InMobi organized the first edition of CAB (customer advisory board) in January 2020, where we gathered industry leaders from across the ecosystem to discuss the product roadmap for the year and beyond. The goal of this board was to channel customer feedback in a more open, diverse forum, and provide our customers a direct channel to guide InMobi’s product roadmap in a way that helps them the most. 
 

Updates as of June 2020

As we shared in our blog earlier this year, we had decided to work on five major themes. Here are the updates on what work InMobi has been doing over the past six months. 

1) Working To Solve Identity And Measurement Challenges 

 
InMobi became the first mobile supply-side platform (SSP) to integrate with LiveRamp’s IdentityLink solution, which enables InMobi Exchange advertisers to run campaigns with accurate cross-channel targeting and measurement. 
 
We will continue to work with players across the ecosystem to advance the adoption of neutral, open and interoperable identity solutions like IdentityLink through close collaboration with LiveRamp, Beeswax and others. We are continuing to evaluate other identity partnerships that represent the most value for customers in the near to medium term. 

2) Making Emerging Channels Available Through InMobi Exchange 

InMobi launched connected television (CTV) apps on our exchange in Q1 and have seen good adoption. We now cover monetization across several devices including Roku, Apple TV, FireTV Stick, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV and PlayStation.  
 
Advertisers are buying inventory on CTV apps, via VAST video tags, available on both Open Exchange and PMPs. All of this traffic undergoes pre-bid invalid traffic (IVT) filtering and post-bid IVT monitoring by DoubleVerify. 

3) Standardizing Header Bidding for DSPs 

We have gradually ramped up the supply on our exchange available via our header bidding solution for apps, Audience Bidding. It’s a fast-growing segment of our business and demand-side platforms (DSPs) are spending well on this supply. Performance DSPs especially have been among the biggest spenders on this supply. 
 
InMobi’s Audience Bidding solution, which is available via an SDK, enables DSPs to access all of a publisher’s inventory in a unified auction, guaranteeing first look access to 100% of the publisher’s inventory. DSPs also get access to a more user data-rich ad request, as this inventory is enriched by high quality first-party data, including carrier data, before being sent to DSPs. 
 
The Audience Bidding SDK is already integrated with Amazon (Transparent Ad Marketplace), MAX and MoPub Header Bidding platforms, and we are currently integrating or evaluating integration with FairBid, LevelPlay, Prebid and Google AdManager. 
 
In-app header bidding has not moved as fast as desktop header bidding because of technical challenges in apps as compared to the relative ease of implementation on the desktop side, but our years of expertise in in-app monetization and SDK development makes us well-placed to solve this challenge for publishers and DSPs alike. 
 
Meanwhile, we also plan to introduce header bidding supply for CTV and FEP (Full Episode Player) formats. We are working on integrating with SpringServe and Freewheel, and evaluating integration with SpotX, Telaria and Prebid. 

4) Strengthening Mobile Video Advertising 

One of InMobi’s key areas of progress this year has been the work we have been doing to improve the ad performance for our DSPs and buyers through work across our exchange. 
 
Supplementing the investments on in-app header bidding supply that have led to improved performance for DSPs across the board, we have also worked on significant improvements to our ad serving templates. A lot of improvements were focused on enhancing the ad viewing experience for the user and enabling higher ad engagement and better interactivity.  
 
These improvements were the result of insights developed over extensive A/B testing experiments and optimizations. Highlighting the “Know More” button and customizing its color based on region and the region’s sensibilities, enabling user to engage with ads at an earlier time if they so desired, removing elements that induced anxiety when the ad was playing, and end card enhancements were among some of the features that were introduced to drive these improvements. 

5) Improving Monetization For App Publishers 

InMobi’s Audience Bidding SDK, our header bidding solution for apps, has gained significant traction with our publishers this year. It works seamlessly with mediation platforms to send a single ad call to all ad sources simultaneously. Publishers are seeing increased fill rates and revenue compared to their waterfall setups, with DSPs seeing value in first-look, user data-enriched inventory available via the Audience Bidding SDK. 
 
Currently integrated with MAX, MoPub and Amazon’s Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) header bidding platforms, we will continue to expand our partnerships in this space to improve monetization for our publishers.  

Next Steps 

As a result of COVID-19, our next CAB meeting will not occur in person. Instead, we will be convening specific members soon over more focused video chats to discuss particular next steps, until it is safe enough to have everyone meet in person.  

We’re looking forward to the next CAB meetings already, and to all of the forthcoming improvements to InMobi Exchange.