Bids#

Unity Ads is a bidding platform. The exposure of your ad campaign depends on its eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions), which is determined by the CVR (video conversion rate from impression to install) and CPI (cost per install) of your campaign. The higher your campaign’s eCPM, the more exposure it receives.

Unity Advertise provides a variety of bidding strategies to match your campaign goals:

• Cost per install (CPI) and cost per impression (CPM) bidding optimizes for users who are likely to install your game.
• Retention bidding optimizes for users who are likely to stay in your game for seven or more days.
• ROAS bidding optimizes for users who are likely to spend money in your game.

Optimize for installs#

Install campaigns optimize bids for players that are likely to install your app.

CPI versus tCPI bidding for install campaigns#

While the goal of install campaigns is always to net the most app installs possible, Android and iOS install campaigns use different bidding models because they follow different billing models.

Android CPI bids#

Android campaigns use cost per install, or CPI billing. CPI is a pricing model that bills advertisers the specified bid price each time an install is attributed to their campaign. As such, the advertiser pays the exact bid price when an attributed install occurs.

iOS tCPI bids#

iOS campaigns use cost per impression, or CPM billing. CPM is a pricing model that bills advertisers based on the number of impressions their campaign receives. As such, iOS campaigns use target cost per install, or tCPI bidding. The advertiser sets the desired amount to pay per install, which Unity optimizes towards based on eCPMs and creative performance.

Unity’s tCPI model differs slightly from traditional industry CPM models. In a traditional industry CPM campaign, you pay a predefined amount per thousand impressions (cost per mille, or CPM) that your ad receives. In this model, you serve ads to anyone matching your campaign’s targeting criteria, and you pay the same amount for each impression.

Unity serves ads to users who are most likely to install your app. You pay a dynamic price depending on the potential value of the player. The price is tied to the probability that the impression will convert to an install. Using this model, Unity targets impressions that are likely to translate to your target CPI.

Bid strategies for install campaigns#

Choose one of two bidding strategies for install campaigns:

• Manual: set a static CPI bid per country you want your campaign to use throughout the day.
• Automated: set a maximum CPI bid per country, where the actual bids can be anywhere between zero and the maximum.

Manual bids#

Use a manual bidding strategy to set a static CPI bid that you want to pay per install throughout the day. The system tries to optimize the bids to achieve an average CPI. This means that sometimes the CPI can be higher or lower than the bid amount.

Automated bids#

Automated CPI bidding automatically manages and spends your daily budget. This strategy maximizes installs for budget-constrained campaigns and optimizes budget usage throughout the day.

Instead of always using the maximum specified CPI bid, automated bidding controls spending and optimizes budget usage by focusing on opportunities with a high predicted value. Automated campaigns bid dynamically by discounting the maximum bid according to a machine learning algorithm. If the maximum CPI bid is restrictive enough that the campaign cannot spend its daily budget, thereby limiting campaign delivery, then Unity does not discount the bid and the automated campaign effectively uses a manual, static CPI bidding strategy.

For example, assume the following:

• Your campaign wins an impression if it bids $0.01 or more.
• Your campaign has a daily budget of $1.
• Your campaign has a CPI bid of $1.
• Your campaign observes 300 opportunities throughout the day.
• The first 100 opportunities have a predicted conversion rate of 1%.
• The next 200 opportunities have a predicted conversion rate of 2%.

With a CPI bid of $1, the example campaign would be expected to run out of money after the first 100 impressions, because a 1% conversion rate would yield one install. If you instead lower the bid by a fixed 50% and bid $0.50, the example campaign would lose the first 100 opportunities but win the latter 200 opportunities and yield 2 installs for the same cost.

To use the Automated Bidding strategy, add the maximum bids for each country you target with the campaign and the system will automatically optimize delivery against your max bids. Use this strategy to control the maximum that you are willing to pay per install, knowing that the actual price will be somewhere between zero and the max bid. It’s recommended best practice to set relatively high maximum bids even with small budgets. Automated Bidding dynamically discounts the actual bids to help you win impressions and meet your campaign goals.

Automated Bidding requires a daily cap. We recommend that you use the following parameters:

Automated bids and source bidding#

You can add source bids to campaigns that use Automated Bidding. The Automated Bidding algorithm treats each source bid as a maximum bid, which means that the actual discounted bid can fluctuate between zero and the source bid amount.

Automated Bidding and bulk campaign management#

You can create and manage campaigns with Automated Bidding by using the Unity Advertising Management API. For more information about the REST APIs that Unity provides and how to start using them, refer to the Unity Advertising Management API documentation.

You cannot use spreadsheets to create a new campaign that uses Automated Bidding, but you can export, import, and modify existing Automated Bidding campaigns using bulk campaign management with spreadsheets. Automated Bidding campaigns support the Bids and Source Bids .xlxs exports.

Note that when you use this process, you cannot edit some fields for these campaigns, or they might behave differently:

• You cannot change the campaign goal.
• Admin users cannot change the billing type.
• When duplicating a row for a campaign with Automated Bidding, the new campaign will have manual bidding instead.

Optimize for retention#

A retention campaign goal targets users who are likely to remain in your app for at least seven days after installation. With this type of campaign strategy, the Audience Pinpointer feature uses dynamic pricing based on your base bid price and a user’s expected retention rate so you pay the best price across an entire user base.

For more information on retention campaigns, refer to the Audience Pinpointer documentation.

Optimize for revenue#

A return on ad spend (ROAS) campaign goal targets users who are predicted to generate revenue through in-app purchases or by watching ads. This type of campaign strategy uses dynamic bids to acquire users at the best price. A ROAS campaign goal includes two optimization types: in-app purchases (IAP) and ad revenue.

Whether you specify an ad revenue or in-app purchase optimization type, revenue-based campaigns can help you to achieve your return on ad spend (ROAS) campaign goals.

Another way to describe this campaign strategy is the revenue a player generates in their first seven days playing your game, divided by the cost to acquire that player.

For more information on ROAS campaigns, refer to the documentation on Audience Pinpointer campaigns.

Next steps: Add countries and bids to your campaign.