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Feedback LevelPlay (and Ironsource ads) needs some serious attention

Discussion in 'LevelPlay' started by affine, Feb 15, 2023.

  1. affine

    affine

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    5
    I wanted to share my experience with implementing LevelPlay, and working with Ironsource, in hopes the rest of you receive some kind of warning before going down this path.

    Officially Unity has been directing everyone to move over to LevelPlay (see here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/wil...without-switching-to-unity-levelplay.1360483/) , and start using Ironsource as that will be the official place everything gets updates in the future. So when implementing my last game, which is ad driven, I went ahead and implemented Ironsource.

    This SDK is actually quite good, and implementing it was pretty straight forward. It has a decent amount of functionality, and I can't say anything bad about it. However, Ironsource as an ad service on the other hand, is not up to snuff (putting it mildly). So here is the major issues I've encountered with their ads (and when I say "major", I mean it):

    1. You cannot properly content control the Ads coming in. You can add another part of their SDK called "Ad quality control", which allows you to view the ads being displayed in their dashboard, and you can report them (but the report button doesn't work if you select more than 1 ad at a time, I had to grab their page code, and copy/paste it into a email to send to them...don't expect most people to do that).

    2. On the reporting lines, that's actually the only way to filter the ads. Ironsource doesn't have a button that allows you to AGE GATE the advertisements. They say you can set the COPPA setting to "mixed" or "targeted" for children and that "should" do it, but it actually doesn't work. Even with COPPA setting set, Ironsource doesn't respect it, and will serve up inappropriate ads.

    3. You can contact Ironsource to disable certain ad groups, but can't control it yourself. E.g.
      • Alcohol
      • Gambling
      • Social gambling : Other
      • Social: Slots
      • Social gambling : Poker
      • Social gambling : Bingo
      • Dating
      • Inappropriate content

    4. You have to go to them each time to report ads you don't want displayed, with app ids, and your app keys you want it applied to. I've personally had them disable all these categories, and yet they still deliver the ads. Their advice was to set the COPPA setting to mixed, which as I mentioned earlier...doesn't work.

    5. Ironsource UA/App promotion is broken. They offer a user acquisition section (which may still be in beta, it's hard to tell). After getting approved to run these, they ask you add funds. After adding funds, you'll still be stuck for "Pending approval", even though they will send you an email telling you that you are approved.
    In summary, I would NOT recommend using them for an ad network. "LevelPlay"/integration with their SDK is fine, but as a service they are nowhere near Unity's (or meta, vungle, admob, adcolony...pretty much everyone else) ad network quality.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2023
    io-games and enhawk like this.
  2. jcGrenier

    jcGrenier

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2021
    Posts:
    145
    Thank you for your feedback @affine .
    We mostly work on the Mediation (LevelPlay) side of things, and I am happy to know that you enjoy that part of the experience, but I will make sure to pass your feedback regarding the ad network to the appropriate folks.

    Cheers!
     
  3. affine

    affine

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    5
    Yeah as per usual, most anything I deal with on Unity's side is really very excellent. Although I might suggest some sense of urgency around your communications with IS (or whoever the contact is). The inability to age restrict the advertisements is a huge policy violation (or more accurately, can BE a huge violation), and will put developers who use their service at risk if they have specifications that require age restrictions (which I assume is almost everyone who isn't making apps/games rated 17+). I've tried to communicate with them myself, but the turnaround is usually several days, and the responses have been...lackluster (either missing my question entirely, or simply a "there's no way to control that" response).
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2023
    valonsoft likes this.
  4. affine

    affine

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    5
    Thought I'd give a quick update on some of these ongoing issues:

    In regards to the UA/Promotion issues, we've sent 2 emails with no response in almost two weeks. The funds are locked up in the account, and we are stuck in a "Pending Approval" state, despite being informed we are approved to run our ads.

    There's actually a phone number in SF on the bill you receive for adding funds to the account. If you call it, it sends you straight to voicemail. The voicemail sounds like someone's cell phone, and it sounds like it's disabled or turned off. There's no message system in place, it's a generic template voicemail response.

    There still has been no response from Ironsource about how to age restrict their advertisements, or rather, no response to whether or not they're going to implement quality controls properly to comply with the U.S. policies.

    It is remarkable just how sketchy, and bad some of this has gone.
     
    valonsoft likes this.
  5. jcGrenier

    jcGrenier

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2021
    Posts:
    145
    Hey @affine,
    the product team at LevelPlay reached out and would like to help you succeed. I'll send you their email privately.

    cheers!
     
    affine likes this.
  6. enhawk

    enhawk

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
    833
    This is actually quite worrying. Will our apps be removed for COPPA violations using Ironsource if the settings are just ignored?

    is there a work around? (Turning off Ironsource as an ad delivery source, and just leaving on admob, unity etc?)
     
  7. affine

    affine

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    5
    Well, thanks to @jcGrenier I've had some contact with them. They've worked to resolve some of the issues with the ads, but if I'm being honest it's still super sketchy. The only way to control the ad network is to contact IS, and have them block all the categories I mentioned in the post. Then you have to actively monitor the ads coming in, using their ad quality sdk, and report any you don't want displayed. Again, pretty dubious implementation considering that a user could be impacted by an ad you don't want displayed, and there's nothing you can do about it until after the fact...

