You can review data for impression-level ad revenue. This data can help you:
- Evaluate and optimize user acquisition (UA), learn how to set UA budgets effectively, retarget users or acquire similar users, and evaluate and optimize monetization.
- Check the average CPM for more accurate user lifetime value (LTV) calculations.
- Conduct business intelligence analysis.
How it works
After showing an ad, Ad Manager sends back an estimated, publisher provided, or precise value (dependent on winning ad type) for the impression. You can use this data in your internal systems or other third-party tools to better understand your users’ activities.
The Google Mobile Ads SDK will provide a new API to listen for these pingbacks. Once a pingback is received, the publisher’s custom code will be executed. The custom code can then forward data to your analytics tools. Here’s an overview:
- Impression-level ad revenue pings go directly to the SDK.
- The pings can then be captured by a publisher-implemented listener function.
- Publishers can then forward the data to their business intelligence (BI) tools.
Note that USD is always used as the currency for impression-level ad revenue.
About the levels of precision for ad values
The following table explains the available levels of precision:
| Level of precision | What it means |
|---|---|
| Precise |
The precise value paid for the ad. This level is only available for Ad Exchange, bidding ad sources, and programmatic transactions. If Ad Manager is unable to provide a precise value for the bidding ad source, the precision will be estimated. Note: We expect discrepancies between the estimated ad revenues and the actual values to be within a 10% range. |
| Estimated |
An ad value estimated from aggregated data. If you’ve entered the ad source credentials for your third-party ad sources in waterfall mediation, Ad Manager uses an average based on historical data to approximate the value. Note: We expect discrepancies between the estimated ad revenues and the actual values to be within a 10% range. |
| Publisher provided | The publisher-provided ad value is the manual CPM entered for your standard, sponsorship, and remnant line items and waterfall ad source instance in a mediation group. If you haven’t entered the ad source’s credentials or ad unit mapping information, or Ad Manager is unable to collect enough data to estimate the ad value for the third-party ad source, it will use the manual eCPM you’ve entered. |
| Unknown |
Unknown is used when there are no sources of data available for Ad Manager to calculate a revenue value. This occurs for bidding ad sources for which Ad Manager provides an estimated revenue value, if there is not enough data to calculate it. |
Get started
To use impression-level ad revenue, complete the following steps:
- Make sure you’re using the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version:
- Turn on impression-level ad revenue in your Ad Manager account:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin
Global settings.
- Under “Network settings,” scroll down to “Video and mobile settings.”
- Next to “Impression level ad revenue,” turn the switch On
.
- Click Save.
- Implement the paid event handler in your app. Use the instructions for Android, iOS, or Unity.
FAQ
How should I use impression-level ad revenue data?
Why do I see a discrepancy in the data?
- Floor changes and eCPM fluctuations: Since values with estimated precision are calculated using an average based on historical data, ad unit floor changes or other CPM fluctuations can cause overestimation or underestimation.
- New ad source instances: If optimization is enabled, Ad Manager may take up to 5 days to generate data for a new ad source instance. In the meantime, publisher-provided precision will be used.
Why am I seeing ad_value = $0?
