AdMob interstellar ad dropped for 99%, but sessions numbers(usage) are the same?

Question

For few years I have one iOS app that is making around 0.5 - 1$ per day on average, from an interstellar ad that is shown only once (40 seconds after the app is started).

This app was developed in the middle of 2014, updated few times till middle of 2015 and never touched again.

App always had around 500 till 1000 sessions per day, even today.

In AdMob I have noticed that after 28.1.2018, impressions(number of ads shown to the user) have dropped for 99% percent. Literally in one week.

On average I had 200 impressions per day, now I do not have more than 5 per day.

I know this is not the programming question, but did not have any place elsewhere to ask?

Does somebody else also have this problem or some theory what happened ?

I do not care for 0.5$ per day I am curious what happened.

My assumption is that AdMob changed soemthing with an interstellar ad in iOS apps, but did not found anything by googling. Like some official release.

Internationale

Did the revenue decrease? – Antebellum

accordingly, it went down by 99% same as impressions – Internationale

Frankly my apps impression and revenue is working as expected. May be, they would be having a system in which they would detect account with low impression/earnings for a long period of time and they would be providing less ads/giving less preference or low earning ads. Just a wild guess as it has been mentioned by you that there has been no update to the app. If you have any other account / app check its earning and impressions. – Antebellum

On others app, earning and impressions are the same for last 4 year. Only on this one, I had 99% drop. – Internationale

Is the earning proper on the other apps. Can you please tell the number of impressions your other apps are getting. – Antebellum

others app where popular, no not so much in use, the always had like 5 impressions per day. – Internationale

Sorry then I have no clue what is the issue. But I am offering a Bounty let's hope someone can answer this interesting question. – Antebellum

Answer 1

More than 90% of iOS users have now switched to iOS 10, including around 15% of users who have activated LAT. Therefore, it is expected that 1 out of 5 iOS users will be a LAT user soon.

The purpose of Apple’s Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) feature is to improve user privacy. This doesn't prevent the ads from placing, it prevents the ads from using specific data to target the user.

When it comes to adMob, there's different demand pipes:

1. One is for targeted ads. The advertisers buy against demographics they bid $5000 to advertise to 10000 women between 20-25 or something like that. This is the much higher revenue and form and the much more common way.

2. I don't care who I am advertising to, here is $20 show my ad to 10000 people. This untargeted ad type is much much cheaper but usually has shitty results for the advertisers so it is becoming rarer.

When a user limits ad tracking they get put into that second bucket which makes it pretty likely that they may not get ads at all and this can explain your problem.

Northwesterly

Thanks for the answer. But as mentioned by the Original poster that his other apps are working fine. Any suggestion? – Antebellum

The first link, regarding switching from iOS 9 to 10 I really do not see how does it apply to the situation from the original question? The switch happened at end of 2016 and problems from original question appeared at the beginning of 2018. That is more than one year difference. Regarding 2 demand pipes for adMob: this makes more sense, but than I do not understand few things. Why did it not happen before and why other apps are not affected? I would expect that apps from other users would be affected also? – Internationale