Below average eCPM value. Why is my eCPM so low?

DarkSlash · Jul 30, 2015

I have a game running UnityAds from june 17 2015. Im using the rewarded video (no skip). The highest paying ad in the platform. UnityAds doesn't tells how much they pay you, but tells you that they will pay between 6 and 12 dollars per 1000 started video (no completed, STARTED!) + more money if the user downloads the game of the video.
My game is with famous people from Argentina, so I assume that everyone (or 95%) of people who's playing it are from Argentina. As Argentina is not a good market, let's say I get the lowest paying rate, 6 dollars per 1000 video started.

I have:
Video Started: 61300
Video Completed: 51638
Earning: $72.11

Doing some simple math, I should be getting 367.80 dollars.

That 72.11 ARE NOT from the video displaying. They are from the users that downloaded the app. I reserve to myself the method I used to know it but thinks in this: downloaded apps are payed in real time, and video displayed not.

So, my account should show a balance of 439.91. Unity is stealing me (not paying to me) 367.80 that they DID charged to the sponsors!

I created a ticket in the system, and I have no update from a week a go. I updated the ticket myself with more information and proves and they went speechless (Request # 19095 if some admin wants to check).

I look into the forum and I realized that many user saw this issue but they couldn't find the source. That's it: Unity is not paying us for the money for displaying the videos. It charges the sponsors and SCAMS the developers.

I know that SCAM is a strong word. More considering that Unity, until this situation, acted as a trusted company, but the lack of support in the ticket section, the silence from Unity and the generalized problem with payments made me think in this way.

Another option is that, as UnityAds is a new product, there's some kind of error. If that the case, when the account balance is set to what it should be, I will change my opinion.

hippocoder · Jul 30, 2015

Scam isn't just a strong word, it's an accusation, an incorrect one at that, which doesn't make you look very good.

I would advise politeness and relying on facts when dealing with matters like this. The fact is, it's not a scam.

TechiTech · Jul 31, 2015

@DarkSlash Why don't you use several ad networks and give them equal exposure. Its just a simple script. Then after several months you can see which one deserves your ad space.

Revmob
AdMob
ChartBoost
appnext
unityads
adcolony.com

I'll be watching this thread and seeing for myself how efficient Unity's customer services is.

DarkSlash · Jul 31, 2015

@TechiTech is not about revenue, is about website promoting something, and facts telling another thing. In my country, that is a SCAM t hat can be punish by a judge, and that's why I call it that way. They're lying to us. OR may be is a mistake, but no support guy has reply my ticket and no admin has review this information and reply it.

the_motionblur · Jul 31, 2015

... yet you come on the forums and scream scam in big letters.

I don't know the specifics of your data and I have no personal experience with Unity Ads but either way there are two things to consider:
1. Please keep the tone civil if you want others to help you with the issue. You sound very threatening. If it is indeed an error on Unity's side it is a severe one and it will be sorted out.
Until we know this for sure there's no need to accuse people because of your own math, though. I know I made mistakes and misunderstood things often enough myself so I try not to do this any more. If it really is correct it will make you look bad.
2. Unity are such a large company that they couldn't even afford to do such a blatant scam if they wanted to (which is also a thing I highly doubt after all these years of working with Unity).

Calm down and leave the acusations and I am sure @Aurore or @Graham Dunnett will bring this to the attention of a person in charge - or can even explain what has happened.

Aurore · Jul 31, 2015

I've alerted the Ads team to look into this and hopefully let you know what is going on. (I've changed the forum title to be more accurate to the problem)

DarkSlash · Jul 31, 2015

Thank you, Aurore, for your collaboration. I really appreciate it.

unity-nikkolai · Jul 31, 2015

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.

TechiTech · Jul 31, 2015

I couldn't expect a better explanation Nikkolai I don't know what your eqcs is but i bet it's high. (Effective Quality Customer Service)

Confidence is restored!!!

Salazar · Aug 1, 2015

@unity-nikkolai ,

Nice explanation Nikkolai, it should be in f.a.q . It answers %50 of this forum threads.

Now its all clear people, lets develop some games!

Regards,

Ostwind · Aug 1, 2015

Agree, a very nice write up that should be in FAQ or in some sticky as case example since people often wonder the same things over and over again.

