10 Top Mobile Advertising Networks: How to Choose in 2024

It's no secret that we live in a mobile world. People use phones everywhere they go, and everything seems to be trending mobile in 2024.

Moreover, you can find some facts about mobile marketing statistics below:

• Over 90% of mobile time is spent on apps;
• 50% of people open an app 15 plus times per day;
• The average consumer spends more than 5 hours per day on their smartphones;
• 57% of all US online traffic comes from smartphones.

As these figures continue to trend upward, mobile advertising is following suit and growing accordingly. Today, you'll discover the best mobile ad networks for publishers and learn how to choose the right one. 

What is a mobile ad network?

The mobile ad network, or app ad network, is an integrated platform that connects advertisers with app developers or publishers seeking to sell mobile ad inventory.

Mobile ad networks function as intermediaries between supply-side platforms (SSPs), which publishers utilize, and demand-side platforms (DSPs), which advertisers use.

As a publisher, you want a network that generates revenue without tarnishing your reputation with irrelevant or inappropriate advertisements. In addition, you should choose a platform that offers multiple ad formats.

How do mobile ad networks work?

We know what mobile ad networks are, but how precisely do they function? When an app user sees an advertisement, a complex process occurs behind the scenes, which resembles the following:

• Once a publisher with an app joins an ad network, the network will have access to the users' data of the app, available ad space, and so on;
• When a user opens the publisher's app, a piece of ad inventory is generated. This inventory needs an advertisement to be monetized;
• The ad network also has access to mobile ad demand, either directly from advertisers who have joined the network, through SSP and ad exchange integrations, or both;
• The mobile ad network uses the data collected from the publisher and the campaign requirements from advertisers to find the best match for the available ad space;
• Once the mobile ad network has identified the best ad space, the creative is sent to the app, and the user sees an ad.

Why are app ad networks important?

A key benefit for both advertisers and publishers is that working with mobile app ad networks saves them time and money. Ad networks handle the technical and commercial aspects of producing and selling ads. That’s not the full list, here’s what functions they serve:

Save time and money

App ad networks simplify ad placements and optimization, saving both advertisers and publishers time and money.

Handle tech and business aspects

They manage the technical setup and commercial transactions, streamlining the process for both parties.

Boost user acquisition and ROI

With better targeting, ad networks help increase user acquisition and drive higher ROI.

Maximize publisher revenue

Publishers can monetize their inventory more effectively through broader access to advertisers and optimized pricing.

Power programmatic advertising

They facilitate the growth of programmatic ads, automating transactions for scalable, efficient ad management.

Offer analytics

Ad networks provide data-driven insights, helping advertisers and publishers optimize performance.

Types of mobile ad networks

You can distinguish between two main types of mobile networks. In some way, this comparison explains how mobile ad networks work.

Vertical ad networks focus on a specific niche or industry. They target ads to audiences in that sector, such as sports, fashion, technology, or finance.

Core word: Niche (as it relates to the focused nature of the mobile audience or content).

Horizontal ad networks serve ads across a broad range of industries and websites without a particular niche focus. They take a more general, wide-reaching approach.

Core word: Broad (indicating their wider reach across different industries or topics).

Additionally, there are premium networks that specialize only in accumulating premium inventory and selling it to advertisers. Those are considered very hard to tap into, albeit they also ensure all safety measures to the maximum. 

Performance networks. These focus on pay-per-click (PPC), cost-per-install (CPI), or cost-per-action (CPA) payment models. Media buyers who aim for performance advertising campaigns normally choose cost-per-action payment models.

Brand awareness networks. Ad networks that can lift brand awareness and recall are based on the cost-per-mille (CPM) advertising model. In this case, advertisers aim to list their brand awareness KPI and familiarize their audiences with a new service, product, or brand name in general.

Finally, there are in-app and mobile options designed specifically and only for the mobile ecosystem. These options accumulate solely mobile traffic and serve mobile ad formats. Additionally, today on the market you can find IOS ad networks and Android ad networks suited to these operating systems. 

Benefits of mobile app advertising

Mobile advertising has myriads of opportunities and benefits:

A vast audience

With around 7 billion people (and the number continues to grow) carrying smartphones almost everywhere, mobile content and advertising have numerous opportunities with the largest mobile ad networks.

Personalization

Mobile divides provide more freedom for personalization than desktop campaigns—with geotargeting and geomarketing tools, ads can be delivered outdoors and at specific important venues.

Awareness

Mobile campaigns get more responses at the consideration stage than other types. While people are more likely to convert and make a purchase on PC, they are also more likely to share it there.

Engagement

Mobile ads offer vast opportunities for creativity and go far beyond traditional advertising. Such creatives can be static and dynamic. They are better designed for user interaction and performance tracking.  

