Project Settings

To view and configure monetization settings for your project, on the Unity Ads Monetization dashboard, select CURRENT PROJECT > Settings in the secondary navigation menu.

Project info

This section lists the following properties for your project:

SettingDescription
Project nameThe name of your project. This setting is read-only, but Organization Owners can change project names (refer to creating and editing projects).
Project IDThe unique Unity identifier for your project.

Mediation partner

Selecting your mediation partner allows Unity to improve its tools and experiences for you and your project. For more information, refer to Implementing Unity Ads in third-party mediation.

Privacy Controls

Privacy controls allow you to manage contextual ad settings for your project in a single place. Child data laws such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) impose restrictions on how data can be collected and used from children, as defined by each applicable child data law. Unity Ads provides tools to help publishers provide a safe and positive user experience. Accordingly, each Unity Ads-enabled project must specify whether their project targets children. This article will guide you through configuring the right setting for your project based on your target audience.

To view and edit your project’s privacy settings on the Monetization dashboard, select CURRENT PROJECT > Settings from the secondary navigation menu, and then go to the Privacy controls section.

Important: Only the project's Organization Owner can edit its privacy control settings.

Game-level age designation

This setting applies a single project-wide designation for each platform. There are two options:

  • This app is directed to children means the project falls under applicable child data law age restrictions, and can therefore only serve contextual (non-targeted) ads to all users. Note that this designation permits you to enable user-specific age designations solely for applications you also designate as mixed audience applications.
  • This app is NOT directed to children means the project does not fall under applicable child data law age restrictions, and can therefore serve behavioral (targeted) ads to all users.

Mixed audience games

If your app is directed to children, a conditional field displays where you can designate your app as directed to mixed audiences (that is, it is targeted to both children and to adults). Setting Is this app is a Mixed Audience Game to Yes allows you to pass individualized designations for each user to determine whether they fall under applicable child data law restrictions.

User-level age statuses

A project-level designation should be sufficient for most projects, however, projects with mixed audiences (that is, it is targeted to both children and to adults) have one additional configuration choice.

To enable user-specific age designations:

  1. Present your users with an "age gate" in order to determine whether individual users meet the applicable age threshold.

    Note: Unity does not provide guidance or best practices for age gates.

  2. Implement code to send the age gate value to your mediator/network of choice in the manner directed by your mediator/network (ironSource, Unity Exclusive, Self mediated).

  3. If needed, enable the user-level designation feature inside ironSource mediation or your in-house mediation so that the mediation platform passes the appropriate age gate value along to Unity.

  4. Set the Game-level age designation to This game is directed at children.

  5. Set Is this a Mixed Audience Game? to Yes.

Code implementation

You must pass Unity Ads user-level age designations programmatically by using the user.nonbehavioral MetaData API. For complete instructions on how to implement this MetaData class in your code, refer to the documentation on child data law compliance.

Supported platforms

The following integrations currently support user-level age designation in Unity Ads:

Refer to the corresponding links for instructions on how to implement user-specific age designations in your app code.

Default behavior for unknown users

Default behavior refers to the baseline behavior of ads served in your project when a user-level age designation is absent. Unity Ads will default to treating users as children and only serve contextual ads when a user-level age designation is absent. The default behavior is relevant only for Mixed Audience applications, and cannot be independently altered.

Quick reference

Refer to the following table to determine the behavior results of your Privacy Settings configuration:

Game-level age designationMixed audience game?Contextual ads controlEnd-user behavior
Directed to children under the age of 13NoNot AvailableUnity treats all users as under the age of 13 and only serves contextual ads.
Directed to children under the age of 13YesNot AvailableUnity receives user-level designations. Users designated as 13 and older receive personalized ads, but all other users (including those with unknown designations) are treated as children and only receive contextual ads. Note: Mixed audience games are still eligible for Google’s Designed for Families program or Apple’s Kids Category. For more information, refer to the documentation on app store compliance.
NOT directed to children under the age of 13Not availableShow contextual ads onlyEven though the project is not directed at users under the age of 13, all users only receive contextual ads.
NOT directed to children under the age of 13Not availableAllow personalized adsAll users are treated as 13 or older, and might receive personalized ads.

