Revenue and payment

This article provides an overview of how to accrue and collect revenue from Unity Ads.

Earning revenue

Unity Ads generates revenue by displaying paid advertisements in your game. The more traffic and impressions your game creates, the more money you can earn.

Unity Ads facilitates different campaign types with different billing points (for example, completed views, clicks, or installs), and always selects the highest-earning campaign to display to your users.

Monetization factors

The average eCPM for Unity Ads depends on many factors, such as platform, region, player demographics, and in-game placements. The biggest factor is the number of players engaging in your game. The ads best practices guide provides advice on maximizing revenue through strategic implementation.

Analyzing revenue

You can view statistics on your ads monetization from the developer dashboard. If your revenue displays $0.00, you may need to be patient. Each time a video is started, it creates an impression. However, it may take around 5000 impressions for our targeting algorithms to determine the quality of users provided and start showing consistent revenue.

For more information on using the Developer Dashboard to analyze revenue metrics, see documentation on monetization statistics.

Payment

Automated payouts

Publishers can receive automated payouts for their Unity Ads earnings every month. This article provides a step-by-step guide to configuring automated payouts for your Organization. To get started, log in to the Unity ID portal.

Note: Unity Ads currently only supports payouts in USD.

Payout profiles

In order to receive payment, you must configure a payout profile. Payout profiles are associated with Organizations. Each Organization has one profile per service, so you can only create one profile for your Unity Ads earnings.

Note: You must be the Organization’s Owner to see, create, or update its payout profile. For more information on Organizations and roles, see the Members and Groups section of the Managing your Organization documentation.

To navigate to the desired Organization’s payout profile interface:

1. Log in to the Unity ID portal.
2. Select Organizations from the left navigation bar.
3. Select the desired Organization from the list (you can also view your role within the Organization from this list; verify that you are the Organization’s Owner).
   
   Important: Make sure you select the correct Organization, especially if you have Owner permissions for multiple Organizations. Failing to do so may result in not receiving payouts.
   
   
4. Select Payout Profile from the left navigation bar sub-menu.

Creating a payout profile

From your Organization’s Payout Profile page, create a new profile by clicking + Add profile.

SMS Two-Factor Authentication (TFA)

You must enable SMS-based TFA in order to edit payout profiles. If you have yet to enable it for your Organization, the dashboard will prompt you to do so now. If you already set up SMS TFA authentication, skip to the Profile information section below.

1. Click Activate TFA > Start setup to begin.
2. Confirm your Unity Developer Network (UDN) password, then click Next.
3. Enter a valid phone number that can receive SMS messages, then click Next.
4. The specified phone number will receive a 6-digit code via SMS. Enter the code on the dashboard within 60 seconds to initialize TFA.

Once you complete this step, return to the payout profile section of the dashboard (Organizations > select your Organization > Payout Profile), then select + Add profile. Complete the TFA check to proceed.

Populating profile information

On the Create Payout Profile page, enter the following required information:

• Country and Region
• Payment recipient (Company or Private individual; note that you cannot change this after you create the profile!)
• (Companies only) Company Name
• (Companies only) EU VAT (European Union Value Added Tax ID; this field is optional, however EU VAT-registered companies must provide an ID)

Note: Finnish publishers must register as EU VAT companies. They also must be in the prepayment register (ennakkoperintärekisteri) to receive payments.

• (Companies only) Contact Person and their corresponding Email address
• (Individuals only) Full Name and your corresponding Email address
• Address
• Postal Code
• City

Click Create to create your profile.

Your profile information is now saved. You can edit it any time by clicking the Edit (pencil icon) button.

Adding a payout method

Unity supports Paypal and bank transfers (note that Unity only currently supports local transfers in the US). To add a payout method, navigate to the Payout Method section of the Payout Profile page, then click the Edit or + Add payout method button.

On the Add Payout Method page, select an option from the Payout Method drop-down menu.

• Select Hold my payments to withhold payouts until further notice. When you update this field to one of the other two methods, Unity will pay out all accumulated revenue if it meets the specified minimum payout amount.
• Select Bank transfer to set up direct deposits into a specified account (see section on Bank transfers below).
• Select Paypal to receive payments directly to your Paypal account (see section on Paypal below).

Bank transfers

You must provide banking details for the account you want to receive payments. Select Bank transfer from the drop-down, then click the Add bank transfer details button.

You will temporarily leave the dashboard to process banking information through our secure partner Worldpay.

The country of your bank dictates the type of transfer (local or international) and type of information Worldpay requests.

