Advertising is a key part of acquiring new users for mobile apps, and thus ascending the all-important top lists on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
It’s advertising with one big caveat: In deals between app makers, money often does not change hands.
Disgruntled by the high cost of acquiring users on mobile ad networks, a subset of app makers have created an informal barter economy to promote their products in which they swap ad clicks in hopes of driving installs among users.
Read the rest at How Barter Ad Deals Fuel Silicon Valley’s Mobile App Economy | Digital – Advertising Age.
