Pontiflex today opened the doors on the next major evolution in mobile ad delivery platforms. The name is AppLeads, and it delivers in-app ads to app users in a clever and subtle way. By now, developers should have a good idea of how well CPM models are performing in their apps. With an average range of $1.00 to $4.00 on most CPMs, there’s a whole lot of people ignoring the advertiser. And this is where AppLeads changes everything.

I caught up with Zephrin Lasker, CEO of Pontiflex, and Brian Long, his VP of Mobile and Social Development last week. The numbers they are seeing with AppLeads sure got my attention. Their system is optimized for the advertiser and the app developer, enabling the advertiser to generate very targeted leads with what I would call, record breaking industry eCPMs.

When your app is run for the first time by the user they will be prompted with an interstitial page, this gives them a screen with “Free Discounts & Deals” for example (Figure 1).They can simply check off an offer they are interested in, or skip it. The interstitial can be configured by app developers to only appear on the first time the user loads the app, or each time they load it. But they can always skip it. If the user has their information pre-configured in their smartphone it will be automatically completed, if not, a screen prompts them to enter their contact details (Figure 2). Very simple, non-intrusive, and it only happens on the beginning of the app experience.

The collected data is held by Pontiflex and only shared with the advertiser. Brian Long assured me, “We don’t own the data we collect, it’s property of the advertiser that it was collected by.” That does bring up the question, what about the app developer? Well, they are earning the revenue on the lead, which is quite respectable, and with AppLeads they can also include a free opt-in ad on their app. “They can put in their own ads “thanks for downloading, please sign up for discounts and updates from us” free to the advertiser,” added Long.

AppLeads is seeing very high eCPMs in their trials. “We are seeing eCPMs from $7 as high as $60,” said Long. You can see in the screenshot how the ads are shown to the app user. They are straight forward, simple, and best of all, do not ruin the app experience. Who wants to be taken out of their app into a web browser? In the middle of a game that is just unthinkable, and this explains why in-app ads are receiving such negative feedback. Users definitely don’t want a popup ad or an ad box constantly appearing and disappearing in their faces. AppLeads allows app developers to rid of that annoyance and still earn revenues from their app.

Figure 3

I did download the free Angry Birds for Android with ad support version. It was research, really, I swear. I wanted to see how Rovio would deliver the ads in their game, and it was nothing less than disappointing. A small horizontal rectangular black box with text ads would appear and disappear at the start of a new level (Figure 3). It’s a new approach for Rovio who has in the past relied upon the sale of their game for revenue. I know Rovio is testing and have recently sold Angry Birds to EA, but perhaps an AppLeads version would make a prettier picture on their finance sheet.

Most users who are going to use your app regularly, or for a long time, don’t want to be pestered by in-app ads. And the general consensus is “I hate ads in games/apps. In angry birds it actually seems to slow down the game at some times (when the ad is loading). I would pay to have it removed,” vented a member on Android Guys website. The Google AdMob approach does not give the user a way to have an uninterrupted experience. It’s always there, integrated within for the user to see every time they use your app.

“If free apps are going to drive the mobile market for the foreseeable future, developers need to have a better way to monetize them,” said Zephrin Lasker. And this is a good point. Free apps are enticing, they make us download more, try more, and definitely don’t leave any resentment in the app user’s mind because they just shelled out $3.99 for an app that crashes, or a game they don’t even like. But if they do like it and have an ad in their face every minute they are using it, that just ruins the entire user experience, and may stop that user from downloading future versions. “Like Steve Jobs said recently, the click in mobile ads doesn’t work, because users don’t want to click on the ad and leave the apps. With Pontiflex AppLeads, we’ve eliminated a lot of the problems with the current mobile advertising model. We’ve made in-app advertising profitable, streamlined the user experience and given developers a way to serve ads from top Fortune 500 brands in their apps and make real money” added Lasker.

AUTHOR: Fabrizio Pilato is the publisher of Mobile Developer Magazine. Fabrizio loves photography and to travel, he currently spends his time in Calgary Alberta but has visited over 15 countries and hundreds of cities. He has been reporting on mobile technology and the industry since 1999.

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