The popular app that lets users posts memories via photos across a variety of apps switched from a 3rd-party ad server to its own in-house ad server.
When the 3rd-party ad server Timehop had been using went down for three days, costing the company three days of revenue, the company decided to build its own programmatic ad server.
Highlights:
- Timehop instructed some of its product engineers to begin building an ad server that focused on its own inventory, mobile-only.
- In the 18 months since the change, the app’s CPM has grown from $2 to $28.
- Timehop’s user base is about 80 percent in the U.S., 80 percent women and 80 percent millennial.
- Timehop says they lost between 10 to 15 percent of their users after a redesign at the end of 2016, but that it’s also adding users each week.
- They suffered a hack in July, impacting 21 million users.
Go deeper:
- Memory app Timehop built an ad server to go from near-death to profitable – Digiday
- Direct vs. Programmatic: A Breakdown of Media Buying – Digital Insights
- 21 Million Impacted in Timehop Data Breach – Select/All
John is a writer with an interest in healthcare and SEO. In his spare time, he enjoys basketball and memes and spending time with his family.