Missing SKAdNetwork Ids from Info.plist

This field provides a list of recommended ad network IDs that are missing from your iOS project's Info.plist file. For more information, refer to configuring network IDs for iOS 14.

Store IDs

Optionally link your project to live Store IDs for the project’s Apple App Store or Google Play Store app page.

Important: Skipping this step does not prevent you from showing ads, however, some of Unity's advertising partners require this information. To maximize revenue opportunities, ensure that you include it when your project is live.

Extract the Apple App Store ID from your app’s URL, as shown in the highlighted section of the following URL:

Extract the Google Play Store ID from your app’s URL, as shown in the highlighted section of the following URL:

Note: If you recently published your app, Unity might be unable to look up its ID. If you encounter this error, try again 5-7 days after the publish date.

Game IDs

You need the Game ID for each platform to initialize the Unity Ads and Unity IAP SDKs in your code. You cannot edit these IDs.

App store compliance

Both Google and Apple introduced requirements to ensure that apps that are directed at children and serve ads are safe to use. If you serve ads in your app and want to participate in Google’s Designed for Families program or the Apple Kids Category, you must set your age limits filter to Do not show ads rated 13+ or stricter. Selecting one of these programs in your project settings will automatically configure the age designation setting to This app is directed to children under the age of 13, and set your age limits filter to Do not show ads rated 13+ or stricter.

Important: Apple requests documentation links that demonstrate the ad network (Unity) complies with the outlined requirements. You can provide a link to this section in the review notes of your submission. Unity does not provide legal advice. Therefore, the information on this page is not a substitute for reading the Apple App Store or Google Play Store guidelines, applicable publisher terms, or seeking your own legal counsel to determine the legal requirements of your business and processes, and how to address them.

Skipping rewarded ads

Compliance with kid-friendly programs requires that all monetized (rewarded) ads can be dismissed after 5 seconds. Note that Rewarded Ad Units are not skippable by default. For information on changing this setting, refer to Ad Unit settings.

Acquire optimization

For publishers that also advertise with Unity, allowing Unity to collect revenue-optimizing data can increase Unified Auction campaign performance. Enabling this setting allows Unity to collect session data that enhances your User Acquisition campaigns, to better define the value of new users in your project and similar users from other projects in Unity’s network.

To do so, ensure that your project has the Ads SDK installed, and an active User Acquisition campaign. Select CURRENT PROJECT > Settings from the secondary navigation menu, then go to Acquire Optimization and enable the setting for each platform.

Note: The recommended best practice is to include an app-specific shared secret key for apps on the Apple App Store so Unity can verify subscription purchases. To locate your secret key:

  1. Sign in to your Apple developer account and select App Store Connect from the left navigation menu.
  2. Select Go to App Store Connect.
  3. On the App Store Connect page, select My Apps. If you do not have an app, select + to create a new app.
  4. Select In-App Purchases > Manage from the left navigation menu.
  5. Select App-Specific Shared Secret to display the key.
  6. Copy the key and paste it into your Acquire Optimization setting in the Monetization dashboard, in the App-Specific Shared Secret field for the Apple App Store.

Important: Acquire optimization is automatically disabled if your game-level age designation is set to This app targets children, or if you enable one or more selections from the app store compliance section.

For more information, reach out to your Unity representative.

Ad delivery status

Use the Enable ad delivery toggle to temporarily stop serving ads to your application.

Test mode

Use Test mode to test your integration without serving live ads. You can override programmatic settings on a device by toggling Override client test mode, and then enabling Force test mode ON for all devices. It is important to enable test mode before testing integration to avoid getting flagged for fraud.