Glossary

A/B testing

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing or Split testing is a controlled and randomized experiment between multiple versions of a variable. Here "A" refers to "control" and "B" refers to a variation or new version of the original variable.  Developers conduct A/B testing between multiple versions to identify the more effective one. They split the regular app users into a Control Group and a Test Group. The control team tests the original version, whereas the test team carries out the experimentation on a new or different version. 

 

A/B testing enables experienced optimizers to incorporate data-driven decisions through these easy steps: 1) research, 2) observe and formulate a hypothesis, 3) create variations, 4) run tests, 5) analyze results and 6) deploy changes.

 

 

App developers can understand the impact of any modification through A/B testing. It also allows app developers to continuously add new features and test them to understand their effectiveness.

 

What are the benefits of A/B testing?

  • Solve users’ pain points
  • Manage to get better ROI from the existing user base
  • Decrease bounce rate
  • Perform low-risk modifications
  • Achieve statistically significant improvements

Redesign app to increase future business gains

Ad Exchange

What is an Ad Exchange?

An ad exchange is an online platform that facilitates advertisers and publishers to programmatically buy and sell advertising inventory (the space available within an app or online resource) from various ad networks or other advertising demand sources.

 

How does it work?

Ad exchanges are used to plug into publisher-facing supply-side platform (SSPs) and advertiser-facing demand-side platforms (DSPs) to enable a large group of publishers and advertisers to exchange ads and inventories.

 

For example, in ad exchanges, publishers can post the minimum accepted price for an impression (“floor price”) in real-time bidding (RTB) auction, and the advertisers can set the highest price to pay for the same impression. Hence, it makes the transaction automatic, instantaneous, and optimal for both parties.

 

As programmatic gains prevalence, the lines between some of these entities are blurring. The fact remains that both SSPs and ad exchanges post ad inventory for sale. Also, some platforms provide more than one of these services at once, so there are some redundancies in the ad tech world. Moving forward, we can expect these different platforms to shift and blend, allowing for the most efficient and streamlined programmatic ad buying process possible.

Ad Mediation

What is Ad Mediation?

This is a platform that works as an ad network optimizer for app developers to connect multiple ad networks to their apps and increase their ad revenue by running an auction.

 

How does Ad Mediation work?

Ad mediation is an automated monetization solution. It helps publishers manage multiple ad networks through a single SDK. When an app triggers an ad request, it finds the ad source with the highest price for that impression. The objective here is usually to maximize revenue for publishers.

Ad Monetization

It is a process through which the publisher can earn revenue from advertisers by allowing ads to run on their website or within their app.

Ad Network

An ad network helps to connect advertisers to publishers by providing ad space. Mobile app publishers use ad networks to notify advertisers and other related demand partners about their ad space so that the advertisers can bid on the inventory (ad space)  to render their ads.

Ad Request

An ad request occurs when a mobile browser or app make the call for an ad from the ad server. 

 

An ad request is a single request that comes from the publisher’s app/site. The single request is passed on to multiple bidders and becomes a bid request. Bid requests will always be a higher number than ad requests.

Ad Revenue Attribution

What is ad revenue attribution?

Ad revenue attribution is measured by the profitability of user in-app actions like clicking on an ad or installing the app advertised. 

 

What are the benefits of it?

It helps app developers understand their user base and calculate the lifetime value (LTV) of users. It also assists them in optimizing their ads for users with the highest potential LTV.

Ad Server

A server that enables a publisher to render ads within their mobile apps.

Ad Unit

Sometimes called ad formats, an ad unit is a type of ad that app developers integrate into their apps and display to users in order to monetize their traffic. Some of the most common types of ad units include banners, interstitials, rewarded video and playable ads. 

Advanced Bidding or Header Bidding

Advanced bidding or header bidding (also known as pre-bidding) is an advanced programmatic technique where publishers offer inventory to multiple ad exchanges simultaneously before making calls to their ad servers. It is an alternative to the waterfall method. 

Android

It is the world's most popular and widely used mobile operating system, originally developed by Google for smartphones and tablets. It is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software.

Android Studio

Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Google’s Android operating system, built on JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android app development. It is available for download on Windows, macOS and Linux-based operating systems.

App

App stands for application. Here it means mobile application.

app-ad.txt

It is one of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) initiatives to help prevent fraud and increase transparency in the programmatic in-app advertising ecosystem. App-ads.txt is a text file that app publishers host on their server listing authorized sellers of their inventory.

App Churn Rate

It is the percentage (%) of users who uninstall or stop using an app over time. It can be interchangeably used with abandonment rate, which can typically be measured at 30 days, 7 days, and one day after users first install the app.

App Store Analytics

App store analytics is a dashboard of compiled user behavior data and metrics. It helps app developers make decisions relating to retention, engagement, and so on.

App Store Optimization

App store optimization (ASO) refers to the tactics that a mobile app use to achieve a higher rank in the App Store or Google Play Store. It is a Search Engine Optimization or SEO-like tactic to help publishers in attracting more users. Many factors determine your app's ranking in the App Store or Play Store, such as app name, keywords, descriptions, visual assets, and so on.

App Store URL

It is a link that redirects the user to a specific app page in the App Store. The iOS application’s store ID number can be found in the iTunes store URL as the string of numbers directly after “id.” For Example, in the URL https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/urbanspoon/id284708449 the ID is: 284708449.

ARPDAU

ARPDAU stands for Average Revenue Per Daily Active User.

ARPDAU is the total revenue earned in a given day (24-hour period) divided by the total active users for that same day. For most apps, total revenue will be the sum of the revenue from ads, in-app purchases (IAP), and/or subscriptions.

 

 

ARPDAU is an essential indicator for app developers. It is a popular and easy way to understand the success of any mobile app's revenue generation and monetization strategies. For example, if there is a new user and ARPDAU displays a steady growth after onboarding, it means the new users are doing great and that the strategies used in the monetization process are effective. If there is a drop in ARPDAU whenever there is a new wave, there is an absolute need to rethink the monetization strategy. In a nutshell, ARPDAU helps in analyzing how the promotions impact revenue.

 

How do you calculate ARPDAU?

You must calculate ARPDAU from your app or game in a given 24-hour period/number of active users that day.

ARPU

ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per User. ARPU is calculated by dividing total revenue by total users during a certain period. 

