Meta and Google have been dominating ad spend for what seems like ages. However, there is a vast world outside walled gardens, and UA teams might be leaving eager users and revenue on the table if they are only focusing on Meta and Google.

In our latest episode of App Talks, David Murphy sat with Omri Argaman, Co-Founder and CMO of Zoomd, to dissect what seems like perennial questions: what are walled gardens and how to break free of them?

What is a walled garden?

First things first, what is a walled garden? Most probably know this already, but as a refresher: walled gardens, or closed platforms, are software systems wherein the provider of the platform has complete control over the content, applications, and other media published on the platform and can restrict access as it sees fit.

In the app industry, Meta and Google are by far the biggest and most important walled gardens. To them, we can add TikTok, which, too, has emerged as a major UA channel in recent years.

Walled gardens, however, are very hard and very expensive to get into, because, as Omri puts it, “everyone is advertising there. Your biggest competitors are there. Your new competitors are there. Your old competitors are there. Everyone needs to advertise there because that’s where most of the traffic is.”

“Everyone is advertising there. Your biggest competitors are there. Your new competitors are there. Your old competitors are there. Everyone needs to advertise there because that’s where most of the traffic is.”

Beyond walled gardens

Omri argues in favour of a more diversified approach to app advertising, advising UA teams to look beyond walled gardens and consider the open internet. This includes ad networks, SDKs, affiliate channels, mobile operators, device manufacturers, DSPs, incentivised channels, and video networks.

He suggests that UA managers should be advertising there first for three important reasons. First, it’s a bigger space with less competition, making it easier and less expensive to get into. Second, many advertisers are not tapping into the open internet opportunity since it’s perceived as riskier and more difficult to make work. Finally and most importantly, the open internet is a huge space with a lot of potential users waiting to be impressed and convinced to download.

Advertisers, however, are often daunted by the open internet and unwilling to venture out of the comforts of walled gardens. As Omri explains, “a lot of times advertisers do not advertise there because they don’t have the knowledge, they don’t have the experience, they don’t know how to measure it. That does not mean that there are no customers there for you. There’s a lot of business for any type of advertiser to grow and a lot of users to acquire.”

Beyond walled garden: Unlocking new paths for UA

Source: Business of Apps, App Talks

“A lot of times advertisers do not advertise there because they don’t have the knowledge, they don’t have the experience, they don’t know how to measure it. That does not mean that there are no customers there for you. There’s a lot of business for any type of advertiser to grow and a lot of users to acquire.”

Challenges and opportunities, swings and roundabouts

As one could probably guess, success outside of walled gardens comes at a price, usually in the form of sweat, blood, and tears… Well, not literally at least… Well, maybe just a few beads of sweat…

Omri outlines some of the challenges one must be prepared to face:

  • Knowing what you want — one must know what, or rather who, they want. To get real value from the open internet, one needs to be strategic about one’s budget and targeting. Simply put, spending money willy-nilly won’t get you far; one needs to know exactly what type of user one wants to acquire and the GEOs one wants to acquire them in.
  • Playing the long game — one requires a lot of patience to make it on the open internet. Success doesn’t come quickly and it doesn’t come easily, and rushing things will only slow you down… and waste you money.
  • Fraud — one must be prepared to face and hack one’s way through a lot of fraud on the open internet.

While this is not exactly the most flowery praise for the open internet, Omri believes it’s still worth the investment and the effort… and the sweat. According to an internal case study of an international eCommerce company, by leveraging advertising on the open internet, they managed to decrease their acquisition costs by 30% while growing their market share by 20%.

Advice for success

So, how does one actually make it on the open internet? Omri has a few pieces of advice:

  • Don’t be afraid — it’s daunting for sure, but nothing good comes from staying in your comfort zone and doing what everyone else is doing
  • Set a budget and test — preferably in a big enough country
  • Be patient and don’t rush it
  • Be cautious of fraud — consider using a third-party anti-fraud solution

This episode of App Talks was created by Business of Apps and David Murphy for Zoomd. Find out more about the company on their website.

Watch the full video, embedded above, to discover all of Omri’s insights and advice. You can watch all the episodes of App Talks here.