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OEM advertising on Android devices is becoming an essential strategy for maintaining a competitive edge in the mobile app market. With increasingly stringent data privacy policies, traditional metrics on user behavior and lifetime value (LTV) are becoming less reliable for shaping marketing strategies. OEM advertising offers a promising solution, integrating ads directly into smartphones to reach users more effectively. As this sector is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years, it’s worth noting that Android currently dominates with a 71.17% share of the global mobile market.
OEM advertising (Original Equipment Manufacturers) leverage traffic within the native Android device environment. Ads on these platforms appear native and increase conversion rates since they come across as friendly recommendations from the smartphone itself.
Typically, OEM ad creatives are minimalist: home screen icons showing the pre-installed app, static banners with short text up to 25 characters (about the word processing tools here), or suggestions while typing. This approach greatly simplifies the process, as it doesn't require detailed planning or extensive testing.
To determine whether OEM traffic is right for you, consider your industry, consumer behaviour, and operating system. OEM advertising works well for retail and e-commerce and for brands from well-known manufacturers that need to build a user base. Choosing the right mobile tracker to monitor events and having a solid creative strategy is essential.
To better understand OEM advertising, let's compare it to traditional advertising.
| Feature | OEM Advertising | Traditional Advertising |
| Visibility | Integrated with the device | Depends on the chosen platform |
| Targeting | Uses OEM data | Based on consumer behaviour data |
| Trust | High | Depends on the platform’s authority |
| User Experience | Less intrusive | More intrusive |
Thus, OEM advertising is a strategic choice for promoting mobile apps because of its broad reach and positive user perception. OEM traffic sources are becoming key platforms in fast-growing regions like Asia, Latin America, and Europe.
However, the OEM promotion channel has some drawbacks, including:
Let's explore the available OEM platforms and how to use them.
Manufacturer OEMs provide advertisers with wide features and tools for ad placements. Ads are shown to users across various pre-installed apps such as weather, media players, browsers, and more. To advertise on these platforms, you need to upload your mobile app to alternative app stores in advance.
Let’s take a closer look at each OEM traffic source.
This platform allows mobile app promotion across AppGallery, Huawei Video, Huawei Music, Huawei Books, Huawei Assistant, Petal Search, Huawei Browser, Huawei Themes, and Huawei Ads Kit. The platform reaches 240 million active users monthly. Targeting options include age, gender, location, language, mobile carrier, app status (online/offline), and user interests. Huawei devices are particularly popular in Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe, with less demand in North America.
Details on creating effective ad creatives for Petal Ads are shared here.
Xiaomi Mi Ads has over 410 million active users, supports more than 70 languages, and covers 200+ countries and regions. Xiaomi smartphones are particularly trusted in Europe, South America, and Asia. Various ad formats appear in GetApps, Mi Video, Mi Browser, Mi Music, Mi Themes, AppVault, and other pre-installed apps from the manufacturer.
Vivo, a Chinese Android smartphone manufacturer, offers an alternative app store called Vivo Store, with over 200,000 apps available for ad integration. The OEM option reaches 70 million devices, with an average engagement rate of six interactions per day. Vivo smartphones are particularly popular across the Asian region.
Oppo reaches over 50 million users across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Advertising on Oppo smartphones is available through the Oppo Store and internal apps, with various payment models, including pay-per-install options.
In 2021, Samsung reduced the number of ads in pre-installed smartphone apps, emphasizing a commitment to enhancing user experience. Ads no longer appear in Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme. However, ad campaigns can still be launched in the alternative Galaxy Store and other internal apps not included on the restricted list. Key markets for Samsung include Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.
Popular pre-installed apps on Tecno, Infinix, and itel smartphones include Palm Store, Instant APP, Eagleee, XOS, HiOS, Weather, and Theme, which allow ads in various formats. Additionally, app promotion is possible via the zero screen, cleaner, fold, and app drawer (A-Z). The Zero Screen is the least visited page (27.2 million daily visits) compared to the Cleaner (40 million visits), Fold (120 million visits), and A-Z (160 million visits).
The built-in cleaner app not only frees up device storage but also allows a subtle ad placement centered on the screen. The app drawer, where users go to alphabetically organize their apps, is ideal for banner, full-screen, native, and interstitial ads. Transsion’s top markets include Africa and South Asia.
The main markets for Realme smartphones are Europe and Africa. Ads on Realme devices appear in the Phone Manager, Theme Store, Browser, and App Market, as well as on the “Security Check” page after a new app download.
OEM aggregators are advertising platforms that collect traffic from mobile device manufacturers. For these platforms, OEM may not be the sole traffic source, but with proper optimization, it can provide a good ROI.
OEM aggregators operate on the following principle:
Additionally, these platforms regularly improve their promotion algorithms and anti-fraud mechanisms, which leads to better advertising tools and reduced costs.
OEM advertising stands out due to their innovative format and minimalistic ad creatives. Using this channel for promoting a mobile app saves time, as the advertiser only needs to select the geography and device type, while the algorithms handle the rest. In addition, OEM advertising provides detailed forecasts for CR and CPA that are close to organic levels.
The Acquisition.mobi team collaborates with numerous OEM platforms and runs highly effective mobile app advertising campaigns. If your app needs promotion, feel free to contact us at info@acquisition.com.
