AD-APT: Blurring the Boundary between Mobile Advertising and User Satisfaction

The choice between two dominant monetization strategies for mobile apps, i.e. capitalising on revenue generated from either users or advertisers, is not a straightforward one. While users are initially attracted more to free (ad-supported) apps, paid (ad-free) apps are more likely to persist over time by avoiding the adverse implications of mobile advertising on device energy and network usage. This paper proposes a system that strikes a balance between the two extremes: AD-APT re-factors ad-supported apps automatically to adjust the frequency of mobile ad occurrences at runtime based on policies that consider the device’s battery life, the type of network connectivity and limits on network usage. We evaluate AD-APT on ten popular ad-supported Android apps and show that it can yield reductions of up to 30× in network usage caused by mobile ads and 40% in energy consumption.