AdMob mediation for iOS

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#1

I’ve been successfully using AdMob mediation for Android apps for several years, but it doesn’t seem to be implemented for iOS. AdMob documentation only mentions mediation for Android. Has anyone managed to get AdMob mediation working on iOS?

#2

As far as I know, it is not supported.

For iOS ad mediation, most people use either AppLovinMAX, IronSource or Appodeal. (I use AppLovinMAX and find it straight-forward to use and gives a significantly higher eCPM for iOS than AdMob does.)

#3

Given its focus on bidding, AppLovinMAX truly seems like the best solution in this case. Even though it doesn’t have adapters for all the ad networks I typically use, it’s still definitely better than AdMob without mediation. Thank you!

#4

Who do you usually use?

I run seven adapters all told, but AppLovin Bidding, Unity and AdMob make up the lion’s share of my ad revenue- everyone else is an also-ran. (Facebook brings in good money, but only on Android- most of my iOS users tap “Ask app not to track”, so I get practically no FAN ads there.)

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#5

I don’t have statistics for iOS, but AdMob mediation with six additional adapters yielded the following revenue breakdown:
44% - AdMob,
15% - Unity,
15% - Meta,
14% - LiftOff,
7% - AppLovin,
3% - InMobi,
2% - Yandex.
As you can see above, AppLovin’s share is insignificant (compared to the points above).
For AppLovinMAX, the only missing adapter is the Yandex one, but it was also missing for AdMob, so I used it in waterfall mode.

#6

I’ve got two different AppLovin sources in MAX- “Bidding” and “Exchange”. Exchange is pretty weak, but Bidding has about double the eCPM as AdMob and is a few dollars higher than Unity. Could be that Bidding only shows up if you’re using MAX. (No idea, really- just a wild guess.)

I use pretty much the same bidding network as you- no Yandex but Chartboost and IronSource thrown into the mix.

#7

IronSource has prevented me from registering my apps to the account twice and Chartboost does not support AdMob bidding.

I’ll try replacing AdMob mediation with AppLovinMAX on Android and will try to write a report here by the end of this year on whether I’ve managed to improve my monetization efficiency.

#8

As I promised earlier, I’m sharing the results of switching to AppLovin MAX mediation.

The need to switch from AdMob mediation was driven by the following factors:

  1. AppLovin MAX mediation was expected to yield higher eCPM;

  2. AdMob doesn’t serve ads in Russia, which accounts for 13% of revenue from 4% of ad impressions. To generate revenue from Russia, I had to use a separate direct integration with Unity Ads, which was activated whenever AdMob encountered any issues.

  3. Currently, the AdMob implementation in Solar2D doesn’t support mediation for the iOS operating system. AdMob itself offers a fairly low eCPM for iOS ad impressions, even lower than for Android. In my case, the eCPM was approximately $2.84.

I deliberately waited a long period of time before publishing this data, as it was necessary to wait for the app to be updated by a larger number of users, wait for the behavior of the ad networks in the mediation list to stabilize, and accumulate a sufficient amount of statistics.

Switching to AppLovin MAX resulted in the following benefits:

  1. eCPM increased significantly: by 22% (~1/5) for Android and by 451% (5.5 times) for iOS. Even assuming the eCPM for iOS decreases over time, it will still be significantly higher than AdMob. Currently, the eCPM for iOS is $15.66.

  2. There’s no longer any point in maintaining a direct integration with Unity Ads as a backup, as AppLovin MAX serves ads in Russia.

  3. AppLovin MAX’s API initialization is instant, unlike the sluggish AdMob.

  4. The Yandex Ads adapter is no longer necessary, as this ad network can serve its ads through AppLovin Exchange. I use Yandex Ads as a placeholder if other ad networks aren’t ready to serve ads to a given client. This doesn’t break the game logic when rewarded ads need to be shown and ad networks can’t provide them. Moreover, Yandex Ads’ eCPM is very low, making it unsuitable as a monetization source.

Some specifics of using AppLovin MAX mediation:

  1. Meta Audience Network barely works on iOS. It’s quite possible not to receive a single impression from this network for a week.

  2. Liftoff Bidding is the clear leader in eCPM and revenue, with a 2x lead over its closest competitor for iOS. On Android, almost all ad networks are used equally in terms of impressions; there’s no clear leader.

  3. In my case, one app is available in both the App Store and Google Play. Ad impressions on iOS account for only 10% of the total, but these impressions account for 26% of total revenue.

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