Cheetah Mobile launches native mobile video ads with LoopMe
LoopMe, a mobile video demand-side platform and ad network, has signed an agreement with China-based Cheetah Mobile which is the world’s third largest app developer behind Facebook and Google, to supply its native video ad proposition.
The agreement gives Cheetah access to LoopMe’s mobile video advertising and targeting infrastructure, which already reaches a billion consumers worldwide, and more effectively monetises its installed app base.
For LoopMe, this makes Cheetah’s global inventory available to its brand and performance advertisers.
By the end of September 2014, Cheetah’s mobile app downloads had reached 860 million worldwide and according to App Annie June 2014 data, Cheetah Mobile ranked second only to Facebook on Google Play’s global non-game app developers’ ranking.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cheetah’s apps, which include Clean Master, Battery Doctor, CM Security, PhotoGrid, and CM Browser, will integrate LoopMe via API and SDK to deliver native mobile video ads and other native ads.
Native ads are specifically designed to fit into an app’s interface, making them less obtrusive to users than ad spaces, and more likely to be noticed. For example, IPG Media Labs recently conducted an eye tracking study showing that consumers looked at native ads 53% more frequently than banners. For advertisers, this increases click-through rates (CTRs). For publishers, they can sell a unique product at a premium price, pushing up their effective costs per mille (eCPMs), which translates to the advertising revenue generated per 1,000 impressions.
On top of the native proposition, the mobile video ad format is also extremely effective, proving compelling and engaging enough to users that they drive CTRs 25 times higher than other static formats, according to LoopMe campaign data.
Stephen Upstone, LoopMe’s CEO and co-founder commented: “This is a breakthrough agreement with a huge mobile app developer, in a massively expanding territory. Cheetah’s decision to power its native mobile advertising proposition is an endorsement of LoopMe’s ability to deliver the most effective native mobile video ad formats via the most effective programmatic buying and targeting techniques, especially as LoopMe is open to buys from brands, agency trading desks and video ad networks globally.”
He continued: “Video has always been the most powerful advertising format, building brands since the advent of commercial television. Today as video brand-spend moves to online and mobile full screen video and native video, creates a market that is potentially many times bigger than pre roll video with larger reach and frequency. This agreement takes us closer to realising that potential.”
Xiao Jie, Cheetah Mobile’s senior vice president for global business, commented: “Cheetah sees improving mobile advertising customer experience and effectiveness as strategically important to future growth. Video has long been the most engaging advertising format and we are excited to launch video advertising in our apps globally with LoopMe.”