DarkSlash · Aug 2, 2015

Ok, thank you for replying. As so many users has this problem, and no one in the support couldn't reply correctly... don't you think that this information should be explicitly informed to future publishers? Im thinking this could be on purpose.

In my case, I read the Chartboost paying list (Chartboosts shows exactly how much is going to pay you according to the country and the device) and, for my case, was around 5 dollars per 1000 plays. In your FAQ you said between 6 and 12 dollars, soy I went with UnityAds. That information made me lost more money than the money I earned with your system. Why? Because the information is not accurate (I haven't received the WORST paying rate, but 600% BELOW THE WORST). In my country (and so many others) this is called (literrally) SCAMING PUBLICITY and a judge can force the company to pay what's advertised. That's why I called UnityAds a SCAM.

My confidence is not restored at all. You put wrong information (or incomplete) and that made me lose money. And Im not the only one, a lot of developers are complaining about this.

Do things right, and developers will change their mind. UnityAds is not in a dominant position to do this kind of things. I'm not closing the doors, but, for now, I will change to Chartboost or AdColony and strongly discourage any developer who is thinking about UnityAds.

I have nothing more to add, and sorry to the users for using a rude tone, but was the only way to get an answer.

Salazar · Aug 3, 2015

DarkSlash said: ↑

.... and, for my case, was around 5 dollars per 1000 plays. In your FAQ you said between 6 and 12 dollars, soy I went with UnityAds.
Click to expand...

FAQ says Typically the revenue delivered per 1000 video starts is between 6 .. 12 USD, depending on the country.

This is why there is no way to calculate absolute revenue for per 1000 views.

And your rude tone is not neccessary. You could ask again if you dont understand this consept yet there are lots of threads about this topic, trying to explain that there is no certain way to calculate revenue per 1000 views.

Regards,

unity-nikkolai · Aug 3, 2015

@DarkSlash: Again, Unity Ads does not guarantee performance. This is clearly stated under Section 11 of our Terms of Service agreement. We do apologies for the misunderstanding and any inconvenience this may have caused you.

The eCPM value range of $6 to $12 is an average performance value range used to indicate if a game is performing well or not. Unfortunately, your game has not performed well, as indicated by its eCPM value which falls below this range.

As I've stated before, there are two primary factors negatively affecting the performance of your game: (1) the bid value for advertisements in your target country, and (2) the method in which you've chosen to show ads. Your control over the first factor is somewhat limited. Since the content value of your game is localized to Argentina, expanding your audience to include other countries may not be a viable option. The second factor however, you do have control over. Limiting the number of ads per user, and how often they are able to view them (especially as rewarded ads) will make your impressions more effective regardless of what ad network you use.

Variable_D · Aug 14, 2015

I read this thread and I am shocked.

Have published several games with UnityAds,this is my best one (first week):

Game sessions: 12650
Videos started (started): 11550
Earning:$ 6.84

Now I have earned $11.58 for 3 games on UnityAds, maybe I can get $100 if I keep making another 20 or 30 games, great. Live long and prosper.

Just like Darkslash, I chose UnityAds because I like Unity and because the FAQ said "between 6 and 12 dollars", didn't even mentioned could be only 10% of this "typically", or even lower.

And now I saw the official answer "your game has not performed well"?

So it's our fault to trust Unity and take the FAQ seriously?

Darkslash's game is an unusual case, my game is an unusual case, how many unusual cases are there? How many games are not "typically"?

If you put your answer "we do not guarantee performance" instead of "between 6 and 12 dollars typically" on the FAQ, let's see what will happen.

Developers, if you saw this, do not use UnityAds. It's incomplete with too many bugs, and does not guarantee anything.

DarkSlash · Aug 14, 2015

Thanks @Variable_D , finally someone who is not afraid of telling the truth!

They said "Is difficult to know how is gonna pay". Yes, is not easy, but they can know a more accurate value (or an average) to pay according to the country and mobile OS. Chartboost has published their chart on the web for you to decide if it's ok for you or not. In UnityAds, for 1000 videos starts I GET ZERO DOLLARS. ZERO. All money I have if for downloaded apps (not for showing videos, I'm making Unity get paid for this videos and they don't pay me).

