Your MoPub migration toolkit: 4 factors to consider when choosing your next mediation platform
Mediation is critically important for growing an app business -- it's the most effective way for apps to maximize their monetization and ad revenue. But without linking the full cycle from monetization to user acquisition, apps and games aren't able to effectively grow and scale.
Following the announcement that MoPub's mediation platform will be deprecated on March 31, 2022, it's important that developers take the time to consider the alternatives and identify the platform that will invest in innovative tools that provide more functionality to really grow their business.
Here are four things developers should be looking for in their next mediation platform:
1. Mediation that moves the needle
To truly move the needle for developers, mediation platforms today need to do more than simply mediate multiple ad networks. Developers need a wide range of tools to optimize and grow their app business so they can stay competitive in the current App Economy.
In this context, it's critical to make sure the mediation platform you choose not only covers all your favorite features and functionalities from MoPub, but continues expanding its offering to provide you with even more tools to automate and optimize performance. That means tools that go beyond the way things are done today - for monetization, user acquisition and even product management.
The great thing about moving to a platform with comprehensive capabilities is that it'll likely already carry most, if not all, the products you were accustomed to with your previous mediation provider. Specifically for MoPub, that would include access to marketplace partners, direct-sold campaigns, cross promotion campaigns, advanced reporting and strong API capabilities.
Make sure to check whether other mediation platforms support these products by reaching out to them or just exploring their site for more information.
Beyond having access to many tools and products, it's also important to assess the quality and how well these products work. To start, you should be looking for:
- High number of mediated ad networks and bidders, as well as the ability to integrate any other network you want - Reporting that's accurate (and digestible) enough for you to base your monetization and marketing decisions on - Access to industry benchmarks to see how you stand against your competitors - Automations that make it easy to manage and optimize growth operations
2. Trust and transparency
In addition to getting access to a wide range of features and products, it's important to feel that you're in the hands of a company that has your best interests in mind, and that you can work together to scale your growth. This includes providing you with accurate and transparent reporting, proactive insights, consulting and benchmarks.
"To truly move the needle for developers, mediation platforms today need to do more than simply mediate multiple ad networks"
In terms of metrics and reporting, you should have everything you need to optimize and scale your apps - from bid rate and render rate to eCPM and engagement per segment and placement.
As for insights and support, you should be able to trust that your next mediation platform is constantly looking for ways to maximize your app's LTV (lifetime value). For example, since optimizing ad implementation and increasing impressions per DAU is perhaps the most critical part of increasing an app's LTV (network optimization will only get you so far), your mediation platform should provide you with industry benchmarks and analysis on ad implementation metrics like engagement rate and usage rate, as well as products, recommendations and best practices for closing that gap. That might range from optimizing placements, rewards, capping and pacing, to game design itself.
3. Track record of success in your genre
Next, it's important to know that your next mediation platform has a track record of helping other developers in your app category grow and succeed -- whether that's hyper-casual, idle, AAA or any other category.
In addition to seeing good performance, you want to see that the products and features inside your mediation platform support the needs of your category. Let's take automated user acquisition as an example: different game categories optimize their user acquisition towards different goals, using different revenue sources to calculate LTV - hyper-casual uses early metrics like D1 ROAS and heavily relies on ad revenue data, while casual may use D3 or D7 ROAS, while leveraging a combination of both ad revenue and in-app purchase data. Depending on your game type, you want to make sure all the tools within the mediation platform support what your app needs to scale -- in the case of a user acquisition optimizer, that means supporting the right metrics (like D1, D3, D7 ROAS and retention) and revenue type (ad revenue, in-app purchases or a combination of both).
4. Easy migration
Last, and perhaps most practically, you want to know: how painful is it going to be to migrate over?
Switching mediation providers in a challenging time frame can throw a wrench into your roadmap, and deprioritize other important tasks you want to be investing your time in. Be sure that the mediation platform you switch over to makes it quick and easy to migrate all your apps and data.
That might include a one-click migration tool, such as the one we've built at ironSource, or webinars and workshops, as well as detailed knowledge base articles.
Blessing in disguise
While making this decision under a tight timeline might seem stressful, it may actually be a blessing in disguise for developers. Think of this situation as an opportunity to take a step back and evaluate the mediation platforms out there which don't just help with mediating between networks, but also grow your app business.
Migrate from MoPub to ironSource -- no manual work necessary
Author Bio: Yuval Lotan, Head of Platform Growth at ironSource
Yuval Lotan is the Head of Platform Growth at ironSource, and has been working at the company for the past six years. Previously, he was leading the EMEA and SEA partnership team, managing ad-based advertisers and publishers. Now, he oversees the business aspect of ironSource's mediation platform, supporting clients, partners and internal teams.