Configuring campaigns

Overview

This article provides a comprehensive look at each setting for your campaigns. Access campaigns through the Acquire dashboard.

• Creative packs
• Bids
• Budgets
• Scheduling
• App targeting
• Device targeting
• Attribution links

Creative packs

Creative packs are the content of your ad campaign. You can create, assign, remove, and delete creative packs directly from this section of the campaign settings. For a comprehensive guide on managing your creatives, see documentation on creative packs.

Note: All new creative packs undergo a human moderation process when their associated campaigns go live for the first time. A campaign must have at least one assigned and approved creative pack to go live. For more information, see documentation on moderation.

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.

Adding new bids

To add a bid, scroll to the Bids section and select ADD.

Use the Search tool to locate a country, or expand a region from the dropdown list to specify desired bids in each of that region’s countries. Selecting a region adds the default values for every country in that region (you can adjust or exclude these selections later if needed).

Note: Unity provides default values as a baseline, using average bid values for each region. You will likely want to modify them to fit your individual needs, app type, and marketing strategy.

Editing bids

To edit an existing bid, select EDIT, then select the bid(s) to edit.

Hover over a bid value to display an edit icon (see image below). Select the edit icon to manually enter a new bid value.

Make bulk edits by selecting the countries or regions to adjust, then selecting the Increase By Percentage dropdown to select from the following operations:

• Increase By Percentage: increases all selected bids by the specified % (for example, if the value is 25%, a $4.00 bid becomes a $5.00 bid).
• Decrease By Percentage: decreases all selected bids by the specified % (for example, if the value is 25%, a $4.00 bid becomes a $3.00 bid).
• Increase By Value: increases all selected bids by the specified dollar value (for example, if the value is 1, a $4.00 bid becomes a $5.00 bid).
• Decrease By Value: decreases all selected bids by the specified dollar value (for example, if the value is 1, a $4.00 bid becomes a $3.00 bid).
• Change To Value: sets all selected bids to the specified dollar value (for example, if the value is 1, a $4.00 bid becomes a $1.00 bid).

Enter the new value and select APPLY to process the operation to all selected bids.

Select SAVE to apply changes.

Deleting bids

To delete an existing bid, select DELETE, then select the bid(s) to delete. Select bids using the Search tool, by country, or in bulk by region.

Affected bids display strikethrough font. Select DELETE to confirm their removal.

Source Bidding

Source bidding allows you to granulary target and price apps (sources) within your ad campaign to bid higher or lower on individual sources per geo.

Source bidding gives you the self-service tools to granularly bid against source app IDs on a per-country basis. Each source app is valued differently based on its geos and quality of users. The ability to bid on sources accordingly, instead of placing a single bid across all sources within a given geo, creates greater efficiency within your ad spend.

• Granular optimization: Instead of applying the same price across all sources within a geo or larger app targeting list, make intelligent optimizations with granular bids for individual sources in each geo.
• Flexibility and targeting control: Increase control of how much you spend per source, and the flexibility to make changes.
• Self-service: It’s easy to set up and optimize campaigns on the dashboard without specialized support.

How it works

Each source app has an associated source app ID. Source bidding lets you place bids against the source app IDs you want to target, per country, by modifying and uploading a spreadsheet in the Acquire dashboard.

Source bid strategy

To determine which sources to isolate and target, Unity suggests starting with static CPI campaigns. Use the data from these initial campaigns to analyze the various sources driving traffic, and determine more granular bids based on your own individual return on ad spend (ROAS) and lifetime value (LTV) goals.

Use source bidding as a standalone campaign strategy, or as an additional targeting tactic alongside standard bids. If the Source Bids and Countries & Bids sections target the same Source App ID(s), the source app bids receive priority. You may also target geos in Source Bids that are not targeted in Countries & Bids.

Creating source bids

To start using source bids, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Acquire dashboard.
2. Select Campaigns from the left navigation bar.
3. Select the campaign you wish to work with, or create a new campaign.
4. On the campaign menu, navigate to the Source bids section, then click Export template.
5. After exporting the template, populate the spreadsheet, as described in the next section.
6. Return to the Source bids section of the campaign menu, then click Import to upload your modified spreadsheet.

Note: The source_app_ID is an alphanumeric, case-sensitive, 12-character string.

