contact details: info(at)admoda.com; +44 8707 661 992




    Mobile advertising network: AdMob
    Type of network: Blind
    Established: 2006
    HQ: San Mateo, CA, USA
    Other offices: UK, Japan, Singapore, South Africa.
    Employees: 120
    Thanks to:Andy Smith, sales director of Europe, AdMob
    Last updated: December 2009

    Q1. Annual revenue/turnover: N/A
    Q2. Publishers on network: 9,000 Mobile Web sites and 3,000 applications; these include CBS News, AOL, Whitepages, Accuweather, TV Guide, EA Mobile, Fox Sport, MocoSpace and TinyTube.
    Q3. Advertisers on network: Total advertisers N/A. Advertisers include: Adidas, Diet Coke, P&G, Toshiba, MTV, Disney, Gap, Best Buy, American Express, RIM, Toyota and Jaguar.
    Q4. Mobile ads served or page impressions: AdMob serves more than 10 billion impressions per month, which represent 32,000 different ads per month and 9,400 ads per day.
    Q5. Unique mobile users that see ads:N/A
    Q6. Geographical coverage:USA (49 percent), India (5.9 percent), UK (4.1 percent), Indonesia (3.9 percent), Canada (2.4 percent), others (34.7 percent) defined by ad requests (October 2009).
    Q7. Specialism by publisher or demographic: All publishers except: sexual material, violence, alcohol, hateful speech, drugs, gambling, tobacco or weapons.
    Q8. Options for targeting adverts: Country, carrier (in some countries), phone manufacturer, platform, model or capability (e.g. video streaming).
    Q9. Tools to help advertisers optimize/track campaign: Real-time reporting shows performance of overall ad campaign or ad performance. Ad Stats tool helps manage costs and monitor click-through-rates, impressions served, number of clicks and CPC.
    Q10. Pricing models: CPM for brand ads. CPC for performance ads, calculated through an auction-based pricing system in the AdMob Marketplace.
    Q11. Cost range for advertiser: The cost varies with targeting and geography. The auction system calculates a CPC bid price that could start at US$0.01$; the maximum bid price is determined by the advertisers bid. CPM prices fluctuate according with geography and availability of inventory.
    Q12. Estimated return on investment (ROI) for advertiser: N/A.
    Q13. Remuneration for publishers: Revenue shares vary according to size of the publisher.
    Q14. Protection for publishers: The ad moderation process, involving man and machine, ensures content guidelines (see Q7) are met. Publishers can filter ads to block certain categories or URLs (e.g. a competitor). Publishers can elect to turn-off the default family-friendly filter.
    Q15. Key differentiation: iPhone ad Units; Download tracking; AdMob Analytics; iPhone app exchange; Metrics reports
    Q16. Contact details: admob.com/home/contact




    Mobile advertising network: BuzzCity
    Type of network: Blind
    Established: Network 2006; company 1999.
    HQ: Singapore
    Other offices: Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Paris, France; Johannesburg, South Africa; San Francisco, USA
    Employees: 56
    Thanks to:KF Lai, CEO, BuzzCity
    Last updated: September 2009