Mobile advertising business models

Before deciding, investigate the various ad campaigns a mobile advertising network provides. The five major categories are CPM, CPC, CPI, CPA, and CPV.

Cost-per-mille (CPM)

CPM is the best development strategy because it enables publishers to profit every second an ad appears on a website or app. Additionally, publishers can anticipate income if their visitors are consistent and predictable.

Advertisers are charged using the same approach each time an advertisement is displayed 1,000 times, or "a mille".

Cost-per-click (CPC)

Under the CPC model, advertisers pay for every click on their mobile ads. By employing this strategy, mobile platforms and ad publishers risk delivering many unpaid ad impressions and losing money.

Cost-per-install (CPI)

Under the CPI model, advertisers are only charged when a click on an advertisement results in the installation of a mobile application. The cost-per-install metric is essential for mobile app developers and marketers to track, as it exposes the cost of acquiring new customers.

Cost-per-action (CPA)

When an app is promoted on a mobile ad network, an advertiser is charged for specific user actions, which is a more advanced type of Cost-Per-Install (CPI). CPA, which facilitates payment for particular actions such as in-app purchases, subscriptions, and sign-ups, gives publishers more opportunities to monetize their inventory.

Cost-per-view (CPV)

The greatest users of this technique are marketers running video ad campaigns. According to this business model, advertisers get charged each time their mobile video ad is viewed.

Mobile ads targeting

There are a number of parameters that enable narrowing down a mobile ad campaign reach to a certain audience. These elements are referred to as targeting options.

Geo

Advertisers can narrow down an ad campaign within a specific country or region, enabling them to advertise a product or service within relevant geographic areas.

Gender

Advertisers can narrow an ad campaign to mobile users of a particular gender.

Interests

Advertisers can narrow an ad campaign to an audience segment with specific interests only.

Device

Advertisers can choose which models of mobile devices will show their ads, thus allowing them to avoid a mobile ad experience degradation.

OS

It provides advertisers the advantage of displaying ads to mobile users on devices that are best to display them from a software perspective.

Carrier

Advertisers can choose to show ads to mobile users who are served by a particular mobile carrier.

Connection

This targeting option enables the display of mobile advertisements on mobile devices connected to the Internet via Wi-fi, 5G, or 4G LTE connection.

How to choose the best mobile ad network?

When choosing a mobile app advertising network, you should consider the following factors:

Size of the mobile ad network

The option you choose should accumulate an essential pool of demand partners globally. This ensures that your inventory will sell out quickly.

Price model, including compensation & payment terms

Make sure that the pricing model fits your requirements and that the payment terms are flexible enough for you to withdraw the money when you need it.

Ad quality

This applies not only to creative vetting; it also means that the platform should have all tools in place to verify advertisers and their campaigns. Additionally, a reliable ad network should support the implementation of ads.txt for mobile apps. Originally used for websites, ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is now used in mobile apps to reduce ad fraud by allowing publishers to declare who is authorized to sell their ad inventory. This helps ensure higher ad quality and prevents unauthorized sources from profiting from your app’s traffic.

Support provided

Not every publisher is well-versed in programmatic platforms. Additionally, timely support is crucial for achieving smooth problem resolutions.

Publisher controls

It is good if the platform provides you with inventory-controlling tools that enable setting floor pricing, blacklisting demand sources, and selecting which types of ads to give preference or block in your app. 

10 Top Mobile Ad Networks

Ad networks are diverse, and finding the most suitable and reliable format of full-screen ads for mobile apps with specific niches can be challenging.

Therefore, we have compiled a list of the top ad networks that provide a full breakdown of how they work and what business models they offer.

The list of the Ad Networks for Mobile Advertising is following:

SmartyAds

SmartyAds offers a full package of ad tech tools to help you monetize your apps and websites.

Signing up for Smarty Ads gives you access to premium ad network campaigns, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and ad agencies through OpenRTB protocols using Smarty Ads DSP.

SmartyAds SSP is an all-in-one solution for monetizing your content with access to multiple brands.

Real-time quantum analytics lets you view actionable ad campaign insights. It's also compatible with DMPs, SSPs, Ad Servers, Ad Networks, and Billing systems.

The average CTR is 5.48%, and the price per thousand impressions is about $1.01.

SmartyAds SSP features

Highest fill rates. The platform provides high fill rates through top verticals (arts and entertainment, technology and computing, gaming, business, education, health, and fitness). The fill rate is over 80%.

Reach. Effective RTB selling on a CPM basis.

Ad formats. High-impact mobile web and app monetization formats include video, native, interstitials, rewarded ads, and CTV.

Maximized demand. Using RTB and competitive technologies, publishers can frequently connect to premium advertisers.

SmartyAds DSP works like advanced mobile marketing networks for advertisers.

