Interview with AD Networks: Meet Rimma Kulikova from HilltopAds

HilltopAds was launched in 2014 and by now it’s among the top advertising networks. It prioritises the development of a cutting-edge advertising platform and is focused on engineering an ad-serving optimisation technology for web and mobile traffic monetisation.

Rimma Kulikova

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COO at HilltopAds

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• Hi, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, the company, when did you start, how many people are in the team, some key milestones and achievements, etc.
• Hi, dear! My name is Rimma, I’m a COO of the HilltopAds. If you would like to contact me, here is my Telegram.I’ll tell you about the HilltopAds team, our self-service platform and principle of work.Our smart self-service platform for Advertisers allows an easy launch and optimisation of their ad campaigns resulting in a strong target audience engagement and high ROI. Our Advertisers also enjoy advanced targeting and anti-adblocking solutions for ultimate brand reach.For Publishers, we offer a unique ad server solution which automatically rotates the best converting ads and tracks down malicious sources and excludes them from our ad feed.
  On top of that, our publishers benefit from high eCPM rates, various inner settings for traffic monetisation, and zero transaction fees.

  Our team consists of affiliate marketing professionals, and I am glad that our team has made great efforts for its growth and the growth of our new employees. Like any company that has been operating on the market for a long time, we have had our ups and downs, but in recent years we have identified our formula for the success of working with our clients — the quality of services provided, industry market analysis and continuous development to improve functionality.

  Also, we do not forget about the feedback from our customers, which help us to become better. The most key and important stage of our work was improving the quality of traffic, which is our internal development, which allowed us to effectively filter and track fraud.

  In 2021, we entered the TOP-3 of the best ad networks according to KINZA AWARDS,
  TOP-10 best advertising networks for publishers according to Affiliate-media and TOP-5 Best CPM Ad Networks according to Business Advertising Magazine “Advertising Review”.

• What type of traffic do you offer and what do you think is the most popular? What geos do you currently have in your Network?
• We work with traffic from all over the world. The main work is carried out to attract direct publishers with their own traffic. We are also able to search for and redeem separately certain traffic sources for the specific needs of our advertisers.As already mentioned, our traffic is divided into Activity channels, inside these channels there is a division by type of traffic. For example, if you are an advertiser using your own product and keep your domains clean in redirects, then our premium publishers may be available to you, regardless of the buyout price. This feature is available if High Activity, Medium Activity channels are selected. We are also starting to actively work to attract Facebook and InApp traffic.Several ad formats are available in HilltopAds: Pops, DirectLinks, Video (VAST\VPAID), In-page Push. Each work format is available on such price models as CPM, CPA (CPL, CPI, CPS). I would also like to draw special attention to RTB.

• Tell us, if it’s not a secret, which verticals are the most popular in your network and for which of them do you think your traffic is most suitable?
• There are no secrets as such, we work with a large number of a wide variety of offers. And each offer requires its own specific settings and types of traffic. But for the most effective testing, we offer a High Activity channel so that you can immediately increase the likelihood of conversions. And after the withdrawal of the offer in plus, try the rest of the channels already to scale the volumes.The most common question, as for any network, is what types of offers generally have high CR rates. I can answer that, first of all, everything depends on the development of your bundle, and the type of offer to a greater extent does not play a big role. The link usually looks like this: the most direct advertiser — creative — high-quality product.Creativity in this bundle plays a very important role. It can be both a pre-lander and videos and pictures. Creatives that “frighten” users have been used for a very long time and often — they increase CR, but reduce the quality of conversion, so we would recommend paying a lot of attention to quality, as this is the key to long-term work with your advertiser.

• What is the share of mVAS offers among advertisers now? Maybe you can share some indicators and volumes?
• The ratio of mVAS offers among publishers now on mobile traffic is 40% of the total and this number is growing, especially in Tier2, Tier3 countries.

• If we talk about traffic that is most in demand for mVAS offers, what are the main formats and which GEO?
• In fact, you can work in all countries, the top countries, oddly enough, these are RU, CIS countries and Tier3. It is more difficult to work with other Tier countries, but it is possible that it is desirable here that the creative matches the theme of the site.

• Are there any restrictions when working with mVAS offers?
• In general, we have not encountered violations of the rules for this type of offer, but everything should be within the framework of our Terms and Conditions.

• Since our interview will be read by many novice Publishers, can you give some tips on how to properly start working in your Ad Network in order to avoid the most common mistakes for beginners?
• At the moment our best formats to work with are Pops, Direct Link, In-Page and Video formats.Since Our ML HilltopAds algorithms segment traffic according to Traffic Quality metrics, we recommend sending the highest quality traffic, since the price depends on it. The difference between the price of high-quality and low-quality traffic on the same targeting can reach more than 10 times.

• One of the most popular formats for working with mVAS has always been Push and Pop traffic. Maybe there are any recommendations when launching campaigns on this type of traffic?
• For best results, we recommend running on Pops format on High and Medium Activity traffic. On Push, the results can really be no worse, but our advice is to run only on our In-Page format, which is currently in test mode.

• What advice would you give to a Publisher who has just registered in your network and wants to launch mVAS offers? Where to start and how to act in order not to lose the budget?
• For any testing to be successful, you need to start on the High Activity channel and, if possible, consult with your personal manager, immediately indicating the specifics of the offer, so that you can create blacklists or whitelists by sources.

• As you probably know, mVAS offer advertisers have strict KPIs for traffic quality. How do you control the quality of traffic delivered by publishers to your network?
• The quality of traffic in HilltopAds is cut off by the main filters even when it enters the network, and then the rest of it goes through a thorough control automatically and under the guidance of the QA department for dozens of parameters.KPI for all types of offers is usually regulated by the ratio of traffic quality, creative quality to the content of the offer itself. To prevent adult traffic from reaching mainstream traffic, we use an automatic system for classifying offer types and additionally check with the help of the QA department. For classification, we use the AdExplorer ad verification service.

• Which ad formats do you think will become popular, and which ones, on the contrary, will become a thing of the past in 2022?
• We believe that Pops and Direct Link will continue to be a strong format, but there are also opportunities for In-Page and Interstitial formats.

• In your opinion, will the mVAS vertical grow in your traffic next year, and perhaps you will be able to offer special solutions for it next year?
• Despite the rather changeable situation in our industry market, mVAS vertical offers have had some success for a long time, so it is highly likely that this trend will continue for a long time to come.

• At the end of our interview, can we also make a replenishment bonus for the readers of our blog?
• Yes, of course. Join HilltopAds, apply promo code GGAGENCY20 and get +20% on first deposit!

• Thank you for your time, we were glad to talk to you.
• Same for me! Thank you very much for the interview.