We’re excited to introduce Stack, a new end-to-end solution by Appodeal aimed at scaling winning apps. With Stack, we put publishers first by clearing the way for direct collaboration with advertisers.
Over the last two years at Appodeal, we’ve been building products that transcend ad monetization. Our goal is to help mobile businesses respond to emerging needs in the industry and handle their day-to-day challenges more efficiently.
Challenge #1: Middlemen and the ambiguity of “black box” auctions
The major challenge publishers face today is dealing with middlemen, who all take a piece of your hard-earned profits. These middlemen charge unnecessary fees and forge biased “black box” auctions that keep publishers and advertisers in the dark.
For the most part, middlemen rely on complicated payment models. The current system is structured in a way that devours a percentage out of profit, which is unheard of in any other industry. Imagine that your CRM service provider took a percentage of your profits instead of offering a fixed rate. That means your cost increases as your business grows.
This model is outdated, to put it mildly. So we thought it was time to change the rules. From our perspective, the best way to accomplish this is by bridging the gap between advertisers and publishers, providing opportunities to collaborate as partners instead of rivals.
Challenge #2: The merging of ad tech and publishing
As a consequence of inadequacies in the current market, developing in-house ad tech solutions has become a new norm among mobile app businesses. More importantly, ad tech companies have begun branching out into the publishing business, merging advertising technology and publishing under a new umbrella.
Because of this, the rest of the market — particularly, mobile app businesses — is put in an unfavorable position. While publishers might have the “publishing” and “game studio” expertise, they don’t always have the ad tech part of the equation covered. It can be quite challenging to compete in this new reality. So publishers rely on a pantheon of major ad tech solutions, all eating away at their profits.
So now that ad tech leaders are also competing as publishers, what can other publishers do to stay ahead? They need better access to the specialized tools that can allow them to operate as independent “ad networks.” With better tools, publishers can build direct connections with other mobile app developers and advertisers. We are convinced that this is the best way to compete for users—and profits.
Solution: Holistic ad tech stack based on the SaaS model
The intensity of industry competition has demonstrated that there’s a pressing need for a comprehensive solution that brings many publisher-oriented technologies together. Our solution empowers mobile app businesses to build their own in-house ad tech stack without having to manage a patchwork of ad tech tools.
That is the vision for our new solution — Stack.
During the last two years, our dedicated R&D department has been working on three core offerings that complement Appodeal’s ad monetization solution. First, a next-generation user acquisition DSP solution called AppGrowth, recently featured in AppsFlyer’s performance index. Next, a Business Intelligence solution called DataCore, and finally, an ad exchange called BidMachine.
In addition, our dedicated Customer Success team with 5+ years of ad tech experience is equipped to handle all Stack components. They can also offer expertise on optimizing Stack to meet the unique needs of your mobile business.
I am very proud of the work our team has done so far. The results with early adopters of Stack has already demonstrated that when monetization, Business Intelligence, and user acquisition align, profits happen.
A new model for greater confidence and transparency
What makes Stack stand out is our commitment to transparency. To address the challenge of unclear financial schemes, we decided to base our solution on the SaaS model. The SaaS financial model underpins the main idea behind Stack: it removes intermediaries from the equation, provides a clear billing system where clients pay only the license fee, and brings ad tech in-house.
Transparent licensing for publishers can go up against the current system of ongoing arbitrage in the market. Instead of sharing their profits, market players can be in control of their finances and pay a fixed licensing fee based on specific business requirements.
With Stack, our goal is to provide an essential set of in-house and customized ad tech solutions that facilitate direct relationships between publishers and advertisers—and we’re very interested to see how things unfold.
Please, say hello to Stack!
Stack: What Drives Winning Apps
Stack is designed to turn apps into profit-making independent businesses by building on four components to provide a single, holistic solution:
1. Monetize with Appodeal
Appodeal ad monetization solution embraces programmatic bidding, which allows precise impression level revenue data that can be analyzed with Business Intelligence (DataCore) tools. Our monetization includes several cutting edge technologies that can be set up as separate components: waterfall mediation, header bidding mediation, and our ad exchange (BidMachine).
2. Analyze and engage with DataCore
Our Business Intelligence service is the essential link that unites monetization and user acquisition as it helps identify your most impactful users. It focuses on uncovering the 20% of users that drive 80% of revenue and uses these insights to improve UA strategies for all sources, including Google, Facebook, and any other source mobile app that businesses might be utilizing. DataCore also provides insights on drop-off points and other user behavior patterns to help develop sound re-engagement/retention strategies.
3. Grow with AppGrowth
AppGrowth is designed to expand and strengthen existing UA strategies using DataCore insights to optimize ROI, generate the best ROAS, and the highest possible LTV (including ad LTV) in real time.
AppGrowth flips the current UA models to a SaaS one, eliminating hidden fees and giving full control to the advertiser. Our UA source enables advertisers to establish direct relationships with other publishers through Appodeal’s SDK integration without fees or middlemen. With AppGrowth we provide:
- Unique playable ad creation
- Premium Appodeal inventory
- Smart cross-promo ads to efficiently buy your own inventory
- Super native cross promo format to engage with a loyal user base even more actively
- Deep insights on each campaign performance: up to 50 data points
4. Scale assured with the Stack Team
To make a truly holistic solution that works for mobile app businesses, our team of experts is dedicated to their success. From building an adaptable Business Intelligence solution to optimizing UA and monetization results, our mission is to scale mobile business profits.
Coming together as an all-in-one suite of solutions, each element of Stack can also be implemented separately and tailored to your specific needs.
Our hope is that with Stack, mobile app businesses will be empowered by a robust, but customizable technological stack and our team of experts driving the ad tech side of the business.
On behalf of our entire team, I want to say a big thank you to all of our customers and partners. Thank you for believing in our vision and embarking with us on a journey to make this industry more transparent and fair.
Let’s scale onward together!
If you’re ready to scale your app business, now is your chance to get onboard. Let’s talk about your business needs. Check out our new website and reach out to us there.
