I have implemented AdMob in one of my apps and the ecpm has been extremely low for the last months. When I say low, you can see it in this screenshot from my AdMob account: 100% fillrate but super bad CTR around 0.25%
I would like to understand why it is so low, that’s why your opinion would be highly appreciated.
I display banners on multiple screens of my app including the first screen when the app is launched, so banners have a good visibility.
What is it I am doing wrong? Banners display, settings? What would you do to increase the eCPM?
You have a low CTR, so admob may not be sending you the best ads. I don’t know if it’s true, but many suspect your CTR will affect what quality of ads admob will send you. Something you can do to increase your click through rate is to lower your refresh rate on requesting ads. If your requesting ads every 30 secs, you may want to try changing it to 60 secs or longer. Also with only around 1-2k impressions, I would not be too worried about ecpm right now. I would work on promoting the app (I assume it’s a new app with only a few k downloads so far?). Or spend your time working on your next app. I also tend to think admob may not send the best ads to new developers with new apps, until they have been on the market for a while and have a good impression count. Only my opinion but if I was admob I would send the best ads to the older apps that have been out for a while and a proven track record.
Another thing you can do, if your displaying ads on multiple screens of the app, is to use fragments so that your not creating a new ad banner for each screen. If you can use the same banner for every screen it will help. Because often time people switching between screens will switch to the next screen before the banner has loaded or they’ve had a chance to even look at the ad.
Yeah, stay away from refreshing ads, it’ll help overall. Secondly, get some other networks to replace Admob. They could be better if they targeted better + they don’t allow affiliate marketers and Adsense (the backfill) tends to look down on it as well. This means lower revenue for you.
For me admob pays better ecpm than the other networks. But some of my apps have been on the market for 3 years and have used admob since the beginning. Which kind of supports my theory that older apps that have been using admob for a while get better ecpms than new apps.
In my case it’s the exact opposite. The older and more popular the app, the lower eCPM I get. Right now I only have 0.11$ eCPM at 60s refresh rate in adMob. Also using long refresh rate resulted in a better eCPM but not as much better as many times lower the impressions were. (But going below 60s is probably not worth it)
Of course it is probably related to 1) the double click requirement (it’s posibble I had many misclicks on smaller screens), 2) ad placement in my new, most popular game (I will move the ads closer to where user concentrates in next update to check if it helps)
I also use normal banner even on tablets - not smart banner (because I think smart banner is too large and my main goal is many happy users).
Hi guys, thanks a lot for your very instructive answers.
The app is not that new, at least 4 or 5 months.
Refresh rate was on 30 s, I’ve just switched to 60 s. Though I wonder why it could improve the CTR. I was thinking with a shorter refresh rate, users have more chance to get an ad they are interested in, no? Whereas with an ad that stays 60 s, is they are not interested in it, there is less chance another ad come up. You all seem to say longer refresh rate is better for CTR. What am I missing?
And if you have any link or advice on how to promote the app for free, (free submission to directories?, or anything else) I would be very interested
30s is too short - they might miss an ad that is interesting. Also people tend to wait to the end of the level until clicking on an interesting ad - so if your levels are longer than the refresh rate they might not get a chance.
If your ads are being refreshed quickly then your users are less likely to take the ad in, especially if the app is a game, since their attention is elsewhere. A longer refresh rate gives a better chance of them seeing each ad and therefore increasing the likelihood of a resulting click.
Also, when ads are refreshed quickly a user can perceive it as being “spammy”, not to mention potentially taking up extra bandwidth (if they’re not on Wi-fi) and also battery life (requesting the ad etc will consume more power).
In this way a longer refresh rate is considered less “spammy” and again is more likely to return a click.
I find the sweet spot to be around the 1 minute mark, but I mostly develop apps not games, so you might find a different rate to be better. Just change the rate over each day to see what works.
Well, there are some common free ways to promote your app, like marketing through social networks like twitter, facebook etc, or relevant game lovers’ forums…another way is to distribute
your app on as many channels as possible besides google play, and as far as I know there are quite a few other android app stores like: Getjar, AppBrain
you have got some good 10000+ installs. Congrats for that.
Your number of impressions is way too low (may be because you are not showing ads on the main screen). With 10000+ installs that is unbelievable unless those installs were fake and have been un-installed after boosting your app statistics. Since your impressions are less, CTR is also low. Target for at least 5000+ impressions per day and then think of ways to improve Ecpm.
Thanks guys, and thanks Vivian for the good links.
FYI, my app is not a game, so my users can definitely click on the ad as soon as it shows up.
I have set to 60s, we’ll see.
I was also wondering if any of you guys have particular settings/customization that proved successful with your admob account?
Hey, thanks for your insight, much appreciated, it makes sense. I do show ads on the main screen, and also on other screens. I definitely have 0 fake installs, as any developper I get spammed by these dodgy companies, but I stay away from them as I think Google could ban your app instantly.
I think I know where the gap is between installs and impressions: my app is available offline. It is something users tend to appreciate. But it can sure decrease ads impressions… Would you think it is a good idea to sacrifice offline mode to increase impressions?
I myself hate always online apps as I can’t just keep 3g connection on and use nothing which is providing value for that data charges. Do add always online mode in your app only if you can justify it.
Another way to help your fill rate improve is using cross promotion plus AdMobs or any monetization method you use. That way you get more promo and since you’ll become widely popular you’ll monetize more. Check out this site, it’s the one I use and it works really well Tappx - Cross-promotion platform for Apps - The App Marketing Platform, Tappx
The older and more popular the app, the lower eCPM I get. 
You could make the offline mode an IAP though.