Why do apps with in-app advertising (IAA) love Tenjin?

So, there is a lot of fraud sometimes that is happening through you know, user acquisition channels. And what that ends up doing is a certain a certain fraud user would just be generating a multiple number of ad impressions which is not real ad revenue. But it is going to be reported in your ad mediation revenue because remember remember we're getting this directly from the mediation SDK. So, because it's coming directly from the mediation provider and if there's like an inflated number of ad ad impressions that a fraud user generated, your ad mediation revenue is going to look inflated. But the ad revenue, which is now coming from the reporting API on the ad network side, is not going to be inflated because that's the actual revenue that you've made from these users.
Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of ROI 101. Uh today we will be talking about why apps that monetize through ads love using Tenjin.

I'm your host Tabarak and joining me today is Anurag. Uh Anurag, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Tenjin?
Yep. Hi everyone. My name is Anurag. Uh I'm a senior customer success manager here at Tenjin. I sort of help customers onboard to our product, uh get them set up, run uh user acquisition campaigns, and also help them uh troubleshoot with any technical issues that they have, with data issues, or any data discrepancy issues. So, yeah. That's pretty much what I do.
Great. Thanks. Thanks, Anurag. Let's get started. So, yeah, as I said, today we will be talking about why apps that um monetize through ads love using Tenjin. Um so, Anurag, uh I wanted to ask you a few questions. Uh my first question to you is um what are the different kinds of ad revenue sources we have or report in Tenjin?
Yeah, so this is pretty unique to what Tenjin does. We source ad revenue from

two different sources. Um one is something called as the ad mediation revenue. This is the revenue that we get directly from the mediation SDK. So mostly most developers would have some sort of a mediation uh provider that they're using like Max, Unity Level Play. So the ad mediation revenue is the revenue that we get directly from the mediation SDK from the Tenjin SDK side. And then the second type of ad revenue that we have is the ad revenue through the monetization channels API. So what this does is we call all the reporting APIs of all of your monetization channels and pull up this data uh on an aggregated basis and then allocate this ad revenue to different UA campaigns in Tenjin. So these are the two like different uh sources that we use on Tenjin.
Got it. And um I think Tenjin is the only provider that uh reports two sorts of ad revenue

sources. Is that correct?
Yeah, that is right. So mostly in the market all MMPs would probably be relying on the ad mediation revenue, the revenue that comes directly from the mediation provider. Uh but Tenjin is uniquely the only uh MMP that gives this flexibility and this complete coverage of all of your ad revenue sources. So we're the only ones who will you know, on our dashboard give you the option to look at the ad mediation revenue and also the revenue that's coming from these reporting APIs.
Right. Right. Yeah, I know we get a lot of questions on this topic. Um so we wanted to do this video. And so moving forward, I want to talk about how the two sorts of ad revenues are calculated. And then uh we will talk a bit about how they're reported in the Tenjin dashboard, and then also about what the different use cases are for each type of ad revenue.

So, um, moving forward, as I said, first we want to talk about how each ad revenue source, uh, is calculated in Tenjin. So, Anurag, can you tell us a bit about how the ad revenue via channels API is calculated?
Yeah, sure. So, for the ad revenue via channels API, what we're doing essentially is, as I as I said, we're looking at pulling all of this data from the reporting APIs of each of these, uh, ad networks. So, what we do is we pull the total ad revenue that we see for a certain, uh, app on a certain date and and a certain country. And then we pull this from all different APIs and aggregate it on the Tenjin side. And then this is getting allocated to each user acquisition campaign. So, if you were to look at an example of this, um, this is pretty much a very basic understanding of how it works on Tenjin. So, let's say you have, uh, an app that made a total revenue total ad revenue of $20 on a certain date on a certain

country. And then we saw, uh, a number of sessions for each of these, uh, user acquisition channels that you have. So, what we're doing is we're just allocating this amount of $20 ad revenue that we have and proportionally dividing it based on the number of sessions we saw for each of the user acquisition channels. So, in this example, if you can see, you know, Meta had 30 sessions, Google Ads had 40 sessions, and users in Mintegral had 30 sessions. So, what we're doing is we're taking that $20 ad revenue, and if you look at the formula on the right side of the slide, um, we're just dividing it, um, by the total number of sessions and the sessions for each of these channels, and then just allocating this ad revenue, um, for each user acquisition channel. So, then it would come down to like $6 for Meta ad revenue based on the 30 sessions that we saw, eight for Google Ads and six for Mintigral. So, this is a pretty simplified version of how it works, but this is at the core of the concept, like the calculation that we use for the allocation.
Mhm. Okay. So, just to reiterate then,