ARPPU

Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) is the total revenue divided by the total number of paying users (those who spent money either by paying to download the app or through in-app spending).

ARPEU

Average Revenue Per Engaged User. The calculation is derived by Publisher Revenue divided by Engaged Users.

ATT

ATT stands for AppTrackingTransparency. It is a framework that Apple introduced as its IDFA opt-in mechanism with iOS 14.5. It governs how your app collects data from end users and shares it with a third party. It sends an app-tracking authorization request to the end users to seek consent before sharing data with a third party.

 

For detailed information please visit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apptrackingtransparency

Attempts

Attempts refers to the number of times the server made an ad attempt to an ad demand source (network, marketplace, DSP) for a given ad request. For example, an ad unit’s waterfall may have three networks. An app makes an ad request and Network 1 is ‘attempted’ for an ad, but they have no ad to serve. Network 2 is attempted for an ad and is able to fill the request. In this scenario, there was one ad request, two network attempts and one impression.

Attribution

What is attribution?

Attribution lets us know how to match two or more data points, such as attributing ad spend to installation based on specific variables. Attribution helps advertisers determine the effectiveness of various activities (like ad campaigns) undertaken to achieve a specific goal.

 

Attribution is used to help advertisers determine if a specific action (like an ad) directly to indirectly led to the desired result.

 

Why is it important?

Attribution helps determine the success rate of advertising campaigns. Without this, it would be complicated to understand the ROI of an ad. Furthermore, it helps advertisers optimize all kinds of ad campaigns, from tracking user events to understanding user behavior during the paid activity. 

Auto CPM

Auto CPM automates the task of updating network CPMs in the ad mediation waterfall to accurately reflect the CPM that your demand sources are paying for your ad inventory.

Average Session Duration

The average amount of time spent by users in a given app.

Banner Ads

Banner ads are traditional graphic display ads. They are simple, rectangular, and usually displayed at the top or bottom of the app. In some cases, you can see banner ads in the middle of the app.

 

What are the benefits of using banner ads?

 

- Helps to generate brand awareness with minimal graphical elements

- Doesn't interrupt the user but successfully sends the message to the user

- Easily visible to the users

- Static or animated

- Cost-effective, quick and simple

Bid Request

The call sent from the real-time bidding exchange to the DSP, providing information about the platform, time of impression and the keys to the user data.

Bid Response

A DSP’s response to a bid request sent back to the ad exchange, which includes the bidder’s price and creative ID.

Bidder Seat

A DSP uses a bidder seat on an ad exchange to participate in the real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace. Similar to seats on equities exchanges, bidder seats signify a direct relationship between advertisers and the ad exchange; a single seat can represent multiple media buyers. A bid response to a bid request in an auction contains the buyer’s Seat ID, along with other essential bidding information.

Bot farm

A set of user IDs that have been specifically excluded from a campaign, typically because the user does not meet the targeting condition. Bot farms often consist of hijacked, compromised and/or fraudulent devices, wherein these devices are programmed to maliciously “click” on or view ads in an effort to defraud advertisers. A blocklist is commonly used to exclude non-existent users from user acquisition campaigns.

Bundle ID

A bundle identifier uniquely identifies an application in the apps ecosystem. This data is important and is used by DSPs to validate the authenticity of an app.

Casual Games

Casual Games are fundamental games with mass-market appeal. It doesn't need a solid strategy or significant time investment to play. It has simpler game mechanics, which make it very easy to play and attractive among the masses.

CAC

What is CAC?

CAC stands for Customer Acquisition Cost. It is a business metric that denotes the cost of winning a customer over a specified time.

 

Why is it important?

Behind every advertising campaign, the advertiser intends to convert a viewer into a customer, thus growing the customer base. It becomes crucial for advertisers and app developers to understand the worth of each customer and prepare the product roadmap accordingly, to bring in the right end product for the customers. An advertiser makes profit upon a customer conversion when the CAC is less than the LTV (Lifetime value).

Cache

Process of pre-loading and storing ads in order to have them ready to display to a user at a future time, usually within a single app session.

Campaign optimization

Campaign optimization is the process of improving on and refining your marketing campaign to augment the impact of your advertisement(s). Looking at factors such as past performance and modeling future outcomes, you can better determine how to optimize your campaigns in terms of spend, creatives, etc. For example, if you understand that certain keywords or creatives receive a higher click-through rate, then you can understand how to optimize those elements of your campaign.

Charles proxy

Charles Proxy is an HTTP/HTTPS traffic viewer you can use to view the traffic between your device and the Internet. Because SDKs typically use HTTP/HTTPS to request and receive ads, you can use Charles for debugging and to test apps’ ad requests, responses and creative-level information.

CocoaPods

CocoaPods is a dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C Cocoa projects. CocoaPods can help you scale your projects: via http://cocoapods.org

 

Essentially, it helps you incorporate third-party libraries and frameworks into your product without worrying about how to set them up and configure your project

COPPA

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a U.S. law created to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13. The Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998 and took effect in April 2000. COPPA is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Conversion Rate

The percent of app users who saw an ad and took a designated action (such as clicking on an ad or watching a video to completion).

Cohort Analysis

What is Cohort Analysis?

Cohort stands for a group of people with shared characteristics such as location, date of in-app purchase, etc. Cohort analysis provides the behavioral analytics and insights on the complete user lifecycle, which can be used to calculate the lifetime value (LTV), return on investment (ROI), and so on.

 

Why is it Important?

App developers can use cohort analysis to scrutinize user engagement over time and eventually determine how successful your user engagement is. You can use the metrics to analyze and make data-driven decisions to improve CAC and other monetization strategies.

Conversion Modeling

What is Conversion Modeling?

With time, the customer journey is now trickier than ever to measure. Users switch between multiple devices or even multiple browsers in the same device before buying anything, making it even more challenging to comprehend user behavior. Conversion modeling provides a way to quantify the success rate of advertising campaigns and customer conversions through technologies like machine learning.

 

Why is it Important?

Conversion modeling is one of the essential keys to measuring marketing campaign performance and its effectiveness.

CVR

Conversion rate, or CVR, is defined as the average number of conversions your ad receives per each interaction, calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the number of total ad interactions in a given time period.

Core loop

The core loop is the main activity a player will engage in, and the structure around which the game is designed. This generally consists of three components: action, reward and progress.

CPA

CPA stands for Cost per Action. It is a marketing metric. It measures the total customer acquisition cost to acquire a single paying customer for your business.

