For anyone who is also sick of being pushed around by ad networks!

Hi guys,

I think that many of you, at least the ones that make a living out of their ad revenues, have noticed that ad networks seem to be able to do WHATEVER THEY WANT with us.
Constantly dropping ECPMs, bad support and silly excuses seem to be normal for all of them. Including banner ads, push ads and app wall ads, I am delivering a few million ad impressions daily.
And what happened to my revenue during the last few weeks is just inacceptable!

Airpush:

Whenever we notice that our ECPM drops, Phil, a support members from Airpush, asks us on the forum to send him our account details in order to look into the issue.
Do you really think we are that dumb?! Do you really think, that we don’t get it, that EVERYONE’s ECPM is dropping, and it’s not caused by a bug in your system? Could it be that Airpush is just stealing more and money from us, because they know know that we can’t do anything about it?
In addition, you are showing an average ECPM of 4,04$ on your Website. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Boost our revenue op tuo 300% with smartwall? COME ON! This is nothing but a bad lie! 1.0 or 1.5 average ECPM would be more realistic!

And what about your payment system? My net30 payment should have been released, according to dev console, this friday - if so, why can’t I see the payout in my console? Why does the support not answer?
In Europe, a company would go broke in VERY SHORT time if it had such a bad costumer support - and by the way: An ad network of your size should have 24/7 phone/chat/mail support as other large companies do!

Leadbolt:

More constant ECPMs, but also very bad support. I see my Account Manager going online and offline on Skype every day, but he has not answered my Email for about a WEEK!

Admob:

Very bad ecpm drops now and then - at least the payouts were in time until now.
Also bad support though!

Guys - can we really accept that?

We have to find a way to make them hear us. I don’t know how many developers who are making a living of Android apps are reading and posting on this forum, but complaining JUST ON THIS FORUM is not enough. We need to collect ideas on how to stop ad networks from screwing us!
Some developers have mentioned starting an own ad network, which is a good idea in my opinion. Hard to realise, but definately worth a thought.

But in the meantime, we need to get heard by the ad networks and the public! Maybe we need to write Articles about the revenue drops and get them published on larger blogs?
In addition, we should find ways to completely replace those ad networks, who are screwing us, with more reliable networks. This would require more communication between developers.

Please contact me (or post here), if you’ve got more ideas!

have a nice day
skeeter

I’m so happy to see this articles, it let me know I’m not lonely. From me, I just have two ideas.
1.build our Non-profit Open Advertising Networks from http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/advertising-networks/1112-stop-screwing-us-we-shoud-build-our-non-profit-open-advertising-networks.html
2.they are screwing us,we will screw them too! If all of us, not all, like you, me and more friends, put everyone’s from one to million ad impressions together and if we can’t get better ecpm, we stop them together, like a Strike!However, I think it’s much harder than the first one. Because we arenot consociate! That’s why they can screw us!

It really does suck lately- especially because the more income that you earn, the more it is affected when eCPM changes. But devs are at the very bottom of the totem pole- we’re part of the the lifeline, but we are replaceable.

But please realize there is no definitive proof about these networks screwing us over (on purpose); though, they do have the power to do so. It’s most likely 1 of 2 things: (1) There are less advertising dollars coming in and/or (2) there are more developers; thus, there is more ad real estate. I do know with Airpush, some major spenders have stepped back recently as their clients are asking them to back off using intrusive types of advertising. I don’t know the amounts, but I know it’s happening. This could be a reason in lower eCPMs.

As for Airpush punishing some developers that use Leadbolt or Sendroid in conjunction with their own ads- it might be because advertisers are bitching about wasting money (and who blames them?). They might have the same campaign across the 3 networks, and if their geotarget is US, for example, then there’s a chance that the same person will receive a bunch of ads that are all the same. After 5+ impressions of the same ad, it will most likely not be clicked [on purpose]. Or it’s just the fact that the advertiser might want to cap the amount of impressions per user at X amount, but they don’t have control of that in this situation.

Now what does this have to do with pushing payments to net 30? I’m not sure, but this is the only theory I can come up with, as Airpush states the reason behind the payment changes is stacking of push networks. Perhaps they think it’ll tantalize some devs to just use Airpush to get the Net 7, in turn, making their advertisers happy as they aren’t targeting the same disenfranchised user multiple times.

There are transparency issues for both developers and advertisers. At least advertisers can do something about it with their own tracker software (and compare it to the numbers on the ad networks site). Devs are pretty much at the mercy of the ad networks. We have no leverage. I mean, look at Admob- terrible customer support for devs. Even a step up at looking at the Play store- TERRIBLE support for devs. Just trying contacting anyone on there- won’t get a response. They get away with it because they can. Like I said, we’re expendable. Unfortunately.

Yes, they always do that, but not only Phil from Airpush. Frank from Leadbolt is also a master of this “technique”. They must think we have half a brain or something, but this is just unacceptable.

And yes, they can do anything they want with our money, and no, there’s not much we can do about it. The only thing we can do is use forums like this and comment what they are doing to us. This way, people would think twice before signing up with them.

