Mobile banner ad networks are third parties that assist advertisers with gaining new customers. But they also enable publishers to monetize their apps using mobile ad banners. And as a long-standing form of display advertising, mobile ad banners are a reliable source of revenue generation.
Top Mobile Banner Ad Networks
So, whether you want to drive brand awareness, increase user acquisition, or improve CTRs on mobile banners, mobile banner ad networks can help you to reach those goals.
In this guide, we’ll offer you a rundown of what mobile banner ads are and show you how to access some of the top mobile banner ad networks to help reach your goals.
What are mobile banner ads?
Mobile banner ads are small, rectangular banners that cover sections of a device’s screen to display advertising images or text. By advertising products and services to mobile users, mobile ad banners invite clicks from users and redirect them to a site or a landing page.
Mobile ad banners are usually static or dynamic and can show up at the top or bottom of a device’s screen. And this makes them different from interstitial ads which cover the full screen. Classed as a form of display advertising, mobile ad banners are a form of in-app advertising. But they’re also an in-app monetization tool for publishers.
They’re the original internet ad format deployed via SDK or through programmatic where they often include an option to self-refresh if users don’t interact for a certain period.
Top Mobile Banner Ad Networks
Mobile ad banners can be classified in different ways, for instance, static image banners, video banners, and interactive banners. They remain one of the more foundational monetization tools for mobile app publishers. And mobile ad spending in this area shows consistent year-on-year growth, particularly over desktop spending which has generally plateaued.
Average Ad Spending Per Internet User
Why should you use mobile banner ads?
Due to their longevity, some have dismissed mobile ad banners as no longer effective. But this is not the case. Or at least, it’s likely that the proliferation of lower-quality banners has saturated mobile audiences’ attention spans and reduced the number of click-throughs over time.
When executed well, the majority of banner ads do have a great impact. And their continued popularity reflects this. They’re proven to increase visibility, but they also remain a solid and reliable form of advertising with a large cut of market share. So, here are some other reasons why they’re a good idea:
Boosts post-install engagement better than video
According to a report by Liftoff, banner ads outperform native ads for post-install engagement on Android. So for app owners, banner ads may offer specific, targeted benefits.
Tends to be less expensive than other forms
In the same report by Liftoff, mobile banner ads proved to be 20% less expensive than native ads. And as a reliable, long-standing format, a mobile ads banner could help with targeting more specific app metrics such as post-install engagement at a lower cost.
Relevant advertising method
According to a 2021 PWC report, banner advertising makes up over 30% of total global ad spend. So, despite the benefits of video advertising, mobile banners remain a popular and relied-on format.
2020 Advertising Format By Market Share
Drives traffic to a website
Mobile ad banners can be effective at driving traffic to a site as part of a larger marketing ecosystem. And while some visits may come via clickthroughs, banner ads will go a long way toward increasing brand recognition. Special offers, discounts, or previews can all assist in boosting CTRs and awareness.
What makes a good mobile ad banner?
Mobile ad banners have been around for a long time. And most app users will see them show up often as part of their in-app experience.
The best mobile ad banners are eye-catching and stand out from the competition. But they also feature original content and attractive images.
The most popular use of mobile ad banners comes via Google Display Ads. And these can reach around 90% of users via apps such as Gmail and YouTube. So, if you want users to click on your mobile ad banner, you’ll need to make them creative, strategic, and relevant to the audience’s needs.
Plus, your ad will need to work within some standard mobile banner sizes, outlined below.
What size should a mobile ad banner be?
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) created a set of standard banner formats for advertisers to use. To help you decide which ones to try out, here’s a list of the most popular.
- Leaderboard banner (728×90): This is also known as the horizontal banner and is the second most used ad size. It also works well on the Google Display Network.
- MREC – Medium rectangle (300 x 250): Medium rectangle banners often appear in the middle of content. And because they’re bigger in size, they often include more information.
Medium rectangle (300 x 250):
- Skyscraper (160 x 600): This vertical ad looks like a skyscraper and runs from the top of the screen to the bottom.
Some other sizes include:
- Mobile Leaderboard (320 x 50): This is also a very popular type of mobile banner ad size but is very small. It usually runs across the bottom of a mobile screen.
- Large (320 x 90 or 100): This variant is larger than most standard banners and allows room for videos or animations that may better engage users.
Large (320 x 90 or 100):
How can you create a mobile banner ad?
So what should you be doing to create your own mobile banner ad? Here’s a quick rundown of the key considerations:
- Determine your goals and objectives: Be clear on what you want to achieve. While CTRs are an obvious metric, many marketers use banner ads to focus on retargeting to raise brand awareness or increase social media activity.
- Identify your audience: Mobile banner ads work best when they target a specific audience. So be clear on the type of audience persona you want to attract.
- Develop the right CTA: What do you want your audience to do with the ad? Include a strong Call-To-Action to ensure they click through.
