Unity Ads is used in two ways: game studios run user acquisition campaigns to get installs, and app publishers show ads inside their games to earn revenue. To use it for acquisition you create a Unity Grow account, connect an attribution partner, build a campaign around a goal such as installs or return on ad spend, and upload video and playable creatives.
Which side of Unity Ads do you need?
Unity’s ad business sits under two product families. Unity Grow covers advertising, where you pay to acquire players. Unity Monetize, with Unity LevelPlay as the mediation platform, covers publishing, where you earn money by showing ads to your own players. Many studios use both, and the setup steps are different.
This guide focuses on acquisition, because that is where most budget decisions happen. A short section on monetisation follows for teams that also publish.
Step 1: prepare tracking before you create anything
Unity Ads does not measure installs on its own; it relies on a mobile measurement partner (MMP). Set this up first, or your campaigns will spend without reliable data.
- Choose an MMP such as AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular or Kochava, and integrate its SDK into your app build.
- Enable Unity Ads as an integrated partner inside the MMP dashboard and turn on install and in-app event postbacks.
- Define the in-app events that matter: tutorial_complete, level_10, first_purchase and so on. Send revenue values with purchase events.
- For iOS, configure SKAdNetwork conversion values in the MMP so post-install events are visible despite App Tracking Transparency limits.
Without event postbacks you can only buy installs. With them you can optimise for players who stay and spend, which is where Unity’s bidding models earn their keep.
Step 2: create the Unity Grow account and app
Sign up in the Unity dashboard, open the advertising section and add your app by store link (App Store or Google Play). Add a payment method and set an account-level spending limit. Then confirm the MMP integration shows as active for that app before moving on.
Step 3: how do you choose a campaign goal?
Unity offers several optimisation goals, and choosing the right one depends on how much event data you have.
- Install campaigns (CPI bidding): you set a bid per install. Best for launches and for games without enough purchase data.
- Retention campaigns: optimise toward players who return on later days. Useful for ad-monetised casual games.
- ROAS campaigns: Unity optimises toward revenue, using your purchase and ad revenue postbacks. You set a target ROAS for a given day, such as day 7.
- Event optimisation: bid toward a specific in-app action, such as completing level 10.
A common path is to start with CPI campaigns to gather data, then move budget to ROAS once the app has steady purchase volume. ROAS campaigns with too few events tend to under-spend or deliver erratically.
Bids and budgets
Bids are set per country, and you can raise or lower them for specific source apps. As an illustrative example, a casual puzzle game might launch with a modest daily budget in three Tier 1 markets and a lower-priced test market, then reallocate weekly based on day-7 ROAS. Keep at least a week of data before cutting a country; install-to-purchase lag makes early numbers noisy.
Step 4: build creatives that fit the network
Unity serves ads inside other games, so your creative competes for attention during a natural break. Formats include:
- Video ads in portrait and landscape, typically 15 to 30 seconds, with gameplay shown in the first seconds.
- Playable ads: a short interactive demo, usually HTML5, that lets people try a mechanic before installing.
- End cards: the static or animated screen after the video, with the install button.
Playables are often the strongest format on Unity because the audience is already playing games. Keep them light, show the core loop immediately and end with a clear call to install. Test at least three creative concepts per campaign and rotate them every few weeks.
Step 5: how do you read Unity Ads results?
Read results in two places. The Unity dashboard shows spend, impressions, installs and source-app performance. The MMP shows what those players did afterwards, which is the number that matters.
Review the source-app report weekly. Some publisher apps send cheap installs that never open the game again. You can block those sources or lower bids for them, which often improves cohort quality more than any creative change.
A weekly review checklist
- Day-1 and day-7 retention by country and by creative.
- Day-7 ROAS against your target, using MMP revenue.
- Top 20 source apps by spend: keep, reduce or block.
- Creative fatigue: falling click-through rate on a creative that used to perform.
Using Unity Ads for monetisation
If you publish games, integrate the Unity LevelPlay SDK, create ad units for rewarded video, interstitial and banner placements, and add other networks as mediation partners so they compete for each impression. Rewarded video generally earns the most player goodwill because the player opts in. Place it where players naturally want help, such as a retry after a failed level.
Common setup errors to avoid
Several problems show up again and again in new Unity accounts, and most of them are configuration rather than strategy.
- Launching before postbacks are verified: the campaign spends, but Unity sees no installs and cannot optimise.
- Using one bid across all countries: install values differ widely, so a single bid overpays in some markets and wins nothing in others.
- Testing only landscape video: much inventory is portrait, and a missing orientation limits reach.
- Moving to ROAS too early: with only a handful of purchases a week, the model has too little signal.
- Ignoring creative size limits: oversized playables can fail review or load slowly on mid-range Android phones.
It also helps to run a test build of your MMP integration and fire test events from a real device before launch. Ten minutes of checking saves days of spend with blind optimisation. When something looks off in reporting, compare install counts in the store console, the MMP and Unity; a gap of more than a small margin between them points to a tracking problem rather than a campaign one.
Finally, decide your evaluation window in advance. A puzzle game monetised by ads might judge campaigns on day-3 ad revenue, while a strategy game with in-app purchases may need day-14 or day-30 data. Writing that window down stops the team from pausing campaigns that would have paid back.
Where to start this week
Before creating a campaign, open your MMP and confirm Unity Ads postbacks are switched on for installs and for at least one revenue event. Then launch one CPI campaign in two countries with three creatives, including a playable. After seven days, compare day-7 retention by source app and block the weakest ones. That first cycle shows how to use Unity Ads on your own data rather than on assumptions.
Keep reading: Unity Ads · Advertising