Question Does Unity Ad backfill replace current ads?

You will get a very similar result in my opinion, but Mediation is definitely a different product. I wish I could say yes, you will get the exact same result, but the truth is, Mediation is an extra layer on top of Unity Ads (or any other ad network) and as such, may have different issues.

Here is a quick overview:
With Unity Ads alone, you would request ads from the Unity ads network. Nothing more, nothing less, and that alone is great and may be all you need.
With Mediation, you are requesting ads from several potential ad networks.
Each ad network has its own quirks and implementations, including Unity Ads.


As such, Mediation is a different solution with a larger scope. While Unity Ads should behave very much the same way as when you use it standalone, the Mediation product is still in beta, and may face unforeseen issues.

If you only have Unity ads in your waterfalls, it will ensure that only Unity Ads are accessed by the mediation package, but it does not completely remove mediation from the picture.

If you are in a situation where these issues are unacceptable, we encourage you to wait for a more stable version of the Mediation package. Unity and the mediation devs remain committed to give the best possible user experience, but the beta phase is meant to receive user feedback, learn about the bugs we may have missed, or the use cases we had not anticipated.

In any case, thank you for giving mediation a spin and helping us make it a better product

 

Hi DaveKap, thank you for checking out our mediation product! To answer your question, if you are setting up a waterfall with only Unity backfill and no other lines, then yes it will functionally be the same as when you are not mediated and using our ad network exclusively. I've added some notes below in case you want to do more beyond a single backfill line. Please note that you can always switch back to using Unity's ad network exclusively (ie, no mediation) by going to Project Settings --> Mediation Partner --> "I'm not using Mediation (only Unity Ads)". We save all your ad units in the dashboard, so the old ones will show up if you end up switching back.

If you want to add more line items and create a waterfall, one nuance to how Unity line items in the "Sort by eCPM Target" section work is the ability to specify an eCPM target, which also acts as a floor. Meaning, if you specify a Unity line with a target of $10, it will not fill unless the CPM comes back $10 or higher. You can create multiple line items with different targets to capture different price points.

You can do the same with line items for other networks in the "Sort by eCPM Target" section as well. However, please note that the eCPM target you set for that line will not automatically adjust the floor for that line item, meaning it's possible the actual CPM could come back higher or lower than the eCPM target specified. Please make sure you go to that network's dashboard and specify a floor for the placement ID, if appropriate.

If you have any lines present in the "Sort by eCPM Target" section, you can leave any backfill line items in place. These backfill lines will only be requested as a last resort if no other lines from "Sort by eCPM Target" fill.

If you would like more information, I suggest reading through our Waterfall creation documentation here. Hope this helps!