They put inaccurate information on the FAQ just to get users into their system and earn money. Everything else is just @#$@#$.

letchuck · Aug 14, 2015

I'm sorry, but you keep throwing wild accusations without any proof to back it. You keep saying Unity stole money from you, getting paid from videos featured in your game, and not paying you. You got a response telling you that's not how it works, and that the amount you'll get paid is on average 6 to 12 per 1000 impressions, DEPENDING ON COUNTRY.

If you had your thousands of impressions in America, granted you'd be getting paid what you expected. You had them on a small country where the quality of leads and such just isn't good enough to pay you as well as that. So you are getting exactly what you should be getting. There's no inaccurate information whatsoever. It says, quite clearly:

Typically the revenue delivered per 1000 video starts is between 6 .. 12 USD, depending on the country.

They could have added that they can't guarantee any revenue at all, if that would make you feel more confident, but they are in no way misleading you.

Variable_D · Aug 14, 2015

letchuck said: ↑

If you had your thousands of impressions in America, granted you'd be getting paid what you expected.
.
Click to expand...

"between 6 .. 12 USD depending on the country" usually means "If you are in America, you get $12 for 1000 video, if you are in Argentina, you get less, such as $6 for 1000 video."

Not "If you are in America, you get $6-12 for 1000 video, if you are in Argentina you get $0-1 for 1000 video."

the_motionblur · Aug 14, 2015

DarkSlash said: ↑

Thanks @Variable_D , finally someone who is not afraid of telling the truth!
Click to expand...

Sorry but ... "the truth" or "agreeing with your oppinion"?
You've got your official answer. If you don't like it then don't use Unity ads any further. You treid and tested it and you learned it didn't work for you. Everybody in this thread saw it and read the answers. So we've got the facts from everyobody involved so far. Neither you nor Unity at the moment will bring anything new to the table it seems. So unless others chime in with their results it's just restating opinions and frustrations.

The sad truth is, though: The ad market as well as the games market is overrun by users. It's so crowded that prices drop constantly.

As some propsed in this thread - if you are unsatisfied with Unity: by all means - go and try the competition. If they perform in fact severely better then post your results and let us know. Just staing that someone else has negative results don't help anyone any further. Others need to post their experiences. Or people with negative UnityAd experiences need to post results from the competitors. Comparisons and variances is where it's at. And by complaining and acusing you won't get these.

Salazar · Aug 15, 2015

@Variable_D ,@DarkSlash Hello,

There are CPV Campaigns and there are CPI campaigns ;

CPI Campaign (You will be charged on a Cost Per Install basis.)
CPV Campaign (You will be charged on a Cost Per View basis.)

So you may have 10000 views, but do you know which ad campaign generated this views? Go try start a campaign from your admin panel. You will see what i mean, the actual problem is not 3$ -5$ problem, the actual problem is there are CPI campaigns.

So, game developers decide how to pay, not Unity Ads.

Regards,

goat · Aug 27, 2015

What I want to know is will using Unity Ads tell me also if a player has played the game but not viewed any ads?

I am interested in that but without all the bells & whistles of the other Unity game metrics assets.

Also, Unity Ads for regular PC and osX downloadable games?

Finally, my game and eventually games will be rated Everyone so I will want Unity Ads that are served to be rated Everyone.

However, I have played Looney Tunes Dash and it's rated Everyone 10+ and while Everyone 10+ is a bit more mature than Everyone I was served ads by the ad server in that game about this new 'Norman Bates' series on one of the pay TV channels where they managed to make the already offensive and illegal subject matter more offensive and more illegal. I'll spare the forum readers by declining to mention the subject matters. And there were other offensive ads not intended for an audience that Zynga and the Ad Distributors must know are in large part children.

So my final question is what type of content restrictions or maturity ratings are placed on ads served to games rated Everyone by Unity Ads? I do not want to use the ad network Looney Tunes Dash and Zynga are using.

Thanks.

unity-nikkolai · Aug 27, 2015

@goat: We don't provide information on specific users. You would have to track this information yourself.

Unity Ads does offer age appropriate content restrictions, but this is a newly implemented feature.

If you need this enabled for Unity Ads in your game, you'll need to submit a request for it directly using the Contact form in the Unity Ads Admin. Please be sure to specify which game IDs you would like to enable this feature for, and what the target age group is.

