Mobile attribution and analytics pioneer, Kochava, grows network integrations to 1700 amidst explosive growth and market maturity to close out 2015
SANDPOINT, Idaho – January 14, 2016 – Kochava (www.kochava.com), the mobile attribution, analytics and optimization company, today announced new services, network integrations, and app analytics tools to help advertisers exceed their mobile media goals heading into 2016—a year where hyper-targeted mobile advertising will be front and center as brands seek to capitalize on impression data and collective intelligence from mobile usage globally.
In 2015 Kochava grew over 250% in revenue, and over 325% in transaction volume. This growth marks a three year trend of annual growth over 300%. As 2016 kicks off, the Kochava platform continues to evolve in support of brands’ needs and leads the industry in the effort to empower brands to optimize their mobile ad spend.
“In 2015 we saw customers become increasingly aware of the value of attribution data and related analytics for their campaigns, which resulted in companies pouring additional resources into tracking attribution,” said Kochava President and CEO, Charles Manning. “As these companies became more sophisticated in their use of the Kochava dashboard, we saw them start to turn the dials on their campaigns and add elements of tracking, like fraud detection and configurable view through attribution, which allowed them to take control of their media spend at a whole new level. In 2016, as this trend towards advanced sophistication of user acquisition campaigns gains momentum, our focus at Kochava will be on bringing more capabilities and new tools to our customers who are now ready to put them to use.”
“Attribution is the only investment that has a guaranteed positive return for Mobile User Acquisition teams,” said Kevin King, Marketing Manager for Backflip Studios, a long time Kochava customer. “Business critical problems require best in class solutions and since 2011, the only one Backflip Studios has trusted with our multimillion dollar budgets is Kochava. Mobile advertising is a race to coalesce user acquisition from hundreds of unique partners in a standard-less world. Kochava is the only partner Backflip Studios trusts to deal with the reality of privacy and fraud in this space. When you have millions of dollars tied up in user acquisition, a trusted and reliable partner is critical. Kochava is the difference between making estimates, and reconciling your spend with actual performance.”
As the industry becomes more educated in the space, there is also a new focus from advertisers on the importance of fraud detection. Kochava has long offered customers valuable tools for identifying and eliminating fraudulent attribution activities; in 2016, more advertisers are expected to take advantage of these tools to curb losses from fraud.
“The reliable attribution data KIXEYE gets from Kochava is critical to the success of our campaigns, especially when it comes to identifying and eliminating fraudulent activity,” says Grant Harbin, Director of Marketing at KIXEYE. “Typically, if there is a large inconsistency between the number of installs and the expected in-game spend, then there has been some fraudulent activity within your campaign. Because we are actively consuming the Kochava data on a sub-hourly basis, we are able to quickly identify those issues and ensure that we adjust our campaigns and work with our ad networks to eliminate the risk of fraudulent activity moving forward. The ability to have data down to the timestamp and source of each user helps us to identify potential data discrepancies which, over the course of a campaign, can really add up. With a neutral attribution partner like Kochava, it is easy to verify install claims made by ad networks to ensure that we are only paying for verified users.”
Collective intelligence to shine in 2016
In September, Kochava announced five mobile advertising industry heavyweights had joined forces to create the mobile advertising industry’s first advertiser data-driven Collective. The Collective, a joint project led by Kochava, and backed by leading mobile media sources, enables meaningful audience matches to be made between advertisers and publishers without advertisers having to sacrifice their unique user data in order to benefit from collective intelligence. The Collective powered by Kochava became the first ever Mobile Graph™ from which advertisers could create custom audiences and target those audiences with precision and scale.
Heading into 2016, dozens of the leading advertisers in the space, representing nearly $1 Billion in annual mobile media spend, have already committed to joining The Collective as early partners helping drive demand for the custom audiences that are being created on behalf of integrated supply partners. The overwhelming positive interest and participation in the marketplace from data and inventory supply as well as advertiser demand partners is proof that The Collective is a much needed platform where first-party data is the basis for refined audience modeling while protecting the data rights of buyers and sellers.
“Look for 2016 to be the year brands optimize their mobile ad spend leveraging the collective intelligence gained through shared data, and the use of advanced tools like configurable view-through attribution which expands measurement beyond ‘last click’ to include all levels of influencers, completely configurable by the advertiser,” adds Manning. “Once brands start turning the knobs on their campaigns to deliver real optimization, taking into account all levels of influence, the old approach of ‘throw money at it and sit back and see what works’ will no longer be acceptable.”
Kochava ramps up with more resources, leadership and global expansion
Kochava doubled its staff in 2015 with a focus on technology, customer support, and sales resources. This growth included the opening of a UK office to increase support for European customers. Additionally Grant Cohen joined the Kochava team as vice president of audience demand for The Collective, Kochava’s newest business unit focused on creating unique data solutions for the marketplace. As VP, Cohen handles the onboarding and management of all demand partnerships, which includes app and game advertisers, brands, and agencies. Prior to joining Kochava, Cohen was the head of revenue at Playhaven, a leading edge mobile ad network that supports more than 25,000 game developers, driving monetization and user acquisition globally. He led the company through its acquisition by RockYou, a San Francisco-based social gaming company. Cohen joined Playhaven when it was acquired by ChirpAds, a native mobile ad business he co-founded and ran. Cohen represents Kochava in its Los Angeles office, working with companies globally.
1700 Integrations through a single platform
Heading into 2016 Kochava boasts the largest pool of integrations, more than 1,700, including newly added major publishers like Amazon and Instagram, joining longstanding Super Publishers including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Pandora, and iAd.
About Kochava
Kochava offers a unique, holistic and unbiased approach to mobile attribution analytics and optimization. Via its platform, Kochava provides mobile advertisers with precise real-time visualization of campaign data that spans from initial launch through conversion and lifetime value (LTV) reporting, including comprehensive post-install event tracking. Kochava’s tools enable customers to turn their data into actionable information. Kochava is integrated with more than 1,700 publishers like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Pandora.
