Missed the live webinar, watch it here!

On April 23rd, the Prebid community gathered for an exciting webinar focused on one of 2024’s top priorities — mobile monetization. With the launch of Prebid Mobile SDK 3.0, the team showcased major advancements designed to empower publishers, developers, and ad tech partners in a rapidly growing mobile ecosystem.

Agenda:

• The state of Prebid Mobile with a quick recap of the technology and benefits
  
• 3.0 release highlights and other updates
  
• Expanding our footprint with rendering and in-app
  
• Event plans
  
• Q&A

Kicking things off, Mike Racic, President of Prebid, reflected on the ambitious roadmap set at the beginning of the year. Mobile has been front and center, and thanks to strong collaboration across the community — including contributions from Index Exchange, Verve, Sigma, and TechBlaze — Prebid Mobile 3.0 has delivered far more than just bug fixes.

This latest release tackles core challenges in in-app advertising, introducing features aimed at improving monetization, flexibility, and transparency for publishers while driving better outcomes for buyers.

The agenda covered the background and context of identity signals in targeting, a detailed technical overview, and a case study demonstration.

The State of Prebid Mobile

Mike Mullin, Senior Product Manager at Index Exchange and Vice Chair of Prebid Mobile, highlighted the scale of opportunity in mobile. While mobile app ad spend is projected to reach $187 billion this year, around $40 billion remains addressable via programmatic outside of walled gardens. With over 300 million app downloads in just six months, Prebid Mobile is gaining momentum, though untapped potential remains—especially within mobile gaming.

Mike emphasized why Prebid Mobile is a strong solution for in-app header bidding. It provides the most direct and transparent path to supply, eliminating inefficiencies like mediation waterfalls and ensuring bidders access every impression opportunity. With no hidden fees or conflicts of interest, bids compete fairly at their submitted value. He also noted that the growth of Prebid Mobile 3.0 offers a unique opportunity for stakeholders to help shape its future and encouraged market players to get involved. Those interested in contributing to the Prebid Mobile Taskforce are invited to reach out.

To align with publisher and market needs, the Prebid team focused the 3.0 release on four key principles:

Compatibility with leading SDKs

Lightweight implementation and a fast path to revenue

Enhanced rendering capabilities to boost engagement and support custom ad formats

Improved developer experience through simplified testing, troubleshooting, and flexible APIs

Prebid SDK 3.0 Release Highlights

Maksym from Sigma presented the key features of the 3.0 release:

• Rendering Delegation: Publishers can now implement custom rendering solutions or delegate rendering to trusted third-party SDKs for greater control and a better user experience.
  
• Enhanced Video Capabilities: Added support for companion ads and a new rewarded video unit to unlock more flexible monetization options.
  
• Privacy & Compliance: Full alignment with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and expanded SKAdNetwork support to meet evolving privacy standards.
  
• Developer-Friendly Upgrades: Streamlined integration, enhanced testing tools, cleaner APIs, and updated documentation for easier customization.
  
• Native Tracking: Initial steps toward standardized impression and click tracking across banners, video, and native formats.
  

Alexander Savelyev, VP of Product at Verve, shared a standout case study from TeqBlaze, showcasing how community-driven development led to full support for rewarded ads. TeqBlaze contributed end-to-end functionality, including ORTB bitstream integration and necessary configurations. This opened new market opportunities, improving viewability, engagement, video completion rates, and brand awareness, while enabling advertisers to deliver long-form video ads for deeper user engagement.

Expanding Our Footprint: Rendering and In-App Growth

Alexander outlined Prebid Mobile’s future roadmap, targeting a significant increase in adoption, which currently stands at just 1% of mobile apps. With many publishers lacking control and transparency in their monetization, Prebid SDK is positioned as a flexible, transparent solution that maximizes revenue by removing intermediaries.

The roadmap focuses on four key areas:

1. Simplifying integration, particularly for gaming publishers
   
2. Ensuring full support for major ad formats and buyer demands
   
3. Promoting adoption of Prebid’s own rendering capabilities
   
4. Driving standardization of mobile-specific features like playable ads, end cards, and UX customization to streamline buyer processes
   

Community contributions will play a vital role in advancing these initiatives throughout the year.