we receive this data from the channels APIs on the app and country level.
Yeah.
Um and then we allocate it further using this formula based on sessions, we allocate it to campaign and source ID.
That is correct, yeah. So, it's coming in as an aggregated revenue ad revenue on the Tenjin side from the API, and then the number of sessions is what we use as a deterministic metric to to sort of divide it for each user acquisition channel on the use on the user acquisition side.
Right. Got it. Okay. So, that's how ad revenue via channels APIs calculated. Next I wanted to ask you, how is the ad mediation revenue calculated?
Yeah. So, now that we covered the channels API ad revenue and how we get it and calculate it, the ad mediation

revenue, as I mentioned before, is something that comes directly from the mediation SDK. So, let's say a developer has the Tenjin SDK into their app, and they're probably also using a mediation provider like let's say AppLovin MAX or Unity LevelPlay or many out there. So, what the Tenjin SDK is able to do is it's able to fetch this ad mediation revenue at the impression level from the mediation SDK directly. And what what it's called is it's called as the impression level ad revenue ILRD. So, we are able to pull up pull this ad impression and the ad revenue directly from the mediation SDK. And then, because we have seen that user on the user acquisition side, we just allocate or just assign that revenue to that user and aggregate it down to the campaign level and then the app level. Um so, that's pretty much how the the the the reporting of ad mediation revenue works. So, each each of your ad impressions has a revenue value attached to it because that's the winning bid,

right? That the mediation provider gave that specific ad impression the winning bid. It has an assigned revenue value. So, we just get that at the impression level, aggregate it for that user at the campaign channel and then the app level.
Mhm. Got it. All right. So, now that we've talked about how both of them both of the ad revenue sources how they're calculated, I wanted to also jump into how we report the two kinds of ad revenue.
Yeah.
And one thing we do with the ad revenue via channel's API that is pretty unique to Tangle is that we have a dedicated ad monetization report. So, I think that this report actually should resemble what our users or our clients would see in their mediation like AppLovin Max or Level Play.

But Anurag, can you tell us what's different here?
Yeah, so one of the cool things is that this is a pretty easy setup on Tangle. So, to look at this this dashboard on Tangle, your ad monetization dashboard, you all all you got to do is just add of all of your monetization channels on Tangle and then Tangle just handles pulling all of this from the reporting API on a daily hourly basis and then aggregating it for each for each ad network. Um so, the setup is pretty easy and one of the differences that you have here which is not on your mediation side is that we're using this data for the allocation method. So, what you're seeing over here is the reported ad revenue, uh the impressions that we're getting from these reporting APIs, and this is the exact amount of money that we're using to allocate on the user acquisition channel. Um and one of the good things of that is that this revenue is your daily payouts, right? So, this is the actual ad revenue that you made on that particular date. The money that actually

actually came into your app because of the ads that the users uh saw. So, that's one of the cool things where you were able to use this data directly uh from these monetization channels, and then just use it for allocation.
Mhm. All right. And the other thing I wanted to mention is that this report is completely free, right? So, um if anyone wants to use this like in addition to their mediation, um it's it's free. You just add your ad revenue channels, and we don't charge for it. Um sign up is free as well. Um yeah, just wanted to add that too. Okay. So, um now I also wanted to talk about how we report on the ad mediation revenue, and um this report is basically available in our overview or user acquisition report. And um

we have like different cohorts, I think from day zero to day 365. And we report also um we take the ad mediation revenue further and calculate metrics based on this, such as LTV, ROS, and ROI.
Yeah, that's right. So, um as we discussed before, we're getting this ad mediation revenue from the mediation SDK for each impression uh like impression level ad revenue, and then we're are it to these user acquisition campaigns and channels on the overview side on the user acquisition side. And then we're also able to calculate a lot of these downstream metrics such as your cohorted LTV, cohorted ROI, and cohorted ROAS, which obviously you can use for your bidding optimizations and sort of understand the performance of your user acquisition channels. So, yeah, we calculate a lot many different metrics, which is all available on the Tenjin dashboard when you start using it. Um sort of gives you the flexibility

of choosing whichever ad mediation revenue metric that you want to use for optimizing on your campaigns.
Right. Um yeah, so the other thing I also wanted to mention and talk to you about is that we also report both of these different sources of ad revenue alongside each other in the user acquisition report. And um So, in this image here that we put together, you can see there's a slight discrepancy between the two sources of ad revenue or the two sources of ad revenue. So, Anurag, can you tell us like why we might notice such a discrepancy and which type of ad revenue source is more accurate?
Yeah, so this is a very common question that people would usually ask is I see both these ad revenues, they don't line up, or what's the difference, which one

is more accurate? So, I would say that it's both are accurate. They just use different logics for calculation. So, it's not necessarily that one is more accurate than the other. The idea is to give you you know access and insight into all the sources of ad revenue that exist. Um and one of the main reasons also you would see this difference is because the logic of calculation is different. Like so, how we discussed before, the ad revenue is using session-based allocation, while the ad mediation revenue is coming directly from the impressions that we see. So, on on a on a theoretical level, they should be very similar because more number of sessions generate more number of impressions. So, that So, it would be similar, but it cannot always be a 100% match because the the calculation logic becomes completely different. And also, the mediation would be reporting on a different time zone sometimes. So, that there would be these differences. But, one of the most important reasons for

