Is Waterfall Dead?

The Myth: bidding only setup is enough to get the most ad revenue for your mobile application.

Nowadays more ad mediations and ad networks will advise mobile developers like you to switch the entire ad monetization traffic to bidding. You will hear this from industry leaders like Admob, Unity Levelplay mediation (previously Ironsource), Applovin MAX and other mediation platforms.

The Results: eCPM is 35%+ higher and ad ARPDAU is 15%+ higher in a hybrid waterfall setup!

We have tested bidding only setups vs. hybrid waterfalls (i.e. bidding and traditional waterfall instances) and the winner is the hybrid setup bringing + 35% higher eCPM and + 15% higher ad ARPDAU. Below are the details for the AB testing method we used and the scope:

• Even split of the traffic: during the AB test we split the traffic evenly 50%:50%;
• 2 platforms: Android & iOS;
• 3 ad formats: Rewarded video, Interstitial, Banner;
• Different mediation platforms;
• Multiple mobile games; 
• Genres: Arcade, Action, Simulation, Casual;
• Period: Feb 15th - Apr 15th

A couple of graphs below visualize the significant advantage of the hybrid setup during all the time of AB testing. There’s no single day during which the bidding only setup would perform higher in terms of eCPM or ad ARPDAU.