Inside In-App Ads: Past, Present, and What’s Next?

A Sit-Down with Two & a Half Gamers

Shobeir Shobeiri, Senior Director of Business Development at Moloco, recently hopped on the Two & a Half Gamers podcast to break down how in-app advertising has evolved—and why it matters more than ever for mobile game publishers today.

With years of experience helping publishers grow revenue, Shobeir shares what’s working, what’s outdated, and how Moloco is helping shift the monetization game.

From Direct Deals to Real-Time Bidding

Let’s rewind. In the early days, mobile monetization was all about direct sales. Then came bundled ad networks, followed by exchanges and DSPs. While each stage brought more scale, it also introduced complexity—publishers lost control, inventory went unsold, and revenue got stuck in the middle.

Fast forward to now: mediation platforms and in-app bidding are the new standard. These tools let publishers connect to more demand sources and run real-time auctions per impression. The result? Better performance, higher yield, and less manual work. But challenges like network overlap and murky fee structures still exist.

Why Ad Pricing Needed a Rethink

The way ads are priced has also come a long way:

1. CPM: Good for exposure, not results
2. CPC / CPI / CPA: Better for tracking, but more fraud-prone
3. dCPM: The latest and smartest—dynamic pricing based on actual outcomes, with full transparency.

This evolution reflects a bigger trend: advertisers want performance, and publishers want fair value. It’s no longer just about showing ads—it’s about delivering results.

What Moloco Brings to the Table

That’s where Moloco comes in. Backed by nearly $2B in annual ad spend, our AI-powered models are built to optimize for both performance and revenue—helping advertisers acquire and re-engage high-value users, while enabling publishers to unlock better yield from their inventory.

• Moloco Ads: A programmatic platform that delivers performance at scale, giving marketers the tools to reach the right users at the right moment.
• Moloco SDK: A simple integration that gives publishers direct access to global demand—with no added margin fees, so more revenue flows back to them.

Whether you're buying or selling, Moloco helps you get more out of every impression—driven by AI, backed by transparency, and built for growth.

And here, we’re excited to announce that the Moloco SDK will be available to all publishers in the coming quarter —making it even easier to tap into high-quality global demand and maximize their monetization potential.

The Future Looks Big

Mobile ad spend is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2032, and the market’s only getting more competitive. Now’s the time to get ahead—with tools that prioritize transparency, control, and performance.

Want to make more from your inventory without the mess of middlemen?

Reach out to our team to see how Moloco can help you grow with real performance and zero guesswork.