Best Practices to Combat Seasonal CPM Drop

Summary

The article discusses the typical Q1 CPM and revenue decline known as the 'January slump' due to reduced advertiser spending post-holidays. It provides actionable strategies for app developers using AppLovin's MAX platform to mitigate this downturn. Core recommendations include: (1) Focus on impression fill by optimizing waterfall CPMs around price points that fill most often, removing high non-filling CPMs, and leveraging Auto CPM for real-time pricing adjustments against bidding networks.

(2) Diversify demand by adding new ad networks to close performance gaps, especially in underperforming regions or formats, and A/B test new partners. (3) Update network integrations and SDKs to benefit from new campaign types and fix technical issues. (4) Revisit content categories and blocklists to remove unnecessary restrictions that may limit revenue.

(5) Continuously A/B test these strategies to validate changes before full rollout. Additionally, the article advises maintaining or even increasing user acquisition (UA) spend during the slump, as lower market competition can reduce UA costs, and test creative strategies to attract new users. It cites insights from Alice Liu, VP of Product at AppLovin, emphasizing the importance of understanding user data to identify demand gaps.

The article concludes that these tactics, when combined with systematic testing, can help developers maximize revenue and growth in Q1.