MoPub Transaction Slated to Close: Next Steps for Partners

We are excited to announce that we expect to close our MoPub transaction with Twitter on or around January 1, 2022. In this blog, I will explain what we’ve been doing in the weeks since announcing this transaction to prepare for closing and migration. I will also review what closing means for you as partners of MoPub and Twitter.

Our vision for MoPub is to integrate their demand- and supply-side tools into our in-app mediation platform, MAX, and migrate publishers and demand partners to this unified platform. Ultimately, our goal is to create one of the largest and most robust digital advertising ecosystems in the world. To get a sense of how successful MAX is and the scope of this unified vision, take a look at my previous blog, which explains why mediation is so important to the growth of the mobile app economy and how the MoPub acquisition factors into this.

MAX was started with a vision: to launch and accelerate header bidding on mobile apps in order to create efficiency gains from less latency and more competitive auctions for advertisers, and to utilize a fair and transparent marketplace to increase publisher earnings.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had discussions with major publishers. This has helped give us a strong understanding of the MoPub features you value most and want to see added to MAX. It is our intention to deliver those features prior to the closing of this transaction. We will continue to reach out to developers for their feedback, and we look forward to hearing from you regarding the features you prioritize. We believe in transparent and open communication with all the developers that we work with, and we welcome your valuable input. We want to be ready and prepared to ensure the best possible experience for you and your business so that your migration is seamless and your business benefits and grows as a result. 

Our goal is to help publishers maximize revenue by enabling an unbiased and unified auction among all of your demand sources. Below are some of the key features we plan to add to MAX:

• Seamless Migration Integration: We want the MoPub-to-MAX transition to be as smooth, efficient, and easy for you as possible. We have automated integration and waterfall migration tools supporting developers using Unity, Adobe Air, React Native, Unreal, Cordova, Cocos-2dx, and many more. These tools are available now.
• AppLovin Exchange (“ALX”): This will be the equivalent of MoPub Exchange (MPX) and it will provide direct access to more than 150 DSPs, as well as brands and agencies transacting in the open marketplace and through private auctions in a brand-safe environment. The ALX launched on November 15, 2021, and many DSPs are already live. We expect the rest to migrate over in early 2022, so we’re scaled by the end of the migration period. 
• Direct-Sold Ad Campaigns: These campaigns will enable publishers to build custom audiences and leverage keywords to monetize their inventory directly with agencies, advertisers, DSPs, and cross-promos. This will be live in early Q1.
• Unified Auction: We will grow the unified auction that MAX provides today and give publishers the flexibility to work and maximize revenue with even more demand partners in a single auction. The auction will provide access to more than 25 certified SDK-based ad networks, 15 live in-app bidders, and more than 150 DSPs with global brand spend, competing in a single auction alongside any custom SDK or a server-to-server tag-based network you choose for monetization. MAX will expand to include more of these demand sources in early 1Q 2022.
• Open-Source Adapters and Public SDK APIs: App developers and their needs are at the core of everything we do, and we are intent on building features that give them the ability to customize, test, troubleshoot, and measure with greater flexibility. This will  launch in early 1Q 2022. 
• Advanced Reporting: Our reporting shows real-time monetization data that allows A/B testing, latency monitoring for waterfall optimizations and alerts, and additional reports that provide transparency into the programmatic buyers in your auctions. These expanded reporting abilities will launch in early 1Q 2022. 
• Brand Safety: We understand the critical importance of keeping your brand safe and so we offer a superior user experience through sophisticated controls to monitor competitive and potentially problematic advertisers. The Ad Review tool today offers transparency into the ads your users are exposed to with coverage for your demand partners. An expanded feature set that includes the user’s ad journey will launch in 4Q 2021. 

Upon closing, our team will partner with the MoPub commercial and technical support teams to migrate your business from MoPub to MAX. We will work with you to ensure this transition is smooth and complete within 30-60 days from start to finish. Time is of the essence and we understand how important it is that your users have time to update before we sunset the MoPub service 90 days after closing. We are confident that we will provide you with more tools to have at your disposal and that this unified platform will not only provide a short-term positive impact, but will also serve as a strong foundation that supports the long-term success of your business. 

Many of the MoPub commercial team will join us at AppLovin, so you will likely have continuity with the expert team you’ve worked closely with for the past several years. Once you have transitioned successfully, we can help you grow your apps by profitably acquiring new users on our AppDiscovery solution. The combination of monetization and user acquisition is helping MAX publishers see materially more growth than others in the market today, and we want to ensure that you have the option to unlock the same kind of growth for your business.

Together, unification will help us all take the next step in the vision that MAX and MoPub intended to fulfill. We’re thrilled to work with you, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to help you grow your business now and into the future