 

Why is it Important?

CPA allows the advertisers to configure a target price for new user acquisition, or any acquisition.

 

How to Calculate CPA?

CPA = advertising costs / actions.

CPC

The cost per click (CPC) is the price paid for one click (usually a click on an ad) in an ad campaign.

CPCV

The cost per completed view (CPCV) measures how much an advertiser spends per individual who watches a video ad from beginning to end.

CPE

The cost per engagement (CPE) measures how much an advertiser spends per individual who interacts with an ad in some way. This can be an engagement such as a click or an interaction with a playable ad.

CPI

What is CPI?

CPI stands for Cost per Install. It is a specific amount that marketers pay to acquire brand new app users/owners. It is considered one of the most well-liked pricing models.

 

Why is it Important?

It is crucial to know that CPI allows app developers to create targeted campaigns where the payment comes when the user installs the app from the advertisement. It is easy to optimize.

 

How Do I Calculate CPI?

It is the advertising budget spent over a specific period divided by the number of installs.

CPM and eCPM

What is CPM?

CPM stands for Cost per Mille. It means cost-per-thousand impressions. It is a fixed price that the advertisers bid per mille (1,000 impressions) from the buyer. 

 

It is the most commonly utilized advertising payment model, and a great metric used by advertisers to measure the cost of the campaign and the amount the publisher gets paid for every 1,000 impressions. It eventually helps to evaluate the effectiveness of displaying ads. CPM increases with the traffic of the mobile app.

 

How to calculate CPM?

CPM = (Cost / impressions) *1000

 

For example, the advertiser budget for a campaign is $20, and the ad receives 2,000 impressions. To calculate CPM, you take ($20/2,000) * 1000 = $10, which means that the advertiser is willing to spend $10 for every thousand impressions.

 

What is eCPM?

eCPM stands for Effective Cost per Mille. It is the average of multiple CPMs. Publishers use it to calculate the revenue generated from a thousand impressions of an ad campaign. It also measures the performance of a publisher’s inventory sold in various channels.

 

How to calculate?

eCPM = (Total ad revenue / total ad impressions)*1,000

 

For example, if an ad campaign generated $100 revenue after receiving 10,000 impressions, the eCPM would be ($100/10,000) * 1000 = $1. It means that the publisher can earn $1 per 1,000 impressions.

CPV

The cost per view measures how much an advertiser spends per individual who watches any portion of a video ad.

Creatives and Ads

What are Creatives?

A creative is the ad served to users on a mobile app. Creatives are generally images, videos, audio and other ad formats that drive user engagement.

 

What are the Benefits of Creatives?

Without creatives, there is no way to build meaningful connections with your customers. Good creatives can bring the explicit difference between a successful game and a game that fails.

 

Creatives help advertisers engage with customers in a personalized and creative way. Companies can build an established brand with the help of creatives to their target audience.

Creative Optimization

Creative optimization for programmatic advertising is the process of incorporating the top performing creatives in campaigns by testing and iterating creatives and ad formats to achieve user acquisition goals.

Cross-promotion

A user acquisition strategy in which publishers use their own in-app ad inventory to promote their other apps.

CTR

CTR is another way of denoting “click-through rate.” Click-through rate refers to the number of clicks your ad gets divided by the number of times your ad is shown. This metric can be helpful for User Acquisition managers looking to determine how well their ads are performing.

Currency

Currency is an in-game fund used by the player to access the title’s economy. Most games will use at least one form of currency to aid in progression (e.g. to upgrade a player character), and many games will use multiple currencies, both “soft” (earned regularly via gameplay) and “hard” (earned predominantly or exclusively with real money via in-app purchases).

Custom Event

Custom events support ad network SDKs for networks not listed as Supported Mediation Partners. 

 

Meson discourages using non-supported network adapters and does not provide testing or technical support for issues arising from their use.

DAU

What is DAU?

DAU stands for Daily Active Users. It denotes the number of users (who downloaded the app or existing users who logged into the app) who initiate sessions in a set 24-hour period.

 

Why is it Important?

It helps to determine the exact number of users who use the app or play the game in a day, and it is an excellent proxy for measuring product stickiness and growth potential. It brings out the number of users who find your app useful enough to use; the faster this number grows, the more likely it is to boost the revenue.

 

It is also very important to know that DAU can be a bit ambiguous at times. There are times when the users' actions aren't as valuable as they intended to be. It is best practice to measure DAU in collaboration with value indicators such as MAU and ADAU, or purchases, content downloads, songs listened to, number of articles read, shares with friends, etc. in a 24-hour period.

Deep Linking

Deep linking is a feature to provide a destination URL within the ad. For example, a gaming publisher can use deep links within a mobile ad to direct users to a game being advertised with a simple click. With this, you can reduce human effort very efficiently and enhance the user experience.

Demand

Different ad sources willing to pay to access given in-app inventory.

Device log

Device logs contain events logged by the SDK, ad server and network adapter. Device logs may contain information about the cause of some errors, along with other key insights about past ad serving events.

Direct deals

Campaigns reflecting deals that are typically closed directly with agencies and advertisers. 

 

They can be trafficked through Meson by creating an order and then a Guaranteed Line Item through the Orders tab.

DNT

Do Not Track: A browser or phone setting that sends a message to advertising networks requesting that they do not track the user. In some instances, this setting simply prevents tracking by limiting the data accessible by the network.

DSP

Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are the companies that advertisers and agencies use to buy ad inventory programmatically. DSPs use data and artificial intelligence to determine which inventory to bid for on behalf of the buyer. DSPs use a bidder seat to bid on impressions in the exchange.

Economy

A game’s (virtual) economy assigns value to in-game items, behaviors and rewards. A well-designed economy is critical and encourages players to engage with every aspect of a game. The in-game economy encourages continued engagement by ascribing clear value to performance and drives player progression with upgrades to capabilities.

Exchange Rate

The percent of active users in an app who interact with an ad.

Experience Points (XP)

Experience points (XP) are units of measurement used in role-playing games (RPGs) to quantify a player character’s life experience and progression through the game.

Fill Rate

A metric to measure ad network performance. It is the number of ad impressions a mobile app displays divided by the number of times an app requested an ad from an ad network. In the world of monetization, it is considered an essential metric. It explains how good the ad network is in serving ad requests.

 

How to calculate this?

