Do You Have a Separate Mobile Strategy?

Why an online only strategy is not enough these days…

Mobile is here to stay. The technology and business behind the industry is still evolving, but mobile devices are becoming more ubiquitous all the time. We are still in a transitionary period – with mobile usage growing faster than ad dollars are moving to mobile – but now is the time to embrace mobile and think seriously about how the technology can help the bottom line of your business as well as helping you attract new customers and grow.

Why a Mobile Strategy is Needed

Consider the following before making a decision on whether a dedicated mobile strategy is needed or not. Having a wide reaching “Internet strategy” is not enough these days.

Mobile is Different – Beyond the smaller screen size, mobile advertising is different than traditional marketing in many different respects. Understanding the different technologies that are available is tough without a specific plan to learn more about mobile.
Mobile is Growing – Consumers are searching, buying, communicating and playing on mobile devices more – and numbers are continuing to grow. All signs point to mobile playing a huge role in media consumption in the future.
Mobile is Complicated – In some ways, mobile advertising can be complicated and confusing for some people. Blindly struggling how to learn to make mobile work for you without a plan can make it even more complex.

How We Can Help

Here are some of the ways we can help you develop a mobile strategy that is right for you and your business.

Understanding the Options – One of the first things we can do is help you understand all of the options that are available to you. This is an important step before coming up with a mobile strategy for your company.
Answering Questions – Questions are common with those who are just beginning to develop a mobile marketing or publishing strategy. At LeadBolt, we make sure you have answers to all of your questions.
Coming up with a Plan – After explaining the options available and answering your questions, we can help come up with a plan that will work for your specific needs. The mobile strategy of each company is going to be different.
Offering Solutions – From mobile advertisers to marketers to developers to publishers, we have solutions for everyone. Coming up with questions and problems that need to be solved is the easy part of developing a mobile strategy. Having solutions you can put to use right away is another matter entirely.

If you do not have a separate mobile marketing strategy, you need to start planning for one right now. We can help. At LeadBolt, we have a staff of professionals who live and breathe the mobile industry. Whether you have a question on how we can help you develop a mobile ad strategy or you want to sign-up and get started implementing your own mobile plans right away, contact us today to learn more.

Updated iOS SDK v3.03 – Simpler Ad Integration

We’ve released a new and updated version of our iOS SDK and it is now available for download in your Publisher Portal. We always strive to make it as easy as possible for our publishers to add our SDK powered ad types to their apps.

With this updated iOS SDK release, we have streamlined the integration process for this latest version of the SDK, minimising the code required to serve ads in Apple iOS apps and making the integration process much simpler for publishers.

With just two lines of code required in order to integrate our SDK powered ad types to your iOS apps, publishers will find adding LeadBolt to their apps using this latest SDK version easier and more straightforward.

In addition, various performance enhancements have been included in this version of the SDK, including improvements to memory management.

How To Get Started
You can now download/update to the latest version of the iPhone SDK by visiting the ‘Help/ FAQs’ tab then clicking on the ‘App Developer SDKs’ tab in your publisher portal. Please read the updated PDF documentation included to migrate to the new SDK version seamlessly.

Highlights at GMIC Beijing

We are so happy to have had the opportunity to be part of Asia’s largest and most influential mobile industry event last week! For five years, GMIC has been at the forefront of the mobile Internet industry, focusing on global markets and emerging technologies.

Our team joined over 10,000 industry professionals and executives at this huge event and exhibited in the very popular app space arena which aligned our company very well with many app developers and advertisers who were present at this conference. The LeadBolt Team was busy as always at our booth continuously engaging with hundreds of interested attendees at the conference and even caught up face-to-face with some of our existing partners as well.

We established new business relationships and potential partnerships at this event which will indeed bring about a positive impact on our current advertiser and publisher base.

We hope to see you at the next conference venue coming up if you did not manage to see us this time around in Beijing.

Finalist for Red Herring Top 100 North America Award

We are proud to announce that LeadBolt has been selected as a finalist for Red Herring’s Top 100 North America award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures in a particular business region.