Im really happy that you post this. last year i got quite reasonable revenue and because of that i decided to quit from my in job this year and develop apps as full time. but now im totally disappointed with ad networks and doubt about my decision. it would be really great some one come up with a new idea because we can never trust these ad networks.

i started developing apps in 2011 december. i started with admob and leadbolt. admob was a shit even in those days but leadbolt was good. when my downloads grew up, i was able to get $2-3 ecpm from leadbolt for push and banner ads. at that time airpush started their business and it wasn’t good. however something happened to leadbolt, their ecpm became worst. but at the same time airpush gave us quite good numbers. but now the airpush also becoming leadbolty and we screwed.

what i’m trying to tell you is; in 2012 january i had about 5 apps. but now i have 20+ apps. now im getting five times impressions than those days. but trust me, my last month revenue was almost similar to the number that i had in 2012 january. so we have to do something, otherwise things going to be worst :frowning:

I have the solution.
All the pain points that you are facing I’ve got them 100% covered… Shoot me over PM to discuss… When you guys mean NON Profit Open Ad Network **** I Am beta testing it as we speak *** PM ME to get the details… thanks CGAK *************

I’ve PM you… Please share the details.

Update**** the open source ad network is the process of being acquired by another company**** details to follow

Is it a game company like papaya mobile (which operates AppFlood commission-free) - the value to them probably is from them having a ready advertising platform to push their games and developers using their SDK or whatever.

If so, this would be a good direction for things to go in - as it helps developers.

I am the same with you here, but trust me, never exist a non-profit ad network, they do business and need money to operate that.

Who is this company?

Guys, Theres no such thing as “Non Profit” look at charities…they all say their “Non profit” but they all take 50%+ of the donations, this “non profit ad network” makes profit…they HAVE to…Especially if their a corporation…then they have a LEGAL binding contract with shareholders to make profit. They probably just take a very low % . Non profit is just a marketing scheme to sucker people in.

LOL - it’s nice that somebody have hobby to make open source ad network, or something like that but however, devs! Just start to work harder… I am making milions impressions daily in couple ad networks and average ecpm is 1.50$, in airpush I see huge increase now. In other ad networks like applovin I had 2-3$ average ecpm with milions of impressions/day. Advertising is business like others, have hossa and bessa, good and bad months. There is also too many developers so stakes will be picking down. It’s not that network is stealing ur money. Belive with many milions impressions / day you don’t think about it. Mobile advertisement will slowly going down with stakes. It’s time to make as much money as u can before that happen and move to some different model like paid apps or IAP.

The most crying people because ad networks are poor devs with 10$/ day earnings and who thinks that they are businessmans… :expressionless: pathetic, start work and stop cry!

My solution to this is stop offering free apps with ads. If your app is good then make it a paid (or subscription app). I went down that stream for some apps and I think I did the right decision. Users are so spoiled with too many free apps(and yet they complain about adds) on top of us getting screwed from ad networks. Its like both ways screwing.

PM Me it’s not about one ad network think of hunderds of ad networks… We are accepting beta tester interested and yes no fees . How ? I will tell you PM ME. NO BS only serious inquiries… THanks

it’s not a company its a developer that is #1 on both iOS and Android… I will fill you in PM me please.

Hey Guys,

Seeing that there is a reasonable discussion going on here - I’ll jump in too.

I have a question for all of you.

It does not require much work for an Ad Network to manipulate numbers and show a higher eCPM. Some changes on the sever side and there you have it. If you find this to be some kind of news, then at least you have identified your problem now. You only want to hear what sounds good to you.

Believe it or not, one of the things that we take pride in is our ethics. We do not mess with numbers to make Developers or Advertisers happy. We do not come up with huge extravagant promises on which we probably will never deliver. We try to keep everything transparent. It takes away some of our profit. It also prevents some of you from joining us. We can change all that in a matter of minutes by doing the tweaks here and there but we won’t. We never will.

One network tells you that they will give you $10 eCPM and the other tells you $2. You join the one saying $10 and then you never get it. After a month you realize that you made nothing compared to what you were expecting. Sooner or later you will come to the find that eCPM means almost nothing. Its the revenue you get that should determine things. ePCM can be manipulated. Earnings are what Networks HAVE to pay you. You can make $500 with $10 eCPM and you can make $500 with $2 eCPM too. Question is, how difficult would you like to make this process?

Being Developers ourselves, we do not find it in us to tell you lies. We know how it feels and we know exactly how much important it is for you to know accurately how much you can make. That is why we keep it simple.

Hope this helps.

So what eCPM developers can expect with your Alert ads, Alert ads pro, Interstitials and Appwall for US and non-US markets?

For example, you can tell us what eCPM your network served in past seven days for US and non-US markets that can give some rough picture about quality. I am very interested about Asia market (China, India, S. Arabia) because it looks like that Android have very strong position there.

he just told you, ecpm claims don’t mean shit, stick with admob, guaranteed income, guaranteed inventory and an honest living :slight_smile: