Insane revenue/CTR drop AdMob

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
21

Admob: eCPM - $0.11, CTR = shitty always, due to bad text adverts
Millennial: eCPM - 0.12 CTR = 0.64%
Leadbolt: eCPM - $0.02 CTR = 1.1%
Jumptap: eCPM - $0.10 CTR = 0.5%
InnerActive: eCPM - $0.08 CTR = 0.3%

mind:

Yes, I am seeing the same drop in eCPM with Admob - from a high of $0.45 during Christmas/New Years holiday season to a steadily declining (nearly linearly) down to $0.2.

This prompted me to give banner inventory to Millennial Media (mmedia.com) - which I had earlier scaled back because it was earlier giving same eCPM as Admob so I chose to consolidate revenues in Admob.

However mmedia.com ALSO seems to have low i.e. $0.06 eCPM (!?) - or maybe it is just starting up since I had been giving it very few banner ad impressions last many weeks.

So it seems all ad networks giving low eCPM.

HOWEVER, there was another change I did that MAY have changed things - I had noted that my Admob mediation “auto-refresh” settings were set to auto and not 60 seconds etc. I had then set that to 60 seconds.

I had attributed that to maybe mistakenly having set that to auto during testing some time back (?) - however eCPMs were fine during Christmas/New Years - so that couldn’t be it (?).

But after setting it back to 60 seconds - I saw that Admob eCPMs jumped slightly.

Maybe you can check your Admob refresh rate (for each app) - maybe there is a possibility that some bug at Admob caused all users to have their settings set to auto for some reason (?). If not (i.e. your auto-refresh is set to 60 seconds etc.) then just ignore this suggestion.

mind:

Regarding other revenue for Word Hero - have you considered Leadbolt AppWall as interstitial full screen ad - or Leadbolt’s new dialog ads - that may suit as it shows the background and overlays a dialog box with Yes/No (I think - I haven’t tried it).

Another option is StartApp - per download revenue.
There may however be an issue with whether you need to cut out other revenue if users click - or offer a totally ad-free version.

AppBrain at end-of-app is the other option (either once every 3 days as they suggest or every time app exits).

In-app billing if you have access to Google Checkout in your country.

GetJar gold coin payments - or Sponsorpay.
I am in the process of evaluating GetJar - however the advantage of these methods are that they are “orthogonal” to the other revenue streams i.e. whoever pays this way will not be cutting into your other revenue - so it doesn’t hurt to include that.

And I am going to be implementing Leadbolt AppWall (as David and Magnesus say it outperforms AppBrain) - also my current interstitial Greystripe is very low paying.

In any case - the BENEFIT of these appwalls - is that you most-of-the-time get paid for installs - and this revenue will not be seasonal - i.e. while banner ads etc. ARE dependent on ad SUPPLY - with appwalls you generally get paid per install (for example for AppBrain it is $0.18 per install or so) and it all depends on USER-INTEREST in new apps.

If your app is a new app - with high churn (i.e. lots of new users try it) - then appwalls may also be suited - as new users tend to click all over the place - recurring users tend to tune out the ads.

22

Although I’m a fan of StartApp, I wouldn’t put it in a game like his unless he suspects it won’t grow anymore.

23

Right - StartApp limits the ability to charge more per app - since it only pays a certain maximum per app.

24

HOWEVER, there was another change I did that MAY have changed things - I had noted that my Admob mediation “auto-refresh” settings were set to auto and not 60 seconds etc. I had then set that to 60 seconds.

I had attributed that to maybe mistakenly having set that to auto during testing some time back (?) - however eCPMs were fine during Christmas/New Years - so that couldn’t be it (?).
But after setting it back to 60 seconds - I saw that Admob eCPMs jumped slightly.

Maybe you can check your Admob refresh rate (for each app) - maybe there is a possibility that some bug at Admob caused all users to have their settings set to auto for some reason (?). If not (i.e. your auto-refresh is set to 60 seconds etc.) then just ignore this suggestion.

I guess the refresh rate was not the only thing - Admob eCPM down generally - ranging from $0.16 to $3.

25

I noticed my refresh seyting was set to something like “set in client mode” instead of 60 seconds. Changed it back but I have not seen any difference in ecpm yet though.

26

ecpm is 0.19 today. Gaahh im getting so frustrated…

27

I had 0.18 yesterday. I’m shortening refresh rates all over the board now - maybe it will help with such poor text ads that are showing right now. I had mostly 60 refresh rate, right now I’m trying 45.

28

Are you using adsense ads as backfill? If you do you’re not allowed to have the refresh rate shorter than 60 seconds. Ill remove the adsense shit and try shorter refresh rate.

29

I had to turn adsense backfill off. I don’t think it adds much anyway these days.

30

Over the weekend the eCPM for Admob banner ads has been:

Date Revenue eCPM Requests Impressions Fill Rate Clicks CTR

2013/01/27 $2.88 $0.25 11,718 11,715 99.97% 71 0.61%
2013/01/26 $1.61 $0.15 10,668 10,660 99.93% 50 0.47%
2013/01/25 $1.82 $0.25 7,264 7,264 100.00% 45 0.62%

So eCPM varies but is below the earlier levels (prior to Christmas).