Red Herring has been selecting the most exciting and promising start-ups since 1996. Finalists are still evaluated individually from a large pool of hundreds of candidates based across North America. More than twenty criteria underlie the scoring and process which results in the list of finalists often showcasing the best performing and prominent companies of that year.

Finalist selections for the 2013 edition of the Red Herring 100 North America award from each region were reviewed in a rigorous 3-step process that looks at all aspects of the company.

It is great to be recognized and awarded once again for our continuous effort to always ensure that our advertisers and publishers have access to revolutionary ad serving technologies that increase ROI.

Learn more about Red Herring’s Top 100 North America Award on their website here.

NEW Publisher Android SDK v5.00 now available

LeadBolt continually strives to deliver ongoing excellence in ad serving and we have done it again with the release of this latest version of the Android SDK v5.00. With the new multiple resolution support and full customization to publisher requirements with click-to-build simplicity, this has indeed set a new standard for the mobile ad serving industry.

We are thrilled to be releasing v5.00 of our Publisher Android SDK which includes a range of exciting updates that will definitely deliver even better results from your apps through our wide range of advanced ad formats!

This updated publisher SDK for Android (v5.00) features the following new additions and updates which will surely help you earn even more from your apps with us.

1. One Unified Customizable SDK
2. Inbuilt Multiple Resolution Support for Ads
3. Performance Enhancements

Here are the details…

A Unified & Customizable SDK
The choice of SDK packages has been simplified and publishers can now customize a single SDK to suit their needs. This allows publishers to build a custom SDK including only the desired ad formats. When building the SDK (on the SDK download page), publishers will have the following options to include in the customized SDK: Quick Start Ads (all ad formats) – default option, Display Ads, Notification Ads, Icon Ads.

Multiple-Resolution Support for Quick Start Ads and Display Ads
This new and updated Android SDK allows publishers to support multiple device resolutions easily. The SDK will detect the device screen size and display the most suitable ad size, to ensure optimal display. Publishers will be able to enter additional sections IDs (Medium, Large and Extra Large screens) to automatically support higher resolution device resolutions.

For Quick Start Ads, these section IDs are also included in the manifest following requests from developers. For more information, please read both the Quick Start Ad and the SDK documentation guide in the HELP/FAQs section of the publisher portal.

Performance Enhancements
The latest version of the Android SDK contains performance enhancements which deliver a better user experience for end users and improve ad performance.

How To Get Started
You can now download/update to the latest version of the Android SDK (v5.00) by visiting the ‘Help/ FAQs’ tab then clicking on the ‘App Developer SDKs’ tab in your publisher portal. Please read the updated PDF documentation included to migrate to the new SDK version seamlessly.

NEW! – Entry & Exit Ad Templates to grow your revenue!

We all understand the importance and benefits of monetizing the entire App Usage Cycle.

Monetize when users enter and exit your app
This is why LeadBolt has created NEW Entry and Exit Ad templates to increase your overall ad performance when users first enter your app and when they exit them.

LeadBolt provides developers with the widest range of advanced ad types and tools to achieve the most from their apps at every stage of this cycle. By utilizing entry and exit ads, alongside display ads during app usage, allows developers to monetize the full app usage cycle.

Simple ‘3 Step’ integration
A very easy to follow, 3 simple steps, Entry & Exit ad integration guide is available in the Publisher Portal, and can be found in the ‘HELP/FAQs’ section, under the ‘App Developer SDKs’ tab.

Start adding the new Entry and Exit ads to your apps now by logging into your publisher account, clicking on the ‘App Ad (SDK)’ section and choosing the ‘Entry – Exit’ section tab.

Customize for even better returns!
Developers are also able to customize the standard marketing text on the ad templates and change it from “Thanks for installing!” to something else if preferred. This added functionality enables developers to make the ad unit’s message contextually more relevant to their app which might enhance ad performance even further.

Updated PhoneGap Support for iOS

Great News! With the recent release of our latest iOS SDK and due to popular demand, we have updated our iOS support information for PhoneGap.