- Choose the right content: You’ll want to include images that grab attention. But stats show that close to 30% of marketers are turning to video banner ads for the first time since short-form videos on TikTok are so popular.
Top trends marketers plan to leverage in 2022
How much do mobile ad banners make?
Alongside driving metrics for advertisers, mobile ad banners are a good choice for mid-market publishers. In-app mobile ad banners offer something more targeted than Google AdSense, where publishers can drive brand awareness in other markets.
To provide you with an example, average eCPM rates for mobile ads banners on iOS range from between $0.16 to $0.38.
So, while they may not offer the same rates as something like incentivized ads, they’re still a vital component of a mobile advertisers ecosystem.
What do mobile banner ad networks do?
Mobile banner ad networks offer integrated platforms that help to connect mobile app advertisers with app developers, or publishers, who need to sell their mobile ad inventory.
By acting as a bridge between the two, mobile banner ad networks help app developers benefit from increasing app monetization and give advertisers access to new audiences.
Mobile banner ad networks offer a wide range of support to publishers and help them to monetize their content. Some of the key ways that mobile banner ad networks help advertisers and publishers include:
Split testing
A/B testing is the standard, well-worn route of ensuring your mobile banner ads are having the targeted impact. But there are many other forms such as A/B/n testing, multivariate testing, and multi-funnel page testing.
So whichever split test you engage in, make sure you understand what you’re testing. And that could be the wording, imagery, CTA, or banner size.
Safe ads
App developers and publishers who seek to target younger audiences may want to ensure their ads are appropriate. The last thing they’ll want is to compromise their brand by exposing younger audiences to unsuitable ads. And Safe Ads is one way that mobile banner ad networks can support this.
Banner ad production
Many platforms have the in-house creative talent to support with creating bespoke banner ads. But some may also enable users to create their own using pre-loaded templates.
What are the benefits of working with mobile banner ad networks?
Access
Mobile banner ad networks have access to vast pools of both advertisers and publishers. Acting as a gateway between the two, when advertisers or publishers work with mobile banner ad networks they can access huge scale and gain billions of impressions across many programmatic ecosystems.
Expertise
Partnering up with a mobile banner ad network enables both publishers and advertisers to benefit from a wide range of expertise. Many networks and platforms include a full-service team of managers, user acquisition specialists, customer success specialists, and cutting-edge technical support.
Analytics
Many ad networks offer DSP or SSP solutions, giving you a single dashboard to review and analyze your programmatic advertising campaigns. Other providers can provide a granular review of your mobile ad banner campaigns and give you a greater depth of strategic insight.
Flexibility
Most providers offer the flexibility to adapt their platforms to suit your needs. So if you need higher levels of customization, many networks can offer you better control over sources that drive traffic.
What should you look out for when working with mobile banner ad networks?
Variations in CTRs
Clickthrough rates often vary based on the ad format, content, and placement. Often, traditional full-banner mobile ads tend not to perform as well as skyscrapers or the more common MREC formats.
Advertisers and publishers will most likely need to experiment with video formats and use A/B testing if they want to drive the highest possible CTRs.
Variation in online average CTRs by ad format
Risk of ad blockers
Publishers usually want their users to have an enjoyable experience using their app. And if app users feel that the banner ads they see are intrusive, they can install ad blockers.
For this reason, advertisers must work hard to ensure any mobile ad banners they produce work to enhance the user experience and not disrupt it. And this is another key reason to consider working with a mobile banner ad network.
Why should you work with mobile banner ad networks?
Now you have a good idea of what mobile ad banners can do for you as an advertiser or publisher. But also, you should have a clearer sense of how mobile banner ad networks can help you to design and execute effective mobile banner ads.
Some other key reasons to consider working with mobile banner ad networks include:
- All the latest trends and stats on the formats that work
- Creative skills to design bespoke video or non-video based campaigns
- Real-Time Bidding support
- In-depth analytics reports to inform your strategy
- Performance-based marketing tools that target your KPIs (CPA, CPM, etc)
To find a mobile banner ad network to suit your needs, take a look through our curated list of the best providers around.
List of mobile banner ad networks
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 101 - 200 |
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 400 | $192m+ | 25k | 4m+ |
Adelphic is a one of the leading people-based cross-channel demand-side platforms. It provides an enterprise-ready self-service software solution for agencies, brands and other large media buyers to make meaningful engagements with consumers across all devices and formats. The company’s platform is fully RTB-enabled and delivers global scale through access to all leading inventory providers. Adelphic’s technology overcomes the limitations of user identification across all digital devices, yielding rich, nuanced portraits of real people, instead of cookies. Adelphic is owned by Viant, a subsidiary of Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME).
