Top 8 Reasons You Need a Mobile DSP for Better ROAS

It's no secret that the best app users are the ones who go beyond just downloading the app. They're the ones that continue to embrace the functions and services repeatedly to become high-quality users.

But securing these high-quality users, well, that's a whole other story. Standing out amongst an App Store market of 1.6 million or an Android market of 3 million is challenging. Enter mobile DSPs. From programmatic bidding to advanced targeting, analytics, insights, and more, mobile DSPs can be pivotal in breaking through the noise and securing those sought-after users.

In the article below, we will explore mobile DSPs, the different types, and how they can become an integral part of your path to securing those high-quality users and achieving better ROAS.

Mobile DSPs Unpacked

Mobile demand-side platforms (DSPs) are SaaS platforms that media buyers use to run ads on mobile inventory. They're connected to various ad networks, SSPs, and ad exchanges with diverse inventory available through a single interface.

There's no need to negotiate with each publisher or study the ever-changing rules of each channel. You set bidding rules, targeting preferences, and automate campaigns across your entire network. And you can use multiple simultaneously, as DSPs don’t cannibalize one another.

Types of Mobile DSP Solutions

Your mobile DSP needs to generate high-value users that keep buying through your app. Let’s explore some solutions to make this possible.

Self-Serve Mobile DSP

With a self-serve mobile DSP, you get campaign management tools, a centralized reporting dashboard for all your campaigns, and integrations with complementary tools. The mobile DSP’s API transfers your data to related platforms to inform them of changes you make in your campaigns, so those can be created seamlessly.

You also get:

Complete control: You decide when and where ad campaigns run and the budget. Everything can be aligned according to your brand values and goals.

A budget-friendly option: You’re not hiring experts, just renting software usage, so costs are reduced.

A deeper understanding of your audience: You get to know them more deeply - from their favorite colors to the phrases that move them, what works for them, and what doesn’t. This helps you connect with them further down the funnel, increasing their lifetime value.

Full Service (Managed) Mobile DSP

A managed mobile DSP gives you all the technological benefits of a self-serve platform - with added human benefits. Working with people who live and breathe the ads your audience sees daily has a crucial impact on your ROAS.

Get inside information from your industry and complementary fields that most advertisers don’t have access to. A managed mobile DSP provides you with an experienced account manager who understands what works best for your target audience.

Other benefits are:

You can scale faster. Your in-house team might not have the capacity to work on as many campaigns as a managed mobile DSP. With a managed approach, you still get the data - only bigger and better.

You’re still the boss. The focus is on helping you reach your goals. You know your audience best, and you decide how you want to grow. Your account manager is here to help you turn this vision into reality.

Pay only for results. With platforms like Edge226, you only pay when users complete post-install, revenue generating actions. You get to define what you consider as key results and contribute to a better ROAS.

Top 8 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile DSP for Better ROAS in 2023

Whichever approach you choose, we’ve seen clients thrive with the vast abilities of mobile DSPs. Here’s why you should try them out.

1. Advanced Targeting and Retargeting Advertising

Mobile DSPs enable you to leverage sophisticated targeting capabilities, then retarget based on engagement and conversion indicators to reach your desired audience with precision.

There’s an abundance of technologies involved, including:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Data management
• Programmatic advertising
• Customer relationship management
• Behavioral tracking
• Geofencing

With everything seamlessly working in unison, mobile DSPs allow you to display banners, videos, and native ads in front of the right eyes at the perfect time for conversion.

Some mobile DSPs offer engagement optimization (users who will like or subscribe), lowering retargeting costs. Others offer optimization toward lower-funnel performance (people who’ve clicked through to a landing page or filled a shopping cart). All in all, mobile DSPs offer a completely seamless experience. While browsing in app, users will see an ad that they can click on to quickly install - all on the same device.

2. Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

Mobile DSPs integrate with SSPs and publishers using real-time bidding platforms. These platforms let you participate in real-time ad impression auctions.

This bidding runs exactly like an auction, with the winner being determined within seconds or milliseconds. To win this ad space, you must define your bidding criteria - including how much you’re willing to pay for each type of user or situation. When the time comes, the highest bidder gets their ad displayed.