LeadBolt’s ad formats have always been compatible with PhoneGap, however with our new easy to follow instructions (available in the publisher portal help section), adding LeadBolt to your iOS PhoneGap app is easier than ever before!

Integrating LeadBolt ads into PhoneGap apps for iOS does not require any additional libraries and can be achieved with a few simple changes to the standard SDK integration methods. Android developers using PhoneGap can also integrate the LeadBolt ad SDK by downloading our Android PhoneGap library and following the included integration guide.

You can get the full instructions on integrating LeadBolt into iOS and Android PhoneGap apps from the App Developer Framework section of the Help tab in the LeadBolt publisher portal.

Unity3D Compatibility Library for iOS now available!

Alongside the new iOS SDK, we’re very thrilled to announce the release of a Unity3D compatibility library for iOS which has been designed to work seamlessly with the Unity platform for publishers! This is now available in the LeadBolt Publisher portal, under “App Developer Frameworks” in the Help section.

The Unity compatibility library allows iOS developers using the Unity3D game engine to integrate the LeadBolt SDK (using the latest version) and take advantage of all iOS compatible SDK powered ad formats available such as Advanced Overlays, App Wall, Interstitials, Audio Ads, In-App Alerts, Notifications, Video Ads and Capture Forms.

LeadBolt is committed to ensuring as many developers as possible are able to utilize our ad serving technologies and realize the full potential of monetizing their app user base.

The availability of this new SDK to Unity3D publishers on iOS aligns with our Unity3D framework support for Android and iOS Unity3d publishers will now able to achieve even more revenue from their apps with our wide range of advanced ad formats and experience the full monetizing potential of our network.

How To Get Started
You can now download the Unity3D compatibility library by visiting the ‘Help/ FAQs’ tab then clicking on the ‘App Developer Frameworks’ tab in your publisher portal.

NEW! – Updated iOS SDK v3.01

At LeadBolt, we continuously strive to ensure that our publishers are always equipped with the most advanced tools to effectively monetize their apps. We’ve done this again and are announcing the release of our latest iOS SDK v3.01 – now available for download in your Publisher Portal.

This release also addresses Apple’s announcement that from May 1^st 2013, any app which accesses UDID will be rejected when submitted to the App Store. This latest update to the SDK ensures that apps are compliant with Apple’s guidelines by eliminating this dependency.

This updated publisher SDK for iOS (v3.01) features the following new additions which will surely help you achieve even more from your iOS apps!

1. Improved User Experience for Display Ads
Display ad formats have been improved to provide a better user experience. Once a display ad is clicked, the content will be loaded in the background before being displayed to the user, providing a seamless and smooth transition including loading progression indication.

2. A Unified SDK
Previously, two SDKs were available – one with UDID and IFA/IDFA tracking combined and one with IFA/IDFA tracking only. Since Apple has announced that from May 1st 2013, any app which accesses UDID will be rejected when submitted to the App Store, the SDK with UDID tracking will no longer be available and UDID has been excluded from this unified SDK. If you are currently using a previous version of the SDK which accesses UDID, you should update to the latest version.

3. Performance & Memory Enhancements
We have also taken this opportunity to add in more performance and memory enhancements with this SDK, plus some unity3D specific changes to further increase overall advertising performance for publishers and ensure your LeadBolt ad experience is awesome!

Highlights at the Game Developers Conference

A record breaking 23,000 industry professionals attended last week’s conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center and the LeadBolt Team was more than happy to be part of all the action!

The 2013 conference kicked off with two days of tutorials and summits focused on specific emerging platforms and topics, including a newly introduced Free to Play Design & Business Summit, the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, and the Independent Games Summit.

We joined more than 350 exhibitors on the busy GDC Expo floor with our booth very well positioned close to the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Pavilion and GDC Play showcase area, which hosted more than 70 emerging developers showcasing their titles to investors, distributors and the public.

We successfully established new business relationships and potential partnerships at this event which will surely bring about a positive impact on our current advertiser and publisher base.

We hope to see you at the next conference venue coming up if you did not manage to see us this time around.

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