Warning about using Chartboost with Corona

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#21

Hello everyone, I’m Carmine from the Chartboost Support Team.

Unfortunately, it appears that recent changes to our system have impacted ad serving for iOS games when using our Corona plugin. As Ingmar and Naomi have reported above, this doesn’t appear to affect projects integrated through XCode and our native iOS SDK (which Enterprise users have the option of using), nor are Android projects which integrate our plugin seeing these issues. We are still successfully serving ads in those cases.

Today we identified the root cause of this problem and are now working on a fix. We know that while this situation continues your games are being affected, so please stay tuned to this thread: we will post an update here as soon as we can report a solution.

~Carmine

#22

@Carmine

Thank you for your response.

When the fix is applied, will the reporting be adjusted retroactively to pick up the lost revenue during this “down-time”?

#23

@carmine what exactly are you fixing? The failure to show interstitials, including test banner, or the failure in reporting installs? Or both?

#24

@Carmine, thank you for posting where Chartboost is at with this issue.  I appreciate hearing you’re working on a fix.  I hope the fix will be made on your side of the system and no need for us to rebuild and redeploy our apps.

Thanks again.

Naomi

#25

Hello everyone,

We have just made live a fix for this on our backend, and our test apps are showing that ads are now being served to Corona iOS apps again.

@ingemar

Right now, we don’t have any plans to retroactively adjust the analytics.

Though there was an over reporting of impressions, clicks and installs appear to have still been accurately reporting activity driven by the More Apps page during this time.

@paolo.longato

This fix is aimed at getting interstitials showing in Corona iOS apps again, which should also fix the related issue where impressions were being mistakenly recorded even though none were being shown.

@Naomi

With this fix there should be no need for you to rebuild and redeploy your apps.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and we sincerely appreciate those of you who contacted us directly regarding this issue.

Please let us know at support@chartboost.com if you are continuing to see any issues.

~Carmine

#26

I’m starting to see clicks delivered on my iOS Corona apps again.

However I have a question regarding the down-time. You said:

I don’t use the More Apps page, only Interstitials.

Are the numbers for the “Installs” and “Money Earned” accurate during the down-time? 

#27

I can now see interstitials. Pity it was too late for my Christmas app submission.

#28

It’s good to hear you guys are seeing interstitials again, let us know if you’re seeing any issues related, or unrelated!

Yes, those numbers are accurate. The only records that were inaccurate for Corona iOS apps using our plugin during the affected period is the impressions delivered, which reported impressions even though none were really being shown.

#29

My ad-logic falls back to RevMob if Chartboost isn’t available, and I saw a boost in RevMob revenue during this down-time.

So it looks like the fall-back worked even though Chartboost reported impressions.

I can re-confirm that analytics is reporting normally like before the down-time.

#30

Ugh, bad news.  Thank you so much for alerting us.

BTW, the issue appears to be with iOS version only.  It stopped generating revenue since Nov. 21st (as reported on the other thread.)  However, I’m still seeing revenue from Android (Google Play) version.

Naomi

#31

Bump as this needs to be seen!

#32

@naomi.

It doesn’t affect native Xcode projects either. I’m still seeing revenue from those. It’s only Corona based apps that are affected for me.

#33

It is a huge problem. I see installs though I only miss interstitials altogether while the more apps wall works fine. But revenues went to a trickle. His is a major issue. Also vungle seems to miss lots of impressions when I compare dashboards. I got chartboost to run my campaigns on native iOS and they work, so it is a corona issue we concluded. @ingemar, is it possible to come up with our own objective C plugin? Maybe that will fix issues? Maybe I am being naive…

#34

As an Enterprise user I *should* be able to create a Corona plugin that interfaces Chartboost’s native iOS / Android SDK. However even if I would do that, only Enterprise users would be able to use it until a Corona plugin marketplace is in place.

#35

There more apps wall never worked properly for me - the close button would go to the app store for the app table entry that appeared under the close button.

I mentioned in a previous thread that Chartboost going open source was ominous and the revenue (for me anyways) was shocking. They also never replied to my emails about their poor eCPM. Goodbye Chartfall. :stuck_out_tongue:

RevMob currently $1.80 eCPM.

#36

@mas1. It is not only an issue of ecpm but averall profitability. I can have low eCPM but being able via a flexible sdk to squeeze ads everywhere and generate volumes. Video ads cannot do that for example. So we really need many reliable SDKs and even revmob I understand is LUA. @ingemar, I have a project that needs some proper ad network integration. Will send you a private message later today, probably when you are sleeping already, and see what we can do.

#37

Thanks Ingemar. Yes that is a BAD news! I was in vacation and I can see now that the full screen ads have no installs since 11/20/2013. More games seems to still work fine for me. Actually the bulk of my revenues was from “more games” anyway. I guess I will turn off the fullscreens ads and leave more games on. This will send the requests to Revmob. The main ad network I am using is PlayHaven (first in line for ads) and so far I am very pleased (eCPM ~ $10)

Thanks again for letting us know so we do not waste our customers time with ads that do not bring any revenues!

Mo

#38

@mo, thanks for confirming that it is the more apps that works. I have submitted an app yesterday and, for lack of time, replaced chartboost interstitials with more apps walls. Not ideal but I met my deadline. Will give it a try with play heaven vs Vungle. But the point remains, we all have different experiences because we have different games and different clients. You really need a variety of networks to reliably work, so I do not see any other way than native plugins, the more the merrier.

#39

NP. Yes you are right, different apps make comparing networks much harder. I had Vungle but given the very small impressions I get from my single app, it was not a good fit. I think video ads maybe better when specifically requested by the user (ie: you can give them x coins for watching) In any event, yes I will suggest you try Playhaven. Good luck!

Mo

#40

I have  a feeling that Chartboost made some ad-server side changes that caused the iOS version of Corona SDK built app with Chartboost interstitials to become incompatible.  My app was generating revenue via Chartboost after I deployed it, and then suddenly it stopped working.  I made no changes to my app before/after this sudden stop…  Ugh.  If Chartboost isn’t supporting the code they released, it means we’d have to anticipate more things breaking down the road.

Naomi