Fill rate = (impressions / ad request) * 100%

 

How can you improve your fill rate?

  • You can improve your fill rate by using flexible or universal ad sizes in ad placements.
  • It is very important for you to pick the right network with the geo-targeting option you need. For example, if you wish to serve an ad for North America, you must use the network that provides a seamless flow of campaigns for the North American region.
  • You must test multiple ad networks or exchanges to find the one with the best yield for your app.

You can embrace the in-app header bidding method to get the best fill rate.

F2P (free-to-play) games

Free-to-play (F2P) games are games in which players can take part in mobile gameplay without having to buy the game outright or access the game via a subscription. F2P games typically monetize through advertising. The barrier to entry is low, which not only broadens the audiences viewing your ads but also gives F2P gamers a reason to view your in-app ads in full when they’re connected to something useful in the game or app.

Failover

Failover is the practice of passing the impression opportunity back to be filled by another eligible demand source in the case of no fill. 

 

Within the context of Meson a demand source will fail over back to Meson for proper meditation based on the waterfall setup for the ad unit.

Format

In the context of the Meson UI, ad formats are defined by the size and creative attributes of the ad spaces in your app.

Freemium Model

In the “freemium” model, the game itself is free to play and then  additional premium features can be accessed via in-app purchases. In-app purchases might include additional lives, additional time, unlockable characters, levels, extra in-app currency, or even removing ads entirely.

Frequency Capping

Capping refers to restricting the number of times, or frequency, a specific visitor to an app is shown a particular ad. 

 

You can set frequency capping at the ad unit level or at the line item level in the Meson UI.

GAID

Google Advertising ID: A unique and anonymous string of letters and numbers that identifies Android users at the device level for advertising tracking purposes. Users can reset their GAID at any time, wipe their previous information clean or turn off tracking data at any time. 

Game Bundle

When two or more gaming apps are downloadable through a single purchase.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU). GDPR came into effect across the EU on May 25, 2018.

GDPR Applies

If Meson detects that a user opened a given application for the first time in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom or Switzerland, as determined by the user’s truncated IP address, we will consider GDPR applying to that user for the lifetime of that application, meaning that Meson requires the user’s consent before serving personalized ads.

Geo location

The term refers to the ability to determine position of a person or a device by using their geographical coordinates through available technologies.

Geotargeting

Targeting mobile app users according to their locations

Hardcore Games

What are Hardcore Games?

Hardcore games are a genre of games where players need to invest a lot of time to understand and play such games. These types of games have strong storytelling to build a situation and then challenge the abilities and gaming skills of the player. They have the highest user engagement among all the game genres. Some of them offer a multiplayer option where a real player can play against another real player. Some of them are massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).

 

The stories of such games are sometimes based on novels or movies, which create excitement and enthusiasm among users. These games are usually lengthy to accommodate such details. The players can pause and pick up from what was left at any point in time. These games are developed so intensely that it creates a massive opportunity for live streaming of gameplay.

Header Bidding

Header bidding, a term traditionally used in desktop advertising, enables publishers to offer inventory to multiple ad exchanges simultaneously in a unified auction, before making calls to their ad servers. 

 

Meson’s equivalent of header bidding for the in-app world is Advanced Bidding.

HTML Tag

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) elements are represented by tags. HTML tags label pieces of content in ads.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a request–response protocol that allows the transfer of data back and forth between two machines, generally a client and a server.

Hybrid Apps

These are apps that are installed exactly like a native app, but it’s actually a web page on the inside. Hybrid apps are built with Javascript, HTML and CSS, and they run inside the web view of the app.

Hybrid-Casual

What is Hybrid-Casual?

This is entirely a new and popular genre of mobile games. It has the simplicity of hyper-casual gameplay but with more sophistication and controls.

Hyper-Casual Games

What are Hyper-Casual Games?

Hyper-casual games are lightweight and playable games with short sessions and simple actions. These easy actions can still be challenging to master, which successfully establishes a strong user engagement. This genre is famous for its snackable content, which can be enjoyed in short periods or while doing other jobs/activities.

IAB

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an organization that sets industry standards for digital advertising organizations.

IDFA

What is IDFA?

IDFA stands for Identifier for Advertisers. It is a unique identifier assigned by Apple to its users' devices. It helps advertisers to track data and ensure customized advertising. You can also use it to track and identify a user without sharing any personal information. You can use the tracked and identified data to understand user behavior towards in-app events. It can also be leveraged to find out when the user device interacts with an advertising campaign.

 

Why is it Important?

IDFA is one of the most precise ways to track, optimize and manage a mobile advertising campaign on iOS. It isessential because it provides the capability to track iOS users accurately. It provides greater certainty about the defining qualities of that user and whether they installed due to an advertising campaign.

IDFV

The identifier for vendors (IDFV) is an iOS device identifier assigned to all apps by a developer, and consistent only across apps on the device that are from the same developer.

ILRD

Impression-level revenue data (ILRD) enables publishers to process granular data. 

 

Meson provides user ad revenue information associated with each impression, as well as information about which demand source was able to fill and show an ad. Publishers then have the flexibility to augment the impression event data with their own proprietary data, and to either process the data directly or pass it to a third-party analytics provider.

Idle Games

What are Idle Games?

Idle games, Incremental games or Clicker games are generally identified as types of hyper-casual and casual games. The primary strategy of these games is leaving the game running behind with minimal or no interaction with the player but letting the player optimize resources and earn.

 

Why are they Famous?

They are effortless to understand and play, since minimal interaction is requires.

 

Strategies like getting in-game currency make its users return. It means they are addictive in nature.Factors like ease of development make it cost-effective.

IMPDAU

What is ImpDAU? 

ImpDAU stands for impressions per daily active user. It is a metric for developers. It helps to measure the numbers of impressions per day, thus it highlights the effectiveness of ad monetization strategies.

 

Why is it Important? 

ImpDAU indicates the quality of an SDK implementation within an app. If it goes higher, it shows the success of the monetization strategies and brings more opportunities to monetize. It also helps in testing new bidding partners or changing your setup. You can also use it to analyze conversion rates and ARPDAU, and to test new features.

 

How do you Calculate IMPDAU?

ImpDAU = Impressions generated in an app in a day / number of active users in that same period.

Impressions

What is an Impression? 

