AppLovin MAX vs. Vungle

MoPub is perfect for US in app campaigns. They are able to offer inventory worldwide, but clearly the US is their home turf and the place where they feel most comfortable. They work well for performance campaigns, but I would not use them for branding purposes. They are very responsive and keep improving their product offering to stay competitive.

Incentivized

Vungle works well for branding and performance as video is a high impact format that and that has good CTRs and CVRs. However, for advertisers without a lot of budget, Vungle may not be a good option as the CPMs on the exchange are very high. For branding there are alternatives that have a more developed product, where video can be targeted near content the user may like, like Teads.

Incentivized

• Lightweight SDK with waterfall setup
• Large support for every ad format possible
• Great display of analytics
• Amazing support team

• You can work on a CPI basis on the network level.
• Strong in the US. A lot of inventory there.
• SSP integration very fast and good technical team.

Incentivized

• Their take rate is not transparent, its unclear the margin percentage.
• Not a lot of premium publishers on the platfrom, mostly gaming.
• Discrepancies keep arising between impressions served and billing numbers.

Incentivized

• Product development. They have not evolved their product significantly still offering the same videos they had 3 years ago.
• Slow to respond to product questions.
• Not enough scale on APAC GEOS.

Incentivized

MoPub is a great SSP. It is a trusted partner that can help you scale campaigns as well as educate the client about the benefits of programmatic advertising. They have a lot of inventory and a great support team. I wouldn't say they are perfect because reporting is not very good and some billing issues are not as transparent as they should be.

Incentivized

I would say is a standard video SSP. The reporting dashboard is well designed and easy to use and throttling options are standard. They seem to be confident about their inventory and they don't really evolve their product and add new betas or create audiences or do anything out of the ordinary.

Incentivized

MoPub's support is really good. Their team is knowledgeable on their product and the programmatic ecosystem in general and they are very helpful. The only 2 things that I would point out would be that their response times are not very fast and that there is a lot of rotation on the account management team.

Incentivized

Their support team is a bit slow. You have to re-send your email questions constantly because the first email never gets a reply. Their core business is still the ad network which does not involve a lot of human interaction so they are still working on how to evolve their account management team to be an exchange.

Incentivized

We've been attempting to make AppLovin Max perform the same way as MoPub had for us. The value we get from AppLovin Max differs from the ROI we get from other mediation platforms. We keep convincing ourselves that AppLovin Max will eventually function similarly to MoPub.

Vungle stands out as the only video only exchange. It is their main selling point and they have carved out a nice niche that differentiates them from the rest of SSPs. Their main competition, in my opinion, is Teads, which has focused the product more towards branding in order to monetize better for its publishers by getting higher bids.

Incentivized

• CPMs are low, which translate into good CPAs and more budgets.
• Possibility of rebate programs for big volumes can also increase ROI.
• Lack of clarity on billing numbers reduces profitability for a few months.

Incentivized

• We have gotten good CPAs, but we have had to bid high CPMs.
• They were reluctant to do a rebate deal, which is something standard once you hit a certain volume of spend, which worsened ROI.
• No buy sides fees, which is a big plus for profitability.

Incentivized