Unity Ads is only available for iOS and Android (Google Play).

goat · Aug 27, 2015

Thank very much. I learned after further reading in the thread it was still Android/iOS only still.

I don't want to track a specific user but an aggregate of the total times the game was actually started, nothing more. I don't even care what country. I guess I'd have to force a ad video or ad image to be viewed on startup it sounds like.

I will definitely use the age appropriate restrictions so I am glad if I do use ads this is available. Before the content of some of the ads (non-Unity) was making a farce of the game ratings themselves. :-(

Thanks again.

Ostwind · Aug 27, 2015

Unity Analytics is meant for such tracking

goat · Aug 27, 2015

I know, but it's a disunion of logically complementary functionality.

unity-nikkolai · Aug 28, 2015

@goat: Services will eventually work more harmoniously together. Using Unity Analytics is probably the best suggestion for tracking game sessions.

Unity Ads tracks ad requests, which happen upon initialization of the SDK can roughly equate to game sessions. However, additional ad request can be triggered after the initial ad request if a need for it occurs. At the moment, the conditions in which these additional ad requests can be triggered differs slightly between iOS and Android.

musakara · Aug 31, 2015

1 week eCPM is too low.

ThoZ · Sep 3, 2015

Hi guys,

Sorry for digging out this thread again

I've read a lot of times, that i "just need to wait" or to "get more than 1000 impressions".
Well, i waited and i got more than 2k now.
My Fill Rate has always been between 96% and 100%.

I am a bit confused now,

Thanks for any help,

Thomas

ThoZ · Sep 6, 2015

not getting better...

Flooryn · Sep 6, 2015

your eCPM is so low becouse you are not getting revenue from Ads Shown or completed yet , you get some money becouse some peoples clicked download on your ad and unity gave you some revenue from that , but if you don`t recive money in the next days the eCPM drop down and this is the result...You need more impressions so the system will give you revenue every day from the ads Started/Completed , they say 5000 in F.A.Q

AdamLiu · Sep 7, 2015

In my case, Unity Ads performs quite well. It does appear that the eCPM is related to many factors.

unity-nikkolai · Sep 8, 2015

@ThoZ: Your fill rate is good, but your completion rate is only about 10%. Most users in your game are skipping ads, which means they aren't being shown very effectively. The quality of the impressions is a lot lower in this case.

Two things you can do to improve your eCPM:

Switch to using a rewarded video implementation (normally non-skippable) to make ads more effective

Limit how often they can be viewed and used to redeem rewards (maintaining the quality of each impression)

goat · Sep 8, 2015

unity-nikkolai said: ↑

@goat: Services will eventually work more harmoniously together. Using Unity Analytics is probably the best suggestion for tracking game sessions.

Unity Ads tracks ad requests, which happen upon initialization of the SDK can roughly equate to game sessions. However, additional ad request can be triggered after the initial ad request if a need for it occurs. At the moment, the conditions in which these additional ad requests can be triggered differs slightly between iOS and Android.
Click to expand...

thanks. I don't want to overestimate.

00christian00 · Sep 27, 2015

unity-nikkolai said: ↑

@ThoZ:

Two things you can do to improve your eCPM:

Switch to using a rewarded video implementation (normally non-skippable) to make ads more effective

Limit how often they can be viewed and used to redeem rewards (maintaining the quality of each impression)

Click to expand...

Nikkolai, I still haven't started integrating Unity Ads but planning to do so.
One thing I noticed( not just for Unity Ads, it's common for for many ads network) is that they stream the same ads over and over and over.
By now I think I saw 1000 times the ads of Game of War. If after 1000 times I still didn't download it, why are you still showing me?
Can't you show me something else that may have a better chance to pick my interest?
And it's not like I get it shown once a day, some time it is like 3-4 times a row, then another ad then back to the same....
Is your repertory limited or is it by choice because they pay well?

yeahwin · Oct 19, 2015

look me!!

