What is a publisher?
The definition of publisher
In mobile marketing, a publisher provides the capability and inventory that allows advertisers to run ads in their apps or on mobile sites. An ad publisher can be a website or an app. Publishers in advertising sell inventory (digital advertising space) on their property to buyers (app marketers) and agencies (companies managing ad campaigns for advertisers).
What are sub-publishers?
Sub-publishers deliver traffic for clients as a third party through other publishers. If a publisher doesn't own the traffic sources on which an advertiser wants to run campaigns, it can buy traffic from other publishers, making it a 'sub-publisher'.
What is the difference between a publisher vs. advertiser?
An advertiser might be an app (like a mobile game or an e-commerce platform) or a brand that has a message it wants people to see. A publisher is a place to display that message, with a viewership the advertiser is interested in converting.
It’s possible to be an advertiser and a publisher at the same time. If an app runs its own advertisements while also hosting ads, it is simultaneously an advertiser and a publisher.
What is the difference between a publisher vs. network?
When an app decides it wants to run an advertising campaign, it has to work with publishers that are willing to display the app’s message to the public. However, apps typically don’t head straight to the publisher with their video ads and banners.
Instead, an ad network steps in and connects developers and agencies with the publisher. The publisher signs up to a network and allows that network to use its inventory to advertise. Publishers that participate in a display ad network get paid each time an advertiser is charged by the ad network for displaying advertisements on the publisher's site.
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What is the difference between a platform vs. publisher?
Advertising publishers create and manage their own content, such as apps, websites, or videos, and monetize it by selling digital advertising space. In contrast, platforms like Google (YouTube), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and Amazon host content from other users, such as website owners or app developers, but don’t produce the content themselves.
While platforms play a major role in the digital ad ecosystem by facilitating the connection between advertisers and users (see more on this below), they are not considered publishers because they don't generate the content directly.
How do mobile marketers buy and sell media?
Publishers earn money by displaying ads. The cost of an ad is usually based on four different cost models:
- Cost per install (CPI): This is the most common way to buy or sell media. An app wanting to increase the amount of installs will pay a set amount for every new install. The cost can depend on the app and the estimated lifetime value (LTV) of the new user. The network receives part of the CPI price for finding the best publishers for the specific ad campaign, and the publisher receives the rest.
- Cost per click (CPC): Also referred to as pay per click (PPC), this model requires the advertiser to pay a price for every ad click. These are not as popular with advertisers as CPI campaigns because the cost of an install can increase exponentially with all of the ad clicks that happen. However, they are particularly advantageous for publishers.
- Cost per action (CPA): These campaigns charge advertisers after the user completes a designated task. It could be signing up for the app, playing the first turn in a game, or buying a subscription.
Cost per mille (CPM): In this case, a ‘mille’ refers to 1,000 impressions. If a campaign is, for example, geared towards a brand and there isn’t a specific call to action (to download an app, subscribe, etc), cPM is typically the model of choice.
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Examples of players in the ad publishing space
There are many solutions on the market for ad publishers, each offering unique features to help optimize ad revenue, manage inventory, and enhance the user experience. Here are a few examples of publisher solutions:
- Amazon Publisher Cloud enables publishers to optimize their ad supply with exclusive insights from Amazon Ads.
- Google for Publishers offers a range of tools, including Google Ad Manager, AdMob, and AdSense. These solutions connect publishers with Google's wide network of advertisers while helping to manage their ad inventory and optimize ad placements.
- Facebook Audience Network allows app developers to become publishers. By accessing Facebook’s large pool of advertisers, developers can monetize their apps with in-app advertising.
Publishers and Adjust
Mobile attribution involves linking two data points—such as ad spend and user engagement—to help advertisers gain a full view of how their ads perform across different channels. Accurately measuring the success of your advertising campaigns and understanding which publishers deliver your highest value users is only possible by working with a trusted mobile attribution.
With Adjust, you can analyze the entire user journey from first engagement to in-app behaviors, ensuring that you understand the true value of each user. Attribution not only reveals your return on ad spend (ROAS) but also highlights which publishers are driving meaningful conversions, enabling more informed decisions for future ad placements. Whether it’s evaluating which users are more likely to complete actions like in-app purchases (IAPs) or installs, or simply measuring the impact of impressions, you can easily compare publisher performance and optimize campaigns based on real-time insights in one dashboard.
Plus, Adjust integrates seamlessly with hundreds of partners. To see how Adjust can help your app find the best value publishers, request a demo.
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