Ken Harlan
The digital media industry often talks about how much influence, dominance and power entities like Google and Facebook have. Generally, the focus is on the vast troves of data and audience reach these companies tout. However, there’s more beneath the surface that strengthens the grip these companies have on both app developers and publishers alike.
In reality, software development kit (SDK) integrations are a critical component of why these monolith companies have such a prominent presence. For reference, an SDK is a set of software development tools, libraries, code samples, processes and guides that help developers create or enhance the apps they’re building.
Through a digital marketing lens, SDKs provide in-app analytics, insights on campaign testing, attribution information, location details, monetization capabilities and more. In the case of companies like Google and Facebook, their ability to provide these insights dovetails with their data and reach.
While that does deliver useful capabilities to developers and publishers alike, it also perpetuates the factors contributing to their perceived monopolistic status — and the detriments a lack of competition fosters.
Almost all (90%) ad-monetized Android apps have Google’s Admob SDK integrated, data from Statista showed. Additionally, the Facebook Audience Network SDK is present in 19% of all global Android apps utilizing mobile ads. It’s worth noting that the large majority of alternative “leading” advertising SDKs outside these two players are used less than 13% of the time in Android apps.
As the app ecosystem rapidly expands beyond the borders of mobile, app developers and publishers would benefit immensely from identifying economical and secure ways of adopting more SDKs.
The state of SDK adoption
While there are many SDKs available in the market today, a few key factors contribute to Google and Facebook’s overall dominance. The most basic is around the respective organizations’ reach and industry notoriety. However, a larger component here is the lack of resources and time app developers have.
Despite the potential for new monetization capabilities, developers find it difficult to implement and maintain several SDKs concurrently. The process is demanding and involves updating a respective app and resubmitting it to each app store. This takes a considerable amount of time and can result in a loss of revenue or the inability to push out key updates. Additionally, many SDKs have a quarterly update cadence, making all this work a compounding problem. Suffice to say, if app developers focus on that, they can’t work on what matters most — advancing their projects and content.
It’s worth calling out that mediation layers do provide a way of managing and maintaining SDKs, and in some cases can help reduce time spent updating them. However, the mediation platform SDK itself needs constant updating and maintenance — keeping app developer fatigue consistent. Mediation platform users are also pigeonholed to use the ad networks their respective platform supports. It’s clear the industry needs to develop, or identify, a collaborative solution that enables developers and publishers to streamline the SDK updating requirements, all while maintaining safety.
To that point, quality control and security are also areas of importance when integrating SDKs. In reality, it’s very rare for developer teams to sift through each line of code before adopting it — falling in line with the broader fatigue notion. This obviously introduces potential risks that impact app developers and the end users they serve.
We’re seeing more companies incorporate third-party certifications and audits — and that’s great. A third-party test and review of a given SDK is a step in the right direction in regard to reinforcing safety procedures. These reviews typically assess an SDK’s methods of storing or transmitting personally identifiable information (PII) and analyze source code to identify potential vulnerabilities. This sets a bar for what offering can be trusted, and who is accountable. These trusted entities set the stage for a more SDK-agnostic approach and help app developers seamlessly incorporate safe and secure SDKs into their projects.
That said, we’re seeing shifts in perspective that redefine SDK integration approaches.
Changes to the status quo
The app ecosystem is rapidly expanding beyond mobile — a recent report from App Annie found that new app downloads reached 218 billion last year, an increase of 7% in 2020. Additionally, global app store spend grew by 20% last year, totaling $143 billion.
With the sheer size of the market, it obviously behooves app developers and publishers to incorporate alternative ad monetization platforms and services that offer insights on niche consumer and campaign aspects. For example, access to different ad networks at different times could benefit campaign efforts from an effective-cost-per-mile (eCPM) and fill-rate perspective.
As the stars align around the regulatory and policy updates and the diminishing value the existing monoliths provide, it’s increasingly important for app developers and publishers to incorporate more SDKs to ensure they maximize their insights and revenue opportunities. Those who identify a streamlined approach are better positioned as we navigate into a more consumer-privacy-oriented digital media industry.
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