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[CAMILLE] Hello and welcome everyone to the Unite Now session
on Navigating Monetization in iOS 14. Thanks for joining us.
My name is Camille Labat, and I'm a Senior Client Partner Manager
at Unity and also your lucky host for the day.
We're excited to have you join us, we have an important topic lined up
as we'll be discussing the IDFA, and ad-tracking changes
that are coming in iOS 14, and specifically how it relates
to game monetization and game publishers.
Throughout our discussion today, we'll touch on how Unity
is helping publishers prepare for the changes,
and the strategy and planning these publishers are implementing.
As this is a live session with limited time,
we'll not be taking questions during the webinar.
If you'd like to ask any questions in the chat, we'll work on
incorporating responses into our publisher resources on Unity.com
Also joining us to share their experience in preparing for iOS 14
is Sean Thompson, the VP of Production at Mobile Deluxe,
and a fantastic publisher partner of Unity's.
Sean has more than 16 years of experience working as a leader
in game development and mobile advertising,
and has worked with every type of mobile monetization mechanic:
prepaid, subscription, IAP, ads, you name it.
Before we get started though, let's quickly go over our agenda.
I'll be starting the discussion today with a quick refresher
on the IDFA and ad-tracking changes
coming in iOS 14 and its impact on publishers.
Next, I'll talk about how Unity is supporting publishers
navigating this change with resources and tools,
and finally, we'll get into our Fireside chat with Sean
on what strategies and planning Mobile Deluxe are considering
as they prepare. With that said, let's get into our session.
First, let's start with the basics of iOS 14 ad-tracking changes;
what is changing, why does it matter,
and importantly, what does it mean for publishers?
As I'm sure, most of you know IDFA is a unique identifier
for advertisers, given by Apple to user devices.
It helps advertisers track data to serve customized ads to users
without revealing personal information.
The data can be used to determine which in-game events a user triggers
and to attribute user interaction with advertising campaigns.
Right now, until the ads industry hears otherwise from Apple,
IDFA tracking is available on all users,
but they have given notice that the new iOS 14 will at some point
require opt-in action by any app users.
The framework that is supporting the opt-in requirement
is called AppTrackingTransparency or ATT,
which presents the tracking requests to users.
Also changing in iOS 14 is that Apple has made available
a new privacy-safe attribution framework called SKAdNetwork,
which is said to be the attribution framework moving forward.
SKAdNetwork changes what, how and when
attribution signals are sent to advertisers.
It goes without saying that these changes are expected
to have an impact on publisher monetization strategies.
While the ads industry has been moving towards this for some time already,
it has caused some uncertainty amongst publishers
as the countdown is now on for Apple to implement these changes.
While the overall impact on monetization remains to be seen,
a few things we can expect include:
opt-in rates will become an important goal
and publishers will need to test and strategize for opt-in
as the best way to continue with IDFA.
Publishers will also need to start testing how they work
with the new SKAdNetwork attribution framework
as this will be the framework of the future.
Finally, as behavioral targeting becomes more dependent
on tracking opt-in, publishers will need to start focusing on
what contextual signals they are able to send to advertisers.
At Unity, we've been preparing for increased privacy
in the ad world for some time, and with iOS 14 news,
we support a smooth transition for publishers and advertisers alike.
Here's how we're supporting publishers right now.
First, our newest SDK for Unity Ads is ready,
which is Version 3.5.1.
It's build to be iOS 14-compatible by functioning with ATT opt-in flow
and SKAdNetwork attribution.
Unity also allows game publishers to test the user experience
prior to the enforcement of iOS 14's new privacy guidelines
by providing access to iOS 14 APIs
via packages and made with Unity games.
Next, to support easy integration of plist files,
we've made a portal for networks across the ad industry
to submit their SKAdNetwork IDs to Unity.
We currently have over 40 IDs aggregated into one plist file
to make it easier for publishers to have all the common ones in place.
If you're a partner from a network and you want to submit
your SKAdNetwork ID to Unity for our plist,
then you can do so on the Unity Partner portal.
For publishers looking to access the aggregated file,
it can be easily found in the Unity Ads Knoweldge Base
in the iOS section of the SKAdNetwork subsection.
Finally, a new feature we're working on that's coming soon
will support reporting on ATT opt-in status.
Specifically, we're looking to provide an idea of CPM for users
with ATT-enabled versus not, to help publishers
evaluate revenue impact of the different segments.
Now that we've gone over a bit of a refresher
on what the iOS 14 ad-tracking changes are exactly,
what their impact might be and some ways
Unity is supporting publishers,
let's get to the more interactive portion of this session.
To hear about his experience first-hand, I am pleased to welcome
Sean Thompson from studio Mobile Deluxe
to discuss how they're thinking about and preparing
for these ad-tracing changes. Welcome Sean.
[SEAN] Hey, Camille, thank you for having me.
[CAMILLE] It's our pleasure to have you join us.
So, let's start with telling a bit about yourself and Mobile Deluxe.
[SEAN] Yeah. Mobile Deluxe is an L.A.-based studio.
We've been around working in mobile for 20 years,
so that's pre-iPhone. We go back to the flip-phone days.
