Boris Logvinskiy: Solving Monetization Problems with MoPub | Casual Connect Video

At Casual Connect USA 2018, Boris Logvinskiy and Adam Carey (Senior Director of Ad Monetization at SEGA Networks) discussed MoPub’s in-app solution for the header bidding concept, called Advanced Bidding. It is a new way of allowing different demand sources to compete for the opportunity to show an ad to a user, maximizing ROI for the advertiser while also maximizing publisher revenue. During the conference, Boris said “The core tenet of Advanced Bidding is that is has to be different than Desktop and built from the ground up.” This is something Boris believes will help solve the difficulty of monetizing an app. Furthermore, “I can’t wait to explain to brand dollars the performance of Rewarded Video. You skate to where the hockey puck is going to be, and that’s in-app advertising budgets.” To learn more about how you can make this work for you, be sure to watch the video of the full session.

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Boris Logvinskiy is head of product for the MoPub team at Twitter. Boris joined the team four years ago as a product manager, before MoPub was acquired by Twitter. In late 2016, he took over the product lead responsibilities. Prior to joining the MoPub team, Boris’ roles included product management at Demandforce, which was acquired by Intuit in 2011.

Making a Real Difference

Boris has always had a passion for solving problems and when he interned as product manager during one summer while in college, he knew this was the right career path. As product manager he has the opportunity to work with all the different functions of MoPub while making a real difference for their customers.

There are several highlights that Boris points out about the things he finds especially enjoyable in his work. The first is working with intelligent people who really care about making app monetization better for publishers. The second is the opportunity to collaborate across many different functions. And finally, he enjoys being a part of Twitter, which he describes as “a really unique experience”.

Meeting the Challenges of Ad Tech

Working in ad tech definitely comes with challenges. The greatest of these challenges, according to Boris are the pace ad tech moves and the speed at which the ecosystem changes. While it took some time to get used to this, Boris claims it also helped develop the ability to always be thinking ahead.

To deal with the inevitable creative blocks, Boris makes sure to set aside time to simply think, rather than always be checking email or searching online. “The Boomerang “pause” tool is great to stop the inflow of messages into the inbox,” he explained, “and I try to make sure each week I have time that’s blocked off to think rather than do.”

Boris looks for particular characteristics when searching for product managers who will be on the team. The first is their mindset; they need a growth and learning mindset that allows them to take a fresh look at problems that seem to be stale or already solved. They must also have an attitude that gets things done across different groups, breaking down problems and getting products shipped to market. They also need to have leadership ability with the skills to influence, coach and work with a variety of people who do not report directly to the product manager.

Making Monetization Easy

There are certain problems within the industry that Boris hopes to help solve. Monetization with ads is still inefficient and complex. He insists, “We, as an industry, don’t do a good enough job of making it easy for app developers to maximize revenue with little effort, and also don’t do a good job of ensuring that ad experiences are tailored to users, based on their interests or in-game experience. My goal and the goal of MoPub is to help solve some of these problems so developers can spend more time building great games.”

Boris is excited to see what will happen with AR and VR in the next few years. Right now, they still have too much friction for users to really engage with them, especially VR where users must spend thousands of dollars for a high quality experience. But Boris is excited to see how it will evolve and how MoPub can be part of this trend by helping app developers fund these experiences.