SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chomp, the leading app search engine is pioneering app search advertising with the availability of Chomp Search Ads. The new program, which launches in private beta today, allows developers for the first time, to bid on keywords or phrases which will deliver their ads when users search on those terms within an app search engine. Chomp Search Ads matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, resulting in quality ad matching for both the advertiser and the consumer. Chomp is opening up Chomp Search Ads to a limited amount of advertisers during this first stage of private beta. The company announced that Milk and Zaarly are two of the first companies participating.
“Being able to advertise the Oink app to people that are in the process of looking for something just like it is a form of targeting we haven’t seen before,” said Kevin Rose, founder of app development company, Milk. “Chomp’s ability to give Milk keyword ad delivery as a result of relevant user search is as ground-breaking as when Google first offered keyword advertising for the web.”
According to Gartner Group, $893 million was spent on app advertising in 2010. With over 200 million iOS and Android users looking for apps each month, developers are spending 20-30% of total app revenue they generate on trying to acquire new users through various advertising and marketing initiatives. Gartner expects total app revenue to be $50 billion by 2014, and as a result, is forecasting a $15-20 billion spend on app advertising.1
Chomp Search Ads is an auction-based advertising service. Advertisers will first set up an account and pre-load it with ad dollars. Chomp will recommend search terms based on the developer’s app. The developer can also request terms. They can then bid for the rights to a keyword by setting a daily maximum spend as well as a maximum bid price for a given keyword or phrase. Chomp will show ads for apps based on a number of factors, such as bid price, as well as relevancy to the search term. Increasing the bid price will help improve the chances of an ad showing, but it is not the only factor. Chomp users will always receive the most relevant search results, irrespective of advertising buys. Advertisers will have their pre-paid ad accounts charged when users click through via the “Get It” button on the ad. Chomp will provide detailed campaign reporting to advertisers allowing them to measure the performance of Chomp Search Ads.
“Search advertising has the most value when users see an ad for an app that parallels the kind of app they’re trying to find,” said Ben Keighran, CEO and co-founder of Chomp. “Chomp Search Ads is the first product that matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, helping both the developer and the consumer. Our goal is to make advertising accessible for the bulk of developers -- companies that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, yet they rely on search ads to drive discovery and sales.”
Prior to Chomp Search Ads, advertisers could only buy app display or performance advertising, however under these models, ad placement is disconnected from the user’s desire to find an app. Even on app store sites ad delivery is not based on user search relevance.
“With over a million iOS and Android apps out there, it’s essential to Zaarly that we connect with people looking for a local marketplace,” said Bo Fishback, co-founder and CEO of Zaarly. “The first step to an app download is awareness, and that’s what Chomp delivers. Before this program we wouldn’t even buy advertising because it never delivered meaningful results. We see that completely changing with Chomp Search Ads because we’re confident that it will deliver the highest quality users. We’re making it an essential component of our outbound marketing.”
Chomp Search Ads is available in private beta at ads.chomp.com or by clicking the link at the bottom of the Chomp.com home page.
About Chomp
Founded in 2009 by Ben Keighran and Cathy Edwards, Chomp, Inc. is the only company to enable app search based on what an app actually does. One billion apps are being downloaded every month. As the number of apps explodes, it’s become difficult for users to find the perfect app for what they want to do. Chomp’s patent-pending algorithm is able to understand what an app does and what a user wants and then makes the best match. Chomp also allows developers to effectively integrate app search into their content. Chomp powers search for a wide range of partners including Verizon, Carphone Warehouse, Blekko, 148Apps.com and @aplusk. The company is funded by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Ron Conway, BlueRun Ventures as well as a number of ex-Google angel investors. Advisors include Kevin Rose, Ashton Kutcher, David Blei and Don Metzler. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and can be found at www.chomp.com
1 Statistics as reported by TechCrunch