IronSource lets developers examine the quality of ads that run in mobile games

IronSource is expanding its tool that enables game developers to more easily examine the quality of ads that run in their mobile games. This is important because no game developer wants to inadvertently hurt a game’s image by monetizing it with a bunch of scammy advertisements.

This Tel Aviv, Israel-based IronSource said its Ad Quality solution, which itadded with its acquisition of Soomla earlier this year, gives game and app developers visibility and control over the ads shown to their users. And that helps improve the user experience, preserves brand integrity, and optimizes monetization.

“We’re trying to solve how our developers integrate ads into their apps so that you don’t expose your consumers to content that you don’t fully control,” said Omer Kaplan, the chief revenue officer at IronSource, in an interview with GamesBeat. “The idea is to provide visibility and control for those developers over the ad content that is served to the consumers.”

An ad might be broken or just feature inappropriate content. These ads are easy for developers to miss if they’re not constantly paying attention to the ads that ad networks automatically serve to users. From the dashboard, developers can see the thumbnails of ads and easily play them to see the full video ad.

The expanded solution is available to all developers, whether or not they use IronSource’s ad mediation tools, which help find the best ads to run in a real-time assessment.

The upgraded solution provides an easy gallery view of all ads shown in an app with quick insights on their performance. It also shows the developer how a user moves through the in-app ads, which helps resolve any complaints as well as automatically identifying quality
issues like auto redirects and concentrated clicks.

The Quality CTR feature takes this a step further, by helping the developer understand why a metric appears to be inconsistent with the rest of the app’s stats.

Any ad that the developer doesn’t want to display can easily be reported to the ad network directly through the solution so that it is not shown again. Moreover, the developer can set up alerts for their reported ads, to check that the ad network is adhering to their request, giving them control over ad network policy violations.

David Choi, the director of ad monetization at mobile game publisher Playstudios, said that the solution helps with quality control and delivers a better experience for players. That’s important because ads are a vital revenue stream for games.

The IronSource Ad Quality solution also offers churn analysis, which helps the app developer understand which variables are causing users to bounce. The developer can see churn trends by different networks, countries, apps and developers, and additionally they can test the churn rates of a specific network or advertiser, helping them make smart decisions about whether to block a specific advertiser or network, or not.

User growth tools for iOS ToolKit

Above: IronSource’s iOS Toolkit — CV manager.

Image Credit: IronSource

Separately, IronSource also launched tools that help app developers survive in the post-IDFA world, where developers no longer have much access to user data via the Identifier for Advertisers.

In this new world, Apple has prioritized user privacy over targeted ads, and that means developers don’t get as much data when it comes to figuring out which ad generated a particular result from a given user.

So IronSource has created Universal SKAN Reporting (for Apple’s SKAdNetwork) and CV Manager (conversion value).

Universal SKAN Reporting provides developers with all their postbacks (or real-time messages about an app install or in-app event such as a purchase) in real time directly from Apple, allowing them to view and analyze the anonymous data and get insights on user acquisition (UA) performance from all networks.

The CV Manager enables developers who are using IronSource’s mediation platform to map the conversion values of new users according to the ad revenue generated during the first 24 hours since install. This allows developers to better understand user value and users’ predicted LTV, helping them optimize user acquisition campaigns.

If you’re not sure what this means, these tools are directed at the advertising experts who have to use other means to decipher how effective ads are in a mobile world with less tracking.

The iOS privacy changes have necessitated a new approach in the way user acquisition managers understand user value and therefore how they optimize advertising strategies to drive user growth, Kaplan said.

Whereas with iOS 14 postbacks were only sent to each individual network, with the iOS 15 changes expected this month, app advertisers will be able to get a copy of all of their SkAdNetworkpostbacks. Advertisers can then use ironSource’s advanced Universal SKAN Reporting  product to analyze all of their postback data in real time, and make timely, data-driven decisions on how to best optimize their UA strategy across all networks.

CV Manager

Above: IronSource is making it easier for devs to assess ad performance in the post-IDFA era.

Image Credit: IronSource

IronSource’s CV Manager is for developers who rely heavily on in-app ads, who require a dedicated solution that is focused on their monetization needs. Once a developer has mapped their conversion value buckets, IronSource updates the conversion values for each new
user based on the ad revenue they generated in the first 24 hours from the app being launched.

“This will help them control and see and actually monitor and optimize the user acquisition activity,” said Nimrod Zuta, the vice president of product at IronSource, in an interview with GamesBeat. “It’s an easier way of seeing the data.”

Developers can then see a breakdown of how many users fall into each conversion value bucket, together with average revenue per user (ARPU) data, giving them an understanding of user quality and enabling them to optimize user acquisition.

The data can further be leveraged when the IronSource CV Manager is used together with the IronSource Universal SKAN Reporting, as a developer can immediately receive the estimated value of each conversion value, uncovering the actual return for campaigns across all networks.

As for IDFA itself, Kaplan said that privacy is good and ultimately this will be good for the overall industry.