Once you have successfully imported your configuration, the Source bids section will display a list view of the countries you are targeting, and the bid amounts imported from your spreadsheet. A green icon indicates that source bidding is enabled and active.

Select Clear all to clear any imported bids and disable source bidding for the campaign. Alternatively, you can pause or stop the campaign.

Note: If this section remains disabled after uploading your spreadsheet, refer to the errors section below.

Source bid templates

To specify your source bids, open the exported template and populate the fields according to the following guidelines:

Important: Make sure to save the template as an xlsx file.

Note: If you’ve already entered standard bids in the Countries & Bids section, those bids act as default bids for any sources that are not explicitly defined in your spreadsheet. You may also run a campaign that consists exclusively of source bids.

Errors

Any errors when importing your spreadsheet are detailed on the Source bids section of the campaign menu.

Some examples of potential errors include:

• Missing column headers
• Blank values
• Incorrect values (such as three-character country codes, or bids with the wrong number of decimal places)
• Unpopulated fields from a row
• Mismatch in format. For example, source_app_ID is a 12-character alphanumeric case-sensitive string.

If there are multiple errors, you will see a detailed explanation of all of them:

Fix the issues in your spreadsheet, and re-import the file.

Updating source bids

To update source bids, revise your spreadsheet and re-import it. As a validation check, your previous bids will appear crossed out.

For additional validation, an alert will appear if a bid changed by a substantial amount.

App targeting and source bidding

Whitelisting and source bidding are separate campaign targeting tactics. You must clear any whitelisted apps from a campaign in order to use source bids in that campaign. You can still use app blocking (blacklisting) in tandem with source bidding.

Note: The source_app_ID is case-sensitive.

Campaign details

Edit the campaign Name and Bid type. Currently the only supported bid type is CPI (cost per install).

Budgets

Your campaign budget dictates how much marketing spend the campaign could consume. The default value is unlimited. To specify a budget limit, select the edit icon, then check Limit campaign budget. You can either select an existing budget or create a new one.

Creating a new budget

Select the Choose budget dropdown, then select ADD BUDGET.

Next, enter the Budget name and total Budget Limit. If you want to limit the amount per day, check Limit daily budget and enter the desired amount.

Editing Budgets

Select the edit icon, then select the budget to edit from the Choose budget dropdown. Select EDIT BUDGET to display the budget editing interface.

Choose whether to Increase budget by or Decrease budget by the dollar value entered. The resulting remaining budget appears when you enter a value. Select SAVE BUDGET to apply your changes.

Note: Since multiple campaigns can draw from the same budget, remember that your changes may impact other campaigns.

Scheduling

Specify the start and end date parameters for your campaign to run. All dates begin at midnight UTC.

Runs from

Defines the start date of the campaign. The default value is the current date. Select the edit icon to specify a different date.

Note: Regardless of this date, a campaign must be set to live and meet the necessary criteria in order to run.

Runs until

Defines the end date of the campaign. The default value is Not set (the campaign will run indefinitely, or until out of budget or paused). Select the edit icon to specify a different date.

App Targeting

Use Source App IDs to whitelist or blacklist apps to bid on. For more information on acquiring Source App IDs, see section on creating source bids.

Note: The source_app_ID is case-sensitive.

Whitelisting

Adding Source App IDs to your whitelist restricts bidding to those specified apps. Note that limiting sources limits the scale of your campaign, so restricting your whitelist too much can negatively impact the campaign's performance.

Blacklisting

Adding Source App IDs to your blacklist excludes those specified apps from receiving bids.

Device Targeting

Use this section to refine your targeted devices. You only bid for users that fit specified criteria.

Internet Connection

Select the edit icon, then check all desired options (wifi or cellular). We recommend selecting both to broaden the reach of your campaign. Select SAVE to apply your preferences.

Operating System

Select the edit icon, then select a Minimum OS version and a Maximum OS version from the dropdowns to define the OS range (note that the platform associated with your app’s store URL determines the list of operating systems). Select SAVE to apply your preferences.

Device (Apple only)

Select the edit icon, then check all desired iOS devices. Select SAVE to apply your preferences.

Limited ad tracking

Players with iOS devices can enable the Limited Ad Tracking (LAT) setting on their devices to opt out of interest-based advertising. Use the LAT targeting setting in the dashboard to fine-tune your campaign bidding based on a device’s LAT setting. This allows you to create separate campaigns and bids targeting users with LAT on or off if you value those users differently.

