In the interview, Ishank Joshi, CEO & Co-founder of Mobavenue Media
Can you give us a brief overview of your company and its core mission in the mobile marketing industry?
We founded Mobavenue in 2017 with a dedicated team offering 360° digital marketing services. Over seven years, we have evolved to deliver purpose-built tech solutions designed to accelerate digital growth for App Developers, Gaming Studios, BFSI, and Commerce brands. Our core mission is to empower businesses of all sizes, driving digital growth and brand performance through data-driven marketing and AdTech solutions powered by advanced machine learning.
What inspired you to enter the mobile marketing space, and what unique challenges did you face during the initial stages?
The rapidly evolving digital landscape and the exponential rise in smartphone usage in India during the Jio Movement in 2016, supported by global markets, inspired us to enter the mobile marketing space. We saw a unique opportunity in the shift towards mobile-first interactions and digital infrastructure. However, building a team that shared our vision, ensuring our platforms were user-friendly and scalable beyond India, and educating potential clients on the benefits of programmatic and mobile marketing were significant early challenges.
How do you approach customer acquisition for your clients in such a competitive market, and what strategies have proven most effective for your business?
Not every customer is your ideal profile. Pinpointing your target market and audience is critical to attracting the right consumers to your business. We do so with our proprietary demand-side platform, which helps businesses identify, reach, and connect with their right set of audiences—in an optimized and personalized manner that drives meaningful connections. One effective strategy that has helped us is understanding the user’s persona and focusing on a sustainable approach that puts customers in the spotlight, not just in acquisition but leading to retention.
What sets your company apart from others in the mobile marketing industry, and how do you continue to innovate to stay ahead?
Our focus on data-driven insights and custom-tailored solutions across the consumer journey sets us apart. We started with user acquisition as our core and now help our customers with full-stack growth journeys, including upper, middle, and lower funnels using our various platforms. We continue to innovate by building our product verticals around advanced technologies, including Artificial General Intelligence and Machine Learning, to enhance targeting capabilities and deliver personalized experiences.
How has programmatic media played a role in your business model, and what benefits have you observed from integrating this strategy?
Programmatic advertising is integral to our business. Some of Its many benefits include better targeting capabilities, cost-effectiveness, transparency, and improved campaign performance, allowing us to serve highly relevant ads to the right users at the right time. As an early adopter, we have propelled success for over 150 brands in India, becoming a preferred programmatic performance and growth partner with a focus on full transparency.
What metrics do you prioritize to measure the success of your mobile marketing campaigns?
We prioritize metrics like Cost per Install (CPI), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), and Average Revenue Per Daily Active Users (ARPDAU) for user acquisition and growth marketing. For user engagement, we track session length, usage, and frequency. For user retention, we monitor the Retention Rate and Churn Rate to understand how well the app attracts, engages, and retains users.
What are the biggest challenges you face in the mobile marketing industry, and how do you address them?
User retention, lifetime value (LTV), and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across multiple channels are major challenges. We use advanced attribution models and tools to identify which channels drive the most engagement and conversions. We address this by understanding user behavior and preferences in a privacy-controlled environment and tailoring marketing efforts through personalization using our Generative AI creative suite.
What emerging trends do you foresee in mobile marketing and programmatic media?
On the mobile marketing front, emerging trends include the rise of CTV, video ads, and user-generated content (UGC) ads. In programmatic media, privacy-first solutions that support cookieless advertising and programmatic Digital Out-of-Home (pDOOH) are expanding the horizons of programmatic advertising.
How has the integration of AI and Machine Learning influenced your business operations, and what specific applications have you found most beneficial?
Machine Learning and data insights have always been integral to our Surge Platforms, and we have started experimenting with Generative AI integration in the last 12 months. This capability has optimized our strategies and improved campaign performance, driving better outcomes for our brand partners. Real-time predictive analytics and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) using generative AI solutions have been particularly beneficial at scale.
What advice would you give to new businesses entering the mobile marketing industry?
To thrive in this ever-evolving world, cultivate a love for lifelong learning. An evolving world requires minds that are always open to new knowledge.
Bottom Line
As Mobavenue Media continues to thrive in the competitive mobile marketing landscape, its commitment to innovation, data-driven insights, and customer-centric solutions remains unwavering. Ishank Joshi’s leadership and vision have not only guided the company through its formative years but also set a benchmark for excellence in the industry. Mobavenue’s journey is a testament to the power of foresight, perseverance, and a relentless pursuit of growth.
