What is ad mediation?

Ad mediation refers to the use of technology to maximize the ad monetization of app publishers by increasing their display ad fill rates and eCPM rates. Ad mediation and mediation platforms search ad networks for the best inventory for publishers and subsequently send ad requests to increase fill rates.

In order to understand ad mediation, let’s first define how app publishers earn revenue from ads:

Ad revenue = Ad requests * fill rate * eCPM

Given these variables, ad mediation attempts to optimize either the fill rate or eCPM (or both) to increase the revenue earned for each ad request. To do so, ad mediation platforms provide publishers with access to multiple ad networks. Advertisers from various networks then compete for the available inventory and the meditation platform selects the one that provides the publisher with the highest ROI.

Ad mediation platforms also allow publishers looking to increase the monetization to rank ad networks in order of preference. If their top ad networks are unable to fill an ad request, the ad mediation platform simply goes down the list and attempts to fill the request with another network.