Flooryn · Oct 19, 2015

Made $65 with 1 game , and just with the instals ....
2650 Videos Completated , 11072 Videos started , that money aren`t from that videos Started or Completated but are from Instals , peoples taped Instal in the Ad and i get $65 , yeahwin that $0.12 comes from the Instals , some one Instaled one game from the 596 views and generated you that $0.12 probably from tier 4 countryes , you will need more than 5000 views to get money from it

yeahwin · Oct 19, 2015

Flooryn said: ↑

Made $65 with 1 game , and just with the instals ....
2650 Videos Completated , 11072 Videos started , that money aren`t from that videos Started or Completated but are from Instals , peoples taped Instal in the Ad and i get $65 , yeahwin that $0.12 comes from the Instals , some one Instaled one game from the 596 views and generated you that $0.12 probably from tier 4 countryes , you will need more than 5000 views to get money from it
Click to expand...

thank you!

Need 5000 completed on to learn that true earnings?
$0.12 how did you get ?

Flooryn · Oct 19, 2015

I don`t know , peoples just instaled the apps/games from the ads and made me that $65

catimus · Oct 22, 2015

hi

sorry I'm a little confused by some of this, I hope someone can give me an answer,

does unity ads only pay if a user installs a game through the ad??

we get no payment if the user just watches the ad??

thanks

Flooryn · Oct 22, 2015

Unity pay for everything , simple Ad started to the Ad completated(more money ofc )and finaly to the Instal (much more money)but you need like 5000 impressions to see revenue from the simply Ads showed or completated , instead for Instal you see revenue after 1 hour (Dashboard update time)

catimus · Oct 23, 2015

oh, cool
that's good news
thanks for clearing it up

skytoustudios · Oct 23, 2015

Last 7 Days

eCPM $ 1.16

Fill Rate99.67 %

Game sessions:

15870

Videos started (started):

18161

Videos completed (views):

5423

Revenue:

$ 26.42

How to improve the eCPM ?

egem2015 · Oct 27, 2015

Hi Nikkolai

I am new in unity ads.

I started to use unity ads two days ago and i do not know anything

I am just seeing "AD Starts" as statistics in ads section.

where can i see the following data

1)Game sessions:

2)Videos started (started):

3)Videos completed (views):

thanks in advance.

Pedroatg · Nov 11, 2015

Hello,
I still think Unity ads are worth it, but I'm having trouble accepting this kind of behavior. The eCPM varies too much and lately with the increase of views the eCPM is going down.

I only use reward videos so this should not happen.

jordan-t-georgiev · Dec 2, 2015

Hello,

unity-nikkolai said: ↑

. Since the content value of your game is localized to Argentina, expanding your audience to include other countries may not be a viable option.
Click to expand...

I have question about that ^, when i add app in store and use Unity Ad, isn't it available for all countries not only to main? So everyone can see Ads and play the game ?

Brutusomega · Dec 10, 2015

Do i need 5000 completed or 5000 started for unity to calculate eCPM?

firativerson · Jan 13, 2016

Should I wait for 5000 completed videos before I rage? I am gonna rage in a friendly way of course
I am located in Turkey and my videos are rewarded and pretty sure users dont get more than 4 ads per day. And just to confirm my knowledge from searching through forums, the revenue I see now, belong to only 3 days but as far as I know it is from downloads, not from views. Is that correct?
Thanks!

PS: Raging part is really a joke ! I am in love with unity...

qorbani · May 20, 2016

I know this is old topic but I feel I have same problem here! I just got my report from one game and calculated eCPM for US for last two weeks and it turns out to be less than $0.014!!!

I had 100% fill-rate while most of days my eCPM was 0! I already submit ticket to support for almost 10 days now and simply no answer just yet. I'm simply disappointed and considering moving out of UnityAds, although I hate to do it.

zombiecame · Nov 2, 2016

qorbani said: ↑

I know this is old topic but I feel I have same problem here! I just got my report from one game and calculated eCPM for US for last two weeks and it turns out to be less than $0.014!!!

I had 100% fill-rate while most of days my eCPM was 0! I already submit ticket to support for almost 10 days now and simply no answer just yet. I'm simply disappointed and considering moving out of UnityAds, although I hate to do it.
Click to expand...

The same issue from Argentina, I am having 0.00% of eCPM.
I am going to remove unity ads, it is a joke for Latan people.
An way Unity is just a great Engine, nothing else.

Search Unity

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Below average eCPM value. Why is my eCPM so low?

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