Cross-Promotions (beta)

Overview

Cross-Promotion is an open beta feature that allows publishers to backfill their ad Placements with promotions for their own games. A Cross-Promotion works just like regular advertisements, but drives traffic to your own apps. There are several advantages to using them:

  • Introduce users to your other apps.
  • There is no opportunity cost, because Cross-Promotions only appear when there are no other ads available to fill.
  • Boost your impressions and ad requests, which can lead to additional installs.

Guide contents

Implementation

To get started, log in to the Acquire section of the developer dashboard and select the Organization that owns the Projects you wish to promote your app in.

Note: If you wish to use Cross-Promotion but use more than one Organization for user acquisition and monetization, please contact Ads support for assistance.

Starting a Campaign

Each Organization may create up to two Campaigns.

Selecting an app to cross-promote

Select Cross promotion from the left navigation bar, then click CROSS-PROMOTE APP to choose a target Project.

Navigating to Cross-Promotions on the dashboard.

Select a target app to promote using a store URL lookup. The target Project must be published in an app store, so that users can click the ad to install the app.

Selecting a target Project to cross-promote.

Click CROSS PROMOTE APP to verify the selection.

Adding a promotional campaign

Your selected app should now appear on the Cross promotion page. Click ADD PROMOTION to configure a new cross-promotion campaign.

Creating a cross-promotional Campaign.

Name the campaign (for naming convention guidelines, see the Creating Campaigns section of the Configuring Campaigns documentation), then click CREATE to create the campaign.

Creating a new Campaign.

Configuring Cross-Promotion campaigns

The process for setting up Cross-Promotion campaigns is similar to setting up normal ad campaigns. However, because Cross-Promotions use your own backfilled ad space, you do not enter bids or draw from an advertising budget.

The following four components are required for your Cross-Promotion to go live:

Adding Projects

Add Projects in which you’d like to advertise your target app:

  1. Navigate to the Promoting in section of the campaign configuration page, then click ASSIGN.
  2. Select as many published, Unity Ads-enabled Projects that you’d like to promote the target app.

Note: Projects that do not meet this required are listed as unsupported. Remember that you must be logged in as a Project’s owner to select it as a cross-promotional option.

  1. Click SAVE to apply your selections.

Adding apps to promote your game in.

Adding creative packs

Creative packs are the content of your cross-promotional campaign. Creative packs are covered in depth, including specs and setup instructions, in the Configuring Campaigns documentation.

Note: While most advertising campaigns share creative assets from the same pool, cross-promotion campaigns draw from a separate resource. This means that even if you already created an ad campaign for the target app, you’ll still have to upload its creative assets to the Cross-Promotion configuration interface.

Adding countries

Add countries in which you’d like to advertise your target app:

  1. Navigate to the Countries section of the campaign configuration page, then click ADD to bulk select countries, or use the search tool to find a specific country.
  2. Select as many countries as you’d like, then click ADD COUNTRIES to apply your selections.

Adding countries to your Campaign.

For more information on countries, see the Bids section of the Configuring Campaigns documentation. Note however that Cross-Promotions do not currently use bids, as you do not need to bid on your own ad space when you deliver Cross-Promotion as backfill.

Schedule

A valid Start date is required for your cross-promotional campaign. This field defaults to the current date. An End date is optional. Click here for more information on Scheduling settings.

These URLs gauge campaign performance by tracking user interactions with your ad through this campaign:

  • Start fires when the ad starts.
  • View fires when the ad ends.
  • Click fires when user clicks the download button.

Click attribution is required, however Unity recommends using Start and Click attribution links in tandem to support higher conversion rates.

Note: If you use multiple Organizations to cross-promote, please be sure to contact Ads support to prevent complications with install tracking for your Campaigns.

Click here for more information on tracking links.

Miscellaneous settings

Other settings are optional but recommended:

  • Click here for more information on Campaign details settings.
  • Click here for more information on Targeting settings.

What's next?

View documentation on creating ad campaigns, or return to the Monetization hub.