LoopMe yesterday launched Chartboost Direct, a new toolkit designed to connect mobile app publishers directly with brand advertiser demand, as web-based inventory continues to shrink under pressure from generative AI tools. The announcement, made at 9:00 AM ET on April 9, 2026, positions the company at the intersection of supply-side platforms, ad technology, and mobile apps - a junction that has gained urgency as traditional web browsing habits shift.

The launch follows LoopMe's acquisition of Chartboost in 2024 and builds on the Chartboost SDK that is already integrated into thousands of mobile app publisher environments. Rather than asking publishers to replace their existing ad technology stacks, Chartboost Direct adds three distinct deal structures on top of what publishers already have. The company describes the product as the brand SDK for in-app environments.

What the three deal structures actually do

Chartboost Direct introduces three components, each targeting a different point in the transactional chain between publisher and brand buyer.

Direct Pay enables publishers to contract and receive payments directly from participating brand SSP partners using existing Chartboost SDK integrations. This removes the payment intermediary layer that has historically made direct brand relationships administratively cumbersome for mobile app operators.

Direct Deals allows publishers to create new ad placements using PMP deal IDs that are called directly from the publisher's ad server, establishing a direct connection to premium brand DSPs. The deal ID mechanism is a familiar instrument in programmatic trading, but its extension into the in-app environment through Chartboost's SDK infrastructure is the specific technical contribution here.

Marketplace Deals gives publishers the ability to package their inventory using deal IDs inside their mediation auctions, dynamically adding what LoopMe describes as a critical signal to transact directly with brand demand partners - and notably, this requires no new setup from the publisher.

The three structures collectively address what LoopMe frames as a structural mismatch: mobile app supply has scale and audience quality, but the in-app advertising ecosystem was not built around the data, measurement, and signal requirements that brand advertisers expect. The company's Intelligent Marketplace, which uses patented AI optimization, sits underneath Chartboost Direct and is intended to deliver the yield improvement that makes brand CPMs achievable at scale.

According to the press release, the technical underpinnings include more than 100 global sellers delivering LoopMe direct brand demand, support for both brand and traditional user acquisition demand from top DSPs and SSPs, faster rendering for display and video formats, mobile ad formats for unique demand and performance, and first-party DMP access alongside user demographic analytics.

The web decline argument

The business case LoopMe puts forward for Chartboost Direct rests explicitly on declining web usage. According to LoopMe research cited in the announcement, nearly one in five GenAI users say they now spend less time browsing the web, compared with just 15% who report spending more time online. That asymmetry - 20% down versus 15% up - produces a net negative for web browsing time among AI-adopting consumers.

The same research identifies mobile gaming as a beneficiary. According to the announcement, up to 19% of GenAI users report spending more time on mobile gaming apps since adopting AI, compared with 15% spending less, producing a net increase of approximately 31%. LoopMe surveyed 66,819 consumers across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States between September 4 and September 8, 2025, to develop this data set.

The web traffic decline is not unique to LoopMe's research. News publishers lost roughly half their Google search referral traffic in two years, with Teads reporting 10-15% pageview declines during the third quarter of 2025 alone. Google's AI search features cut organic click-through rates by 34% according to Ahrefs, a figure based on analysis of 300,000 search queries comparing periods before and after AI Overviews activation.

For brand advertisers that relied on web publisher inventory to reach audiences, this creates a supply problem. Web impressions are declining not only in volume but arguably in quality, as the audiences most actively using AI tools are precisely the ones spending less time on traditional web destinations. The question Chartboost Direct addresses is whether brand-quality programmatic infrastructure can be transplanted into mobile app environments at sufficient scale and with sufficient signal fidelity to replace what web is losing.

A MediaLink study commissioned by LoopMe and published in October 2025 put specific numbers on this shift. The research, which included 27 in-depth interviews with senior decision-makers and a survey of 69 clients across North America, EMEA, and APAC, found that 45% of respondents planned to moderately or significantly shift brand budgets toward mobile in-app advertising within 12 months. That data, now roughly six months old, provides the demand-side context for what Chartboost Direct is attempting on the supply side.