    Q1. Annual revenue/turnover: N/A (operating at break-even while investing in network and media properties)
    Q2. Publishers on network: 2,000 publishers; predominantly independent and mobile-focused, from mobile social networking to ad-supported download sites. BuzzCity manages media traffic for Peperonity, Friendster and eBuddy. Branded media sites use BuzzCity to fill unsold inventory.
    Q3. Advertisers on network: More than 200 regular advertisers; 70 percent are mobile companies, but the number of carriers and brands is increasing. Advertisers include MTN (South Africa carrier) and Celcom (Malaysian carrier), Air Asia, Sri Lankan Airlines, Toyota, Renault.
    Q4. Mobile ads served or page impressions: BuzzCity delivers 3 billion ads per month.
    Q5. Unique mobile users that see ads:N/A
    Q6. Geographical coverage:200 countries in total: South Africa (34 percent), Indonesia (32 percent), India (8 percent), UK (5 percent), USA (5 percent), Other (16 percent).
    Q7. Specialism by publisher or demographic: All publishers, though majority are mobile-only services.
    Q8. Options for targeting adverts: Specific content channels, countries, devices, mobile platforms and other features e.g. phone make, models, flash or MP3 capability.
    Q9. Tools to help advertisers optimize/track campaign: a) Campaign planner shows trends in markets, demographics of mobile Web users and handsets; b) The ad server highlights banners with a high CTR and allows ‘on-the-fly’ changes to targeting sets; c) BuzzCity is also beta testing a conversion tracker which shows which campaigns yield better ROIs.
    Q10. Pricing models: CPC predominantly; determined by bids in the auction-based self-service market place.
    Q11. Cost range for advertiser: For untargeted campaigns: average CPC across network is US$0.03; average CPC in South Africa - US$0.20; Australia - US$0.11; United Kingdom - US$0.09.
    Q12. Estimated ROI for advertiser: As a guideline, the cost of acquisition for member recruitment campaigns for myGamma (BuzzCity owned social network) is US$0.50/subscriber in South Africa, US$0.25 in United Kingdom and US$1.80 in the United States.
    Q13. Remuneration for publishers: Publishers get 65 percent of placement. Top publishers deliver approximately 60 million ad impressions a day earning approximately US$7,000 per day.
    Q14. Powers/protection for publishers: Publishers choose which pages to place ads on; graphical or text banners; and set a minimum preferred bid.
    Q15. Key differentiation: Operating myGamma gives BuzzCity subtle insights into consumer behavior and demographics, shared though regular user reports.
    Q16. Contact details: buzzcity.com/f/contactus




    Mobile advertising network: InMobi (formally mKhoj)
    Type of network: Blind
    Established: 2007
    HQ: Bangalore, India
    Overseas offices: Mumbai, India; Palo Alto (CA), USA; Singapore.
    Employees: Over 70.
    Thanks to: Amit Gupta, founder and head of business development, InMobi.
    Last updated: December 2009

    Q1. Annual revenue/turnover: N/A
    Q2. Publishers on network: Over 750, including, Vuclip, hi5, Friendster
    Peperonity and GetJar.
    Q3. Advertisers on network: Over 150, including Reebok, Honda Motors, Yamaha, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson.
    Q4. Mobile ads served or page impressions: 4 billion ads served in August 2009.
    Q5. Unique mobile users that see ads: N/A
    Q6. Geographical coverage: Asia (top countries in order: Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines) 55 percent of business; Africa (top countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt) 18 percent; Europe (UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Nordic and Scandinavian) 14 percent; Americas 9 percent; Australia 4 percent.
    Q7. Specialism by publisher or demographic: All publishers, including social networks, portals, news, sports, and download sites.
    Q8. Options for targeting adverts: Country (33 in total), operator, and handset manufacturer, model, operating system, features.
    Q9. Tools to help advertisers optimize/track campaign: Targeting tools help advertisers to optimize campaigns; real-time reporting helps to tweak campaigns on the fly; call-to-action features help create engaging campaigns. Ad spend can be controlled by setting daily budget limits or setting a time slot for the ads to run.
    Q10. Pricing models: CPC and CPM are both available, but the vast majority is CPC. As with most blind networks, CPCs are set in a self-service market place by supply and demand, but unusually prices can be defined to 1/10th of a cent, rather than to the nearest cent.
    Q11. Cost range for advertiser: This varies between countries.
    Q12. Estimated ROI for advertiser: N/A
    Q13. Remuneration for publishers: InMobi shares 60 percent of revenue shared with publishers.
    Q14. Protection for publishers: Publishers choose between banners or text and can block ads from competitors or with specific keywords (e.g. hot) and can review all ads currently targeted for their mobile sites in the Ads Preview Panel and adjust filter rules to remove unwanted ads / advertisers / URLs, etc.
    Q15. Key differentiation: As a global mobile ad network that has grown from an emerging market, InMobi combines a great insight into emerging markets and regional presence with the scale of inventory and range of advertisers of a global player.
    Q16. Contact details: InMobi.com; info(at)inmobi.com


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