The answer might surprise you

When operating a Demand Side Platform that is integrated with the most substantial inventory sources (adexchanges), It’s possible to do some forecasting regarding apps that have the largest volume. Or; the largest amount of visitors.

Apart from Facebook, pretty much all apps that allow some kind of advertisement in them – can be found in such a forecast. Interestingly; most people don’t expect which apps actually have the most visitors – globally. Brands (or; publishers) that are well-known and have a global audience are not necessarily most popular. So what kind if apps do you find in an export containing – let’s say – the 30 most visited apps, worldwide? Some examples:

• Goal live Scores
• Blogspot.com
• Tubemate
• Grindr
• MP3 Video Converter
• Clean Master
• Sing! Karaoke
• Flash Emoji Keyboard
• Accuweather

Noticing something? Not the most established brands are in this list right? Where’s CNN? Or Gmail, BBC and The New York Times? Not in there!

It seems that publishers providing practical necessities, are way more popular than established brands. Go ahead and compare a countries’ most popular news app, based on availability availability (in terms of impressions), to practical apps that everybody needs. Even on a national level – in most cases – practical apps like Clean Master (tool for 'cleaning' your phone), Grindr (gay dating) or Goal Live Scores (soccer statistics/scores), have a bigger audience that that countries’ most well-known news publisher.

Rather pleasantly; advertising in these apps is relatively cheap. Mainly because advertisers (or; brands), don’t like these generic apps. They don’t like the apparent less qualitative image that these apps have. In our opinion, the fact that advertising in these apps is usually cheaper than in – let’s say – an established news publisher, is all you need to know. Users of these practical apps are real persons. Real consumers. There is no reason to assume you will reach a less profitable audience. Especially if you combine serving on these apps with 3rd party data (f.e. Interest profiles of the user behind a certain devices); a lot can be achieved.