An impression is a metric that is known as "view-through. It denotes the number of times your content is displayed to users. Whenever a user views an advertisement on the publisher's mobile app, it is considered one impression. Impressions are an essential metric in in-app advertising as payment per impression is often used. It also helps in understanding the performance of your campaigns.

 

Why are Impressions Important? 

Impressions are the most common and useful way to understand the number of people seeing your ads within a particular campaign, audience segment, and so on. 

 

Often, impressions and clicks are used together to monitor the health of your campaigns. Low impressions and low clicks indicate that you need to adjust your ad copy, keyword strategy or PPC bids. On the other hand, high impressions and low clicks could mean you need to A/B test your content or use more relevant keywords.

 

Impressions also represent a way to measure brand awareness and recognition. It shows how often people have a chance to see your brand.

 

Impressions and reach help you understand your target audience. High reach and multiple impressions can help you determine the chances of your content going viral.

 

Impression Vs. Click

An impression is every time the advertisement is served to a user and viewed. A click is a measurement of how many times a user clicks on the ad. A click is an engagement term.

Impression Counting

Approach for counting impressions based on triggered events. 

 

Meson counts an event as an impression when at least one pixel is on screen.

In-App Advertising

What is In-App Advertising?

In-app advertising is a well-known monetization strategy through which a publisher can earn revenue by serving ads on their app.

 

With the help of this strategy, the mobile app send an ad request to the ad network. The ad network uses its algorithm to identify the best and highest earning ad and serve it on the app.

 

There are several different types of mobile ad formats such as banner, interstitial, rewarded videos, and so on.

In-App Bidding

What is In-App Bidding?

 

Also known sometimes as in-app header bidding, it is a programmatic selling technique or an advanced advertising method of mobile app publishers to offer ad inventory to all demand sources simultaneously. Here, publishers sell their ad inventory in a unified auction, and advertisers bid against each other in real-time. 

 

It makes it easier for the publishers to offer inventory to all demand sources at once. On the other hand, the advertisers get a fair opportunity to compete on ad inventory at the same time. 

 

In-App Bidding Vs. Waterfall?

We can simplify the comparison between in-app bidding and waterfall methodologies as new vs. traditional, where in-app bidding is the new and waterfall is the traditional methodology. The concept of in-app bidding is brought into reality to resolve the issues surrounding waterfall bidding.

 

This bidding model permits publishers to provide inventory to all potential bidders, unlike the waterfall's selecting the top ranker.While the waterfall model prioritizes the first bidder, in-app bidding gives the highest bidder the advantage and helps generate more revenue.

 

What are the Benefits of In-App Bidding?

In-app bidding brings excellent benefits for both parties (publisher and advertiser) in the ad exchange.

- Higher demand and revenues

- Real-time pricing (not based on the historical data)

- Increased inventory value

- Increased fill rates

- More transparency

- Opportunity for diverse demand sources

In-App Events

What are In-App Events?

 In-app events are timely events within apps and games, or any activity you carry out after installing an app such as registering, signing in or completing a level in a game. By tracking them, you can gain a detailed report of post-install activities inside an app. It helps to gather valuable insights from in-app events.

 

What are the Benefits of Tracking In-App Events?

1) Improvement: Understand your users' behavior and what exactly they would want, in order to deliver a more engaging experience. 

2) Right users: Helps to identify the right users, so you can retain your users. It can also help you to recognize potential high-value prospective users.

In-App Purchases

What are In-App Purchases?

In-app purchase (IAP) refers to the process of buying inside a mobile app with real money. Generally, in the case of in-app purchases, app developers provide their app free of cost but ask for money when the user tries to upgrade, access special features or levels, etc.

 

There are four types of in‑app purchases, and you can offer multiple types within your app. In‑app purchases can be accessed across numerous platforms where your app is available. This method allows the developer to profit despite giving the basic app itself away for free.

Incrementality

Incrementality is the degree to which ad spend impacts conversion rate (the measure of lift that advertising spend provides to the conversion rate).

Incrementality Testing

At its simplest level, incrementality testing is an approach to measuring the impact of advertising by looking at a treatment group (those who saw the ad campaign) vs. a control or holdback group (those who did not) in order to determine relative lift, or incrementality. To achieve this, app marketers typically take a user or device ID pool and split it into treatment and control groups, with the goal of measuring a specific outcome.

Interstitial Ads

What is an Interstitial Ad?

Interstitial ads are full-screen ads throughout the interface of the host app.Interstitial ads appear between content and are placed at natural transition points or breaks, such as between activities or game levels. Their full coverage differentiates them from other ad types, like pop-up, native and banner ads.

IVT

Invalid traffic (IVT) is any activity that doesn’t come from a real user with genuine interest. It can include fraudulent impressions, clicks or app downloads caused by faulty ad implementations.

iOS

What is iOS? 

iOS or iPhone Operating System is an operating system developed for smartphones. It has been developed and owned by Apple. iOS powers various Apple devices such as the iPhone and Apple’s iPad. 

IPM

What is IPM?

IPM stands for Installs Per Mille (IPM). It is a metric to track the number of installations of your app or game per one thousand ad impressions. It is often used as part of a mobile advertising or user acquisition strategy to buy new users for an app.

 

Several factors and ways to boost your app's IPM include creative optimization, app store optimization, utilizing suppression lists and fighting ad fraud.

 

Why is it Important?

It is essential to evaluate the performance of your user acquisition strategies.

 

Having a strong IPM can impact the waterfall ad bidding process, improving the rank of your ad campaign. It brings you more traffic and impressions, increasing the number of installs.

 

How do you calculate IPM?

IPM = Number of installs * 1,000 / number of impressions

IR

When running your mobile ad campaign, the install rate (IR) refers to the number of clicks needed before the app is installed. This metric is closely linked to CPI (cost per install).

IPM

IPM, or install rate per one thousand impressions, is a metric that helps paint a clearer picture of the full user journey on the path to installs. IPM is calculated by taking the total number of installs and dividing that by one thousand impressions. This metric is particularly helpful in relation to creative optimization.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language commonly used in web development. JavaScript code can be inserted anywhere within the HTML of a web page.

JavaScript tag, JS tag

The <script> tag is used to define a script (JavaScript). The <script> element either contains scripting statements, or it points to an external script file through the src attribute. Common uses for JavaScript are image manipulation, form validation and dynamic changes of content. 

 

Although Meson accepts JStag network mediation, we caution its usage.

