So we have heard about Apple’s ginormous advertising deals for iAd, but it seems that Apple’s deals reach through to developers as well. One developer, Jason Ting, said that his LED flashlight app (LED Light for iPhone 4), which is offered as an ad-supported free version, turned in $1372.20 of advertising revenue in one day.
That revenue was based on 9000 downloads, 9300 ad impressions and a click-through rate of 11.8%. The eCPM rate came in at close to $150, which is about 100 times higher than what other mobile deals currently pay. And if you compare the deal against standard eCPM models, Apple’s pay is up to 300 times higher. Of course, Ting appears to be an extreme example, as we have heard other reports with much lower eCPM rates as well. And Ting’s revenue still includes Apple’s 40% cut.
Another developer, Kenneth Ballenegger, said that his eCPM was somewhere between $10 and $15. He also noted that iAd’s fill rate is at just 10% and the ad refresh rate is much lower than that of other ad networks and he, in fact, said that he expects iAd eCPM rates of just over $1 in the long run. In the end, the fill rate seems to be what is the biggest concern out there and it’s so low that, for many developers – those with extremely high ad views – it just does not replace Google yet. However, iAd just launched and like other networks it needs some time to ramp up. So let’s be patient.
We should be realistic about the eCPM rates. Of course, there’s a novelty to iAds and that certainly benefits developers right now. Eventually, the eCPM rate will fall, but we would expect the numbers to remain higher than on the desktop. You can run iAds and use other networks such as Google as a fallback option.