two & a half gamers – 🎙️ Mobile Ad Monetization basics: What every studio gets wrong by Felix Braberg

Summary

If you think eCPM is the most important metric in ad monetization, this episode is for you.

Felix breaks down:

• eCPM vs Fill Rate
• Why Ad ARPDAU is king
• Recency model & impression decay
• Why more ads can hurt revenue
• SDK crash risks & ANR thresholds
• Aggressive end cards & churn
• How mediation doubles revenue
• Networks vs exchanges explained

This is a practical introduction to how mobile ads actually work once the SDK is live.

Key takeaway:
Ad monetization is not about showing more ads. It’s about optimizing per user.
The biggest misconception in mobile ad monetization is obsessing over eCPM. eCPM alone is meaningless. Revenue comes from eCPM × fill rate, and the only metric that truly matters is Ad ARPDAU. That’s your real performance line of sight. If eCPM goes up but fill drops, you can still lose money. Networks respect publishers who talk about Ad ARPDAU because it shows you understand the business, not just vanity metrics.

eCPMs are not fixed. They are dynamic and driven by complex algorithms. Networks use dozens of parameters including device type, geo, historical installs, auction loss rate, and most importantly recency models. The first few impressions per user are the most valuable. After 5–7 impressions, the per-unit value drops sharply. If you keep pushing more interstitials, you may increase impressions per DAU but flatten total revenue while damaging retention. More ads ≠ more money.

Operational discipline separates professionals from amateurs. Never rush SDK updates. Android ANRs and crash thresholds can destroy organic distribution. Aggressive end cards increase churn. Mediation doubles revenue when implemented correctly because it creates a marketplace instead of a single buyer. And exchanges are not networks — they are resellers. Understanding these mechanics is the difference between earning $100 a day and scaling to $1,200+ before expanding demand sources.