Once you’ve completed the Worldpay form, you will return to the Add Payout Method page.

Note: For bank transfers, Unity deducts a transaction fee of 1.5 EUR in the U.S. and 7.5 EUR in all other countries. The intermediate or receiving bank may charge additional fees. If you want receive the payment in any currency other than USD, there will be conversion fees.

PayPal

To set up PayPal deposits, all you need to provide is the minimum payout amount (see section below) and your registered PayPal email address.

Note: For every 20,000 USD in revenue paid out through Paypal, Unity deducts a transaction fee of 2% (up to 14 USD in the E.U., and 90 USD outside of the E.U.).

Minimum payout amount and fulfillment

Set a minimum amount of accrued earnings for which to receive a payment. Unity processes payments at the end of each month on a net 60 cadence, which means that your outstanding balance is paid in full and received within 60 days of each payment period, so long as your earnings met or exceeded the minimum payout amount.

For example, if your minimum payment amount is $100, and you earn $200 in the month of March, your total earnings for that period ($200) are paid by the end of May.

In the same scenario, if you earn $50 in March, then $50 in April, the accumulated balance meets the minimum payment amount and is paid by the end of June.

Finalizing your settings

When you’ve finished specifying your payment method and minimum amount, click the Create button to save your selections.

Revenue transfers

Unity allows you to allocate a portion of your ad revenue into an advertising budget on the Acquire dashboard. To set up a revenue transfer:

1. On the Operate dashboard, select Finance from the left navigation bar.
2. Under Transaction history, click Request transfer.
   
   
3. In the revenue transfer dialogue, add the amount you want to transfer, then choose the advertiser org you want to transfer to from the dropdown menu.
   
   
   Important: You must be the Owner of the publisher Organization to request a revenue transfer. However, you may transfer funds to any Organization you belong to, regardless of role. For more information, see documentation on managing your Organization.
   
   
4. Click Request.

The minimum transfer amount is currently 10,000 USD. The maximum transfer amount is limited to the funds available in your payout balance. Transfers may take up to 5 business days to finalize. For questions, please contact Unity Ads support.

Learn more about driving user acquisition with Unity advertising.

Tax information

Validation

Unity must collect your relevant tax information in order to withhold taxes when applicable, as required by tax authorities. To validate your tax information, navigate to the Payout Tax info section of the Payout Profile page, then click the Create button.

You will temporarily leave the dashboard to complete the tax interview by providing the following information:

• Basic information about yourself
• Consent to receive information reporting documentation
• Your overall tax status
• Your electronic signature and consent to use it

When finished, click Exit interview to return to the Payout Profile page. The Payout Tax info section takes a few minutes to update. When it does, the Tax status changes to Validated.

Requesting payment as an individual

Unity can process payment to you as an individual, rather than as a company. To register as a private individual, simply enter your legal name in lieu of a company name. Please be sure that this name also matches an owner of your Unity organization.

In general, no taxes are deducted from payments to companies or similar entities. However, if you are a private individual, payments are governed by tax agreements between your country and Finland. These agreements exist to reduce any possible double taxation and set guidelines for personal taxation rules. Taxes for Ads income are usually between 0-15%, but may be higher for certain countries. Consult your own tax office for further guidance.

Unity will not deduct taxes from your payment. Handling taxes for your revenue is your responsibility.

Value Added Tax (VAT) numbers

The European Union (EU) requires members to have a VAT number. The local legislation in each country specifies when you need to apply for a VAT number. If you do not have one, state ”No VAT” or “None” in the corresponding invoice field.

Transaction history and next estimated payout

You can view an estimate of your next scheduled automated payout on the Operate dashboard by selecting Invoicing from the left navigation bar.

You can also view your transaction history from this page. Alternatively, you can view records of your Unity Ads payouts from the the Unity ID portal:

1. Select Organizations from the left navigation bar.
2. Select the desired Organization from the list.
3. Select Transaction History from the left navigation bar sub-menu.
4. Select the Payouts tab.
5. Select the date range you wish to query, then click the Apply button to view a list of invoices.

Making changes to your profile, payout method, or tax info

You can edit your information at any time from the Payout Profile page:

• In the Payout Profile section, click the Edit button (note that you cannot change the recipient type).
• In the Payout Method section, click the Edit button.
• In the Payout Tax info section, click the Update button.

Note: Any changes might not affect payouts for the current month. If you need the changes to take effect immediately, or have general issues signing up for automated payouts, please contact Unity Ads support.

What's next?

Review documentation on statistics and reporting or rewarded ads best practices to get the most out of your earning potential.