Alternative app stores offer advertisers the opportunity to target untapped audiences at a competitive price. Original Device Manufacturers (OEMs) unlock a global audience for advertisers by incorporating on-device advertising, offering marketers opportunities to reach ambitious targets and exceed their KPI expectations. When advertising on alternative app stores, it is important to know all of the ad formats available to you to make the best impact on your KPI targets. This guide covers the ad formats you can use for five leading OEMs and how they work.

Ad formats by app store

Oppo App Market ad formats

Consumer electronics and mobile communications company Oppo shipped 115.1 million units to 320,000 retail outlets in 2019, operating in over 40 countries worldwide. The company’s app store, Oppo App Market, offers four ways to advertise.

• Splash ads: You can implement these full-screen ads based on targeted labels to ensure that you are acquiring high-value users. Splash ads can deliver high engagement and conversion rates as a result of taking up the entire screen, making them unmissable to the user.
• Icon ads: Appear on Oppo App Marker’s homepage, Must-haves, Boot Guide, Download, and Recommendation section. A benefit to icon ads is that it does not require any creative asides from your app’s icon logo.
• Banner ads: This ad format can be shown on Oppo App Market’s homepage, displayed based on targeted labels.

• Push ads: Send a push notification to high-value users. This ad format supports deep linking and – just like Oppo’s banner ads – users can be sent a push ad based on targeted labels.

Splash                                                   Push                                                   Banner

Huawei AppGallery ad formats

With 14.7% of the market, Huawei is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer and the Huawei AppGallery serves over 500 million mobile users around the world. There are three ways in which marketers can advertise on Huawei AppGallery.

• App Search ads: Place an ad within Huawei AppGallery’s search function with up to 200 keywords for a single task. It is also possible to configure different bidding prices depending on the keyword. According to Huawei, this ad format results in a high CTR. The Quick Search function can also display recommended apps when a user enters a relevant keyword before tapping the search button.
• Display ads: These are icon ads with the dimensions of 216 x 216. They can be displayed among Recommended apps.

Intent based search

Samsung Galaxy Store ad formats

The Samsung Galaxy Store is pre-installed on Samsung smartphones and Samsung Gear. The app store, which is available in 125 countries, includes apps for Android, Tizen, Bada, and Windows Mobile. There are four ad formats on Samsung Galaxy Store you need to know.

• Welcome screen ads: Users can click to install multiple apps listed as Top Apps
• App notifications: Users are shown an ‘App of the day’ personalized to their interests
• App browses: Apps are shown as Featured Apps on the home screen and banners. Apps are also shown as Priority in App collections
• Search ads: Bid for keywords and appear when a user searches for terms related to your app

Xiaomi GetApps ad formats

Xiaomi is a hardware and software manufacturer with over 500 million smartphone users across 220 regions. Xiaomi offers several ad formats to choose from when advertising on the company’s app store, Xiaomi GetApps.

• Native ads: Native advertising matches the aesthetics of the media format in which they appear. In the case of Xiaomi GetApps, these are PNG or JPG ads with dimensions 1200 x 628 pixels or 600 x 314 pixels depending on placement.
• Icon ads: These are app icons that advertise your app, which can appear in Xiaomi GetApps’s recommendations. Icon ads appear in the user’s preload folder, game folder, MI Browser or App Vault. There are also Must Have and Hot Search sections in the app store where icon ads can be placed. You can also implement Dynamic icon ads in GetApps for optimal visibility.
• Push notifications: Users will be sent a push notification advertising your app. This is a PNG format with a 25 character limit for the main title. The notification description is limited to 40-45 characters.
• Splash ads: This is a full-page video ad that is between 5-10 seconds in length.
• Banner ads: These are PNG or JPG files that can appear in Xiaomi GetApps’s Browser, File Manager, Themes, Music, and Vault sections. The dimensions of each banner ad depend on where it is displayed.
• GetApps mini card: Your ad will appear as a square card in the Browser. This can lead to a conversion rate that is 4x higher than redirecting to Google Play.

In Game                                                   Icon                                                   Music Player

Vivo app store ad formats

The Vivo App Store has the second largest market share in India and more than 74 million MAUs worldwide, Vivo categorizes their ad formats in two ways: standard and non-standard ad placements.

1. Standard ad placements: This includes the tabs Must Have, Upgrade Necessary, Recommended for You, Hot Apps, and Topic. Standard ad placements also include Pop-up ads. Similar to splash ads, these ‘pop up’ and cover the entire screen with your ad.
2. Non-standard ad placements: This includes push ads, banner ads, splash ads, and floating icon ads. These types of ad formats can be used in the Vivo App Store for high exposure and extensive reach.

How to leverage alternative app stores and OEM’s untapped audiences

You can target these untapped audiences with AVOW: We have partnered with the world’s leading OEMs and our team of OEM mobile inventory experts are dedicated to helping clients benefit. We have a consultative approach, helping clients through the entire campaign cycle – from getting listed on alternative app stores to tracking and optimizing performance. For example, AVOW worked with Joom to help them acquire users from OEM untapped inventory. As a result, e-commerce app Joom increased ROAS by 150% and generated more than 60,000 monthly installs.

For more insights into how AVOW can help you leverage untapped audiences, read our introduction to OEMs.