What is Ad Refresh? Publisher Guide for Improving In-App Ad Yield

If you’re a publisher looking for methods to boost your ad yield, you should’ve come across ad refresh as a tool that may help you make additional revenue from the same ad units and users that visit your app. But what is ad refresh, and is it appropriate for your app? Continue reading to find out! We’ve collected answers to the burning questions publishers have on the subject below:

What Is Ad Refresh?

Ad Refresh, also known as auto ad refresh – wherein a new ad gets served to an existing ad unit. This technique aids publishers in showing more ads to a user in a single session. In other words, this method enables publishers to change ads without reloading the entire page. As a result, the number of ad impressions grows, as does the publisher’s ad revenue.

Types of Ad Refresh:

• Time-based – Here, the ad will get loaded after a preset time window, such as 15, 30, or 60 seconds. The trigger will activate whether or not the user is currently on the app. There is a chance that this may negatively influence ad viewability, and your app could bring in reduced ad revenue since advertisers are unwilling to spend money on units that are not getting seen.

• Event-based – The trigger for ad refresh here is an event started by the publisher. This type gets utilized when showing fresh content, such as game scores, stats, etc.

• Action-based – Here, ad refresh occurs when the user completes certain actions. Including user activities as a trigger assures the user is on the app page, and viewability ratings are much more than for time- and event-based refreshes.

Does Ad Refresh Affect Load Times?

In simple words, No. The first-app load time will be the same whether or not a refresh is enabled. Once ad refresh gets triggered, the app will only send a new set of queries to the ad server, which will use a little bit more bandwidth. So, while the ad refresh consumes more data, it does not affect the original app load time.

Will Ad Refresh lower your eCPM?

No. Your eCPM will not be affected if you refresh ads based on the acceptable preset settings. When/if you perform ad refresh based on preset settings approved by Google and all other ad exchanges, you’ll continue to get ad fills and generate incremental revenue.

Who is Ad Refresh for?

For example, one of their users spent three minutes on the app reading an article and two minutes watching a video, yet just one ad impression gets created for that session. As a result, despite the engaged users, the app generates reduced revenue because it can only offer to serve ads once. Ad refresh will have a beneficial influence on revenue generation here.

Apps with longer session durations are suited for using this technique, and when ad refresh gets employed for gaming apps, service-based apps, and educational apps, ad-yield increases.

Recommended Practices to Improve Ad Refresh:

As previously stated, your app’s ad revenue will suffer if one does not execute it right. So, here’s a list of practices to remember when incorporating ad refresh in your app:

• Only use ad refresh on apps with intriguing content.
• Do not reload too frequently. Make careful to stick to a duration of at least 15 seconds to ensure that your impression gets counted.
• A/B test with different types of triggers to learn which one works best for you.
• Track Revenue Per Session (RPS) as a success metric.
• Learn about your ad network policies to avoid policy breaches.
• Collaborate with the correct ad tech suppliers to enable ad refresh with minimum impact on inventory quality or eCPMs, or better yet, subscribe to ad mediation providers like AdPumb to bring in more ad yield for each of your ad units. AdPumb adheres to best practices to provide publishers with the most bang for their buck!

Wrapping up!

At AdPumb, we feel and believe that as long as publishers guarantee that both brands and users benefit from ad refresh, they may scale up ad revenue sustainably. If a publisher keeps the number of ad units and page load time at an optimal level, ad refresh can be the answer you have been searching for all along.