SmartyAds DSP features

Reach. Effective RTB purchasing on a CPM basis.

Ad formats. SmartyAds provides different ad formats, including banner ads, video ads, display ads, native ads, interstitial ads, full-screen ads, rich media ads, CTV, etc.

Targeting options. The platform gives precise targeting for mobile and app advertising, including target audience according to GEO, OS, IP, dayparting, device type, and more.

Brand safety. Protected Media, Forensiq, and manual traffic quality review ensure that ads are never displayed alongside controversial content and that only viewable impressions are created.

AdMob

With its AdSense advertising platform, Google AdMob is the prime market leader in the online advertising system. Google facilitates its advertisers with various features in its mobile advertising platform.

It allows for the ad-based monetization of apps of all types and sizes, regardless of where you are.

And because it's Google, it also syncs with Google AdSense if you're running web campaigns. This ad network has features for beginner and advanced publishers designed to help maximize your profits.

Main features

Lots of ad formats. AdMob has high-quality ad demand for all the most popular ad formats, including native, rewarded video, interstitial, and banner ads. You can choose what ad format you want to feature.

Broad reach. This network has over 100 partner ad networks.

Using AI. You can place ads using automatic AI, adding one line of code to your app, and ads are automatically generated.

Ad mediation. You can link to other mobile ad networks. AdMob has a smooth app integration and software development kit. Google is known for its best mobile ad SDK, which can be installed quickly and show relevant advertisements to app users anywhere.

Mobile ad mediation is meant to increase revenue while decreasing efforts for mobile ad publishers.

Analytics. You can track your campaign performance by connecting to Google Analytics.

AdMob is among the most popular mobile ad networks offering high CPM and fill rates.

Facebook Audience Network

Facebook Audience Networks enable advertisers to show ads on the Facebook ecosystem via mobile applications.

Facebook ranks as the second-best mobile advertising network for attracting relevant users to apps.

FAN benefits

Broad Reach. The Facebook Audience Network enables you to reach beyond Facebook ads, reaching up to 16% more people than on Facebook alone.

Affordability. It is a more affordable ad network, as advertisers can place ads cheaper.

Ad formats. Facebook renders the ad size to fit any placement type ad space you want to use, including native, banner, video, and interstitial ads.

Extensive targeting. An advertiser can easily create a highly personalized campaign by choosing a target audience based on several factors.

Reputation and quality. Facebook Audience Network does not buy third-party traffic or first-party data.

RichAds

RichAds stands among global self-serve mobile ad networks for advertisers and publishers that can give you exclusive access to thousands of high-quality publishers worldwide.

They are trusted by thousands of affiliates worldwide as a proven source of high-quality traffic. They are perfect for finding high-converting audience segments in a variety of mobile ad formats.

RichAds benefits

Ad impression. It has over 5 billion impressions per day for the perfect scaling.

High conversion rates. RichAds includes premium sources with incredibly high conversion rates.

Expert support. There are ready-made whitelists, custom creatives for your offers, and turnkey ad campaigns.

Targeting. It has a target CPA for the best bids and HQ traffic (300% ROI with auto-optimization). 

Flagship features include optimizer, predictor, multiformat, and performance mode.

AppSamurai

AppSamurai is an AI-powered One-Stop-Shop user acquisition platform for advertisers to access premium global placements.

AppSamurai benefits

User acquisition. AppSamurai optimization engine will ensure clients spend their budget on users they care about.

OEMs & recommendation engine. The platform provides access to direct app placements on Android devices like Samsung, Oppo & Xiaomi and gives exclusive recommendation engines.

Rewarded engagement. The platform supplies premium rewarded placements & direct offerwalls. It could expand the user base.

Ad formats. AppSamurai includes interstitial, video, native, offerwall, and banner ads.

AI-based real-time optimization. You can increase the efficacy of your campaigns by optimizing them based on your app's historical performance, ad content, and target audience.

1-on-1 client success support. The platform provides 1-on-1 client support throughout and after their app's campaigns for ongoing assistance post-launch, including weekly reports, monthly strategic reviews, and competitor analyses to ensure KPI achievement.

EXADS

EXADS builds powerful white-label ad-serving platforms customized to the smallest detail for advertisers, publishers, ad networks, and agencies.

It provides all the functionalities necessary to maximize revenues while the teams provide all the support required.

From a fully-fledged ad network infrastructure to publisher ad servers and native, video, mobile, or email ad servers, EXADS covers all the aspects of ad serving, cross-channel and cross-device.

EXADS benefits

RTB. RTB solutions allow easy integration with the supply or demand partners of the client's choice.

Analytics. EXADS' powerful analytics give the client access to all the data you need to optimize digital advertising and present reports.

Targeting. It provides unrivaled targeting options that help achieve better message reception, engagement, and higher conversion rates.

