Programmatic Ad Revenue Technical FAQ: Discrepancies, eCPM Floors, Mediation Cuts, and SDK Initialization

1. Why does my Mediation Dashboard report different revenue than my individual Ad Network dashboards?

A discrepancy of 1% to 3.5% between your mediation hub (e.g., AppLovin MAX or LevelPlay) and individual child networks (e.g., Unity Ads, Liftoff, Meta) is normal and stems from two factors:

• Timezone Cutoff Alignment: Google AdMob defaults to the publisher's local account timezone, whereas AppLovin MAX, Unity, and Meta aggregate daily reporting ledgers on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
• Waterfall Auto-CPM Lag vs. Real-Time Bidding: For non-bidding waterfall line items, the mediation platform estimates daily revenue using the previous day's historical eCPM until the child network's Reporting API syncs finalized numbers 12 to 24 hours later. You are always paid based on the child ad network's finalized invoice, not the mediation dashboard's estimate.

2. What percentage cut (Revenue Share) do Ad Networks and Mediation platforms take?

Primary mediation platforms (AppLovin MAX, Unity LevelPlay, and Google AdMob Mediation) charge 0% mediation routing fees—they do not take an extra cut when a third-party network wins an auction. Instead, each ad exchange deducts its own supply/demand fee before reporting your net eCPM:

• Google AdSense for Content (Web): Publisher receives 68% of gross advertiser spend (80% after Google Ads buy-side fee).
• Google AdMob / AppLovin / Unity / Meta (In-App): Publisher typically receives 65% to 75% of the gross DSP clearing price. All eCPMs displayed in your dashboard are already 100% net to you.

3. Why is my "Show Rate" (Impressions / Matched Requests) below 75%?

Show Rate measures the percentage of filled, pre-cached ads that actually get displayed to the user (`Rendered Impressions ÷ Filled Requests`). If your Show Rate is below 70%, you are pre-caching ads that expire or never get called. DSPs penalize ad units with low Show Rates because they waste server bandwidth and bid compute without generating billable impressions. Only call `loadAd()` for placements the user has at least a 65%+ probability of reaching during the current session.

4. How long does a pre-cached Interstitial or Rewarded Video remain valid in memory?

Programmatic OpenRTB impression tokens expire after 60 minutes (3,600 seconds) on Google AdMob and 4 hours on most gaming networks. If a user backgrounds your app for 90 minutes and resumes, showing a stale cached ad will result in an expired impression token that pays $0.00. Modern mediation SDKs automatically invalidate expired cache buffers and trigger a fresh background reload when the app returns to the foreground (`onResume`).

5. How severely does COPPA / "Designed for Families" (Child-Directed) status reduce eCPM?

Apps flagged as child-directed under COPPA (US) or GDPR-K (EU), or enrolled in Google Play's "Families" program, must pass the `tagForChildDirectedTreatment(true)` flag. This legally prohibits behavioral profiling, IDFA/GAID tracking, and retargeting—restricting your inventory strictly to contextual, G-rated creatives. Expect child-directed eCPMs to be 55% to 75% lower than general-audience apps, and note that Meta Audience Network does not bid on child-directed inventory at all.

6. Do I get paid from a single bank transfer or separate transfers when using Mediation?

Unless a third-party network participates via a managed consolidated billing program (such as select networks inside Google Bidding), you must create an account on each mediated SDK network (AdMob, AppLovin, Unity, Meta, Liftoff, Mintegral, InMobi) and enter your bank/Tipalti details in each dashboard. Each network pays you separately once you cross its individual minimum payout threshold ($20 to $100).

7. Why did my eCPMs drop 30% overnight on January 1st?

Every year on January 1st at 00:00 UTC, Q4 holiday retail and annual marketing budgets expire simultaneously across all major DSPs. Between January 1st and January 18th, global eCPMs contract by 25% to 40% compared to December highs before gradually recovering through February and March as Q1 corporate budgets are approved.

8. Should I use "App Open Ads" in a mobile game or only in utility apps?

App Open Ads (which render when a user switches back to your app from the OS task switcher) perform exceptionally well in daily utility, weather, transit, and document reader apps ($6.00 to $15.00 Tier 1 eCPM). However, in mobile games, avoid triggering App Open Ads on cold launches, and never trigger an App Open Ad when a user returns from clicking another ad or completing an IAP checkout sheet.