What is Mediation?
Publishers usually want to add multiple demand sources to their inventory, to increase fill rates and generate more revenue. What seems easy on mobile web or desktop, can become a tedious task for in-app traffic.
Integrating and orchestrating multiple network SDK is highly complex and putting logic into the app makes every change in the priority of partners depending on a new release in the Google Playstore or App Store.
Mediation is a process that allows the “primary SDK” to act as a mediator towards the “secondary SDK”, managed from the backend. By doing this, price priority can be taken into consideration and the publisher keeps control over their inventory.
The “secondary SDK” still needs to be included in the app, but only basic configuration is required and the SDK remains inert until invoked by the “primary SDK”.
Primary SDK? Secondary SDK?
The primary SDK is the SDK that makes the first call and which is fully integrated and configured in the app. Usually, the primary SDK is the primary ad server of the publisher, which controls the campaign priority.
The secondary SDK is the SDK that the publisher wants to fall back to when there is no own demand provided by their primary ad server. This SDK is added to the app but not fully integrated and set up. Additionally, it provides some “mediation files”, that allow communication between the primary SDK and the secondary SDK.
Drawbacks using Mediation
As the primary SDK acts as a mediator and needs to comply with whatever adapter is involved, mediation usually works only with well-defined IAB standards: (fixed size) banners, interstitials, and native ads. Publishers should keep this in mind, in case they want to support non-standard advertising, such as the high-priced YOC high-impact formats such as the “YOC Understitial Ad®” or the “YOC Mystery Scroller®”. The VIS.X® SDK can overcome this drawback to an extent. However, for best monetization results, we recommend to setup the VIS.X® SDK as the primary SDK for a specific inline ad unit in the center of the content. Reach out to your Account Manager for further consultancy on this topic.
Working with Mediation
The VIS.X® SDK supports mediation, both as a primary SDK - a controlling instance of the mediation water - or as a secondary SDK inside a waterfall. We have out-of-the-box support for Google Ads SDK. Our mediation adapters are hosted on a public git repository for both Android and iOS. You can adjust them to individual needs. Also, you may add your adapter based on the provided templates if you work with a partner not mentioned.
As our SDK is rather special due to the variety of formats, we strongly suggest integrating our inline placements in a first call session to ensure all features work properly and are not blocked due to the technical limitations of leading SDKs in the line.