In a recent talk at Postback event, Christian Calderon gave a very interesting presentation about Ketchapp’s approach to in app advertising. Christian recently joined the Ketchapp team after leading Dots monetization for about 2 years. There is a lot to be learned from him so if you have 15 minutes – I highly recommend viewing this video.
Mobile ad spend per user is growing
Companies who are condiering in app advertising as a source of monetization should study this chart closely. If you felt like CPMs were high in the last 12 months. This chart says it will increase by almost 2x in the next 3 years.

Mediation is a “must have” not a “nice to have”
In his talk, Calderon explains that mediation is the way to aggregate demand and create a competitive situation between the ad networks. This is important in order to maximize your yield. To learn about the pros and cons of the top mediation platform refer to this comparison.
Advertisers pay more for the 1st impression and eCPM decays after
This is an important point to understand. Since eCPM levels are driven by performance and conversion rates, the first impression is usually paying a lot more than the 10th impression. Smart buyers like Machine Zone are focusing on the first impression and are willing to pay premium CPMs for that one. To analyze eCPM decay for your app you need a specialized tracking tool like SOOMLA TRACEBACK.
Adoption rate (aka Opt-in rate) is linear with revenue
Adoption rate or Opt-in rate is how many users out of your daily active users get to see ads. In other words, how many 1st impressions you have. Calderon hints that in both Dots and Ketchapp focusing on the opt-in rate is part of the secret sauce to high yield from your in app advertising.
- Good ways to measure it in different segments so you can identify opportunities and track progress
- Iterating and testing new ideas that are focused on increasing the adoption rate