Gaming, Industry News & Events, Mobile App Growth
Amplify Berlin: Growing Mobile Apps in an Ever-Changing Industry
Liam Fitzpatrick
Sep 26, 2019
Sep 26, 2019
Gaming, Industry News & Events, Mobile App Growth
Last week, we hosted our second Amplify Series event in Berlin. This was our biggest Amplify event to date, with more than 100 mobile developers from over 20 countries in attendance. The two-day event was focused on the constantly growing mobile app industry and how mobile developers can stay ahead of the curve.
We kicked off the event on Thursday night with drinks and a barbecue along the river Spree. Attendees gathered to check in, relax, and mingle with fellow mobile developers.
The following day, we fueled up for a full day of content with a tasty breakfast before Carl Livie, AppLovin’s Managing Director for EMEA, delivered opening remarks on the mobile app industry and where it’s headed.
The main panel of the day was hosted by Dan Sack, AppLovin’s VP of Platform, and featured Nate Barker, Director of Business Development at Kolibri Games, and Marc Milowski, Strategic Partner Manager at Facebook Audience Network. They discussed why in-app bidding is becoming the industry standard monetization setup for app developers.
Marc discussed the growth that has been happening with developers that add Facebook Audience Network into their monetization with MAX In-App Bidding—in most cases, developers are seeing at least a 20% lift in average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU). Nate followed up with specific examples from Kolibri, including a 20% ARPDAU lift, increased efficiency due to less line item management from traditional waterfalls, and the ability to spend more time focusing on building mobile apps.
The event also featured a fireside chat with Orly Shoavi, Co-General Manager of AppLovin Israel, Gili Ilan, Director of Strategic Partnerships for AppLovin Israel, and Michael Chronister, Operation Manager at Brainium Studios. Orly is co-founder of SDK monitoring platform SafeDK, which was recently acquired by AppLovin. Michael explained the successes he has had with SafeDK. He shared specific examples of how Brainium uses SafeDK to monitor SDKs and safeguard their brand’s integrity.
In the session, Orly explained the issues she and co-founder Ronnie Sternberg encountered with managing SDKs in an education app they had at the time. They needed a way to protect their app, filter the ads that the app would show, and understand performance—so they met these challenges themselves by founding SafeDK. Orly also explained how selling SafeDK to AppLovin has given them the ability to reach more customers faster, increased scale at a global level, and provided them with more resources.
After the opening panels, the attendees split up to attend four different breakout sessions and dive deeper into topics including: the future of mobile app monetization, how ads affect marketing and product strategy, attributing ad revenue to UA, and insights from Lion Studios by AppLovin.
“It’s actually the big wins and big losses that tell us the most about ad performance.”
To close out the content portion of the day, AppLovin’s CMO, Katie Jansen, hosted a panel on the evolution of creative marketing. She spoke with Ryan Davies, Digital Marketing Manager at Kwalee, Ignacio Freuler, CMO of Etermax, and Alice Guillaume, Director of Marketing and Creative Services at AppLovin. Members of the panel discussed how ad creatives have evolved over the past few years, both in content and in usage, and particularly how video and playable ads have gained prevalence. Echoing the breakout session on the topic, Alice talked about how ads do more than just drive downloads—they can also influence product strategy, adding, “It’s actually the big wins and big losses that tell us the most about ad performance.”
After the talks, attendees left the venue to head to East Side Gallery for a graffiti walking tour. We enjoyed some beers and a guided walk to see some of Berlin’s historical street art.
The tour ended at Sage Restaurant where we networked with event attendees, connected with colleagues, and enjoyed some delicious food, including local favorites like currywurst and other meats and breads. We danced to a live DJ, and some kept the party going by hitting up some of Berlin’s clubs.
