Business of Apps Podcast #243: Acquiring quality mobile users programatically with Rui Mateus, CTO of Mobrand
Yet another summer is wizzed by with a jet speed. With a few days left, we want to signify this moment by sharing with you yet another App Talk interview from App Promotion Summit London 2025, this time with Rui Mateus, CTO of Mobrand.
At the interview, Rui brilliantly laid out the state of programmatic advertising for mobile apps. He touched on the need for control and transparency in programmatic, the performance-based model, scaling and rebranding, ad fraud challenges, the role of AI in programmatic, and more.
Today’s topics include:- Control and transparency in programmatic: why marketers now demand visibility into KPIs, performance, and audience targeting rather than just raw results.
- Performance-based model: Mobrand’s approach of charging advertisers only when quality users take meaningful in-app actions.
- Technology as core DNA: Mobrand building its own bidder, using open RTB, and positioning itself as a tech company in the ad tech ecosystem.
- Scaling and rebranding: maintaining momentum, keeping a lean but skilled team, and presenting Mobrand as a premium partner for app developers.
- Ad fraud challenges: the scale of invalid traffic, detecting fraud through behavioural analysis, and the constant “arms race” with fraudsters.
- Role of AI in programmatic: lowering entry barriers, enabling better audience modelling, and driving higher quality performance for advertisers.
- Expansion of programmatic channels: growth in connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home, and cross-channel strategies.
- Client focus: subscription apps, gambling, and finance apps with long conversion funnels where performance and quality users are critical.
- Future vision: becoming a one-stop shop for app developers, simplifying promotion, and delivering seamless growth without unnecessary complexity.
“I consider that Mobrand is not necessarily a marketing company. It’s a tech company. We have a very big technological background, and when you have the technology, you have the control — and then you can give that to the companies you’re working with.”
“Our biggest challenge with programmatic at the moment is the amount of invalid traffic that exists on the bidstream. You think you are bidding on real users and you are not. There is a lot of bots making the whole flow as if they were users”
“Our objective is to be an alternative for app developers and to provide real value. We want to cut a little bit of the complexity of this market and build a platform where everything is as seamless as possible.”
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