Hi All,
First of all, I appreciate everyone’s interest in this matter. It’s an unusual case, so lets dive in and try to explain it here.
To be straight forward and clear about this issue, Unity Ads only makes money when you make money. It’s unfortunate that your game has made so little revenue, despite having so many completed views.
Please keep in mind we do not offer guaranteed eCPMs. In general, apps typically generate between $6 and $12 per 1000 impressions (as stated in our FAQ), but there are a number of factors that can affect eCPM and drive it outside of this range, for better or worse. Knowing these factors can help you improve your eCPM.
Advertising Bid Price by Country
Unfortunately you don’t have control over this as a publisher. Bid prices are set by advertisers and are different between countries. Argentina, as well as the rest of Latin America, tends to have lower than average eCPMs. So it’s likely you’ll end up seeing less than a $6 eCPM, but isn’t always the case. It depends on the ad campaigns being run, and the quality of users viewing the ads.
So What the Hell Does Quality Mean?
Unity Ads is a quality based ad network. This refers in part to how revenue is generated, but also in how ads are served to users. Unity Ads strives to achieve the best possible quality of impressions. There are a number of techniques we employ internally to our network to achieve this goal. Higher quality impressions means they’re more effective at generating revenue for publishers while also being more effective at user acquisition for advertisers.
Pay by Impression or by Install?
This is another factor dependent on the campaign level (i.e. no control as a publisher). Advertisers have the option to run campaigns as CPI or CPCV. Campaigns of either case can be shown to your users. If an ad campaign is run using CPI, you can expect to see roughly 1000th of the bid price in revenue per impression. If an ad campaign is run using CPCV, revenue can appear at anytime during a seven day attribution window after the ad is shown. The ad doesn’t have to be completed to generate revenue, but completion rates have a tendency to correlate with the eCPM value, or the effectiveness of each ad impression.
It’s important to note here that impressions and installs have to be organic. You are not permitted by our Terms of Services to click on ads in your own game. To avoid accidentally violating the Terms of Service agreement, we strongly recommend that you leave test mode enabled while testing ads.
What is eCPM and How to Improve It
The eCPM is defined as the Effective Cost Per 1000 impressions.
eCPM = revenue / starts * 1000
The eCPM is essentially a performance value used to indicate the effectiveness of ads shown in your game. The more impressions you have, the more reliable this value is.
In your case, your eCPM is $1.18 with $72.11 in revenue after 61300 starts (or impressions). This is mostly due to 98% of your user base being in Argentina. However, the way in which you show ads can also effect eCPM. Since ads are implemented as rewarded ads in your game – therefore non-skippable – you have been able to maintain a high completion rate. This is good, and usually yields a higher eCPM value. However, you don’t appear limiting how often users are able view ads. Which can reduce the effectiveness of ads, lowering the value of your eCPM.
Statistically speaking, the first few ads shown tend to be the most effective in generating revenue. While the most successful ad implementations knowingly take advantage of this by only showing a few ads per user per day, they also make those impressions count.
Video ads are most effective when players are willing to watch. An obvious statement, but it’s safe to say the average user doesn’t play your game just so they can watch ads. So where’s the incentive?
Using rewarded ads is a way to provide users with the motivation to watch non-skippable ads, in exchange for an in-game reward. For example, some games use rewarded ads to give an extra life or a second chance, allowing the user to continue gameplay from a fail state without having to restart from the very beginning. Another example might be to offer the user some amount of in-game currency or consumable item that could be applied toward upgrading their character or purchasing new equipment.
Ultimately, using rewarded ads is a great way to effectively show ads, while also making them relevant to your game and less disruptive to the flow of the in-game experience.
Please note that you can incentivize views, but you can not incentivize installs. This is an important distinction made by both Google Play and the iTunes App store in their submission guidelines.
Is Unity Ads a Scam?
No, Unity Ads is not a scam. We understand how difficult it can be to monetize your games, especially in today’s mobile market places. That’s why we’re here. We want to see game developers succeed and continue to make games. Being a part of Unity Technologies should hammer this point home. We are about the democratization of video game development and are working hard to help make developing games a financially viable life pursuit.
This case is an unfortunate edge case.
I don’t know what your eqcs is but i bet it’s high. (Effective Quality Customer Service)