Unity lost 15% of its advertisers after announcing new pricing policy
Developer anger and the loss of loyalty among partners are just a few of the consequences Unity faced when it revealed plans to start charging per-install fees. Advertisers have also turned away from the company.
PocketGamer reported the news, citing exclusive data obtained from the analytics company Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower found that a week after the Runtime Fee announcement, Unity Ads lost 15% of American advertisers.
The loss of clients didn’t stop there. Another 8% of advertisers abandoned the service just a week later. It’s worth noting that developers also published an open letter at the same time, announcing the discontinuation of monetization through Unity Ads and ironSource in response to the new pricing policy.
The situation only slightly improved in the third week after the Runtime Fee announcement. The number of advertisers increased by 5% after Unity presented a revised version of the fee (for example, the company decided not to charge for the downloads of games developed using the previous versions of the engine).
However, this growth turned out to be short-lived. In the absence of further news, the share of advertisers from the United States started falling again. It decreased by 7%. Clearly, the pricing policy adjustment did not change the opinions of Unity’s partners and clients about the situation as a whole.
Significant growth in the number of advertisers only began to emerge after the resignation of Unity’s CEO, John Riccitiello. After October 9, when it became known that Riccitiello was no longer with the company, the number of American advertisers using Unity Ads increased by 15%.
Interestingly enough, as our colleagues at PocketGamer noted, despite the significant disruptions that occurred at the company, the number of American advertisers using Unity’s advertising services at the end of September was higher than at the end of August, by 9%.
This growth is likely due to seasonal factors. August is traditionally a quieter month, while advertising expenses increase in September as companies prepare for upcoming holidays, including Halloween.
Against this backdrop, it would have been particularly interesting to see the results from September of the previous year, which Sensor Tower, sadly, did not provide. In any case, it’s obvious that there is a direct correlation between advertisers’ interest in the engine and the audience’s perception of it.
