Admob - High CTR with low ECPM

Hi guys,

I have a very big problem with admob. I currently have around 1.5% CTR but I only have max $0.14 ecpm. Is this normal? I know this is a new quarter, and this time the ecpm always lower but for me it didn’t decreased. The ecpm and the ctr is the same for months now.

Do you have any suggestion how to improve the ecpm?

Thanks for your help,
Marcell

Definitely not normal. With such CTR even I have $0.35 eCPM (and I always have low eCPMs on adMob).
Check what countries you have traffic from. Use adMob mediation or moPub to add more networks.

Hi, thank you for your answer. I’m currently using mopub with 4 networks, and the last is admob. Maybe that’s the problem?
I attached a picture of the geo stats of the last 30 days.

CPM with admob will typically be on the lower side. CPM for Asia and Tier 2 and 3 countries will be extra low. I am surprised to see such low CPM for America though…

Well, my eCPM for admob is similar, but I have 0,40 CTR or sth like that on most apps. :slight_smile:

These are very low especially given your CTR and I think you should contact Admob. I’ve used Admob on dozens of apps and never got a CTR even close as high as yours, yet my CPM is higher.

@marcell99, what is the app you have, do share link/name of app because it is very strange to get that kind of cpm from U.S. traffic.

@javaexp
My google play page is this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Marcell+Elek. They are not blockbuster games, but I think those numbers are low.
Yesterday I wrote to admob. Maybe they will solve the problem.

admob is not great for games. This forum has threads for suggestions on networks for games. One I remember is chartboost.

You mention you are using 4 ad networks via mopub mediation.

I wonder if the reason for the close-to-normal CTR and low eCPM is that your other ad networks are getting the best fruit - with only the low paying ads left for admob to serve ?

A reasonably high CTR and a below normal eCPM would suggest that payment per click is lower than should be …

If you have tiered your ad networks such that the other networks get first pick - and admob is the 4th - then the prime geolocations are going to go to the other networks - and admob will be filling in areas which are not covered by the other networks - these areas/geolocations may have exactly the CTR/eCPM characteristics that you report for admob (I don’t know).

So that is a possible source of the issue.

Also note that when you run multiple ad networks all together - there IS some cannibalistic impact as well. So just tacking on two different networks will not double the revenue - in fact some may argue that you wind up getting nearly the same or just slightly higher (because of the “novelty” of the 2 different ad networks etc.).

Try placing admob at the top of the tier (is your mopub mediation based on percentage allocations or a prioritization).

Your best judge of ad network performance would be to use a percentage allocation - so you get some idea how much each network will do if given an even playing field.
You could then consider going to a prioritized setup after you have a feel for how each ad network performs.

I don’t know if mopub mediation allows percentage allocation - but admob used to - so old mediation settings will still allow it - but it is “deprecated” and it seems not allowable for new mediation settings.

Thanks for all for replying. First: I’m using admob mostly for backfill, cause Mopub marketplace ecpm is 1.5$ and mmedia ecpm is 0.5$. I just wanted to know it’s normal or not. I also contacted admob, maybe something happens, if there is a problem with it, but as @adforandroidapps mentioned other networks will always steal the better positions.
Second: Is there somebody who knows a little about chartboost, 'cause I recently integrated into my apps, and I always get 0.00$ ecpm.

Re: Chartboost - they will only accept “games” - I don’t have direct experience but maybe eCPM $0.00 means that your app hasn’t been approved yet.

Admob for backfill WOULD suggest that it will only get opportunity to show ad for geolocations that no other ad network is touching - which would suggest unprofitable or low per click value of such ads - so maybe the reason. Try putting admob at top for a day and see.

Mopub marketplace - is that huge - i.e. does it provide good fillrate (which suggests it has good ad inventory for most places - like admob) - or do you get a low fillrate from them ?

Does changing refresh rate help - or does doubling the refresh rate (from 120 sec to 60 sec) essentially HALVES the fillrate also - result same number of impressions get delivered either way ? That is, for ad networks with low fillrate - does it help to refresh faster (i.e. 120 sec change that to 60 sec for banner ads for example) - does that help or no ?

What type of a fillrate are you getting for mmedia.com ?

You know you can get a high eCPM with admob also - if you use their Admob eCPM floor beta in the mediation - however that has a low fillrate - i.e. the higher you set the eCPM i.e. say $1.50 - you will get a fillrate of 10%-15% - compared to 100% you get with regular admob.