JSON

JSON is an acronym for JavaScript Object Notation. It is an open standard format, which is lightweight and text-based, designed explicitly for human-readable data interchange. It is a language-independent data format. It supports almost every kind of language, framework and library. JSON is used primarily to transfer data between two machines and is a popular alternative to XML.

Keyword

Keywords contain user- or app-level information that can be passed through the SDK for advanced targeting in line items.

Kotlin

Kotlin is a cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose programming language with type inference. It interoperates fully with Java, is officially supported by Google for mobile development on Android, and is included as an alternative to the standard Java compiler.

KPI

What are KPIs?

KPI stands for key performance indicators. These are often used metrics to measure the success of apps and advertising campaigns. Anything you do, you must set specific goals and objectives to determine success. KPIs provide a numerical value to measure progress over time and identify the areas of betterment and improvement. It is used to quantify various areas, including app or game performance, user acquisition, monetization strategies, progress towards goals, and overall business performance, and provides factual data as a reference point to fulfil goals and objectives.

 

What are the most important KPIs for mobile apps?

  • Cost Per Mille (CPM)
  • Effective Cost Per Mille (eCPM)
  • Impressions Per Mille (IPM)
  • CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
  • Average Revenue Per Daily Active Users (ARPDAU)
  • Lifetime Value (LTV)
  • Daily Active Users (DAU)
  • Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Retention Rate IMPDAU

LAT

What is LAT? 

LAT stands for Limit Ad Tracking. It is a feature allowing iOS users to opt out of having an ID for Advertisers (IDFA) attached to them. It permits iOS users to change their configuration under privacy and turn on LAT. When they enable it, IDFA stops sharing your data with advertisers. After enabling, IDFA provides a blank report.

 

LAT vs. ATT

ATT talks about the user's consent. It seeks permission from people to share their IDFA with app publishers to measure marketing effectiveness, enable new marketing, advertise to similar people, and other purposes.

 

Though LAT is fundamentally the same as ATT, LAT works a bit differently from ATT. LAT is a simple setting option that limits your ad tracking by zeroing your IDFA.

Latency

What is Latency?

Latency is the time required for a piece of data to move across a network connection. It is eventually the time gap in communication over a network between an action and its response.

 

What are the Factors Behind Latency?

  • The number of ads the app has.
  • The way advertising performance is monitored.
  • Available platforms.
  • The presence of tracking pixels and tags.

 

Why is it Important?

High latency is one of the most critical enemies in digital marketing. If we take an example of the real-time bidding (RTB) process, we get to see multiple communications in the form of back-and-forth requests to serve the right ad. If the duration between the requests is more (high latency), it would delay the auction's completion. Due to this, advertisers would find it challenging to win placements at their desired price point, and publishers would end up selling their inventory at a lower price than the desired CPM. It would eventually cause a potential business loss for all parties.

Line Item

Line items enable publishers to create campaigns targeting specific ad units and ad sources. Line Items can be set at any priority level to allow publishers to prioritize specific campaigns. Line items offer advanced targeting capabilities. Line item types include Marketplace, Guaranteed (usually for direct deals), Backfill and Network.

LiveOps

What is LiveOps?

LiveOps stands for Live Operations. Live refers to any game that is not static and requires some connectivity. “Operations” means to take care of something over time. It denotes actively managing a game over time. Here it explains any changes, updates or improvements made to a game without releasing a brand new version of that game. Implementing Liveps is beneficial because it helps engage and retain users, regularly ensuring updates.

 

How Does it Work?

The LiveOps approach helps games retain and engage its users. It helps create longer relationships with users. It focuses on the user lifecycle, from the time they start playing a game to when they leave. 

Lookalike Audience

Lookalike audiences are a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your best existing customers.

LTV

What is LTV?

LVT stands for Lifetime Value. It describes the total income a typical customer can bring for a business throughout the relationship. While calculating LTV, it is also great to consider the average revenue generated by a customer and the average profit, since they provide essential insights.

 

Why is it Important?

LTV is an important KPI since it helps evaluating the revenue generation by each customer over time. It also enables you to estimate how much you can spend on user conversion and still generate a profit so that you can more effectively promote new and exciting content and events.

 

How do you Calculate LTV?

There are many ways to calculate LTV. However, the following method is by using ARPDAU:

LTV = ARPDAU * Lifetime 

Marketplace

Marketplace is our real-time bidding (RTB) exchange, which gives publishers access to an additional revenue source through a competitive auction with complete transparency and control. Marketplace will only win if it is able to beat the highest performing ad network that has an available ad. Marketplace increases the number of potential bidders for your impressions, without having to include additional SDKs.

Match Three Games

What are Match-Three Games?

It is also known as tile-matching video games. It is a classic puzzle game genre where the player needs to manipulate tiles to match a pattern and make them disappear.

MAU

What is MAU?

MAU stands for Monthly Active Users. It is a metric to measure unique users using your app or game in 30 days. Each user will be counted once in 30 days.

 

Why is MAU Important?

MAU is a valuable metric to understand the health of your company. This data is more informative than overall users' business decisions and can determine retention in your app. And it is straightforward to calculate.

 

How is MAU Calculated?

It is significant for you first to define active users before you calculate MAU. A more useful definition would be a user that performs a specific action in your product. After defining active users, measure the number of users that meet that definition over a given month using the analytics tools.

Mediation Stack

The list of demand sources included in a waterfall targeted to a specific ad unit. The ad networks in the stack are ranked by priority level first, then CPM (within that priority). Through the waterfall process, an ad request will “attempt,” or ask each demand source for an ad to serve, and continue down the waterfall until an impression is served.

Metagame

Put simply, a metagame refers to the progression system that wraps around your core gameplay, utilizing the game’s economy and feeding back into the game’s core actions.

MMO Games

What are MMO Games?

MMO stands for massive multiplayer online game. MMO games are a genre of games where a large number of people across the globe can join and play together. It facilitates an environment where the player devices interact with each other. These types of games are typically story-driven, making them very interesting to their audiences.

Mediation Adapter

It is a snippet of code that establishes communication between the Meson SDK and other SDKs.

MMORPG

What is MMORPG?

MMORPG stands for massive multiplayer online role-playing games. It is also a type of MMO where many players across the globe join in a game, focusing on the role-playing aspect of a game where a player takes on the role of an individual character.