Ad formats. EXADS includes the following ad formats: display, native, video, pop-up, and rich media ads.

24/7 support. The platform claims to provide around-the-clock customer support.

Unity Ads

Unity Ads is a mobile ad network focusing on mobile game monetization.

Unity Ads has its ad exchange with dozens of integrated demand sources. It allows publishers to implement all kinds of mobile ads network and supports all major mobile platforms and operating systems. Detailed reporting and insights are also available.

Main features

Support for in-app purchases. It allows developers and publishers to market their apps to the right audience.

Ad formats. The platform includes all available kinds of mobile ad formats.

Reporting and analytics. Unity Ads provides detailed reporting and analytics tools, allowing advertisers to track ad performance and optimize their campaigns for higher ROI.

Payment model. You can run CPC, CPV, CPM, and CPI campaigns with Unity Ads.

HilltopAds

HilltopAds is one of the best CPM mobile ad exchanges for publishers and advertisers from all over the world.

The unique feature of HilltopAds is traffic segmentation by quality and activity of users.

First, HilltopAds algorithms remove all bot/cheated traffic.

Further, the remaining traffic sources are segmented into 3 groups:

1. The high-quality segment contains the sources of the highest quality traffic that will convert your ad in the best possible way. If traffic quality decreases, such a source is automatically excluded from your campaign. You don't have to do anything;
2. The medium quality segment contains users with average quality and activity scores. This segment is ideal for scaling your campaign after testing high-activity traffic;
3. The low activity segment contains users who are least likely to perform the target action but are not bot traffic. Suitable for those who want the maximum number of impressions at the lowest prices.

Benefits for Publishers

• Fast sign-up process and instant activation of your account. You can sell your traffic right after registration;
• No minimum traffic requirements;
• Flexible setup of the advertisement, placement area, and display frequency on your website;
• Direct link traffic is accepted;
• High CPM for high-quality traffic.

Benefits for Advertisers

• Auto Optimization;
• High ROI and low CPM for top GEOs;
• Instant approval.

PropellerAds

PropellerAds is a multisource advertising platform providing access to unique traffic sources and AI-based ad-serving/optimization tools for media buyers, agencies, brand owners, and affiliate marketers.

PropellerAds' in-house developments, such as advertisement rotation algorithms, allow you to analyze a large number of users by numerous parameters and find the most suitable audience for each offer.

Main features:

• CPA Goal bidding — AI algorithm that tests many ad placements and automatically picks the best bid (auction price) for each placement taking into account the desired conversion price set by an advertiser. So partners don't have to filter, blacklist, or whitelist zones (ad placements) manually. Based on PropellerAds' tests, the traffic price is 40% less than with the manual bidding models;
• Interest Targeting for push notifications is the exclusive targeting option of this company.

Based on data of the latest user acquisition activity in the system and big data predictions, this feature allows bringing users together in groups with the highest probability of relevant interest to an offer. The groups include various affiliate marketing verticals.

• Direct click allows testing an offer with the most-engaged audience that the system identified. This traffic type will most likely bring desired conversions based on PropellerAds algorithms and system predictions;
• Multiformat CPA Goal campaign — showing ads to the broadest possible audience with just a couple of extra clicks is possible. Turning on this feature advertiser lets the system automatically copy the campaign parameters to other ad formats — push, in-page push, or onclick, depending on the initial format. Thus, no need to set up extra creatives and copy targeting settings manually.

Amazon Publisher Services

Amazon Publisher Services (APS) belongs to the largest mobile ad networks. It allows publishers and app developers to monetize mobile app traffic through an array of mobile ad formats.

The platform comes with unique Amazon ad demand and available integrations with other demand sources. APS uses in-app header bidding technology and comes with an array of analytics tools.

While APS offers great features and tools, joining the platform can be challenging.

Main Features

Transparent. This network provides zero fees and direct relationships with programmatic advertising buyers.

Unified. A single contract gives the client access to unique demand from Amazon and other advertisers.

Broad Reach. Integrations require no extra development work and come with APS customer support.

Ad formats. The platform includes the following ad formats: display, audio, video ads, banner ads, and pre-roll video ads.

To sum up

From a publisher's perspective, you should seek out a mobile ad network that offers high eCPMs, convenient inventory control tools, and an essential pool of quality demand. Today, media-selling algorithms on these platforms are based on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and smart data-targeting management. Thus, you can achieve the best possible outcomes while avoiding the daily grind of constant manual work.

Assess all your objectives and purposes and then define an option or two where you could successfully monetize your mobile placement. Meanwhile, we hope that our list will help you quickly assess which mobile ad networks best suit your needs.

Stay ahead of advertising innovations. Join SmartyAds SSP as a publisher!