    Just to be very clear, you can still use Ironsource/LevelPlay for delivering ads, but enabling/using the Ironsource ad network is not something I'd recommend at the moment unless you have a 17+ rated app.

    They mentioned using the metadata flag "is_child_directed" (described in the link below) to get the lowest version of the ads.
    coppa flags:
    https://developers.is.com/ironsource-mobile/general/ironsource-mobile-child-directed-apps/

    metadata setting:
    https://developers.is.com/ironsource-mobile/android/regulation-advanced-settings/#step-2

    However, I called out to them this setting is confusing since a "mixed" COPPA audience is not technically "directed" at children, and doesn't align with COPPA standards. Afterwards they realized it wasn't the correct setting either, and determined there was a "tech glitch" when blocking the categories I listed in the post. Now those categories are "blocked" (which I can tell something changed, it's much better now), but their network is still delivering ads outside of the content range we've asked for. We've since disabled their network, and are still waiting for them to resolve the issue.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2023
  8. masterton

    masterton

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2012
    Posts:
    41
    The dev support for Level Play is just appalling. No response on IS tickets, and no IS devs in the Unity forums - IS themselves have no forums that I could find. I'm yanking ads completely, it's not worth the trouble. Unity Mediation was on the right track, such a shame.
     
  9. enhawk

    enhawk

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
    833
    I don't want to pile on but I am reverting back to Unity Ads for now. No response from IS on my tickets and app still not approved so I can't show ads at all using Levelplay, even test ads.

    Will have another look later this month to see if things have improved...
     
  10. FamishedMammal

    FamishedMammal

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2015
    Posts:
    113
    The new Levelplay/Mediation package seems cool, but I can't even get it to launch :confused: Installed the package fresh into 2021.3.20f1, pressed "resolve Android dependencies", and it spits out an error "file not found".
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2023
  11. korifandrijs

    korifandrijs

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2017
    Posts:
    6
    Check the solution from ~6:18. It worked for me
     
    enhawk likes this.
  12. affine

    affine

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    5
    Unfortunately I'm probably bias at this point. I'm extremely familiar with all manner of build dependencies, integrating third party SDKs, unity ads...and a generally huge list of build system related things as I've had to do this many MANY times at big companies. So I have experience just dealing with whatever issue or error it spits out, things that are missing, xcodebuild injections, plist updates, entitlements, so on and so forth. Basically just years of pain and suffering, but this SDK was better than many others I've come across.
     
    lmbarns likes this.
  13. FamishedMammal

    FamishedMammal

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2015
    Posts:
    113
    I wish they made it easier to use! (ie. not having to fiddle with custom manifests, link.xml, custom gradle installs, etc).
    The only reason the majority of us use Unity in the first place is to make the development process easier/quicker...
     
    lmbarns likes this.
  14. LootFox

    LootFox

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2018
    Posts:
    4
    Working with ironSource has been a nightmare. They claim to have blocked certain categories for us also but of course the casino ads and adult content keeps flooding into our app. They expect you to review ads AFTER THEY ARE LIVE and manually email them URLs or images of the ad to blacklist them(which I'm not even confident happens).
     
  15. Shikshen

    Shikshen

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2015
    Posts:
    25
    This is a big problem. We got an app update rejected on Google Play due to "Violation of Inappropriate Ads policy" along with a screenshot showing an ironSource ad that was indeed inappropriate for our target audience (12+ rated game).

    Never got this problem on Admob as we can block categories ourselves. So, back to Admob I guess.
     
  16. Alex-Solovev

    Alex-Solovev

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2022
    Posts:
    25
    I'm glad I've stumbled upon this thread, I'm thinking of adding ads to my game and based on the info I will go with anything but IronSource.
     
  17. cnguyen_unitylevelplay

    cnguyen_unitylevelplay

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2023
    Posts:
    127
    Sorry to hear that. You can still utilize the Levleplay mediation SDK and opt out any ad network you like (including ironSource) In case you run into any delivery issues, quickest way is to open a support ticket:
    https://ironsrc.formtitan.com/knowledge-center?fld48=#/
     
  18. goodmanwleticia957

    goodmanwleticia957

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2024
    Posts:
    3
    Whoa, thanks for the heads-up on Ironsource, mate! Implementing LevelPlay seemed like a logical step, but your experience sheds light on some major hiccups. The ad content control issue is a big deal – who wants inappropriate ads sneaking into their game, right? And that report button glitch? Classic. Ironsource needs to step up their game.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2024
  19. nmckean

    nmckean

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2020
    Posts:
    23
    Echoing the absolute nightmare of this process. The whole thing feels like it is duct taped together between Unity and IronSource with conflicting documentation everywhere, the process has given me a Mobile Dependancy Resolver that now for some reason can't find Java (JDK) and has had domino effects leading to hours of troubleshooting with no up to date guidance.

    I'm 10 minute away from rolling everything back, including the Mediation package and doing it all through AdMob.
     
    Alex-Solovev likes this.
  20. AlkisFortuneFish

    AlkisFortuneFish

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2013
    Posts:
    970
    Are your JDK/JVM path environment variables set correctly?
     
  21. nmckean

    nmckean

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2020
    Posts:
    23
    The issue was solved via another forum whereby the paths had to be deselected and an additional slash manually added to them. Talk about a rubbish hack for a rubbish bug.
     
  22. AlkisFortuneFish

    AlkisFortuneFish

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2013
    Posts:
    970
    Gotta love path issues in the Java ecosystem.