And this is for new installs/daily active users (DAU) from AppBrain stats:

2013/01/27 - 2213 - 4578
2013/01/26 - 2173 - 4285
2013/01/25 - 1825 - 3547

So about 50% of DAU are new installs, while 50% are recurring users.

Admob banner ads are getting 73% of the banners (AppBrain getting 23% and 2% for various other like millennial media).
So the above impressions are essentially 73% of what they could be (if I gave 100% banner allocation to Admob banner ads).

Comparing Admob banner revenue vs. AppBrain BANNER revenue

AppBrain has both banner (“More Apps”) and end-of-app interstitials (set to show every time OR set to show at the suggested once every 3 days - that’s up to you).

I am currently giving 73% banner allocation to Admob and 23% to AppBrain banner ads (2% to various others like millennial etc.).
The reason giving 23% (only) to AppBrain banner ads is that I have seen (though one can never be sure - was just a hunch) that giving too much allocation to AppBrain banner ads does not give the same returns (i.e. there is a limit perhaps to how many times you can show “More Apps” banner ad and have people respond - so gut feeling is that perhaps it’s value is in the novelty vs. the “usual” Admob banner ads - so show the AppBrain ones sparingly).

For comparison here is the AppBrain revenue (the banner ads are the ones mentioned above 23% of total) while the “non-banner” revenue is the revenue from the end-of-app “More Apps” interstitial (set to appear at the suggested once every 3 days per user).

2013 January 27 4,536 $1.43 $0.31 35 8 $1.17 $2.60
2013 January 26 4,496 $0.30 $0.06 39 6 $0.43 $0.73
2013 January 25 4,416 $0.98 $0.22 45 9 $1.71 $2.69

So you can see that the AppBrain revenue is comparable (i.e. same order of magnitude) as Admob banner revenue.

Just looking at ONLY the AppBrain BANNER revenue vs. the Admob banner revenue:
$1.43/2.88 = 0.49
$0.30/1.61 = 0.18
$0.98/1.82 = 0.53

So it varies all over the place - but is disproportionately higher than the 23% allocation I’ve given to AppBrain banner ads (vs. Admob’s 73%).

The question is then “if you increase AppBrain banner ad allocation to 100%” do you get MORE or is using a mix with AppBrain a smaller portion better".

One could run a test perhaps and see.

Affect of refresh rate

So refresh rate higher than 60 sec may be beneficial ?

What about all the theory about keeping a lower 120 sec refresh rate so one gets “the better quality ads” (because have higher CTR).

Is that even a concern - I’ve seen mention by folks that Google will give the ads to the higher CTR folks.
That makes sense - i.e. advertisers know that higher CTR is better for them - or that basically refresh rate is 120 sec (instead of 60 sec) so their ad is displayed longer.
So they are willing to pay more.

But are they willing to pay 2x more ?

That is, if developers forgo the 60 sec for more lazy banner ad refresh of 120 sec - do they earn AT LEAST the same back (well, one can easily run an experiment for this - perhaps run it on Tuesday so get 1-2 days of “similar” demographic - or maybe run it one whole week and then the other setting for one whole week).

Because the bottom line is - does the developer get more cash per day.

Is turning adsense off a separate option - or goes Admob webpage give the option if one tries to set to lower than 60 sec ?
I set refresh rate from 60 seconds to 120 seconds and then to 30 seconds - and there was no warning about adsense disable etc. ??

31

You have too few impression for your data to be meaningful in my opinion.

32

Maybe right there - esp. since it varies between the two apps which are quite similar in numbers.

However, I was looking for large differences i.e. 2x or half x etc. - and for that coarse analysis this data might be sufficient (i.e. to the degree that the data is stable on day to day level).

But I agree it is tough to compare (have to compare around similar days - and even that can be different because of other factors i.e. news or other things getting more attention that day).

33

0.13 eCPM today, seriously there’s got to be something wrong?
Edit: Now it’s 0.09… Will the ecpm be 0.0 in a week? probably!

34

$0.06 eCPM. Turning off AdSense was a mistake - I had to turn it on again today. Without adSense fill rate dropped to 93% while revenue dropped 40%. So most revenue today is from adSense, adMob on itself has $0.06 eCPM and abysmal CTR (0.24%) - unless there is some reporting problem. If it’s not a mistake all other ad networks will work better right now I think unless they are also in such crisis.

Edit: It seems that drop was not caused by turning adsense off.

35

Yeah mine is at a pathetic 0.05$ ecpm today. :slight_smile:

36

Despite having adsense on? The maybe the drop was not caused by me turning off adsense…

37

I think ive got adsense turned on.

38

Damn, I’m tired of AdMob.
Nowadays there are a lot of buzz about growth in mobile ads segment, but truth is seems like quite opposite.
eCPM drops month over the month, CPC mostly stay the same, but CTR falling due to low quality of ads, and AdMob “improvements” like double click.
Overall AdMob experience is terrible, can’t believe it’s Google company.

39

Well, I’ll personally be slowly moving away from ads into IAP (so it covers most of my revenue) I think (other banner networks seem to have similar crisis right now - judging by how it looked with web ads I think it might be a permament drop - not that drastic, but slow decrease is almost certain - too many devices and apps, too little advertise money). But it’s a slow process.

40

It coult be a bug, one or two month ago was the same, CTR was about 0,09 and the recover over 1,10%, i think we should wait two days and then send a message using contact form.