Mobile applications: what is the 2017 holiday season and how to make the most of it?

New Year's Eve - the time when developers can get the most from advertising. During this period, brands are actively invested in advertising in order to be seen by buyers during holiday shopping. Why did we decide to write about it now? Because it is necessary to prepare for the season and adjust the sources of advertising in advance, that is, in October.

If your application is aimed at the American audience, then you probably know that the United States is the most competitive advertising market with the highest eCPM. In this case, get ready for key dates - these days, American brands will compete with each other for mobile advertising shows.


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On the eve of these holidays, make sure that the sources of advertising in your application are working properly.

In addition, it is important to understand that after the Christmas peak during the first quarter, the eCPM is likely to decline. This applies to all advertising formats.


Banners are always popular among advertisers, especially during holidays (Appodeal data for 2016-17)
The graph above clearly shows that eCPM for banner advertising from December 2016 to January 2017 decreased by 46%. In other words, if you embed advertising in the app in January, you risk missing up to 81% of the increased revenue just because of a delay of one month. In this case, all decide the timing.


Rewarded video is growing rapidly. According to forecasts, eCPM for this type of advertising in the upcoming holiday season will overtake 2016 with a high rate of return (Appodeal data).
eCPM for rewarded video from December 2016 to January 2017 decreased by only 9%. The potential loss due to the previously mentioned delay per month is 10% of increased advertising revenue.


Full-screen static banners are still popular, however, according to forecasts, eCPM is expected to be rather low for this type of advertising (Appodeal data).
This eCPM format has fallen by 20% from December to January. Due to the delay in the month, the developer may miss up to 25% of the seasonally increased advertising revenue.


Full-screen video advertising promises to grow dramatically in December, because brands want to deliver advertising messages in the most impressive format (Appodeal data).
eCPM for full-screen video decreased by 18% from December 2016 to January 2017 - this means that due to the delay in a month there is a risk of missing up to 21% of the possible advertising revenue.

As the charts above show, some ad formats — for example, rewarded videos and static fullscreen ads — have returned to high eCPM levels by March. And such formats as banners and full-screen video get to the eCPM peak only during the holidays.


The right ad networks are another important factor that influences increased revenue during the holiday period. Some of the networks are simply more popular among large advertisers.

Here is a list of ad networks that showed the best results in December 2016 compared to their average annual eCPM in the USA (according to Appodeal):



The conclusion is obvious: if you plan to embed advertising in your application, do it in advance so as not to miss the seasonal income growth. In October, it is worth starting the integration and optimization of the monetization strategy - then you will definitely benefit from the increase in eCPM closer to the Christmas holidays.