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Only $0.05 eCPM??

Discussion in 'Unity Ads & User Acquisition' started by heeho17, Mar 12, 2017.

  1. heeho17

    heeho17

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    I just released my game yesterday and the eCPM has been fluctuating from $0.20 to $0.05... Seeing that Unity says that their average eCPM ranges from $6-$12, why is this happening?
     
  2. Que

    Que

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    Those numbers are estimate.

    Many factors to consider changing these pricing, for example country. It is higher in US, Canada, UK but dipped in ASIA.
    And I hope someone from Unity Ads team jump in to explain. I'm also curious to know.
     
    mikaisomaa likes this.
  3. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    Are you using rewarded video or interstitials? Rewarded video produce a much higher eCPM on average.
    What region is the majority of your users based in? Different regions provide a massive difference to eCPMs.
    What volume of ads are you serving? You probably won't have meaningful eCPMs until you have a lot of users watching a lot of ads.
    How have you implemented ads? Is it possible people are skipping your ads or simply leaving your app when an ad is presented to them? an unfinished ad won't pay you.

    There could be many more reasons. What is your app? I can take a look and see if I spot anything obvious.
     
    mikaisomaa likes this.
  4. mikaisomaa

    mikaisomaa

    Unity Technologies

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    Hi,

    These factors contribute to your ads earnings:
    - The amount of views shown - showing too many might hurt the performance
    - The country where these views are shown - localise your game to more languages to cover more countries
    - Seasonal variation
    - Advertiser bids (usually varies by location, time etc.)
    - Your Ads integration design - when and where do you show your players ads?
    - How often do you show ads and do the players want to see those ads? Less is more.

    Best practice is to show players ads only when they want to watch them, reward them for doing so and to show the ads later during the session rather than the beginning - this ensures the player is not in a hurry to get back to the game and in turn lets our algorithm better learn what your players actually like, which leads to better performance for your game.

    Example: offer the player to double their reward for that session by watching the ad at the high score screen. Maybe let them claim this prize when they enter the game after one hour.
     
  5. heeho17

    heeho17

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    Thanks for the reply guys, I just now saw these. The app is called Sky Steps for anyone who would like to get a first hand look at it. I have reward videos that reward players with 20 points they can redeem in the in-game store, which they can watch every 1 hour. I also have video ads which run every 15 seconds, or every 3 times a player dies, whichever comes first (the player can skip the 30 second video after 15 seconds have passed). Also, I saw my eCPM in Russia skyrocket to $80, however practically my entire player base is in the United States, which makes revenue extremely hard with the US eCPM at $0.10. I hope this helps!
     
  6. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    From the sounds of it you have too many ads. People aren't going to finish any ads if they are shown them every 15 seconds. It's perfectly ok to offer the player a rewarded video placement more frequently but showing them an interstitial ad is simply going to turn players away from your game. You will also burn players out from ads before they see the rewarded video ads which are the real money earners. You will also burn through the ads that are available for your app to show. Ads networks will stop serving you high quality ads because on average people in your app will not be converting as well as other apps.

    Ads are often difficult to get right as it can be counter intuitive as to how you grow revenue. But generally, less is more. Keep in mind the people that will actually be paying you (the advertisers) and try and put yourself in their shoes would you pay to be advertised in your own app? And then balance that with the people you want to be paying you (the users) and try put yourself in their shows, is this a better experience than other apps? Is this a good use of my time, watching all these ads?
     
    JayJennings likes this.
  7. heeho17

    heeho17

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    Thanks for the response Antony. So, from what you've said, you believe 15 seconds per ad is too much? Around what time interval should I be having the interstitials pop up do you think, and how long should the user have to watch the ad in order for them to skip it? I really appreciate all of the help!
     
  8. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    In my apps I prefer to have incentivised ads first. If the user watches those then I don't show them any interstitials at all. Same goes for if they buy IAP. I turn off interstitials all together. I leave the Incentivised Video though as that's a choice that some users still want after making a purchase.

    If they don't watch an incentivised ad or buy IAP then I turn on Interstitials after 25 minutes... but that's app specific. My apps have quite a lone average session time so this equates to turning them on roughly at the end of the first session on average.

    My disclaimer here is that I'm no expert but we do see eCPMs of ~$10 in USA.

    I'd suggest you download similar games that are by some bigger developers and see what they do with ads.
     
    JayJennings likes this.
  9. heeho17

    heeho17

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    I have already done research on other similar games from bigger developers, and they use AdMob instead with interstitial banners. I decided to go with Unity Ads because I felt the videos after the session wouldn't interrupt the game as much as banners do. My game has about an average session time of 30 seconds to 1 minute. Should I make the time in between ads longer (around 1 minute)? Would that increase my US eCPM due to "less is more"?
     
  10. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    Try it and see. what do you have to lose?
     
  11. heeho17

    heeho17

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    True. I will come out with an update in a few days to update the ads and I will get back to you on this thread.
     
  12. archoliver

    archoliver

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    I think Unity Ads is a scam
    Always $0.00 Earnings
    Admob is much better
     
  13. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    I, and a lot of developers I know and work with earn a decent % of their revenue from Unity Ads... Calling it a scam is straight up wrong. If you don't earn anything from Unity ads then it's likely your implementation is wrong or their video ad format doesn't fit your game (not Unity ads fault or problem).
     
  14. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    Be patient when updating and testing changes, In my experience it can take 2-3 days to see if there is an impact from your changes. I would assume this time may vary depending on your apps average user lifetime as many users don't update immediately or at all.

    It also makes sense that you should wait a least a week to see what the results are as eCPMs often peak on the weekend.
     
    JayJennings likes this.
  15. heeho17

    heeho17

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    Okay, update for my game to now show ads every 7 deaths instead of 3 was released today... And now my United States eCPM shot up to $9.80. So that's perfect. But why is Russia eCPM $150 and every other country besides United States $0 eCPM?
     
  16. undyingwill

    undyingwill

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    150$ sounds freaking awesome tome, huh. Maybe other countries has generated under 2-3k impressions for the time?
     
  17. Antony-Blackett

    Antony-Blackett

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    How many users do you have? eCPM isn't actually a real figure that you earn per ad, instead it's a unified measurement for all ad types so you can compare the performance of different types of ads effectively.

    My guess would be that you have a lowish number of DAU so the averages aren't really meaningful yet. if you have say 10 russian players and 1 converts on an ad then your eCPM will be artificially high as you may find you really only convert 1 per 100 players on average over time.

    The same goes for the other countries but the other way around, you may have 10 users and none have converted so the eCPM is $0, but you would probably find that will rise as you get more users and more data giving you a more accurate average.
     
    JayJennings likes this.