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Programmatic and DSP buying for apps and games

Mobile programmatic on Moloco and other DSPs, with bundle-level whitelists, creative rotation and cohort quality checks. DSPs reward clean events and enough budget to learn, so I check both before the first campaign.

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Judged on backend revenueFree diagnostic firstOne or two new clients a month
Brass balls pour from a tap into a bucket and keep rolling out again through the holes near its base
What you get

Deliverables

For app publishers and games ready to scale beyond Meta and Google, typically $10K or more a month.

  • DSP readiness check: events, postbacks, budget minimums and creative formats
  • Campaign setup by geo, format and optimization event
  • Bundle and publisher whitelists and blacklists
  • CPI versus quality analysis (day-one retention, payers, payback)
  • Monthly report reconciled against the MMP

Platforms and tools

  • Moloco
  • AppsFlyer
  • Adjust
Illustrative diagram of a programmatic auction: one bid request, several bids, one winning impressionIllustrative. A bid request for one ad slot goes out to five bidders. Each answers with a bid that grows as a bar, the highest one wins, the impression is served and a postback with the install or event returns to inform the next bids. No real figures.ILLUSTRATIVEBid requestone ad slotBIDDERS AND THEIR BIDSWinning bidImpressionserved in the appPOSTBACK: INSTALL OR EVENT
One bid request, several bids, one impression.
An auctioneer's gavel beside a belt of identical envelopes, each carrying a brass coin of a different size

In programmatic buying, every impression goes to auction on its own. Two that look the same can sell at very different prices, depending on who else is bidding for that user at that moment.

Receipts

From my own work

Anonymized, with the denominator and the caveats left in.

One DSP campaign for a gaming app, before and after

The dashed outline is where each bar started

$4.74 → $1.66
Cost per install
Cheaper installs
15.1% → 9.9%
Day-one retention
Fewer users came back
Both fell on the same campaign. Cheaper installs came with users who left sooner, so I didn't call it a win.
Optimization event
$195 → ~$1,239 per depositor

Found an optimization event flat at about $6 per lead from July to August while the true cost per depositor rose from $195 to about $1,239.

Programmatic and RTB

Ran programmatic and RTB buying autonomously for over a year across many markets and DSPs (per my former supervisor's recommendation).

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How it starts

Diagnostic first, then a plan

  1. Free 30-minute diagnostic

    A short form, a pre-read built from public data and a call on the three biggest opportunities.

  2. A written plan

    Scope, tests in order, the stop rule for each test and what I need access to.

  3. The work

    DSP setup and buying with bundle whitelists and cohort quality checks, reconciled against your MMP with the stop rules agreed up front.

FAQ

Common questions

What budget does a DSP need?

Enough for the algorithm to see conversions every day, which is usually more than teams expect. That is why the readiness check comes first. The teams I work with on DSPs typically spend $10K or more a month.

Which DSPs do you buy on?

Moloco, with AppsFlyer or Adjust for measurement. Earlier, at an ad network, I ran programmatic and RTB buying across many markets and DSPs.

How do you judge DSP traffic quality?

On cohorts: day-one retention, payers and payback, reconciled against the MMP. A cheaper CPI with worse retention is not a win.

Related

Often combined with

Mobile app user acquisition

Installs that turn into payers. Multi-network UA for iOS and Android apps, planned around payback instead of CPI.

How it works

Tracking and measurement (MMP, Conversions API, server-side)

Make the numbers trustworthy before buying more: MMP, Conversions API, server-side events, SKAN and backend reconciliation.

How it works

AI creative production (banners and video ads)

Banners, UGC-style and motion video ads produced with AI, sized for every placement and checked against platform policies before launch.

How it works
Free · 30 minutes

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