Best Traffic Sources: Unity Ads

Mobile share of traffic is going stronger and stronger against desktop, and the variety of offers and approaches for mobile ad campaigns is enormous. There are app stores, of course, like App Store by Apple or Android’s Google Play. And there is a whole new universe of marketing platforms like Unity Ads that provide more unexplored opportunities for marketers. Let’s dive in!

General info

Unity Ads is a platform that allows you as an affiliate or as a developer to promote and monetize mobile applications. Unity Ads is built on the Unity game engine and supports other engines like Adobe Air or Corona, as well as Android from 2.3 and iOS from 4.0.

The platform offers access to payment and analytics solutions and allows marketers and app developers to streamline the process in a way that attracts most users.

Ad formats

Banner ads

Go to Banner Ad Units or Placements in your dashboard to place banners that look like this.

Interstitial ads

Interstitials or display ads block the main content and take the whole screen. It is best to use Interstitials when there is a natural pause in the game and not to interrupt the player.

Rewarded ads

Rewarded ads give rewards inside the game to players who watch them. This incentive for players is good for monetization and yields a high quality of impressions. It also adds to the player experience and helps with user retention as they keep coming back for the bonus your ads provide. Here are some types of in-game rewards:

Extra lives — users can go on playing if they run out of lives, in exchange for watching an ad.

Double up — give users 30 minutes of double points or in-game tokens in exchange for watching an ad.

Competitive edge — give players a power-up or boost for a period of time in exchange for watching an ad.

Playable ads are mini-games that provide some entertainment aside from the main game. You can implement playable ads through Rewarded and Interstitial Ad Units.

Special shops are a place where players can buy unique items in exchange for watching an ad.

Mini games are a kind of entertaining content that players can access after they watch an ad.

Targeting

Unity Ads supports targeting by:

• country
• publisher
• OS version
• Internet connection
• Publisher blocking
• Device type (only for iOS)
• Screen size (only for Google)
• Screed density (only for Google)

In addition to traditional targeting options, Unity Ads has an advanced feature – Audience Pinpointer. This tool uses AI and machine learning to select those users who are most likely to enjoy the app you promote. Audience Pinpointer also supports dynamic bidding that allows to set different bids for more and less valuable users.

Auction and billing

Unity Ads has billing for completed views, clicks, or installs — these can be applied to the same ad. The main metric is eCPM (effective cost per mille). The average eCPM ranges from $6 to $12 USD. The minimum deposit is $1000.

The auction happens as follows:

1. You indicate a bid you are willing to pay for impressions.
2. An app owner requests an ad for their game.
3. You enter the real-time auction, and if you win, your ad may cover one or several steps:
   • Ad start (the player triggers an ad)
   • Completed view (the player watches an ad to the end)
   • Click (the player clicks the ad, leading to an external product link)
   • Install (the player clicks out to the external product page and installs the product)

Bidding options

Unified Auction is a bidding tool that works within Unity network and covers over 60+ sources through direct partnerships.

Unity Mediationᴮᴱᵀᴬ is a waterfall management tool that allows you to stay in-tune with ad networks, adapt faster by optimizing your campaigns, and analyze your key indicators easier. You can set different bids for various GEOs, ad networks, ad formats, etc.

In-app bidding is a real-time auction where ad networks that work with Unity compete for impressions.

Hybrid solution combines both waterfalls and traditional bidding. A network can participate in waterfalls or bidding, but not both at the same time.

Please refer to the support section of the platform for more detailed information about bidding formats at Unity Ads.

Conclusion

Unity Ads is not the most affordable tool for new affiliates, but it is a viable option for those marketers who have enough experience and want more than fighting with an app store support over another controversial point in the guidelines. The platform provides vast opportunities for app monetization, tracking, and data analysis. Since Unity as an ad platform is based on a well-known game engine, it has high trust among the audience. This is especially important since your profit as a marketer depends on user engagement.