Tracking Links is a mandatory requirement for one to make an Ad campaign go live. I understand they are a way to measure users behavior when looking at your ads, but beyond that I know nothing and the documentation is not really newb friendly.
Sure, they tell you different kinds of tracking links in a whole block of text that I read and have no idea what it means, but never provides you a way to just skip that and worry about it after the campain is already live.
My main purpose is to go live already with my campaign, so if you can help me by telling me what to fill those spaces with, would be really appreciated.
You need to set up an account with an attribution service and add their SDK into your game. This is important to link the install to the game that showed the ad. This is how game publishers get paid for showing ads in their games. Here’s a quick overview of how the whole system works:
You set up an account with an attribution service and integrate the SDK into your game.
You create a campaign with your click tracking link in place.
Another game developer integrates the Unity Ads SDK and shows your ad in their game.
A player clicks on the ad and that sends the click event to your attribution service. This will register that this specific userid clicked on the ad while playing a specific game.
When that player installs your game, the attribution SDK will send the install event with the same userid and then they will send that information to Unity Ads.
On our end, we can now match what installs came from which games, and we can pay our publishers appropriately.
Well, I understand why an attribution service is mandatory and how it works. But wonder why unity itself doesn’t have an attribution service.
I’m researching and evaluating advertising thing for about 1 month, and it seems I will not do it. As a newbie, learning digital marketing, $1000 minimum deposit of unity, signing up for an attribution service (some are paid and some are free), adding and implementing its SDK, tracking campaign and players…
It just feels like I’m working for ad companies, and on top of that I’m paying them. I’m feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole =)
Only after I’m not a newbie and have a shiny game, I’ll reconsider advertising.
Hey, do you mind telling me from your research which companies provide free attribution? and is there any foreseeable downside to using a free SDKs vs a paid ones like AppFlyer?
I wonder if free services should be approached with some level of caution as your not sure where else your information is being taken, any thoughts?
In regards to your question why Unity doesn’t have a in-house option as for attribution, i thought maybe it was a good idea to promote third party competition as competitively priced options likely will yield better results then what Unity can keep up with.
I checked AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch and Kochava. Branch has a free plan up to 10K monthly active users, $59/mo after this limit and up to 50K monthly active users. Kochava has a free plan with some feature limitations. No price data for other plans/companies.
I don’t see any technical downside using a free service for basic attribution. But I have privacy-based discomforts as you’ve pointed out. I didn’t read their EULAs though.
I too wonder why unity doesn’t have an attribution service for their own ad network. As a solo developer I simply can’t navigate all this ads attribution and data stuff that seems to be ever shifting while still developing a game. If unity had an attribution service that only attributed installs to their ads then I’d be more inclined to start an ad campaign on their ad network.
I know that attribution is a tricky business and I can understand why unity wouldn’t attempt to compete with companies like Branch and AppsFlyer, but they really don’t have to, a rudimentary service just to track their own ad installs would be great and i’m sure would pay for itself when people like me try out advertising on unity ads. Right now the barrier to entry is too great except for facebook ads which has its own attribution built into their SDK, so i use that.
I could understand that for the normal campaigns ( I agree with Antony that as a solo developer a simple install attribution would work), but why your cross-promotion campaign need them as well? I want to show ads for my games in my own games and I need to attribute them? I can track the installs with UTM but you force me to have an attribution partner for cross-promotion?
I will like to do cross-promotion without attribution
Hi, currently yes, 3rd party attribution is still required.
We are evaluating possible solutions for self-attribution, but do not have a committed roadmap for production release yet. Please stay tuned.
Okay, thank you! For now, then I’m afraid that means I will also skip running ads on Unity for now. I’m running out of free conversions in Appsflyer and really don’t feel like paying for that service that feels should be managed by Unity itself.
Please make it easier for Indies to run ads. It would be nice to be able to run small tests with different creatives and countries before dumping a bunch of money on it. This is the wording we see when we want to run ads for the first time, please lower the barrier of entry and help us build confidence instead of making it feel like we’re gambling at a casino.
"Unity recommends a minimum campaign budget of $2,000 and a daily budget of $500 per country. Campaigns with less than $1000 total budget and $500 daily cap per country might not get any exposure due to budget restrictions. Having a low daily cap might result in overspend during the first few days, as the system might not be able to accurately predict the performance of your campaign."