Mobile Board Game

What is a Mobile Board Game?

It is a digital replica of traditional board games. To bring in the experience of the physical board games, mobile board games come with physical elements like dice, coins and so on. These are also loaded with features like each player getting their turn, providing more analytics in the scoreboard and so on.

Mobile Attribution

The process of tracking and crediting a partner, media source or campaign with a conversion or specific user action.

MRAID

Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions (MRAID) is a framework for mobile advertisers and publishers that allows rich media ad creatives to run across all compliant devices and applications. It is a standard developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in late 2011. MRAID is designed for publishers who want to do direct sales with more engaging ads as well as those who want to work with ad networks that support rich media creatives

MVP

MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. It is a version of a product with just enough features without using heavy resources. It is used by early customers to find the user's preferences and feedback. Based on the response, companies develop the full version of the product. The concept of MVP is to validate the user's interest in the  core product and the idea behind it.

Native Ads

Native ads are static or video ads that are customizable and follow the natural form of the app's user experience and blend with the app's content, feed and design.

Native App

A native app or native application is a software application built in a specific programming language for the specific device platform, being either iOS or Android. Native iOS apps are generally written in Swift or Objective-C, and native Android apps are often written in Java or Kotlin. 

Network

An ad network connects advertisers to apps in order to serve ads. Networks do not bid in real time, with the exception of those who are participating in Advanced Bidding.

Network Allocation

This feature can be used to dictate the percentage of ad requests a network should receive daily.

Network eCPM

The cost per one thousand impressions for a network is the average CPM for a given network or network line item. 

 

In the Meson UI, the Network eCPM is not a price floor; it is an indicator used to rank the order of the calls in the waterfall. The value should be updated regularly (manually or via Auto CPM) to reflect the average eCPM the network is paying for that ad unit.

Network Mediation

Network mediation enables publishers to make ad requests to multiple ad networks, in order to maximize revenue and increase fill rate. We support client-side network mediation integrations. We encourage publishers to mediate networks included in the list of supported mediation partners.

Network Report

Network reports track performance data from the supported networks, and include network revenue data. Note that this data is directly pulled from the network.

Optimization

Actions are taken in order to improve the performance of an ad unit, app or account. The goal is usually to boost performance and reduce inefficiencies such as latency.

Order

An option to manage your inventory by creating line items.

Paying User Conversion Rate (PU CR)

The paying user conversion rate (PU CR) is calculated by dividing the number of users that have converted to paying users by the number of total users you’ve acquired.

Playable Ad

A rich media ad, typically for a gaming app, that allows a user to play a demo or understand the basic game mechanics within the ad itself.

PMP

A private marketplace (PMP) is a subset of a real-time bidding exchange with a limited set of advertisers and publishers who have agreed to exclusive terms. Buyers participating in the PMP are given the first look at participating publishers’ inventory before other demand sources, which may include ad networks and other demand partners.

Premium Model

The premium mobile monetization model involves apps that are sold at a specific price point. Premium games cost money to download, but they generally do not ask for additional payments via in-app purchases.

Price Floor

Minimum bid that you are willing to accept for the DSPs’ to access your inventory. 

 

We recommend that you set your Marketplace price floors to be lower than your lowest network CPM to maximize Marketplace competition and yield.

Priority

System to prioritize demand source by ranked groups within the waterfall. 

 

There are 16 priorities within the Meson waterfall, with 1 being the highest and 16 the lowest. If the inventory isn’t sold in the first priority sent, it will fail over to the following priority until it fills.

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses and manages a customer’s or client’s data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer’s or client’s privacy. 

 

Meson requires publishers to have a published Privacy Policy in your app page to obtain Marketplace approval.

Postbacks

Postbacks are URL requests that notify advertising tracking systems that an install or other tracked conversion has taken place. Postbacks give networks and ad exchanges vital data that allows them to optimize advertising in real time.

Refresh Rate

The refresh rate interval is the number of seconds an ad will display on screen before a subsequent ad request is made for a new ad. For example, if you set a refresh interval of 30 seconds, the next ad request will occur 30 seconds later.

Performance

Performance data consolidated in offline spreadsheets.

Retention

The length of time or the number of days a user stays active with an app.

Retargeting

Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site or app, and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online. The idea here is to remind users about your offering and its benefits while they are online

Retention Rate

Your retention rate will tell you the percentage of users who continue to use your app after installing it. It’s calculated by dividing daily active users (DAU) by the total number of app installs.

Revenue

Total amount of earnings generated from in-app advertising activity. 

Rewarded Ad

An ad format in which a user is rewarded after successful completion of a video ad. The reward is typically in-game virtual currency (gold, coins, power-ups, extra lives, etc.).

ROAS

What is ROAS?

ROAS stands for Return on Ad Spend. It is a vital metric to measure the earnings from each dollar spent on advertising. This is another KPI to show the effectiveness of the business advertising strategies. A ROAS formula is the total conversion value/advertising costs.

ROI

Return on investment (ROI) is the ratio of revenue generated to full campaign expenses. This can include labor costs.

RTB

With real-time bidding (RTB), in-app inventory is bought and sold in a live auction system where advertisers bid on each impression in real-time the moment you request an ad.

Sample App

The Sample App is for anyone who has a stake in how a creative or tag functions in an integrated app, or who wants to use a reference for implementation to troubleshoot possible SDK integration issues.

SDK

SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It is a pack of software development tools in one installable package to enable monetization. They facilitate the creation of applications designed for specific platforms or programming languages and allow applications to work with one another.

Show Rate

The proportion of impressions to ad requests. Show rate represents how often ad requests result in impressions. Show rate is calculated as impressions divided by requests.

 

Meson uses it with inventory context dimensions, such as ad unit, app, format, etc. 

Simulation Games

Simulation games are popular in the gaming world, and they are distinct. Unlike other games, the app developers' design is to provide a real-world experience to its users. For example, with a flight simulator game, the plan would replicate an aircraft cockpit design. Simulation games provide a lot of freedom to the players but don't restrict them with a particular task. It leaves them with the opportunity to explore.

SKAdNetwork

What is SKAdNetwork?

It is a class that validates advertisement-driven app installations.

 

With the rollout of iOS 14.5, users must specifically opt in to having their associated IDFA shared. As such, SKAdNetwork becomes the future of measuring mobile ad campaigns in a privacy-compliant manner on iOS devices. 

