HopStop, a location app for finding directions, built a sizable audience, about 5 million monthly visitors per month, with 50 percent (and growing) in mobile. But when it came to making money off those visitors, with that valuable information of location, it was stuck. Outside of what its small five-person sales force could sell, HopStop was left with CPMs well below $1 from leading mobile ad networks.
“The mobile remnant solutions are not very attractive,” said HopStop CEO Joe Meyer of the networks. “It’s almost not worth backfilling with a lot of them. You’re getting pretty poor CPMs that lead publishers to say, should I even serve that ad?”
Meyer declined to name the networks, although he said HopStop tried them all. The CPMs, he said, were “pathetic.”
The HopStop dilemma is one facing many publishers in mobile. Even if they build valuable audiences, they find that there aren’t many good options on the advertising front. For HopStop, it didn’t make sense in the long run to maintain an ad sales and operations unit. It was, after all, a pedestrian navigation company. But outsourcing those functions to networks isn’t very palatable. HopStop is trying a third way of sorts in striking a deal to give exclusive access to its inventory to Travora, a rep firm and network focused solely on the travel market. The bet is that an endemic approach on a highly in-demand audience will push HopStop CPMs up to $10, according to Meyer.
The problem with the large-scale mobile ad networks, such as Google’s Admob, JumpTap and Millennial Media, is that they cannot get a good read on location for their ads, Meyer said. This leads to poorly targeted placements that, in his assessment, treat mobile as little more than yet another screen for an ad message.
“They’re all going after location data because that’s how they can command a premium,” he said. “It’s hard for them to get [the location data] if they’re not the service provider or not working with location services exclusively.”
-
Newsletter publishers say they continue to see uptick in revenue despite advertising slowdown
At a time when larger media companies are feeling the pressure of the economic downturn and advertising slowdown, newsletter businesses continue to be in a period of revenue growth.
-
TikTok’s CEO faces bipartisan skepticism in first Congressional hearing on security concerns
The hearing comes amid calls to remove TikTok from government devices and in some cases even ban it entirely.
-
Media Briefing: What to expect at the Digiday Publishing Summit
As DPS draws nearer, top pain points for publishers are coming to light.
-
SponsoredHow advertisers are leveraging omnichannel attribution and measurement to power CTV
Sponsored by MNTN Connected TV advertising has joined and expanded the larger ecosystem of campaigns that advertisers deploy. As such, omnichannel marketing strategies now encompass television and mobile devices, tablets and other screens such as out-of-home. And as customers engage across these different touchpoints, brands are seeking and moving their measurement and analytics efforts to […]
-
New app launches through Apple hoping to win with ‘zero-party data’ when others haven’t
Caden's new app lets users connect data from their Uber, Amazon, Netflix and other accounts in exchange for money. Will it take off?
-
‘The next level for us’: The New York Times eyes better retention for games in subscription drive
The games division is focusing on finding new ways to mine the inherent competitive nature of games like encouraging people to play multiple games in a single session or through new achievements and rewards for progression.
