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An Adotas Q&A with Kai Sung, CTO at Manage, explores the variables that impact mobile latency: ad size, connection speed, format, caching, server proximity and downstream click experience.
Q: What are some of the challenges unique to mobile when it comes to ad viewability?
A: While it’s taken for granted that consumers viewing desktop ads have a stable internet connection, this is fundamentally different for mobile users. A mobile user might be connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, but these vary widely as well in terms of bandwidth and signal strength, both of which can make the difference between an ad loading for a successful “view.”
Q:What are the factors that contribute to mobile ad performance?
A: There are a variety of factors that impact mobile ad performance on the mobile user, publisher and DSP side of the equation. Connection speed is a critical element on the user side, but the size of the creative, format, if the ad is cached or not, and proximity of server all play a role in determining the quality of a view. While playable ads are becoming popular for their improved engagement results, they require a larger file size. Many interstitial ads are pre-cached by the SDK in an app, before a mobile user finishes playing a level in a game, for example. By the time that the user is ready to view the ad, it loads more quickly.
Q: How should advertisers adjust their creative and targeting to respond to these challenges?
A: Two steps advertisers can take to reduce latency include using a distributed content delivery network (CDN) to host creative files and reduce creative file size to no larger than 800KB. A CDN can ensure that the server hosting the creative is as close as possible to the mobile user’s location, while a smaller overall file size reduces the time it takes to load the creative. Even a few milliseconds matter.
Q: What role do demand-side platforms and publishers play in delivering optimal ad performance?
A: DSPs and publishers can also play a role in improving ad performance, as well as impact the downstream click/conversion path. DSPs can target mobile users based on their current connectivity status – optimizing engagement with users with stable Wi-Fi connectivity for larger file-size creatives while serving smaller files to a user on a limited cellular connection.
Pre-caching ads is also an ideal approach to ensuring that an ad is ready for viewing at the optimal time for a user. This can pay additional dividends if the same creative is served to a user multiple times. Another concept is hybrid serving — a quick latency check will be run when an ad is initially loaded initially and then factor that information into future ads that will be served.
Once a mobile user clicks on an ad, another element comes into play as the user is redirected to a website or an app store. Minimizing the “hops” required can shorten the redirect process by a few milliseconds, which is enough to make the difference between someone abandoning the process or clicking through to purchase or download.
Q: What trends are on the horizon that might impact performance moving forward?
A: New ad units like playables offer additional ways for mobile users to engage with the ad itself by playing a timed demo of a game, for example. This is compelling in a mobile context as it can give mobile users a true-to-life experience of an app before downloading it. When compared to a static creative, these ad units require larger file sizes. To maximize both the opportunities for publishers and DSPs to serve ads to mobile users and engage them by driving a view, click, or downstream conversion, all players must take steps to ensure that ads load quickly and add value to, not hamper, the mobile experience
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