Moloco launches automated buying platform for in-house programmatic advertising, featuring bid optimization and LAT targeting

Moloco announced today the general availability of Moloco Cloud, an automated buying platform for ad inventory across the world’s leading programmatic exchanges and in-app ad networks. Now available as a cloud-based platform for all app marketers, Moloco Cloud is powered by proprietary machine learning technology that empowers mobile marketers to leverage first-party data and contextual signals from across the programmatic ecosystem to automatically optimize ad campaigns based on a variety of performance metrics. Moloco Cloud features a brand new Bid Optimizer tool that automatically adjusts bid amounts for first-price auctions in real time so that advertisers can achieve their goals while making sure they do not overpay.

“Several of the world’s most sophisticated mobile marketers have deployed Moloco Cloud and are experiencing dramatic results,” said Ikkjin Ahn, Co-founder and CEO of Moloco. “The programmatic ad landscape has become increasingly complex, especially for the growing segment of performance marketers. Moloco Cloud leverages the proprietary algorithms that we built for our managed services program to provide marketers with a cloud-based solution that simplifies and automates programmatic advertising while offering total transparency and control. With features like our new Bid Optimizer and LAT Targeting, we have completely transformed the practice of buying programmatic advertising on a global scale.”

Moloco Cloud enables mobile marketers to pinpoint the audiences most likely to drive returns for their business across the world’s leading in-app ad networks, marketplaces and exchanges, including MoPub (a Twitter company), Fyber, Vungle, AdColony, Chartboost, Tapjoy, LINE and more. The platform automatically adjusts programmatic bids to maximize clicks, conversions, installs, in-app events, return on ad spend, or other goals set by the advertiser. App marketers gain complete control over their programmatic advertising operations with full transparency into their campaign data and performance, including impression-level log data that is not shared by other demand-side platforms.

The general release of the platform also features “Limit Ad Tracking” (LAT) Targeting, allowing marketers to target iOS and Android devices that have enabled LAT, despite the fact that no ad tracking data is passed. The feature works by targeting users based on contextual signals coming from the current app session, device status, enriched app-level data and other parameters, which are available through partnerships with SDK-based supply sources such as Fyber. LAT Tracking will enable marketers to maintain performance even after Apple makes its unique identifier for advertisers (IDFA) opt-in instead of opt-out for users, as it is expected to do later this year.

"Moloco has consistently been at the forefront of innovation when it comes to mobile app growth, and Moloco Cloud continues that tradition by giving us the tools we need to scale our apps quickly and profitably," said Michael Jessen, Product Marketing Manager at Social Point, a developer of mobile and social games including Dragon City and Monster Legends. "With features like LAT Targeting and its Bid Optimizer, Moloco Cloud enables us to target high-value users while automatically optimizing our campaign performance. Since we started using Moloco Cloud, we've been able to boost ROI by 30 percent.”

Programmatic advertising has grown exponentially in recent years and is projected to reach $98 billion in ad spend by 2021, according to the Zenith Programmatic Marketing Forecasts Report. Meanwhile, brands are increasingly focused on bringing their programmatic ad campaigns in-house. As the IAB points out in its 2020 U.S. Report on Programmatic In-Housing, nearly 20 percent of brands have entirely moved the function in-house, while more than half have moved at least parts of it in-house. “In-housing of programmatic allows brands more transparency, which allows for better return on investment (ROI) attribution, cost efficiency, and campaign effectiveness,” according to the report’s authors.

“Programmatic advertising represents the future of the ad industry, and we are very pleased to work with MOLOCO to help app marketers tap into our world-class supply in an intelligent and efficient way,” said Jeremy Bondy, CEO of Vungle. “By empowering marketers with the tools they need to reach relevant audiences in real time and optimize their campaign performance based on flexible goals, MOLOCO sits among the market leaders in the programmatic space.”