Ask HN: Help scaling app advertising, and strategies for better results
Ok, this used to be my thing but I will try to get you an overview.<p>Ad networks nowadays offer all options. Generally you start with CPC to test creatives and optimize the creative. Once you can get a performing ad or funnel you can start aiming for CPM bidding if it makes sense. Ie. if you have a good CTR, you can reduce your CPC equivalent down to peanuts or at least lower than by paying CPC.<p>The power of getting into CPM is not only to drive down the cost, but to actually capture all the volume an ad spot can get.<p>IF you are able to bid a high enough CPM you will win all the &quot;air time&quot;, instead of the network having to split yours with other advertisers paying by other means.<p>CPM&#x2F;CPC&#x2F;CTR is worth nothing if you are not converting, so the key to everything is to do do actual measurements and optimization based on everything you can measure. This is more involved than you would like to think and it is REAL grunt work. It is also how you can make tons of money and make your spend profitable.<p>You need to know what creative is creating more conversions, what OS is generating more conversions. (ie. iOS is more profitable - higher income users), what city&#x2F;state (similar logic as OS).<p>I used to advertise on Inmobi and Airpush. Please check if there are others.<p>Initially you want to spend to gather data and then start drilling down on the best performing targeting.<p>There are ad optimization tools that can help with this and integrate with different ad networks. I really dont know what&#x27;s out there now but I am sure there are. These give you a place to add pixel tracking, analyze data and really drill down on the data to see what is making you more money.