What Magnite sees in it

Mike Laband, Group SVP, US Revenue at Magnite, is quoted in the announcement in a way that illuminates the SSP perspective on in-app brand access. According to the press release, Laband stated: "Traditionally, premium mobile supply has been blocked by reseller constraints or lack of interoperable buying signals. Chartboost Direct now brings SSPs and brands an alternative path directly into quality in-app publisher environments. AI-enriched bid-streams will provide publishers with built-in, accurate brand signals, measurement, and data, enhancing the user experience."

Magnite's involvement is notable because the company has been active in building mobile in-app programmatic infrastructure for some time. Magnite secured exclusive rights to monetize Roblox's rewarded video inventory in January 2026, establishing the supply-side platform as the sole programmatic provider for mobile in-app video advertising across 151 million daily active users. The New York Times struck a preferred private marketplace deal with Magnite in February 2026 specifically focused on mobile app inventory, with click-through rates in the Times's app increasing nearly 19% year over year. Laband's endorsement of Chartboost Direct signals that Magnite sees the product as complementary to, rather than competing with, its own in-app efforts.

SPO and the reseller penalty

Stephen Upstone, CEO and Founder of LoopMe, addressed the supply path dynamics directly in the announcement. According to the press release, Upstone stated: "LoopMe research has shown that since adopting GenAI tools, nearly three-in-ten users say they now use AI more than traditional search, versus just 15% who report increased search engine usage. As web traffic declines, brands need new inventory sources to replace web, but these often require direct supply, and we see reseller traffic being penalized through SPO."

Supply path optimization has been a defining force in programmatic advertising over the past several years. Publishers drove significant changes to transaction ID practices in August 2025 as buyers increasingly used bid-stream signals to identify and avoid reseller paths. The practical consequence for mobile app publishers is that inventory sold through multiple reseller hops - a common reality given the complexity of in-app mediation stacks - receives lower clearing prices or gets excluded from SPO-optimized buying paths entirely.

Chartboost Direct attempts to address this by creating cleaner supply paths. By enabling PMP deal IDs that call directly from a publisher's ad server, or by packaging inventory within mediation auctions with enriched signals, the product gives publishers a mechanism to present their supply as direct - or as close to direct as the technical infrastructure permits. The AI-enriched bid-stream referenced by Laband is the specific technical contribution: rather than a bare impression opportunity, the bid request arriving at brand DSPs carries brand signals, measurement data, and demographic analytics derived from LoopMe's first-party DMP.

CloudX, which opened mobile app inventory to omnichannel DSPs without SDK integration in January 2026, addressed a related but distinct problem: the inability of web-native DSPs to bid on in-app supply at all. Chartboost Direct's contribution is different - it assumes the DSP can already reach in-app supply and focuses instead on signal quality and supply path cleanliness for brand campaigns specifically.

The publisher perspective

Upstone's second statement in the announcement focuses on publisher economics. According to the press release, he stated: "With higher CPMs, cleaner supply paths, better UX, and sustainable brand demand for mobile app publishers, Chartboost Direct is a must-have toolkit, delivering the results that matter the most for publishers and providing SSPs with quality in-app environments."

The CPM argument is fundamental. Brand advertisers consistently pay higher CPMs than user acquisition buyers when the measurement and signal environment justifies it. Mobile gaming apps have historically attracted predominantly user acquisition spend because the targeting and measurement signals available in-app aligned better with performance objectives. The data, signal, and measurement infrastructure that brand campaigns require - viewability, brand safety verification, demographic reach, frequency management - has been harder to deliver in the in-app context than on the web.

LoopMe's December 2025 research found that gamers are more than three times as likely to be receptive to advertising in gaming environments compared to mobile web. This receptivity advantage, if it translates into brand campaign performance metrics, provides the commercial justification for brand advertisers to pay premium CPMs for mobile app inventory - which in turn justifies publisher investment in the integration required to access Chartboost Direct's deal structures.

Whether the premium materializes depends significantly on measurement. The in-app advertising ecosystem's historical weakness on data and measurement is precisely what the announcement identifies as the barrier Chartboost Direct is built to address. The first-party DMP access and user demographic analytics in the technical notes represent LoopMe's answer to that measurement gap.

