Ad monetization is a significant revenue source for app owners in many verticals, such as gaming and entertainment. App owners cash in ad revenue by displaying ads on rewarded videos, offer walls, interstitials, and banners.
AppsFlyer Ad Revenue attribution enables the combining of ad revenue, in-app purchases, and subscription revenue to determine total user LTV.
By matching the total user LTV with media cost data, you determine the actual campaign ROI enabling you to optimize marketing results.
This guide explains how to:
- Set up ad revenue attribution using different scenarios
- List of networks supporting ad revenue integration
- Examples
- Limitations
Recording revenue from a single monetizing network
To set up ad revenue attribution:
- In Appsflyer, go to Configuration > Integrated Partners.
The Integrated Partner window opens. - Select a partner. Tip: Select Active and Ad revenue to display your existing partners who have Ad revenue capabilities.
- Select the integrated partner.
The integrated partner's configuration window opens. - Select Ad Revenue tab.
- Enable Get Ad Revenue Data.
- Fill in the relevant API credentials. These are available from the integrated partner.
- Select the app trigger in-app event that represents the ad monetization trigger. Usually, this event is sent for each ad impression. For example, ad watched or watched video.
- Click Save Ad Revenue.
Note
When AppsFlyer queries the ad monetization network, the ad network returns revenue data as well. Therefore, when you define the ad view events in your app, don't send them with revenue.
If you send ad view events with revenue, it causes ad revenue to be duplicated in your AppsFlyer dashboard.
If Get Ad Revenue Data is enabled the following takes place daily:
- The ad monetization network is queried for the app's ad revenue per Geo during the previous day.
- The eRPA (Effective Revenue Per Action) is calculated by dividing the ad revenue with the number of instances of your chosen trigger event.
- For each instance of the trigger event, AppsFlyer creates a "_monetized" event, that includes the eRPA. For example, ad_watched_monetized.
- Ad revenue data is bundled with the in-app purchase revenue data in the aggregate data fields in the dashboard. It is not contained in raw data reports.
If you don’t want to generate a specific in-app event, you can use the af_app_opened event, which is triggered by each user session. Note: This event pertains to all users who launch the app and you have no indication of the user's willingness to watch ads. It's also applicable if you show your users exactly one ad each session.
Recording revenue from multiple monetizing networks
If you work with more than one ad network there are several methods to implement this as detailed here.
| Method | Pros | Cons | Bottom line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use the same event for all ad networks such as ad_watched for all ad revenue events. This automatically produces the ad_watched_monetized event with the monetization details. | Most simple to implement. | Can't tell the quality of different monetizing networks like the number of clicks and ad revenue each network brings. | If your main goal is finding which source/campaign gets users with more tendency to click on ads, but not to compare ad monetization networks performance, this option is sufficient. |
| Each network is allocated a unique event for ad watching, e.g. ad_watched_admob or ad_watched_vungle. | Full visibility and ability to compare the monetizing networks on the dashboard in addition to the raw data. | Ad revenue isn't accumulated under a single event. Could be as many events as the number of monetizing networks used. | Allows easy comparison of monetizing networks in the dashboard. The total summary of ad revenues is separated among different events. |
Recording revenue from mediation platforms
Mobile apps may use one or more ad monetization networks, either directly or by using a mediation platform. Examples: IronSource, Admob, DoubleClick (DFP).
If you implement the mediation platform's SDK in the app, this may cause duplicate reporting of revenue. To avoid duplicate reporting, use the flow chart that follows to identify the appropriate way to integrate monetizing networks and mediation platforms.
AppsFlyer requires these platforms to integrate with it to perform ad monetization recording. You can check if the ad monetization platform you use is integrated with AppsFlyer in the Supporting Networks tab.
Important!
Admob and Applovin can act as mediation platforms but in AppsFlyer they only report ad revenue that is generated via Admob or Applovin respectively.
AppsFlyer supports ad revenue attribution with the following partners:
| Integrated Partner | Company Logo | Credential Parameters |
|---|---|---|
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AdColony Details about AdColony |
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AppLovin Details about AppLovin |
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ChartBoost Details about Chartboost |
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DoubleClick Details about DoubleClick Ad Revenue integration. Now known as Google Ad Manager. |
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Facebook Audience Network Details about Facebook |
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Google (AdMob) Details about recording ad revenue with AdMob |
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ironSource Details about ironSource |
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Mintegral |
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Twitter (MoPub) Details about Twitter (MoPub) |
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Unity Ads Details about Unity Ads |
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Voodoo Ads |
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Vungle Details about Vungle |
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Viewing the data
The data for ad revenue attribution is displayed on the overview page under the Aggregated Performance Report table.
The Revenue column includes ad revenue, and any other revenue sources as well, e.g. revenue from in-app purchases.
Select to see the monetized events in the report to see the exact ad revenue per media source / campaign / ad set / ad level or even per specific countries.
You can also go to the Events page to see your monetized events data. There is an interesting piece of information on the last column, Average Actions per User, which show you the tendency of users from any source to engage with the ads your app presents to them.
Note that ad revenue data is also included in the Cohort and Activity Reports.
Lifetime value ad revenue data
In the Dashboard, Ad revenue data is LTV, meaning it includes events performed throughout the lifetime of users, who installed during the specified date range.
Ad revenue shows the quality of your users from different sources over time. As your users continue launching your app and engaging with ads, their LTV continues to increase. As such, the LTV of past users should be higher than the LTV of recently acquired users.
