Cold Start Strategy

Ad request latency significantly impacts Splash Ad impression performance, especially in cold start scenarios. To address this, Taku SDK optimizes for cold start and supports configuring independent ad request strategies for cold start scenarios, further improving ad impression results.

Glossary: Cold Start: Refers to the scenario where an app is restarted from a fully closed state. An app is generally considered to be in a fully closed state when it has never been launched, has been in the background for too long and reclaimed by the system, or has been actively killed by the user. Difference between cold start and hot start: Cold start requires creating and initializing the app, then loading the page; hot start refers to the scenario where the app is already open but was sent to the background by pressing the Back key, Home key, etc., or the app was switched away from, and is then reopened. Hot start does not require creating and initializing the app, and the page loads directly.

This document describes how to configure Taku SDK's cold start traffic group to optimize cold start Splash Ad impression results.

1. Introduction

Taku supports developers adding Cold Start Request rules when setting up traffic groups, serving as that placement's Cold Start Strategy. When the app is in a cold start state, Taku reads the Cold Start Strategy to request ads, improving the ad display rate during cold start.

If an app needs to support Cold Start Strategy, no additional code development is required; simply update to Taku SDK v6.1.78 or above.

2. Creating a Traffic Group for Cold Start Strategy

To use the Cold Start Strategy, you need to add cold start rules under a traffic group. The specific process is as follows:

(1) On the Mediation Management page, add or edit a traffic group, add a new traffic group rule, and select Cold Start Request

(2) The Cold Start Request rule in a traffic group can be used simultaneously with other rules, but this also means that in cold start scenarios, all other set rules must also be satisfied for the strategy to take effect.

3. FAQ

(1) What is the relationship and difference between Cold Start Strategy and SDK Preset Strategy?

Answer:

1 Similarities: Both Cold Start Strategy and SDK Preset Strategy preload strategies on the client side to reduce network request latency and support configuring independent ad Waterfall request strategies to optimize Splash scenario efficiency.

2 Differences: SDK Preset Strategy is exported from the Taku backend and preloaded into the app when integrating Taku SDK. The SDK Preset Strategy is released with the app and is only used during the first launch after install or update. Once Taku SDK successfully fetches the online ad placement strategy, it will no longer be used. Cold Start Strategy is fetched online and is used during cold starts when the app is not being launched for the first time after installation.

A more intuitive explanation can be found in the diagram below:

(2) How to improve Splash Ad loading efficiency?

For v6.1.78 and above, refer to the following optimization suggestions:

1. For the first launch after install scenario, set up SDK Preset Strategy and import it during app version integration. For specific settings and usage instructions of the preset strategy, refer to SDK Preset Strategy Documentation.

2. For cold start scenarios that are not the first launch, set up Cold Start Strategy. It is recommended to reduce the number of high-price Waterfall tiers, enable Taku ADX to speed up the Splash Ad retrieval, and consider increasing the number of concurrent requests.