[Q] How does impressions and clicks work on mobile app ads?

Hello everyone. I have a question about mobile application ads.

I have a local social networking kind of app that has banner ads on every page, and a interstitial (full screen) ad that shows up when you first open the app. Say I have 1000 unique users daily, and every user sees the interstitial ad + at least 3 banner ads.

  1. Can an estimation be made on the revenue per day based on that data?

  2. Do I get paid for every impression on every single page? Say 1 user opens the app, sees the interstitial ad, then opens 3 pages. Does it mean that I get 1+3 impressions for that user?

  3. Same question for clicks. Say 1 user clicks an ad, then closes the pop up (or whatever the ad opens up) and then clicks it again. Does it count as 2 clicks? Or say the same user clicks on an ad, closes it, changes the page and clicks on another ad on a different page. What’s the logic behind it?

Would super appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

PS: I have searched various forums for the answer, got few ideas but since I’m not experienced on any kind of ad related stuff, I felt like a dummy. I definitely need an in-depth help that focuses on my certain situation, not a general answer, if possible of course.

Hi,

There are too many questions here to answer, but for me it feels like you are walking in the wrong direction.

Some networks pay for impressions, but most will pay you for clicks or installs.
A click is always counted as 1 click. if someone clicks twice on the ad, it will be counted twice.

What you need to do is to start testing a few networks, and see what’s generating the highest amount of revenue. Interstitial in app launch is a very good option, and most networks here (Appnext is one of them) can offer you a great tool to implement there.

Hello onurcevik,

Let me try to answer your questions one by one.

  1. If I understood your figures correctly, it would mean that you would generate every day 1000 views on the interstitial ad format and 3000 of the banner ad format.
    Top developers on AdBuddiz can generate a CPM (Revenues for 1000 ad impressions) up to $10.
    We don’t do banner ads but based on the feedback of our publishers, the average is around $0.20.
    So based on these figures and if we consider that your traffic is high quality and converts well, it would mean that you would make $10.60 a day.
    You need to keep in mind that these figures can vary a lot from one publisher to another, depending on the quality of its traffic, the countries of the users, etc
    If your traffic is coming from the US, it will generate more revenues than if it is coming from India for instance. Advertisers are indeed willing to pay more for US than for Indian traffic.

  2. Most of the mobile ad networks will only pay you when your users generate an install for their advertisers.
    At AdBuddiz, we have worked hard to offer campaigns that pay per impression in parallel to the ones that that pay per install.
    By taking the best out of the two worlds, we manage to maximize the revenues of our publishers.
    What’s great with the campaigns that pay per impression is that you get paid no matter if your users don’t interact with your ads. You show an ad, and you are paid :slight_smile:

  3. If you use a Pay per Click solution, they should count the number of clicks your users generated and pay you for each of them.
    But be careful, if you generate fake clicks (by deliberately misleading the users to click on the ads), the solution you are using will probably see it and you’ll be in trouble.
    So I would definitely not recommend that.

I hope I answered your questions :slight_smile:

Thank you for your reply.

The thing is, in my project, there is an outflow of money too, so I’m not going in for just revenue expectations. I need to have enough revenue to run the application, so that I can both give money, and still earn some. Therefore, I need a rough estimation from few experienced perspectives. Testing the revenues for few months is not an option to me, since I’d be giving out money just to test.

Thank you for your reply.

I consumed all the information you have given, and I’ll keep your company in my mind when it comes to that point.

I just have one question:

When I add some note inside the “Donate” page which says something like “If you want to help but can’t afford, click the interstitial ad once in a while”, does it count as “misleading the users”? I’m basically asking for a favor in return to what I’m offering for free. It’s not like a deceive them into clicking an ad.

you get paid per click not impression, with 1k daily USA users you will make $20/day on ads without pissing them off, if you crank up the ad machine you can make more but your DAU will stop dropping.

Thank you for your reply.

As far as I know, you can earn money by impressions, starting from 1$ per thousand impressions. There are bunch of services that offer this. Correct me if I’m wrong please.

Yes, that $1 is called eCPM, it varies greatly depending on location of your users.

I am not sure about the CPM model, seems complicated. do you want to try the easier CPI model, that is, you get pay for every new install. you can try cooperating with us incentmobi, an ad network. Integrate our sdk ,we pay you $40 to $60 for every 1000 new installs.

By doing this you are incentivizing your users to click on the ad.
This is forbidden because your users don’t click on the ads because they are interested in it.

Okay, I’ve read Google AdSense policy to get a grip of the situation. Yet, I have one question left: what if I don’t encourage ad clicks in app, but do it on my Facebook page, for example? I don’t feel like doing this through some outer source is against the policy. They can’t ban me because of what I said on my Facebook page, it is considered irrelevant. (Assuming I don’t have a verified company account on FB)

Thank you for your reply.

How does CPI work? Is it like those ads where it asks for you to install an app? And publisher gets paid by every advertised app installs?

I wouldn’t do that.
Ad networks usually have robots that analyze the behavior of your users.
If an abnormal pattern is tracked, you get in trouble.

But again, I can’t speak for another ad company.
I encourage you to contact them directly if you have specific questions.

no, it’s that you integrate our sdk with your app, then we pay you for your every new users who install your app

Oh, okay. That’s cool. How much do you pay per app install?

Actually, I wasn’t talking about a certain ad company. I felt like in general, there is no reason that it should be forbidden to ask for donations through my Facebook page, blog etc. I mean, can it even be used as evidence to ban? That’s my point. Have you experienced such thing in your company, for example?

we pay $40-$60 for per 1000 new installs weekly without tax.

Most advertisers buy traffic that is not rewarded. It means they want users who are interested in their products, and not people who interact with the ads because it is going to generate money for you.
Therefore, the model you describe falls into the category of reward traffic.

If I were you, I would propose reward video ads (we propose such service at AdBuddiz).
You will be able to give virtual currency to your users when/if they watch a video.
This is perfectly accepted by advertisers and it generated very nice revenues for our publishers.

I hope I answered your question.

Oh, great. Now is the perfect time to ask this question:

In my app, I’m planning to integrate a system where when a user shares a note, they get points. And they can check those points out to get gift cards and stuff. So say, 1 note share is 100 points. 10,000 points equals to a 10$ gift card.
So, according to what you said, I can give points to users for watching video ads. Say, I get 20 cents per video ad. If I give 100 points (which equals to 10 cents) to a user for watching that video, I make 10 cents of revenue per video. I’m correct up to this point?
One more: I’m assuming that those video ads are gonna be like a “button” or such, where it says something like “Watch a video to get 100 points”. Right? Is there a limit per user per day?

P.S: I know these questions are not too specific. Don’t hesitate to answer based on your company’s methods.

Actually, you will not be paid a fixed price per video view.
You will be paid based on the installs that are generated for our advertised apps after your users watch the video.
Since a lot of the users who view video ads are installing the app that has been advertised in the video, the revenues are quite good.
You can start proposing 100 points for one video view, see the kind of revenues you get with these views and adapt accordingly afterwards.
The number of times a user can see the same video is capped obviously. But we have a lot of campaigns running so you shouldn’t worry :wink:

If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can also limit the number of points a user can earn every day through the video ads.