There are three contexts in which SKAdNetwork (SKAN) can be used together with Unity.
- Unity as an ad network – the use case for advertisers.
- Unity as an ad monetization platform- the use case for publishers.
- Unity as a development platform/engine – the use case for developers.d
Unity Ads and SKAdNetwork for advertisers
The advertising part can also be divided into three closely related parts:
- Performance optimization – send Unity ads conversion values so Unity ads algorithms can use them to automatically optimize the served traffic.
- Measurement – display campaign performance that advertisers can use to manually optimize their campaigns.
- Billing – Unity ads bill advertisers based on the number of impressions their campaign gets and not the number of generated installs.
SKAdNetwork integration is partner agnostic. Once you have a generic integration that manages ConversionValues, you are fine to advertise with Unity Ads.
Example: SKAdNetwork setup with Unity ads
Unity Ads SKAdNetwork postback
The data transaction between Apple, Unity Ads, and an advertiser is performed via postback
Recommendation: Make sure to set up direct postbacks to get additional insights such as source id.
Here is the instruction on how to set up direct SKAdNetwork postback from Apple.
SKAdNetwork data can also be accessed via Unity’s Advertising Statistics API. The API has the metrics and dimensions as Apple’s postback data.
Unity Ads Conversion Values
Setting up Conversion Value event mapping is optional but highly recommended as it leads to better overall campaign performance.
Unity ads recommends the following priciples when setting up Conversion Values:
Assign Conversion Values according to the event importance in the ascending order. For example, it’s not a good idea to assing value 63 to ‘complete tutorial’ and value 1 to ‘purchase’ event.
The last Conversion Value update should occur within 48 hours of install.
The recommendation here is to map Conversion Values to common events that split user base into approximate groupings of the top 10-20%, the next 20-40%, and etc.
Unity Ads Conversion Values example
Unity Ads is proposing the following mapping for advertisers that are not sure what Coversion Values schema to use.
| Event | Conversion value | Share of installs |
|---|---|---|
| Install | 0 | 33% |
| Second Session | 1 | 23% |
| Third Session | 1 | 13% |
| Fourth and fifth session | 3 | 15% |
| Sixth-plus session | 4 | 16% |
Unity Ads Crowd Anonymity (Privacy Threshold)
Unity ads Privacy Threshold (post updated in Q2 2023): >30 installs per campaign in 24 hours
Privacy Threshold or Crowd Anonymity after SKAN 4 is a crucial component of SKAdNetwork.
When there are fewer installs in a campaign than in the setup of the privacy threshold for ad network, advertisers should expect the following:
- NULL in Conversion Values instead of actual values in the reporting.
- Ad networks won’t have ConversionValues for automatic ad optimization.
- Missing source app ID
- The source identifier is going to have two digits instead of three or four
The end results will depend on the number of installs in the campaign. There are 4 combinations of the received data that depend on the volume of installs in the campaign.
Unity Ads Campaign limitation: 50
In general, SKAdNetwork allows having only 100 campaigns per app. However, this number varies depending on how an ad network is integrated with SKAdNetwork.
SKAdNetwork and Unity for publishers
You need to configure the app to render and manage ads.
Unity SKAdNetwork id: 4dzt52r2t5.skadnetwork
The id should be used Info.plist
Follow SKAdNetwork ad monetization guide to learn more.
SKAdNetwork and Unity for developers
The majority of marketing & analytics SDKs support Unity. The SKAdNetwork setup does not differ from other development platforms.
Example: Google Admob for Unity app
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