 

Generally, when a user taps an ad, advertisers get the opportunity to display an ad with cryptographically signed parameters to identify an ad campaign. The advertisers can now display a custom view-through ad or a StoreKit-rendered ad. Also, the ad network receives an install attribution postback when the user installs the advertised app within an attribution time window.

 

How Does it Work? 

SKAdNetwork looks after privacy while attributing impressions and clicks to installs on iOS apps. There is no chance of revealing any user and device-level data with advertisers during the attribution within the App Store.

 

Why is it Important?

Publishers need to update their SDKs to become SKAdNetwork compliant and implement a user consent flow to prepare for bidding on inventory in a post-IDFA world.Soon, advertisers will start relying more on contextual marketing to understand the performance of ad campaigns on iOS devices through SKAdNetwork.

Singleton

The singleton method enables you to show the same ad impression as users navigate through various screens of your app. 

 

It involves creating an object with the Meson ad view, allocating the object to the active view, and then de-allocating it and reallocating it to each view as the user navigates within the app.

SSP

What is SSP?

SSP stands for supply-side platform. It is a technology platform for publishers to manage, sell and optimize available inventory on their mobile apps and games in an automated and efficient way. Publishers can use SSPs to display ads and earn revenue.

 

How Does it Work?

SSPs work like DSPs but for publishers. Publishers first need to make ad inventories available on an SSP. Each time the publisher’s app loads, an ad request is sent to multiple ad exchanges and DSPs. With the help of a real-time auction, the winning bid is then delivered to the website or app via SSP and displayed to the visitor.

 

What Advantages Do SSPs Provide Publishers?

- Publishers enjoy seamless automated inventory selling services through SSPs.

- SSPs provide publishers with detailed reports on the bidder, the number of inventories and agreed-on price. It offers meaningful insights for the publisher on the effectiveness of their ad monetization strategy. 

- If there are not enough bidders coming from a single ad network or ad exchange, SSPs, with the help of multiple networks, allow more buyers to participate in the real-time bidding process and possibly help achieve a better yield.

Subscription Mobile Games

These are games where the user needs to pay fees to play the full version and enjoy a better experience than the free trial version.

Subscription Model

Subscription models give users the ability to access your game for a recurring (weekly, monthly or annual) fee. This works particularly well when you consistently have new game features or content to unveil.

SPO

Supply path optimization (SPO) is about simplifying the supply chain between advertisers and publishers by cutting out unnecessary or overly expensive intermediaries. It gives media buyers the ability to bid on and win inventory at the most reasonable price, while it lets publishers maximize their revenue over the long run.

Suppression List

It lists users (for a mobile app or game) who are not relevant to the advertising campaign. This list is generally shared with the ad network to ensure better targeting and return on investment for the advertising campaign. This helps to stop subscribers from receiving emails that aren’t relevant to their interests, for example.

Swift

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Linux and z/OS. Swift is designed to work with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple products.

Traffic

App traffic is the amount of data sent and received by users in the app. App traffic is measured through app activity, such as the number of times the app is opened, number of sessions, session duration and ad requests.

User Acquisition

What is user acquisition?

User acquisition (UA) is the process of gaining new users for a mobile or game. It is a strategy designed to generate installs, usually by advertising campaigns and promotional offers. It can also refer to the overall process of gaining new users/players via organic methods such as app store optimization (ASO), paid advertising efforts, or both.

 

Why is it Important?

One needs a solid user acquisition strategy to sustain business in the hyper-competitive mobile app market and convert new users. It is a data-heavy science based on trends and patterns that work. To sustain a digital business in the crowded and growing ad tech world, app developers must adapt their strategies to boost app discovery while convincing users to install the app.

 

The best way to boost your UA strategy is to partner with multiple supply partners and utilize their underlying technologies. Paid UA generally happens through mobile ad networks. 

UI

User interface provided by Meson for accessing its services.

Uniques

The number of unique devices that create one or more ad requests. Note that this figure doesn’t include ‘Do Not Track’ users.

Unity

Unity is a cross-platform real-time engine developed by Unity Technologies. It is an OS X-exclusive game engine.

User Engagement

The degree to which users interact with an app. This can be analyzed through different metrics, including daily active users (DAU), average session length, etc.

Valid Store URL

A valid store Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a complete web address used to find a particular app page in the app stores. 

 

Meson requires publishers to have a valid store URL (for published apps) to obtain Marketplace approval.

Waterfall

What is an Advertising Waterfall?

Waterfall methodology is also known as a daisy chain or waterfall tag. It is the traditional ad buying method for enabling publishers to work with multiple demand sources to monetize their available ad inventory.

 

How Does it Work?

This methodology was developed as publishers needed a simple way to separate premium and non-premium inventory within their third-party ad server. With this method, publisher ad servers prioritize the ad networks during transactions based on the rates offered for that impression. In the beginning, an advertiser tries to sell inventory directly, and if it fails to do so, it passes the impression to premium ad networks. This flow continues until it gets sold. With waterfalls, publishers will typically prioritize the ad networks that have historically provided the highest eCPMs for their ad inventory.

 

What are the Advantages?

- It is a technique to maximize the fill rate and thus maximize revenue. After you enable it, you can use various ad servers that waterfall between one another.

- It is way easier to implement than header bidding/in-app header bidding, where you don't need a lot of technical depth than the other methods. All you need is to set up an ad tag.

 

What are the Disadvantages?

- This technique has a low yield. It means the publisher's ad server selects the demand partners based on the highest average yield instead of the current market price. Hence it doesn't represent the accurate CPM but rely on historical averages.

- When implementing the ad tag waterfall, one must keep the factor of latency in mind since it takes some time before an ad is displayed. This is because multiple ad networks/ad sources might be pinged before one bids on and win the impression.

- With this method, there are more chances of errors and timeouts.

Webview

An embeddable browser that a native application can use to display web content. 

Word Games

Word games are also called word game puzzles or word search games. These are simple but loaded with features to test the language ability of the player. Games like unscrambling anagrams, crossword puzzles or word formations come under this category. Though they are developed for entertainment, they are sometimes used for educational purposes as well. 

XCode

The integrated development environment (IDE) from Apple that is used to create, compile and test Mac OS X and iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod) applications.

XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that represents structured data in a way that is both human-readable and machine-readable. A popular alternative to JSON, XML is used primarily to transfer data between two machines.