Context for the marketing industry

The structural question Chartboost Direct surfaces is one the advertising industry has been circling for several years: as the web fragments and declines as an advertising surface, where does brand demand go? Connected TV has absorbed some of it. Retail media has captured performance budgets. Mobile apps, despite enormous user time, have remained undermonetized for brand campaigns relative to their audience scale.

LoopMe's January 2026 predictions for advertising in 2026 framed the tension clearly: 45% of brands planned to shift budgets to mobile in-app within 12 months, yet the infrastructure for brand campaigns in that environment remained underdeveloped. Chartboost Direct is an attempt to close that gap from the supply side, using the Chartboost SDK's existing publisher relationships as the distribution mechanism.

The announcement is also a commercial statement about LoopMe's positioning following the Chartboost acquisition. By establishing Chartboost Direct as the brand SDK for in-app environments, LoopMe is making a category claim - asserting that it intends to own the infrastructure layer that connects brand demand to mobile app supply, in the same way that web SSPs became the standard connection point between brand buyers and web publishers.

Whether that positioning holds will depend on publisher adoption rates, CPM outcomes in live campaigns, and whether the AI-enriched bid-stream signals actually improve brand campaign performance metrics. None of those variables are determinable from the launch announcement alone. What is clear is that the structural conditions - web decline, SPO pressure on reseller paths, growing brand budget interest in mobile app environments - create the market conditions the product is designed to serve.

Timeline

  • September 4-8, 2025: LoopMe surveys 66,819 consumers across Australia, UK, and the US to gauge generative AI usage and behavior patterns, finding a 31% net increase in mobile gaming time among AI adopters
  • October 9, 2025: MediaLink presents findings at Advertising Week New York showing 45% of brand marketers plan to shift budgets toward mobile in-app advertising within 12 months, based on research commissioned by LoopMe
  • December 11, 2025: LoopMe publishes research showing gamers are more than three times as likely to be receptive to advertising in gaming environments compared to mobile web
  • January 6, 2026: Magnite secures exclusive programmatic rights to Roblox's rewarded video inventory across 151 million daily active users, demonstrating growing brand investment in mobile in-app
  • January 28, 2026: CloudX opens mobile app inventory to omnichannel DSPs without SDK integration, addressing a related access barrier for web-native buyers
  • February 11, 2026: The New York Times strikes a preferred private marketplace deal with Magnite focused on mobile app inventory, with app click-through rates up nearly 19% year over year
  • April 9, 2026: LoopMe launches Chartboost Direct at 9:00 AM ET, introducing Direct Pay, Direct Deals, and Marketplace Deals as three new programmatic deal structures for mobile app publishers

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Summary

Who: LoopMe, a brand performance company founded in 2012 and headquartered in the UK, with global offices across New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Dnipro, Krakow, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The launch involves Magnite's Group SVP Mike Laband as an endorsing supply-side partner.

What: The launch of Chartboost Direct, a programmatic toolkit built on the existing Chartboost SDK that gives mobile app publishers three deal structures - Direct Pay, Direct Deals, and Marketplace Deals - to access brand advertiser demand directly, without changing their existing ad technology stack. The product is powered by LoopMe's patented AI optimization and includes access to first-party DMP data and user demographic analytics.

When: The announcement was made on April 9, 2026, at 9:00 AM ET / 2:00 PM BST, following an embargoed press release shared with media on April 8, 2026.

Where: The product is globally available through the Chartboost SDK, which is already integrated across mobile app publisher environments. LoopMe operates across more than 100 global sellers delivering direct brand demand, with its technology infrastructure spanning its international office network.

Why: LoopMe's own research and commissioned third-party studies show that web browsing time is declining among GenAI users while mobile gaming app usage is increasing. Brand advertisers are seeking new inventory sources as web supply shrinks and supply path optimization penalizes reseller traffic. The in-app advertising ecosystem lacked the data, measurement, and signal infrastructure required for brand campaigns, creating a gap that Chartboost Direct is designed to fill.

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