If you want to see your total ad revenue from all users during a specified date range go to the Activity page.
More about LTV vs. activity data.
Limitations
- Ad revenue includes revenue accumulated during the previous day, as AppsFlyer pulls the revenue the day following the actual revenue event. This means that ad revenue is typically displayed in the date following the actual ad display date.
- Although the original trigger event (e.g., ad_watched) is displayed, its parallel ad revenue event (e.g., ad_watched_monetized) is displayed on the day following the event.
- Ad revenue events are not available in Raw Data Reports
- Ad revenue events are not available through the in-app event postbacks and Push API.
- The Retargeting dashboard does not display ad revenue events.
- Agencies are not able to access ad monetization platform configuration
Ad revenue example
Click on the accordion below to see an Ad Revenue reporting example.
3 users installed the app on December 31, 2017.
User A was acquired through Network A, User B through Network B and User C installed the app organically. The app works with five different monetization platforms and sends a different in-app event per platform using the AppsFlyer SDK:
Facebook Audience Network: fb_ad_view
Chartboost: chartboost_ad_view
Admob: admob_ad_view
Applovin: applovin_ad_view
IronSource: is_ad_view
Over the course of four days after install, these users are shown ads from various monetization platforms as follows:
User A , Geo = US
|
Event |
Install - Network A |
fb_ad_view |
chartboost_ad_view |
admob_ad_view |
applovin_ad_view |
|
Date |
2017-12-31 |
2018-01-01 |
2018-01-02 |
2018-01-02 |
2018-04-01 |
User B , Geo = UK
|
Event |
Install - Network B |
fb_ad_view |
admob_ad_view |
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Date |
2017-12-31 |
2018-01-02 |
2018-01-04 |
User C , Geo = US
|
Event |
Install - Organic |
fb_ad_view |
is_ad_view |
|
Date |
2017-12-31 |
2018-01-01 |
2018-01-02 |
If we look at the data closely we can summarize the following revenue collected per day by geo and the generated in-app events. This gives the eventual revenue per event per geo which is then distributed to each user:
Collected Revenue: Generated EventsRevenue Per Event
FAN:
2018-01-01 , US , $2US , 2 in-app eventsUS, $1
2018-01-02, UK , $1UK, 1 in-app eventsUK, $1
Admob
2018-01-03, US , $1US, 1 in-app eventUS, $1
2018-04-01, UK, 1 in-app eventUK, $1
Chartboost
2018-01-02 , US, $1US, 1 in-app eventUS, $1
Applovin
2018-01-04, US , $1US, 1 in-app eventUS, $1
IronSource
2018-01-02, US , $1US, 1 in-app eventUS, $1
User A LTV:
|
Revenue |
$1 |
$1 |
$1 |
$1 |
|
Day |
1/1/2018 |
2/1/2018 |
3/1/2018 |
4/1/2018 |
User B LTV:
|
Revenue |
$0 |
$1 |
$0 |
$1 |
|
Day |
1/1/2018 |
2/1/2018 |
3/1/2018 |
4/1/2018 |
User C LTV:
|
Revenue |
$1 |
$1 |
$0 |
$0 |
|
Day |
1/1/2018 |
2/1/2018 |
3/1/2018 |
4/1/2018 |
Understanding the Reports:
As mentioned, ad revenue is tied to the user’s Lifetime Value. As a result, the time period you select in the dashboard represents the cohort of installs for which the revenue is aggregated up until the current time and day. Let’s examine the report from two different date selection and understand the reporting.
Aggregated Report - Date Selected: 2018-12-31, current day 2018-01-05
|
Network |
LTV Revenue |
|
Organic |
$2 |
|
Network A |
$4 |
|
Network B |
$2 |
In this case the cohort is the install date and the current day is 2018-01-05. All the revenue generated is been tied back to the acquiring source and represented under the user’s LTV.
How can I get the total ad revenue from each platform?
AppsFlyer's ad revenue attribution is linked and displayed in relation to the user acquisition source to provide the complete view of your LTV and ROI KPIs. Therefore, AppsFlyer's dashboard does not report the total revenue generated from each monetization platform. However, if you use a different event for each network you can follow the next simple steps to get the total ad revenue:
- Go to the app's overview page to the aggregated performance report table
- Select up to 4 "monetized" events to be displayed, from the platforms you want the data for
- Download the report by clicking the Export CSV button
- Sum up the Revenue column of the requested platform's monetized event
Note that this total ad revenue is LTV data, i.e. it's the entire revenue generated by a monetizing network for your app from users, who installed during the specified date range.
Is there ad revenue data in the activity page?
Yes!
The Activity page reports on the combined revenue from in-app purchases and ad revenue. Note: Since ad revenue data is sent to AppsFlyer on a daily basis, the day following the event, the Activity page's ad revenue data is assigned to the following day.
Example
On Monday midnight AppsFlyer gets a total ad revenue of $1000 for Monday for your gaming app - "Example App". While the AppsFlyer LTV data on the overview page shows the $1000 recorded for Monday, the activity page shows it for Tuesday (while its Monday data shows Sunday's ad revenue).
Do I need to activate the partner in the Integration tab?
- If you engage with the partner for ad monetization (ad revenue) only then don't enable the Activate Partner setting in the integration tab.
- Enable only the Get Ad Revenue data in the Ad Revenue tab.