- Highlights: the only subscription based DSP on the market, Viant’s people-based device graph powered by our 1st party data, ML
- Featured in an Index: n/a
Adform is a Denmark-based advertising technology company. Its DSP solution provides advertisers with targeting and retargeting options to reach specific audience with all industry standard ad formats across all screens – desktop, mobile and tablet. Among its partners are AppNexus, Bid Switch, Teams, Pubmatic, OpenX, Oath, Rubicon.
- Highlights: sophisticated bidding options, cross-device targeting, dealt-time algorithmic ad campaign optimization.
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline: Activate the Full Potential of Digital Advertising
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 92 |
Adikteev is the leading app re-engagement platform for performance-driven marketers.
We help the world’s top-spending app publishers increase retention, reacquire churned users and drive incremental revenue. App publishers in gaming, eCommerce, on-demand, services and entertainment rely on us to deliver made-to-measure strategies, creatives and algorithms.
By combining science and creativity, we deliver best-in-class playable and interactive ads paired with top retargeting tech. We believe in creating a unique strategy for each client based on data to provide measurable and transparent results that increase user LTV and fuel business growth.
Adikteev is #10 among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 fastest growing companies and ranked in the top retargeting partners of the world for two consecutive years by AppsFlyer Performance Index
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 - 100 |
AdMaven - the premier ad network that brings together cutting-edge technology and unrivaled expertise to catapult your online advertising endeavors to new heights. AdMaven provides diverse ad formats and solutions for advertisers and publishers.
Learn more about AdMaven
Adobe Advertising Cloud is a global cross-channel advertising platform from Adobe for brands and agencies to plan, buy, measure and optimize their ad campaigns. As an independent demand-side platform (DSP), Adobe Media Optimizer provides brand marketers with integration with the world’s best targeting, reporting and inventory partners. The major feature that sets it apart from other DSP platforms is that its programmatic sophistication allows marketers to run ad campaigns across digital screens, TV and out-of-home channels with a single dashboard.
- Highlights: programmatic ad campaigns capabilities that cover desktop, mobile, TV and offline out-of-home channels on a single platform and on a big scale
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline: One demand-side platform to rule them all.
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 101-200 | - | 37k | 1.5m |
Adsterra is a world-renowned ad and CPA-network with Partner Care approach, serving over 30 billion ad impressions per month worldwide (70% of traffic is mobile). It works with 21K+ direct publishers and 13K+ brands, affiliates, media agencies, and ad networks dealing with mainstream and non-mainstream verticals.
Learn more about Adsterra Network
Amobee is a premium mobile ad network and technology company, offering a wide range of advertising/monetization solutions for advertisers, developers/publishers and organizations. Its DSP supplies advertisers with a single dashboard to plan, execute and analyze audience-first ad campaigns. It allows to reach audiences across video, mobile, display, social and TV ad channels.
- Highlights: seamless omnichannel ad campaigns, precise targeting, built-in reporting and analysis.
- AppsFlyer Performance Index: n/a
- Tagline:Advertising solutions for the converging world
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 10-50 | 2.5m | 129 |
Appitate LLC is an international mobile affiliate network. Members of our team are high-skilled professionals in the sphere of mobile promotion and traffic monetization.
Appitate works with CPI and CPA models, supports both IOS and Android OS, and covers more than 100 GEOs. Moreover, our network works with direct App-developers and Advertisers, exclusive and direct Publishers only. With the help of advanced technology and exceptional technology, Appitate LLC easily matches all needs of each publisher and meets the advertiser’s goals.
Learn more about Appitate
+250,000 developers, from indies to large enterprises, trust in Appodeal to manage their Ad Monetization. A light full-stack ad monetization solution that puts app publishers first – the way it should be.
By just integrating one simple SDK, you will gain access to +70 ad networks & demand sources, competing against each other in a real-time auction for every single ad impression.
- Services: User Acquisition, Ad Monetization, Business Intelligence
- Offices: San Francisco, US
- Tagline: Turn your Apps into Top-Earning Hits
Appreciate
Programmatic UA: Scale your growth on iOS and Android, with the only DSP offering one-click to install ad units.
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - |
Appreciate is a mobile app marketing platform running sixty billion daily auctions and enabling marketers to take control of their programmatic ecosystem. In addition to extremely granular targeting, buyers have unconditional transparency at the exchange
Learn more about Appreciate
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - |
Mobile ad planning, execution and analysis are complicated for startups because they cannot reach all available app marketing tools. App Samurai makes it easy for them without requiring in-depth mobile advertising knowledge!
Thanks to App Samurai, you can easily create, manage, and measure acquisition campaigns, boost campaigns, and video campaigns to acquire qualified users.
Learn more about AppSamurai
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 101 - 200 |
Appska is a full-service performance marketing agency specializing in In-App advertising, Influencer Marketing, Media buying, and Affiliate marketing. It provide partners with a continuous flow of users and can promote mobile apps in any GEO and vertical.
Learn more about Appska