If you think programmatic advertising on the open web is opaque, well, it’s got nothing on the app economy.
Mobile ad network margins can run as high as 40% or 50%, said Felix Braberg, a mobile gaming consultant and ad monetization expert. And even when publishers negotiate contractual caps, there’s no way to confirm they’re being honored, he added.
It’s a problem that Jim Payne and Dan Sack, the folks behind MoPub and MAX, think they can solve through their latest venture, CloudX.
CloudX, which launched into general availability in February, uses AI agents to handle mobile monetization tasks, like setting price floors, updating line items and managing SDK integrations.
It positions itself as neutral infrastructure, charging a flat fee rather than taking a cut on both sides of a transaction. Braberg is an early publisher partner. According to Payne, most publishers on the platform are already seeing double-digit revenue lifts, and one recently reported a roughly 30% increase on Android.
