There are multiple metrics of mobile app monetization; some say there might be too many! Sometimes though, it’s always best to stick with basics. In the process of optimizing app monetization, one of the most powerful methods is optimizing ad use rate.
What’s Use Rate?
An app’s use rate is the percentage of DAU (Daily Active Users) of a given app who are served at least one ad that day. For instance, if an app has 1 million daily active users and 200,000 of them see one video ad today, that app has a 20% use rate.
Importance of Use Rate
Use rate tells a publisher how effectively they are reaching users with in-app ad monetization integrations.
For example, if an app’s use rate is 20%, then the publisher is (theoretically) leaving 80% of potential ad revenue sources on the table.
Why Should You Be Increasing Use Rate?
The objective of increasing the ad use rate within a given app is to make a reasonable number of ads available to a broader segment of an app’s daily active users. In doing so, the publisher is able to deliver more overall ad impressions without inundating its users with ads at every turn.
Examining the Data
Through multiple case studies in the full report, it becomes evident that increasing the ad use rate of an app:
- Drives increased ad ARPDAU
- Often increases eCPM
- Does not affect DAU
- Correlates with increased session time
- Improves ad monetization efficiency
The question is not whether use rate for a given app should be increased, but how.
Download the full report for all of the insights and key findings of the case studies based on different app categories!
Here’s one of the multiple examples of how increasing use rate affects the Ad ARPDAU on different app genres.
Effect of Use Rate on Ad ARPDAU: Adventure RPG
In this case, a publisher of an app with over 400,000 DAU released an update that improved the placement and prominence of the video ad integration. This update drove a significant increase in use rate.
Specifically, the average use rate after the update was 95.5% higher at 24.3% vs. a previous 12.4%. This drove an overall 136.5% Ad ARPDAU increase.
While an increase in Ad ARPDAU is expected with an increase in use rate as more users are monetized, the rate of Ad ARPDAU growth is most telling. Simply put, for each 1% Use Rate increased, Ad ARPDAU increased 1.2% signaling that improving use rate likewise improved ad monetization efficiency.
In fact, the average revenue per ad monetized daily active user increased by 21.1% after the update.
About the Study
The data was compiled within AdColony’s network, where it was then anonymized and analyzed.
Join the Conversation
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