As you know I have been super busy building my mobile advertising and mobile CPA business. It’s no secret I work hand in hand with many of the top Mobile CPA Networks such as MobPartner, Yeahmobi, Neverblue and MundoMedia.
Well, when Cole Carnes, my former affiliate manager at Neverblue moved on to Kiip I just had to catch him for a chat and learn more about this innovative company that is revolutionizing mobile advertising. Here is the inside scoop on Kiip:
Shira Gal (aka Duru) Interviews Cole Carnes from Kiip
Shira Gal: Hi this is Shira from InternetMarketingDuru.com and today I have the pleasure of introducing you guys to Cole Carnes, Sales Associate at Kiip. Cole and I originally met when Neverblue was integrating PayPerCall offers into their affiliate network and later on Cole showed me his incredible expertise as my affiliate manager for mobile offers. Now Cole has moved on to Kiip. Hey there Cole, thanks for being here today, why don’t you tell us a little about your move and what Kiip does?
What Does Kiip Do?
Cole Carnes: Hi Shira. First up, thanks for the invitation to have a chat with you!
I got started with Kiip about a little over a month ago and it’s been super interesting and a ton of fun so far. Kiip is a mobile advertising company that gives users rewards for in-app achievements. I’ll give you an example:
Imagine you’re out for your morning run and you’re using a fitness app. You run your normal morning route and you beat your personal best time – that would be considered an achievement. Same thing if you’re using a game and you beat the end boss, or maybe you’re using a task manager and you cross all the items off your day’s list. We give users rewards during these moments of achievements.
Shira Gal: That’s a super cool way to target advertising! Probably the most targeted I have ever seen… so how do apps need to be built to be able to run your ads?
App Developer Integrate With Kiip SDK
Cole Carnes: We have an SDK that app developers integrate with their apps, similar to how they would integrate with another network.
The difference is that when our SDK is integrated, the developer will choose these specific achievement moments where users will earn these rewards. We actually have quite a range of verticals that we have traffic in. Everything from fitness to productivity, games to recipe apps, music, social networking, and so on.
There’s quite a few different ways for developers to choose achievements moments in their apps, but one of the cool things, I think, about this model is that we actually see engagement in apps increase by including our SDK rather than decrease. People want to keep using the app to collect these rewards. It’s pretty interesting when you think about how that compares to a user’s experience of other types of advertising.
Just How Big is the Kiip Mobile App Network?
Shira Gal: This is a novel concept for sure! How many apps do you have integrated in to the Kiip mobile app network and how many approximate users do you have? Are they only in the US or is this a global venture?
Cole Carnes: At the moment we have about 1500 apps integrated but we’re bringing more on all the time. For users, we’re currently sitting at about 60 million monthly active users. Around half of those are in the US and the rest are across the world. Primarily larger western markets like UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Italy, Spain, etc. We have a good number of users in Russia and China as well.
Shira Gal: That’s pretty big already! I assume this covers all types of apps including Android and iOS? So what would you main advice be to an app developer or company about to publish an app on how to get integrated with Kiip? When should they start thinking about integration and what steps should they take to successfully join Kiip?
Cole Carnes: Yup! We do both Android and iOS. For an app developer interested in integrating the Kiip SDK I’d recommend getting in touch with the team here! I’m on the advertiser facing side but we have a really strong team on the developer facing side and I’d be happy to put any developers in touch with the right person.
Shira Gal: Awesome, at what stage of the project should they start to consider your SDK needs and structure?
Cole Carnes: For developers, the earlier the better but we can get things going at any stage. Developers can contact steve@kiip.me to get started with an app integration. Or for any general questions we can be reached at hello@kiip.me.
Kiip Mobile Ads
Shira Gal: OK, so to recap so far, Kiip is a mobile app network that provide rewards to users for achievements in apps. Any app developer wishing to make some moolah with Kiip needs to integrate with your SDK and be able to define some achievements within their app! Now let’s move on to the nitty gritty, the ads of course!
Is This Mobile Incent Advertising?
When you say rewards it sounds a lot like incent advertising to me. Can you tell me whether this would qualify as incent and if not what is the difference here?