For more information on the LAT setting, see Apple’s documentation.

Attribution partners and LAT

Important: In order to use the Limited ad tracking setting, you must provide an attribution link from a provider that supports LAT. If no valid attribution link is detected, the setting will be disabled.

The following attribution providers support this feature:

• Adjust
• Appsflyer
• Kochava
• Branch.io
• Singular
• Tenjin

For more about attribution partners and working with attribution links, see the documentation on server-to-server install tracking and attribution tracking links.

If you are using a preferred vendor but you still see an error message on the Limited ad tracking setting, please contact support

Configuring device targeting for LAT

Both LAT-enabled and LAT-disabled segments are included in campaigns by default, meaning you’ll bid on both LAT segments equally. If you value each segment differently, create a targeted campaign by following these steps:

1. From the Acquire Dashboard, choose the campaign that you want to modify.
2. Ensure that you’ve entered a valid attribution tracking link from a provider that supports LAT (see the list above.)
3. Scroll to Device Settings > Limited ad tracking and click the edit icon.
4. Uncheck the segment you want this campaign to ignore. For example:
   
   • To target devices with LAT enabled (cannot receive interest-based ads), only check Devices with LAT switched on.
     
   • To target devices with LAT disabled (can receive interest-based ads), only check Devices with LAT switched off.

Troubleshooting

If you see a message when you scroll to the Limited ad tracking setting, refer to this chart:

Screen Size (Google only)

Select the edit icon, then check all desired options:

• small (at least 426 x 320 pixels)
• normal (at least 470 x 320 pixels)
• large (at least 640 x 480 pixels)
• xlarge (at least 960 x 720 pixels)

Select SAVE to apply your preferences.

Screen Density (Google only)

Select the edit icon, then check all desired options:

• Ldpi (120dpi)
• mdpi (160dpi)
• hdpi (240dpi)
• xhdpi (320dpi)
• xxhdpi (480dpi)
• xxxhdpi (640dpi)

Select SAVE to apply your preferences.

Attribution links

Three events can measure user interactions with your video ad campaign:

• Starts (Impressions)
• Completed views
• Clicks

To accurately report these events, you must obtain attribution tracking links from a 3rd-party or in-house attribution service. This section explains how to use the Aquire dashboard to tie these links to campaigns.

Where do I get attribution tracking links?

See Server to server install tracking to learn where to get the links you will need for this step.

Note: If you wish to differentiate campaigns according to an iOS device's Limited ad tracking (LAT) setting, be sure to choose an attribution partner that supports LAT.

Setting the links

Once you have obtained your links:

1. Navigate to the Acquire dashboard
2. Click Campaigns, then select the app and campaign name that you want to track.
3. Scroll to Attribution links.
4. Click the edit icon, then copy the appropriate URLs to the appropriate matching fields.

Note: Campaigns require a Click attribution link. However, we recommend assigning Start (Impression) and Completed view attribution links as well. Collecting these settings will help you compare campaigns.

Note: If you wish to differentiate campaigns according to the Limited ad tracking (LAT) setting, be sure to choose an attribution partner that supports LAT.

URL formatting requirements

IMPORTANT: Ensure that ALL links comply with the following requirements. Otherwise the attribution will not work correctly.

• URLs and any redirection uses HTTPS.
• URL contains at least the {ifa} dynamic custom token.
• HTTP redirections should be done via HTTP 3XX codes and not via HTML/Javascript.
• URLs cannot redirect to the Apple App Store or Google Play store.

When you save the attribution link, the dashboard checks for errors to validate that the URL is syntactically correct.

Troubleshooting

Symptoms

You see a zero conversion rate, because Unity stops delivering a campaign, or the attribution partner reporting doesn’t show starts, views, or installs.

Cause

Even if a URL passes validation, it might still be incorrect due to a typographical error or other issue.

Solution

Try the following:

• Check the attributions links carefully and correct typographical errors.
• Ensure that the attribution links follow the URL formatting rules listed above.
• Be certain you have the appropriate attribution link in the appropriate field. (For example, do not put a Completed view link in the Click field.)

Where to learn more

To learn more about attribution links, see Server to server install tracking.