AdDuplex has introduced real-time bidding - what this means for you

Last week, AdDuplex have announced the introduction of a bidding based sub-system. If you're an AdDuplex user then you may have some questions about this and what it means for you.

Here, in hopefully simple terms, is what it means to you and what has changed.

Cross-Promotion
If you're cross promoting your app with the AdDuplex control then nothing has changed. This is true whether you've got a Windows or Windows Phone app and if you're using the control directly or through AdRotator or AdMediator.
If you show ads for other apps and in exchange ads for your app are shown in the other apps then nothing changes.

Direct Campaigns
If you've bought direct advertising in an app nothing changes. Any campaigns you're bought will continue in the same way. You can also continue to buy advertising in the same way.

Network Campaigns
This is where things have changed.
Previously, all ad impressions that you purchased cost the same amount.
This made things were nice and simple and you knew what you'd get for your money.

In reality though, some ad inventory is more desirable than others. This could be ads in some types of apps and people in some locations.
When something is more desirable it is reasonable that some people will be prepared to pay more for it. Similarly it's reasonable to want to pay less for something that other people aren't as interested in.

The way that advertising platforms account for the varying relative value of different impressions is via real-time bidding or RTB. (RTB article on Wikipedia)
This is what AdDUplex has changed to using for paid network advertising.

What this means for you is that:

• Some ad impressions will cost more.
• Some ad impressions will cost less
• You can expect to get more impressions for your money
• If you want specific targeting for your ads you may end up getting fewer impressions for your money but they should be more valuable to you and therefore something which will convert better. (If you're targeting correctly.)

Practically, what does this mean for you?
If you are currently running paid network campaigns you can switch them to be RTB based.
If you do this before July 7th 2015 you'll get your current balance doubled!
If you don't do this manually, all accounts will be automatically updated on January 1st 2016.

As per the instructions on the blog post, to make the switch, log in to your account and go to "Buy ads –> Billing –> Add credits" then follow the instructions to convert your credit.
The day after you do this you'll be able to adjust your campaign(s). Just go to the bottom of each campaign and adjust as appropriate.

I'd suggest keeping the old daily budget and starting with a low bid (e.g. $0.99) and then adjusting based on performance once you see what you get with those settings.