Hey guys!
I’m almost done making my game and I had a few questions, if anyone here can answer them.
I plan to publish my app to IOS and Android, and I have purchased a license to do so. However, I plan to make the game free, and hence to generate revenue want to implement in app advertising.
I have looked at CPC deals such as Admob and I think it’s a raw deal. However, a CPM of even 0.03+ is a lot more promising. I do have the following questions-
Do I need to have a company to use CPM’s? Does anybody know any ad service which lets you do so without you having to be a part of a company?
I understand that different apps have different CPM’s according to their active users etc. For example, a game with many users making many impressions has a CPM of 1$ + at times, whereas the lower ones have less than even 0.02$ . My question is, if the number of people using my app increases, will my CPM as well? Or will it be static?
Do I need to have had published my app to add CPM’s? I understand that some companies only put ads in your app if you have 25k+ users and what not. Or are there companies that directly let you publish the game with the CPM ads? If so, which ones?
4)Also, do I need to be part of a company to put my apps on the stores? Or can I do them as an indie developer?
Can I change my ad service after a while? For example switch from Admob to Native X after a week, etc?
You may have inferred that I have yet to publish my app and that I am without a company. On this basis, does anybody know the best ad company suited for me? If anyone can make any suggestions please let me know I’d love to hear them . ANY suggestions/comments etc are welcome. If anyone can tell me the best plan for this, like start out with this company then move to this etc, that would be amazing.
Cheers!
Vb
So many questions and assumptions. You have a lot to learn, whih is fine, of course. Hope I can help.
Let’s start with the basics:
CPM - cost per 1,000 impressions. This represents a figure which is more relevant to ad network. Some of them sometimes sell ads based on impressions (on CPM basis).
eCPM - this is what you should be focused at. eCPM is the effective revenue, in reality, that you, the developer, makes for every 1,000 impressions of ads in your app.
each app makes different eCPM according to users, ad location, ad type, user GEO and many more factors.
Active users are good for you. The more your users engage with your app, the more ads they’ll see. But it doesn’t mean that your eCPM will be higher. I means you will have more ad impressions.
You don’t have to be incorporated in a company to generate revenue. Most of the developers here are indie.
You can change service any time you want. In fact, you should work with a 2-3 network from the beginning. I recommend appnext (we have the best support, and as you are a beginner, looks like you’ll need it), but then again - I work at appnext. There are others that do a good job as well.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg…start from here.
Hey Jonathan!
Thanks for your reply. It does seem to be making a bit more sense to me. I do have a few more questions if you or anyone else can answer them
1)Who determines the eCPM of an app and at what point is this decided? You mentioned that it depends on locations, ad locations etc. So will this means that the eCPM is different according to where the users are, or if it is one fixed eCPM that is based on the location of majority of the users.
2)Since it depends on the ad location, I assume that the company or ad service will increase the eCPM if there are more active users in the location that their ads take place in?
3)Is it possible to use one company’s ads for users in my country and another company’s for another country?
4) If I use multiple ad services, does this mean there will be multiple banners? I merely ask as this would throw people off the game itself.
5) Does the developer’s(i.e, mine) location effect the eCPM? For example if I stay outside the states but most of my users are in the states, will that mean I’ll still get paid in non-US terms?
I apologize if the questions are stupid but I am very new to this. I can code and make the game, but in this I’m really flying blind. I appreciate your help a lot. Thank you.
Cheers
VB
eCPM, simply put, is the amount of money you’ve made from 1,000 impressions of ads in your app.
Let’s say you had 8,000 ad impressions, 154 clicks and 3 installs. The total revenue youe made is $5.
eCPM is - (Revenue/ad impressions)*1,000.
In your case, it’s ($5/8,000 impressions)*1000 = $0.625
Increasing the eCPM is one of the main challenges for any ad network. The more revenue you make for less impressions - the higher your eCPM gets.
It’s definitely possible to sagment ad network to speicifc countreis, app events, run them together (one after another), in paralel (50%/50%).
Your own location has no effect on the revenues. Only the location of your users. Advertisers are willing to pay more for impressions/clicks/installs from western countries, so if you have a lot of users from the U.S, for example, chances are your eCPM will be higher than someone with many users from Afirca.
Hey Jonathon
That answers almost all my doubts. Are there any networks that offer a 0.05$+ start up eCPM? I know there is no fixed amount and it depends on all the stated factors, but any companies that average around that much for a banner? The higher the better, obviously.
Thanks a lot for your help. You’ve really helped out a lot.
Cheers
vb
My suggestion (which you have no obligation to listen to) - even if there are network that offer these rates, don’t go there. Instead, take a pic from few networks that are recommended in this forum and test them out: Appnext, admob, startapp, mobile core. Then compare and decide. You will have to work hard, but in the long run, it will be worth it.
I agree with jonathan. Even better, you don’t have to limit yourself to 1 ad network and release your game again every time you want to switch. Instead you can use a mediation solution like AdBoost, which lets you work with a few ad networks and lets you manage the networks usage remotely / automatically (I work at the company that makes AdBoost. Feel free to ask me for details).
It’s really simple. AdBoost allows you to integrate ~15 different ad networks, with a single common interface. When your app requests an ad from an ad network, if the network doesn’t supply an ad, it tries the next one and then the next one etc. This makes sure that you always get 100% fill rate.
It also optimizes the ad targeting and does various optimizations based on location, user types, time (using the ad network that gives the best results per country, etc.), and this increases your eCPM.
You can control the ad network settings and order from the dashboard.
To use it you need to register on the dashboard, and follow instructions. You also need to download and integrate the SDK, you can download it here.
I would agree with Jonathan about testing, as revenues vary depending on the traffic of each publisher.
I would also suggest giving AdBuddiz a try, we focus on premium full screen ads for Android and iOS.
We work on CPI basis and have developers earning very high CPMs.
Also, if you would like to send me a link to your game, we can test it for Giftiz which features the best games on Google Play. If our review team is convinced of the game quality, we could feature it and you would get thousands of new installs for free
You can contact me on clara@adbuddiz or on Skype: adbuddiz for more information.
Welcome to MMWA! Jonathan pointed out the basics which is a great place to start. One thing I would suggest is looking into mediation instead of focusing on one ad network. If you have international users odds are no single ad network will provide you with fill rate and revenue you’re looking for. With mediation you’re able to use multiple ad networks at once to ensure your global fill rate and revenue is as high as can be. You can control all your ad sources with 1 single SDK and UI.
Additionally, you can try utilizing video ads to give your revenue a huge boost. Currently our publishers are seeing CPMs north of $8 with our video interstitial unit.
check out our mediation platform and see if its a good fit for you and your apps. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any questions.
