While you may not always notice it, the technology behind many of ads in your favorite mobile games comes from a key innovator in the mobile app and connected TV (CTV) industries. This behind-the-scenes power enhances user experiences, subtly transforming how digital content interacts with its audience.
This technological prowess belongs to AppLovin, which offers comprehensive, AI-driven software solutions that empower app developers to acquire new users, monetize effectively, and make strategic, data-driven decisions. These capabilities establish AppLovin as an essential partner for developers aiming to expand and profit from their applications.
Globally, AppLovin leverages its extensive reach to provide developers with expert advice and insights from a broad range of successful case studies. We spoke with Tuan Hoang, Senior Business Development Manager at AppLovin, to learn more about the company's innovative ad technologies.
In his role, Tuan Hoang serves as a strategic advisor to all Vietnam game and app developers who want to grow and scale their businesses by leveraging Applovin’s diverse product solutions.
What are the core services and products that AppLovin offers?
AppLovin’s ecosystem comprises a variety of specialized tools tailored to meet diverse client needs. We have:
AppLovin Platform: Powered by an AI-based advertising engine, this platform enhances performance marketing by predicting user engagement with high accuracy and continually refining its algorithms for better outcomes.
AppLovin Solutions: Offers a comprehensive technology stack enabling developers to acquire new users, monetize effectively, and make data-driven decisions. Our package includes:
- AppDiscovery: Targets and acquires the most suitable users for mobile apps.
- MAX: A leading mediation solution that maximizes revenue and streamlines app monetization.
- The AppLovin Exchange: AppLovin Exchange (ALX) is the largest mobile RTB exchange that connects buyers directly to AppLovin MAX, the leading source of premium in-app mobile ad inventory.
- Array: Array is an end-to-end app management suite that enables partners to maximize revenue through the app ecosystem with AppLovin’s leading in-app advertising network
- SparkLabs: AppLovin's in-house team that uses creative strategies and data to produce high-quality, high-performing ads that drive industry-exceeding results.
- Adjust: Provides a comprehensive suite for measurement and analytics across multiple platforms, enhancing app growth and marketing insights.
- Wurl: A leader in the CTV industry that helps connect viewers to the content they want to see with technologies for distribution, monetization, and advertising.
What motivated AppLovin to establish a presence in Vietnam's market specifically?
The mobile gaming industry in Vietnam has been robust since 2015 and continues to grow significantly. In fact, Vietnam is one of the top countries globally when it comes to game development and publishing. According to Data.ai Top Publishers Awards for 2024, Vietnam has 6 out of 10 top publishers in the South East Asia region. We have a strong relationship with the majority of all the top publishers in APAC, Vietnam included.
As the market matures, top game publishers are looking to expand and diversify their portfolios beyond traditional mobile games. Many are now developing apps in sectors like AI, productivity, and utilities.
Although these app products differ from games, the underlying strategies for scaling, such as user acquisition and monetization, remain similar. This allows developers to apply the same channels, strategies, and resources to both apps and games effectively. However, opportunities come along with challenges.
What are the major challenges and opportunities for app developers diversifying into non-gaming segments, and how does AppLovin support them?
The first challenge is the differences in users' behaviors across app categories.
For example, users usually take more time to think over the benefits of non-gaming apps, which have longer user lifespans. This allows brands to slowly build and monetize relationships over time. On the other hand, downloading games, especially hyper-casual ones, often depends on current trends or spur-of-the-moment decisions, causing their popularity to quickly rise and just as quickly diminish.
Developers often struggle to segment their users effectively and tailor their products to meet these varied needs. Additionally, there's a tendency to rely on a few familiar solutions and partners, which can limit growth potential.
AppLovin offers significant opportunities in this context by providing marketing and monetization strategies that encourage developers to explore and adopt new solutions. This approach helps developers not to depend solely on established partners and expands their capabilities to scale across various app categories.
With the shift towards ad monetization in Vietnam, how does AppLovin innovate to keep ads engaging yet not intrusive, ensuring gamers' satisfaction and developers' revenue?
To enhance user engagement without disrupting the gaming experience, AppLovin uses various ad formats like rewarded videos, playable ads, and interstitials.
Card Shuffle Sort’s real gameplay (left) and ad creative metaplay (right). | Source: AppLovin
We seamlessly integrate ads into gameplay, strategically placing them at natural breaks or as native ads that harmonize with the game's design. Additionally, AppLovin provides developers with analytics and A/B testing tools to optimize ad frequency and placement, ensuring ads are effective yet unobtrusive.
By collaborating closely with advertisers, we also ensure that our ads meet high standards of quality and creativity to keep users engaged and minimize disruption, thus helping maximize revenue without compromising user satisfaction.
Today, we also see a trend toward hybrid monetization, which combines in-app purchases (IAP) and ads, among Vietnamese developers. They are able to target both IAP and in-app ads (IAA) users with minimum effort and setup just by using the Blended ROAS campaign that AppLovin offers. Just by continuing to scale and optimize this campaign, they can hit their desired target ROAS and spend for both ads and IAP revenue at the same time.
How do AI tools enhance AppLovin’s operational performance?
AI is integral to AppLovin's operations. Take the ad production process, where we see a combination of AI and human creativity, for example.
At SparkLabs, AppLovin's in-house creative agency, we've strategically adopted AI tools at various stages of our ad production process. Initially, we explored AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Midjourney to understand their potential. Then, we implemented AI in pre-production tasks such as ideation and scriptwriting.
In the second phase, we started using these AI tools more extensively. For example, in creating ads for the "Project MAKEOVER" app, AI was used for visual generation, voiceovers, and script editing. This integration of AI with traditional artistic skills helped us create more compelling content while increasing our ad production speed. The result was a 25% higher install rate for these ads compared to others..
By the third phase, where we fully integrated AI, we observed a 220% increase in successful ad campaigns.
The true value of using AI lies in understanding its potential to revolutionize workflows beyond just enhancing aesthetics. At SparkLabs, we've learned not to limit our expectations of these tools to immediate outcomes but to consider their broader impact on efficiency, productivity, and creativity.
What are the key trends that will shape the future of app development globally and in Vietnam?
Two major trends are currently shaping app development.
First, AI is being extensively utilized across the industry, with companies leveraging it for various functions, from enhancing marketing creatives to integrating it as a fundamental component of their products.
Secondly, in Vietnam, there's a notable shift from hyper-casual to hybrid casual games. Developers are moving towards creating games with deeper gameplay elements and higher quality, which not only engages users longer but also supports a dual monetization strategy through ads and in-app purchases.
Despite having worked in the region for around four to five years, AppLovin is still in the early stages of expanding its presence in Vietnam. Looking forward, our goal is to deepen our engagement with long-term partners who have seen significant growth, as well as reach out to new partners, continuously enhancing our service offerings to support their development needs. As our partners succeed, AppLovin also grows alongside them.
About AppLovin
AppLovin makes technologies that help businesses of every size connect to their ideal customers. The company provides end-to-end software and AI solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow their global audiences.
For more information about AppLovin, visit website.