differences that usually most of our customers use it is for detecting fraud. So, there is a lot of fraud sometimes that is happening through you know, user acquisition channels. And what that ends up doing is a certain a certain fraud user would just be generating a multiple number of ad impressions, which is not real ad revenue. But, it is going to be reported in your ad mediation revenue because remem- remember, we're getting this directly from the mediation SDK. So, because it's coming directly from the mediation provider, and if there's like an inflated number of ad ad impressions that a fraud user generated, your ad mediation revenue is going to look inflated. But, the ad revenue, which is now coming from the reporting API on the ad network side, is not going to be inflated because that's the actual revenue that you've made from these users. So, sometimes what would happen is you would see this big difference um in in the in the numbers, and that kind of helps a lot of our customers understand where um fraud is coming from or to just debug a little more to

understand if they can somehow prevent fraud from happening. So, that's one of the bigger um use cases for looking at it together.
Right. So, just to like summarize then, it's correct to assume that if the discrepancy between the two is too large, that means there is fraud. Like so, um there's something going on with the ad mediation revenue.
Potentially, potentially there is um fraud that's happening. And also, uh they can always look back at an integration issue, um something on the mediation side that was not integrated correctly. So, there are multiple reasons, obviously, but yeah, fraud is always like a hot topic and it happens quite often. So, that definitely is one of the main use cases.
Mhm. Got it. So, I guess this is a use case or benefit of having both the the types of ad revenue sources in one place. Um but can you also talk a bit about the benefits of each different

sort of ad revenue source?
Uh yeah, sure. So, as I said, uh so just starting with ad revenue, for example, um so ad revenue, as I said, is from the channels API. Um it's a great um metric to look as a benchmarking number when you're looking at your mediation um numbers. And um a lot of times there might be ad networks that you've you're using separately outside of the mediation provider uh that you have, like your stack might not have that ad network in the mediation side. So, it's always a another source that you have that you can use to look at um where your ad revenue is coming from. Yeah.
Yeah.
Um so, so ad revenue that way becomes an extremely important metric um that you use along with your mediation tool. And sometimes you might just be using monetization on a couple of ad networks. You're not using a mediation SDK, for example, for, you know, you don't have a what stack that's added in your mediation side. So, so, but you still want to use that ad

revenue and see your LTV and how you can optimize UA. So, that's when the ad revenue metric becomes extremely useful. Um ad mediation revenue, as I said, um is coming from the mediation side directly. So, this is going to be in parity with what mediation is what your mediation provider is reporting. Um so, it it is important for you to look at that metric as well because that's what your mediation is telling you. So, we're using that number or that ad revenue and then doing all of these downstream metric calculations of uh cohorted uh metrics um for again your UA optimization. And one of the bigger benefits of the ad mediation revenue actually is that we send we're able to send all of this ad revenue back to your user acquisition channels um for ROAS campaigns. So, ROAS campaigns as you know are extremely popular. A lot of ad networks usually um encourage customers to run ROAS campaigns. Um and that's when uh they require a a certain volume of ad impressions and ad revenue coming in

from their MMP so that they can optimize based on that volume and uh help with your ROAS campaigns. So, the ad mediation revenue on Tenjin is what gets sent back to these ad networks. So, uh in our in our system, we collect this from the mediation SDK and we send it back actually in real time. So, every time we're collecting all of the ad impressions and the ad revenue from the mediation SDK, it is being sent back to these ad networks. So, that's one of the bigger benefits of using the ad mediation revenue.
Right. Yeah, so uh I actually prepared a slide for this uh as well to kind of explain how the flow goes. Um so, yeah, one of the benefits as Anuraag mentioned is uh ad revenue ROAS campaigns for um the ad mediation. Um the ad revenue we get from your mediation. And um yeah, so how it works is that um as a developer or a Tenjin user, you would set up ad revenue callbacks with Tenjin and we basically would fetch um

this uh impression level revenue data um via the mediation SDK and we send that data uh via callbacks to your ad network that optimizes your performance and um uh, improves your campaign performance overall. Um and we also have uh, if you haven't seen already a wonderful case study on this um, on how Yummy Studio um, a studio in Vietnam actually used Tenjin's ad revenue callbacks to optimize their ROAS campaigns. And um, yeah, it was pretty successful. So, yeah, I'll share a link to this case study in case uh, anyone is interested in how real users um, make use of um, ROAS cam ad mediation revenue data um, further optimizing their ROAS campaigns.

Great. So, that's all from our side. Thank you so much Anurag uh, for your time. And um, yeah, if uh, anyone is interested in more similar content, uh, you can like and subscribe to this channel. And um, yeah, we'll we'll keep the content going. Thank you.
Thanks to Barack. Thanks, guys.