Configuring campaigns

Overview

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

Guide contents

Creative packs

Creative packs are the content of your ad campaign. You can now assign more than one creative pack to a single campaign. This means you don’t need to create multiple campaigns in order to run additional creative packs for a single ad campaign. Furthermore, multiple campaigns can share the same creative packs, so long as they’re for the same app.

Note: When a campaign contains multiple creative packs, an algorithm determines the optimal one to show for each user.

Adding a new creative pack

In the Creative packs section of the campaign page, click CREATE (or CREATE CREATIVE PACKS if none exist yet).

Setting up a new creative pack.

Enter a creative pack name, then upload end card and video assets (detailed below).

End cards

End cards are creative assets displayed at the end of an ad with a call to action for users to download the advertised product.

Select Square end cards from the dropdown menu to upload one creative format that will work on any device, in any orientation, and any aspect ratio (recommended to prevent cropping and maximize compatibility).

Select Portrait & landscape end cards from the dropdown menu to upload one creative for each device orientation.

The following specs apply to end cards:

  • Use JPG or PNG format.
  • Use one of the following dimension formats:
    • For square end cards, use 800 x 800 (1:1) pixel resolution.
    • Otherwise, use 800 x 600 (4:3) pixel resolution for landscape images and 600 x 800 (3:4) pixel resolution for portrait images.
  • (Apple only) Due to Apple requirements, Unity recommends only depicting the Apple app store logo on end cards for iOS videos. See Apple marketing guidelines for more information.

Note: Dynamic cropping may occur when using landscape and portrait images, to account for different device sizes. To avoid losing critical information, allow a 100-pixel buffer from the top and bottom edges of landscape images, or left and right edges for portrait images.

Videos

Video ad assets marketing your app. While only one video is required, uploading a video for each orientation yields better optimization. When a creative contains both, Unity’s valuation algorithm selects the best orientation to display.

  • 30 seconds or less.
  • H.264-encoded MP4 format.
  • 16:9 pixel ratio for landscape videos, or 9:16 pixel ratio for portrait videos.
  • Recommended file size is 10MB. Maximum file size is 100MB. Videos are re-encoded to be suitable for various bitrates. The final video shown will be optimized for the user's available network speed and cache settings.
  • (Apple only) Due to Apple requirements, Unity recommends only depicting the Apple app store logo. See Apple marketing guidelines for more information.

Uploading creative assets for your campaign.

When finished uploading creative assets, click CREATE. Your new creative pack now appears in the campaign’s Creative Packs list with a Processing status. This status indicates that your creative pack is undergoing moderation (see section on Moderation below). Click ASSIGN to choose which creative packs to include with the campaign. Note that selecting the downward arrow expands the creative pack’s details.

Moderation

All new creative packs undergo a moderation process to ensure they adhere to Unity's advertising content policies before running in a live campaign. The review automatically triggers when a new creative pack’s associated campaign goes live for the first time. No further action is required of you.

Note: Campaigns must contain at least one approved creative pack to go live. If your live campaign includes a mix of approved and pending creative packs, the pending ones will automatically run once approved.

Important: Due to the sensitive nature of gambling ads across many of our publishers, Unity requires gambling advertisers to be managed accounts. Gambling creatives from unmanaged partners will be rejected in moderation. To become a managed partner or learn more about Unity's gambling ad policies, please contact us.

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 click ADD.

Adding a bid to your campaign.

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.

Specifying bid values by region and country.

Editing bids

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

Editing a bid.

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

Manually editing a 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, then click APPLY to process the operation to all selected bids.

Bulk-editing bids by percentage.

Click SAVE to apply changes.

Deleting bids

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

Deleting a bid.

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

Specifying bids to delete.

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 IDs on a per-country basis. Each source 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 ID. Source bidding lets you place bids against the source 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 ID(s), the source 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.

Importing a source bid template.

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.

A successfully imported template.

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:

Column Description Example values
Country code The two-letter (Alpha 2) ISO country code representing the source’s geo.

Note: Using three-letter country codes will cause an error.
  • US
  • CA
  • KR
Source ID The Unity Ads identifier for the source app. 1234567
Bid The amount you are willing to spend, in U.S. currency. This field supports up to two decimal places.

Note: Values with three or more decimals will cause an error.
  • 5
  • 5.1
  • 5.12

The finished spreadsheet might look like this:

A populated source bids template.

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.

An example of an import error.

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

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

An example of multiple import errors.

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.

A re-imported source bids template.

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

Example of a new bid that has changed significantly.

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.

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.

Creating a new 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. Click EDIT BUDGET to display the budget editing interface.

Editing an existing budget.

Choose whether to Increase budget by or Decrease budget by the dollar value entered. The resulting remaining budget appears when you enter a value. Click 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.

Scheduling the run period for a campaign.

App Targeting

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

Whitelisting

Adding Source 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 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. Click 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). Click SAVE to apply your preferences.

Selecting operating system parameters for audience targeting.

Device (Apple only)

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

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)

Click 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)

Click SAVE to apply your preferences.

Specify URLs with which to track impression engagement. These URLs help gauge campaign performance by tracking when users interact with your ad video through this campaign:

Start

The attribution event executes before a video begins.

View

The attribution event executes when the video ends.

Click

The attribution event executes when a user clicks the download button.

Note: Campaigns require a Click attribution link. However, we recommend assigning Start or View impression attribution links as well, in order to support higher conversion rate.

For more information on attribution links, see documentation on server-to-server install tracking.

What's next?

Learn how Audience Pinpointer uses machine learning to dynamically bid on high value users.