As a comparision - with AppBrain banner ads - you get about a $0.50 eCPM as well - and there is no fillrate issue - since AppBrain banner ads ALWAYS get delivered (I think they are generated on the fly by the SDK - since they are text banner ads just saying “More Apps”).

With my earlier tests of mmedia.com banner ads - I got nearly the same eCPMs as for admob (and I was using a percentage allocation then - so it was not tiered and thus was fair to both). Perhaps mmedia.com is giving better nowadays.

@adforandroidapps :

I can only say what I see, so if anybody else has better numbers than sorry.
So Mopub:

Mopub has very bad fill rate, maybe because a geo location of my users. It’s 10% for the last 14 days, but it has very good CTR and also ECPM.

Because most of my games have at least 3 activities, and always opening and closing, I can not say anything about a fillrate change over the refresh rate, because usually the activity is closed before the ad would refresh. But the game which has only 1 activity, where ad is shown, that has 25% fill rate but I don’t know if changing refresh time would change that. I think no, but who knows.

For mMedia, i get about 40% fill rate. I think my users are from wrong countries… For me mMedia is giving much much better ECPM and CTR than admob. After publishing one of my games I used only admob and gave me 0.20 ECPM. Nowadays that game with mmedia is making 0.5$ ECPM.

Conclusion: For me Mopub and mMedia are good. They have low fill rate, but they also have very good ecpm. So with admob at the end, I think I’m making more, than just with admob and 100% fill rate.

Try replacing admob with appbrain banner ads - their CTR will be better than admob - nearly 2% - and eCPM will be a respectable 0.50 eCPM - with a 100% fillrate.

Usually over-presenting appbrain however may not yield results - since it is a boring “More Apps” text banner - however if presented at 10% of the time or so it will generally give as much as it would get nearly as much as 100% or so (at least that is my impression).

So it would fit into filling the holes part - esp. if it gets a small amount of the traffic.

Here are instructions for admob mediation - don’t know how it would be for mopub (maybe they have a way already for that):

AppBrain AppLift SDK integration with Admob Mediation

But this does not address the issue of why admob is under-performing - even when you were giving it 100%.

A possible reason maybe the fast changing activities that you say happen in your app - that would screw with the refresh and presentation “opportunity” to the user etc.

Maybe consider the “fragment” stuff (I am not familiar with it) - or there maybe simpler ways - i.e. not change the activity but just replace views etc. - so the admob view remains the same. I think I saw a thread on stackoverflow or maybe here - related to how to keep admob linked to the application - instead of an activity or something like that …

I tried once only have 1 ad instead of 3 always getting new ads. It was a total disaster. My earnings were about 20% of the normal income. I’ll never do that again. I’ll give a try to appbrain. I’ve been using them for some years now, but only their exit ads.

Were there 3 ad networks complementary - i.e. slightly different (example - AppWall with one and push notification with another) - or are you talking only banner ads ?

I have lesser exposure than you - but I earlier saw that adding AppBrain helped - i.e. if you only give it 10% of traffic it gives better returns (rather than keep it all to yourself).
I tried mmedia.com - but gave identical eCPM (do they now have ability to filter by eCPM ?).

The situation you mention - i.e. different eCPMs and less than 100% fillrates for mopub and mmedia would suggest you would HAVE to use more than one networks (and in your special situation i.e. admob not delivering).

Perhaps you should investigate if there is a way to keep admob banner ad always using same banner even though other activities change - I recall there was a solution using the Application class or something.

But here is one I just found in a search:

android - Admob add within multiple activities - Stack Overflow

which includes a response from Google employee Eric Leichtenschlag.

However the solution they discuss would still refresh the ad.

Some of the solutions on stackoverflow like:
android - Admob on Multiple Activities? - Stack Overflow
android - How do I make Banners Ads (admob) Common for All My Activities - Stack Overflow

simply seem to be reusing the layouts and code - but actually the view is not reused or something …

But this is a weakness you will eventually have to remedy (given the frequency of switching between activities happens in your app).

I was using 1 adview on different activities instead of 3 and showing the same ad everywhere. This way, 3 different adviews and always changing the banner, and getting new and new ads:a more profitable for me at least. And because I’m using mopub I can’t reuse only admob. But thanks for the links. Somehow getting a lot of request, is getting more money, with better cpm than getting less request and a little bit higher ctr.

Unfortunatelly mMedia does not have a cpm limit as you asked.

Sorry if I wrote something stupid. I’ve just woke up from my nap and I haven’t been using english for a long time.