We're focused on casual,
and over the years we've done licensed IP,
we've done internal IP, pretty much across the board.
Our most popular franchise is definitely
with over 20 million installs, life to date for that franchise.
For me personally, I am a VP of Production at Mobile Deluxe.
My responsibilities range from overseeing app development
to monetization and the likes.
[CAMILLE] That's impressive. Your team produces a lot of great games,
and obviously seen a lot of evolution
in the mobile ad space over that time.
You're the perfect guest to give our audience some insight.
As you know, iOS 14 has obviously been
the hot topic in the ads industry as of late.
The iOS 14 update rolled out to developers in September,
but the specific changes regarding user opt-ins
for cross-app tracking permissions were delayed until early next year.
Before we get into the details, what are your general thoughts
about iOS 14 and its effect on publishers?
[SEAN] Our first reaction was definitely one of trepidation.
Most of our revenue as a company comes from ads,
so a big revenue drop; a 50% revenue drop
which is what people are talking about, would be a big deal for us.
Additionally, Q4 is actually our biggest revenue quarter of the year
due to the seasonality of ads, so seeing that happen
in Q4 is something we're really worried about.
So just on its face right there, moving it from Q4 to Q1
is already a win from our perspective
because we keep that Q4 fully intact.
And I also think more time for the mobile community
is also a big win so that's been a positive.
Our second reaction was a little more inquisitive.
Does our audience demographic,
does it work better with contextual targeting, which means
we can actually hold our revenue better
when iOS 14 fully takes effect?
We're also wondering if we can implement SKAdNetwork
in such a way that it gives us a leg-up on our competitors.
That's what we quickly did to make the most out of the situation.
[CAMILLE] It sounds like you're asking the right questions
and I'm sure that those watching have considered similar things.
Getting into a little bit more detail. How long would you say
you've been preparing for the changes?
[SEAN] As soon as the change was announced, we started
discussing it immediately with all of our ad partners.
It became the preface to every single call that we had
with the ad network is iOS 14, IDFA, SKAdNetwork.
That was definitely the topic of conversation.
From an actual timeline perspective, by early August,
we were working on the plan for IDFA opt-in flow.
We were designing the screens, working through those mocks.
By mid-August, we're working on SKAdNetwork design,
and then began implementing it when all the rumors came out
that the deadline was going to be pushed.
[CAMILLE] Nice. It seems that the Mobile Deluxe team
was certainly proactive and that preparedness will pay off next year.
As you say, to help weather the storm better than most.
Moving on, I'm sure we're all curious about if your
overall monetization strategy changes in any meaningful way
as a result of iOS 14 or is it mostly just a matter of playing
the same game under a few different rules?
[SEAN] Immediately, our goal is to adapt as well as possible.
We, as a company, are relatively nimble.
That's how we've survived as long as we have,
all the transitions that we've seen in the mobile industry.
But ad monetization is absolutely our bread-and-butter right now
so we just keep optimizing to make sure
we're maximizing revenue from that perspective.
But at app-specific level, we are looking at our current apps
at ways to boost the priority of subscriptions
and IAP-related features due to this change.
Additionally, we're looking at design changes
that might tie into SKAdNetwork optimization such as
a clearly defined funnel for evaluating conversion values,
something we're very strongly looking at.
At the broader company level, this absolutely impacts our roadmap
and our strategy going forward. It has to play into it.
So we are keeping this in mind and watching the changes.
We'll just see how that impacts the roadmap going forward.
[CAMILLE] Sounds like those are some solid, strategic moves.
On a more nuanced level, can you share any key things
that you've been doing or still plan to do in order
to prepare for Apple's new tracking permissions early next year?
[SEAN] Yeah, it comes down for us to two key areas.
We're talking about IDFA opt-in flow and SKAdNetwork optimization.
For IDFA opt-in flow, we have to balance the user experience
with our goal of getting as many users as possible opted in.
We're going to have AB test running
with a couple of variations on it to find the right combination
of messaging and timing to really get that balance right.
For SKAdNetwork, I would plan to get our implementation
up and running, and shipped this month,
so that we can run in parallel with the current user level attribution.
We really think that'll help us to get SKAdNetwork optimized
as much as possible before the user-level attribution goes away.
[CAMILLE] Well, I'm sure this has been a massively
collaborative effort right at Mobile Deluxe.
Who were the teams and some of the stakeholders
that have been getting involved in getting you as ready as you can be?
[SEAN] It's been a whole team effort. Production and engineering
are absolutely dealing with all of the in-app issues,
so the IDFA opt-in design and implementation is 100% them,
the SKAdNetwork design and implementation, and ad ops
and UA are really also involved from a partner communication,
and the planning and a strategic stand-point,
so it's been a whole company effort to get this ready.
[CAMILLE] Nice. Aside from your internal teams,
I'm sure you've also worked with your ad supply partners
to ensure they're ready as well.
How have you been vetting or evaluating the readiness
of the partners you currently work with?
[SEAN] Frequency of communication is key for us here.
As I said, it was a topic of conversation immediately
once we started hearing about it.
With a lot of ad network partners, we have bi-weekly or monthly calls
so we can just continue to keep that conversation going.