Real-time bidding allocates your budget more efficiently, as you’re only paying for valuable impressions for your business, further contributing to improved ROAS. Plus, the intention is to serve the ad while the lead is still hot.

3. Fraud Prevention

The aim is always to attract high-value customers who continue to use the app long after they press download. But it’s real human beings who you should seek.

Unfortunately, digital ad fraud is a real threat in our digital world. In 2022, ad fraud costs reached $81 billion and is predicted to increase to $100 billion by 2023. With ad stacking, click fraud, and impression fraud - many brands can be vulnerable to it, and it's challenging to increase ROAS when unintentionally paying for fake conversions.

With mobile DSPs, however, advanced fraud prevention measures are employed and third-party verification tools are in place to ensure ad impressions are genuine. This safeguards your brand and your advertising budget.

4. Campaign Scalability

Using a mobile DSP allows you to efficiently handle large-scale ad campaigns across multiple networks and publishers. With a high volume of creatives, targeting options and data on hand, reaching a wider and higher quality audience has never been easier than when you have a demand side platform.

Scalability and better ROAS is achieved by going beyond the norm. It combines data from a wider range of resources and organizes everything on one dashboard, making your work easier to find, more data-driven and enabling faster growth.

5. Data Driven Optimization

Mobile DSPs gather data from a wealth of sources, store it, and clean it properly to account for accuracy.

When you have this data, you can quickly analyze it and optimize campaigns based on real information about your target audience. It completely takes the guesswork out of how to attract valued customers.

DSPs aggregate data from all your campaigns, across all your networks, and turn them into actionable analytics that segment user behavior, psychographics and patterns.

This data focused optimization then helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaign in real-time. Instead of wasting your budget on irrelevant ads or audiences, you double down on what works and get more from each dollar you invest.

6. Multiple Networks and SSPs

DSPs allow you to reach audience members wherever they are - including in-app.

You can run campaigns on the channels your audience frequents most. Ideally, you opt for a campaign approach that targets multiple networks and SSPs, keeping messaging and branding consistent across the board, even though you optimize ads per channel.

When your audience sees this cohesive brand experience, it’s easier to develop emotional connections and trust. This, in turn, can increase purchase and retention likelihood.

7. Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

DCOs provide an automated way to create countless ad assets from the same creative, which will then be carefully (though automatically) selected for the best use case for peak conversions.

This feature analyzes a ton of data, including users’ shopping and browsing behaviors, to choose the ideal text-visual combination for the ultimate connection with each user. It pays attention to messaging, types of images, and colors. Then, they test responses and amend them for better results.

Most advertising teams don’t have the capacity to create and test as many ad variations as DCOs do. The more tests, the higher your chance to convert more of the right users.

8. Performance Tracking and Attribution

Unattributable data decreased from 15% in 2020 to 3% in 2022, providing brands with full transparency and further insights. Knowing which action and ad spend led to which conversion is a big benefit of using a mobile DSP, and DSPs are stepping up.

In light of this, a mobile DSP might offer one or more attribution models to assist with performance tracking and attribution.

Including:

• Single touch (gives the highest value to the last touchpoint)
• Linear (each touchpoint receives equal value)
• Time-decay (the closer it is to the conversion, the higher the value a touchpoint gets)
• Dynamic (value per touchpoint is different each time, depending on specific customer journeys)

The more you know, the more you can optimize. Speaking of, DSP’s can be integrated with a ‘mobile measurement partner.’ An MPP helps apps to measure performance across various ad networks, media sources, and advertising marketing channels. It’s an easy way to see all your data in one place, while learning where to improve app performance and how to use your budget more effectively.

Elevate Your App Growth to New Peaks

The app space is a highly competitive market. A mobile DSP helps you increase the number of high-quality users, which increases your ROAS. That, in turn, turns your department into the revenue generating star of the company.

We founded Edge226 to help you do just that. No more high ad spend and low rewards. We only charge when you see results and have vast experience acquiring highly engaged users for your app at scale.

Book a demo, and we’ll help elevate your app growth to new peaks.