MAU 2024 recap: Unlocking mobile app growth and the pathways to success on the open internet

Mobile Apps Unlocked (MAU) Vegas is the premier event for mobile app marketers, where industry leaders gather to share insights, trends, and strategies in the world of mobile app marketing. We've just wrapped up an incredible MAU Vegas 2024, a week of immersive experiences, insightful talks, and invaluable networking.

We're deeply thankful to our customers, partners, and all attendees who made this year's MAU an extraordinary success. Here’s our recap of insights to revisit and our main takeaways from this year's MAU 2024:

unityonemedia keynote takeaways

unityonemedia's focus this year was on steering and navigating our customers and partners toward untapped opportunities in the open internet. Ben Jeger, VP of EMEA Sales at unityonemedia, delivered an insightful keynote that uncovered the mechanics of the open internet and how to tap into its enormous potential:

• Open internet is a big opportunity: Beyond the confined ecosystems of walled gardens such as Apple, Meta, and Google, the open internet offers expansive reach with access to millions of independent apps. For example, unityonemedia connects to over 40 exchanges, reaching over 6.7 billion devices and over 3 million apps. This immense reach requires advertisers to strategize effectively to target such a diverse and extensive audience.
  

• The art of supply path optimization: On the open internet, a single impression often receives multiple bid requests from various exchanges, creating complex, interwoven web of paths. For instance, at unityonemedia, we typically see around 12 bid requests across three exchanges for just one impression. Managing this effectively and finding the optimal path to success goes beyond human capability. Machine learning (ML) unlocks the true potential of supply path optimization, turning the complexities into clear paths for success. ML can predict which supply paths offer the optimal price and creatives to maximize advertiser return on investment (ROI).
  

• There is no exclusive inventory: Contrary to popular belief, exclusive inventory is nearly nonexistent on the open internet. For example, when taking unityonemedia's top 7 exchanges, which account for 70% of impressions, only 1% of this inventory is unique. Success is not about your inventory's exclusivity but how effectively machine learning can choose the right path to maximize advertiser ROI.

• The launch of unityonemedia SDK: unityonemedia is introducing a unique SDK to the industry that is not a new business line for us, as all efficiencies gained go directly to advertisers and publishers to maximize their ROI. The unityonemedia SDK is another path where machine learning will impartially evaluate all supply paths, including ours. We're not pushing traffic toward our SDK; instead, we're letting ML decide the best path based on the best return on ad spend (ROAS). This move addresses the challenge of non-exclusive inventory in the industry, streamlining the ad buying process on the open internet and effectively tapping into the extensive opportunities available.

Insights from customers at MAU

MAU Vegas 2024 was a great way to network and share insights with industry peers and leaders, as well as gather knowledge from brilliant minds on the hottest industry topics, working strategies, and success stories shaping mobile app marketing. 

1. Creatives

• Diverse creative approaches: There are a myriad of new creative formats that advertisers can leverage on the open internet, and many are looking for scalable production capabilities. As a result, advertisers are beginning to experiment with AI-driven content, user-generated content (UGC), and external companies, all of which can help produce and diversify their creative mix.
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• Challenges and solutions: While these new formats can provide opportunities for advertisers, challenges remain. Significant production overhead is required for more immersive creatives (e.g., playable), which requires relatively significant investment. Moreover, AI-generated creatives pose legal and brand challenges, given that the advertiser does not entirely control the creatives produced.

2. Measurement and privacy 

• Complexities in campaign effectiveness: As privacy regulations tighten, accurately measuring and optimizing campaigns becomes more intricate. Advertisers seek new ways to effectively gauge campaign performance across various measurement frameworks and incrementality solutions.
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• SKAN and MMPs for measurement: With privacy changes, there are now multiple attribution frameworks to measure a campaign's success. Some advertisers are beginning to shift towards SKAN-only measurement, while others continue to rely on MMP probabilistic methods. Most advertisers expect that privacy regulations will continue to tighten and are starting to prepare for a world of aggregate, anonymized measurement with SKAN for iOS and Android Privacy Sandbox for Android.
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• Standardization in measurement: There's a growing consensus for a standardized measurement approach across platforms. Given the diverse user interactions with ads, the old way of simply relying on clicks and views is not enough. More granular measurement methods are needed to properly understand how users interact with ads and better understand advertising performance holistically.

3. Global expansion

• Expanding global reach and tailored strategies: Advertisers increasingly focus on diversifying their spending across different global markets, actively seeking pockets of value to scale their apps effectively. Success in these efforts hinges on adapting to the distinct preferences of users in various regions. By integrating insights from diverse markets, advertisers can develop more targeted and effective global strategies, ensuring their campaigns resonate with each unique audience segment.
  
  

Unlocking mobile app growth beyond MAU

And that concludes our recap of MAU Vegas 2024! We'd like to extend a huge thank you to event organizers, the exhibitors, speakers, customers, and our dedicated team who worked tirelessly to make this a memorable event.

If you’re keen on exploring the latest in machine learning and open internet strategies for unlocking mobile app growth, we’re just a conversation away. We look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of mobile app marketing together.