We definitely noticed that some partners, such as Unity,
are ahead at the curve and really pushing us to be ready
for iOS14, so we really appreciate that.
[CAMILLE] Can you share what have been some of the biggest challenges
of the past few months since Apple first made their announcement?
[SEAN] The tight timeline, that was the biggest challenge.
For us to execute our changes and personally as a company,
and for the entire industry to change how they approach attribution;
this touches a lot of people in the mobile industry.
So to try and execute that on a tight timeline,
was 100% the biggest challenge.
There was that week where we heard private and public rumors
about this getting pushed and that was a little tricky for us
because we were really close to the deadline there,
so we had to decide whether to continue making that
our only priority to get it implemented
or whether we could actually work on some other
high-priority engineering tasks for our company.
I would say the biggest challenge is adapting our mental approach
now that we think we have a handle around the technical aspects of it.
But the mental approach to how we approach attribution,
making sure that we're optimizing as best we can.
We'll keep appraised of any changes that happen
and to continue to hone in on how we want to do this.
[CAMILLE] Yeah, so much adapting. So after these changes take effect,
how do you plan to monitor or evaluate your performance?
- You kind of touched on that. - Yeah, so this is it.
[SEAN] This is the heart of the matter. At the end of the day,
we still need to evaluate cohort ROAS, return on ad spend,
and we need to optimize our creatives in our campaigns.
As it stands right now, we have the same data set
and similar BI dashboards
for that ROAS evaluation for the creative campaign evaluation.
It is very granular. We look at stuff on the user level
and aggregate it up as needed into the different slices.
User-level attribution allows KPI, Key Performance Indicator evaluation
against channel-specific benchmarks so we can actually look at
our UA source channel-by-channel and evaluate their KPIs
in addition to the campaign and creative level.
And it helps us optimize UA spend across sources and within sources,
so we think it's pretty effective right now.
In the future, it's definitely going to be a bifurcated approach.
This is our current thinking.
We're going to split it into two types of analysis.
Among ROAS, we'll move more towards a full daily cohort evaluation.
We won't have the granularity of users within a day,
so we will be looking at that day on a whole
and what that return on ad spend looks like.
SKAdNetwork and smart implementation of the conversion value
should allow us to keep evaluating campaign
and we'll see that creative metrics from that perspective.
It's taking what is now a big mass of data that we're using for both
and figuring out how in the future we can use different data sets
to keep both of those analyses going forward.
The final product still remains TBD as we get to the actual onset
of implementation but that's where we are right now.
[CAMILLE] Yeah, we're certainly hearing a lot about cohort evaluation
so we expect that to continue as we move forward in this path.
Getting into our final question before we wrap things up,
are there any other key learnings you'd like to convey to publishers
who might be questioning their overall readiness
or are scrambling towards the finish line?
[SEAN] I think the biggest thing is to take advantage of the resources
that are out there because there are some great resources
on the current situation and the future situation.
For example, Eric Seufert puts out an amazing content
at Mobile Dev Memo. If you're not reading everything
that he is posting on IDFA, you're making a mistake.
You should go and check it out and especially
talking about conversion value optimization,
which is going to be one of the huge factors for success
when SKAdNetwork launches. So go read what he's talking about
on conversion value and the way to set it up properly.
Additionally, I would say Peggy Anne Salz and John Koetsier,
and all of your IDFA, SKAdNetwork changes, they've got good stuff.
I personally have a Twitter list of mobile people,
which pops up some good content.
And just keep your ears and eyes open,
and watch for the conversations happening within the industry.
[CAMILLE] Definitely. I follow some of those folks as well.
It's some great advice; definitely focusing on opt-in
is certainly a strong way to maintain the IDFA environment
for many publishers are accustomed to. So nice to hear that.
Well, thank you again, Sean for taking the time today to discuss
this super important topic, and we hope we can have you again
for another insightful Fireside chat.
[SEAN] Thank you, Camille. It's pleasure working with Unity,
and very happy to be here.
[CAMILLE] To wrap up today's session, a few takeaways and summary.
First, focusing on IDFA opt-in flow to try to get ahead
of other publishers, and to continue with enabled app tracking.
Second, would be starting right away to optimize for SKAdNetwork,
while you can still run comparisons to the current environment.
Next, would be staying informed on what's coming,
when Apple will make the changes official
and learning from what publishers and experts in the space
are trying to do per Sean's earlier suggestion.
And if you haven't already, do take advantage of support from Unity
by downloading and setting up the Unity Ads SDK 3.5.1,
which is iOS 14 ready, using our aggregated plist of SKAdNetwork IDs
and finally keeping an eye out for our ATT reporting feature,
which will be coming soon and be widely available
on the Unity Monetization dashboard.
Thanks. So we do encourage everyone to check out some of
our additional resources in the Unity Ads Knowledge Base,
which includes our iOS 14 Publisher's Guide
and the plist and SDK links.
That's it for today's Unite Now session.
We hope you found it valuable and can join us again in the future.
For more Unite Now sessions that might interest you, please visit
resources.unity.com/unitenow to sign up. Thank you.
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