Cole Carnes: That’s a great question! Our reward ad format isn’t something that you’ll find elsewhere so it doesn’t necessarily fit into the categories that people are used to. That said, it is very different from incent traffic. Let me explain.
Incent traffic is typically poor quality. The reason is that the user’s engagement isn’t aligned with interacting with the advertiser. In the case of a CPI campaign for example, they download the app to receive a reward outside that app and never use it again. The user’s engagement in that app will be low. On the other hand, we present offers as rewards. It’s a subtle but very important difference and results in incredibly high engagement for a few reasons.
First, when the reward is the advertiser’s product, the user engages to receive their reward. There are no secondary motivations involved at all. It’s simply a user who is interested in collecting their reward. And second, the way the reward is presented can add quite a bit of perceived value to the reward. Imagine what goes into your morning run, or crossing all the items off your to-do list for the day. It’s a pretty solid achievement!
Kiip Mobile Ad Reward Example
For these reasons we see reward redemption rates and conversion rates of over 40% on a number of our placements, without any sacrifices in user engagement metrics for advertisers. The opposite actually; Traffic quality is quite high.
Shira Gal: So what kind of ad units do you offer? And what type of offers work best with the Kiip app audience?
Cole Carnes: For our primary ad unit, we present users with rewards during achievement moments in apps. The user can claim the reward by hitting the “redeem” button and the offer will be emailed to the user. It’s great because users can follow up later from a desktop where they have more time and may be more inclined to fill out a profile or make a purchase.
We see about a 50/50 web/mobile split on email opens for this ad unit so it’s best to link users to a landing page that is mobile optimized.
Offers that work best with the Kiip audience are ones that can be framed as a reward – Free trials do especially well, as well as discounts, promo codes, coupons, daily deals, and lead-gen offers that incorporate a reward of some kind.
Who Should Be Advertising With Kiip?
Shira Gal: This is super exciting news for anyone advertising in mobile which is the fastest growing ad market nowadays! Would you say Kiip ads are best suited for brands and product owners, or is this space open to affiliates as well?
Cole Carnes: We’ve been working with brands and agencies for the last few years but the majority of their campaigns back into a CPA so there’s no reason at all that affiliates wouldn’t be able to take advantage of our traffic.
Shira Gal: Mobile advertisers be on alert! To recap: You can buy ad units with Kiip that can be claimed either via web or mobile. Best ad types provide an actual perceived reward to the end user, such as a discount, free trial or special offer. Whether you are an affiliate or a brand, Kiip ads are a unique opportunity as not only can they reach many users, they can also include specific targeting criteria.
Kiip Mobile Ad Targeting Options
Cole, can you elaborate a bit more on the targeting options available to Kiip advertisers?
Cole Carnes: Sure! You can target by Android or iOS, as well as some more granular device targeting like iPads, specific handsets, etc. We offer location targeting right down to city level in North America and by country for the rest of the world. When you start a campaign you can choose which verticals you’d like to target for placements and as we get data on your campaign we’ll blacklist placements that aren’t working for you. We can also do carrier targeting as well as target specific moments in particular apps.
Kiip Real Time Reporting – Monitor Your Ad Performance!
Shira Gal: These are a lot of important targeting options, what is your reporting interface like? How can an advertiser monitor their performance?
Cole Carnes: Our dashboard gives advertiser’s real-time metrics on their campaigns – impressions, redemptions, email opens, and clicks and conversions by placement. Those metrics are available at a campaign level and we also give advertisers the ability to split test creatives and monitor performance of those creatives. As our system gathers data it will weight traffic towards whatever creatives are performing best and we also have account reps that monitor campaigns and optimize on the back end.
Kiip Mobile Advertiser Campaign Analytics Example
Shira Gal: Wow, I am so excited to get started advertising with Kiip. Knowing your track record in advertising they are truly lucky to have you on board! Thanks so much for your time and expertise Cole, how can potential advertisers sign up to get started placing ads with Kiip?
Cole Carnes: Thanks Shira! Always a pleasure working with you, I’m looking forward to working on some campaigns together! Anyone who is interested in advertising through Kiip can get started with us by signing up here: http://kiip.me/selfserve and are welcome to get in touch with me at cole@kiip.me
Questions or Comments? Please share them below!
