The Ascent of Ad Mediation in 2019: How Ad Networks Should Adapt to Remain Competitive Appodeal Follow Dec 13, 2017 · 16 min read

With the ascent of ad mediation in the mobile app ad space over the last few years, traditional ad networks are now at a watershed existential moment.

From the publisher’s point of view, integrating an ad mediation SDK, which comes bundled with numerous ad networks, is a no-brainer over integrating individual ad network SDKs.

Seeing what the mobile app ad market is evolving into, it is no surprise that several major ad networks (see AdMob, IronSource and Glispa) have launched or acquired their own ad mediation platforms over the past year. They join the growing ad mediation market that includes Fyber, HeyZap, Appodeal and MoPub.

Since ad mediation is here to stay and will continue to be widely adopted by publishers, ad networks must adapt quickly to remain competitive in this new landscape.

It should serve as a cautionary tale for the mobile world that several desktop SSPs have already seen steep revenue decline for not adapting quickly enough to the now prevalent header bidder landscape in the desktop world.

CHALLENGES OF MEETING ADVERTISERS’ OBJECTIVES

Ad mediation has increased the number of ad networks competing against each other for an ad impression from 2 or 3 to more than 20, making it increasingly difficult for some ad networks to serve ads.

When publishers used to work with just a handful of ad networks, meeting the advertisers’ objectives of accessing ad inventory and targeting audience at scale was simpler, since ad networks were usually competing with just 2 or 3 other networks.

However, as ad mediation increases the number of ad demand sources competing against each other in the waterfall for an ad impression from 2 or 3 to more than 20, it is imperative for ad networks to evolve their technology to remain competitive in the mediation arena. Failure to do so means many ad networks’ ads will not be served and advertisers’ objectives will not be met. Those ad networks will then risk losing advertisers and, ultimately, their revenue.

Ad demand sources: providers of ads that can come from programmatic sources (RTB marketplaces or exchanges) or non-programmatic sources (traditional ad networks)

It’s important to note, too, that the algorithms of ad mediation platforms are advancing at the same time. Therefore, ad networks cannot simply adapt to the current ways ad mediation performs. As you will read below, ad mediation platforms have already undergone several major evolutions.