DAU and DAV sharp drop after update to lite SDK

[MatJB]

In July we updated our app and switched from using the non-lite SDK to the lite SDK. Immediately after the update, the AdMob User Activity Report started to show a sharp drop in the Daily Active User (DAU) and Daily Ad Viewers (DAV) (as can be seen on the graph attached).

We didn’t give it much importance at the time, as our revenue didn’t seem to have changed, and we thought it was a problem in the generation of the User Activity Report, as the AdMob Network Report showed a normal number of impressions and revenue.

Unfortunately this changed on October 12th, when our clicks suddenly dropped to zero, and they have remained on zero since then, despite the fact that the impressions continued in normal values.

Now we ask ourselves if any of these events may be related in any way.

July’s update was our last update.

The SDK that we are using now is the following:

com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite:20.2.0

Before that we used the following SDK:

com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.8.0

Any ideas of what could have happened that the DAU and DAV were affected in this way?

Could there be any relation with our change from non-lite to lite SDK?

Any help is more than welcome.

Thanks!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi MatJB,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Let me do the best I can to assist you in this.

It's odd that you're getting a sharp drop in your upon changing to lite SDK. It will be hard for us to debug this as this is a unique issue which we didn't received from other publisher. I could see that you're using a slightly old version of the SDK. With this, would it be possible for you to upgrade to the latest version 20.4.0, then monitor if the behavior persists? 

Regards,

Teejay Wennie Pimentel Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[MatJB]

Hi Teejay,

Thanks for the quick reply.

We’ll try to do an update in the coming weeks.

Should we expect exactly the same behavior with the lite and non-lite SDKs?

As we are only publishing on the Google Play Store, do you suggest we use the lite SDK or there could be some slight difference and may be better to try again with the non-lite?

While using the non-lite SDK we never had a single problem.

For future reference I want to add that our clicks seem to be processed normally by our app, as they appear on the reports for a couple of hours, but they are later removed/filtered because of some unknown reason. We never had any policy violations so we are clueless why this is happening.

Thanks!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi MatJB,

Thank you for this additional information. Just to let you know we do not handle issues involving metrics of the ads and information related to accounts and ad serving. If you are building a lite android app and using that technology then we would suggest using the Admob Lite SDK . From our understanding, yes there is a chance that results can be different as there are things that could cause changes to ad serving, in a very general sense.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[MatJB]

Hi William,

If there’s a chance that results can be different, we better try again using the non-lite SDK to see if everything returns to normal.

Thanks!

[MatJB]

Hi Google Team!
This is an update after upgrading our app last week (Nov 15th).

We returned to using the non-lite SDK and the behavior in the DAU and DAV values has been as we suspected.
Immediately after the upgrade you can see (in the attached image) a sharp increase in the number of DAU and DAV, so it is evident that there is some problem here, as it is the inverse of what happened when we started using the lite-SDK.

The percentage of upgraded devices until now is around 70%, so we expect these values to slowly continue increasing in the coming weeks.

I also attach an image of the Impressions where you can see that they remained, during the period involved, approximately inside the 4k to 6k range.

What do you think?

Could it be an SDK problem or a data processing problem?
Was it just a problem on that particular SDK version or could it be a generalized behavior when moving from non-lite to lite?

We would have loved to continue using the lite-SDK to keep our app size as small as possible, but until this is solved we better avoid it.

The SDK versions involved are:
Non-lite (before July 5): com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.8.0
Lite SDK (between July 5 and Nov 15): com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite:20.2.0
Non-lite (from Nov 15): com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:20.4.0

Thanks!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi MatJB,

Thank you for the response. In looking over this, yes, it is possible that because of using the Lite SDK that you will see this. If you consider the Lite nature of the SDK. This could be resulting in a lowering of the DAU/DAV. But as we do not have full scope of ad serving. This is just a general comment.

[MatJB]

Hi!

I want to state that our Ads’ Match Rate always remained above 75% (see attached image), and we didn’t notice any negative impact on its value after starting to use the Lite SDK… so the ads seem to have been served normally.

If you take a look closely at the DAV values (see attached image), it almost reached zero (a value of only one during several days).

It seems that the Lite SDK version of our app was being completely ignored by the DAV calculation, and it was only taking into account the remaining ad viewers of our previous app version (non-Lite SDK).

That theory seems to be verified by looking at the installed audience graph (see attached image), where it is evident how the DAV seems to almost copy the non-Lite SDK app installations.

Hope this information helps you review how these indicators are being generated as there seems to be a problem.

Take into account that this issue not only could be impacting these indicators, but also in some other places.

Since October 12th, despite no change was done to the app and no policy violations, our clicks suddenly started to be completely filtered (our CTR dropped to zero) ... and this could be a consequence of the AdMob algorithm getting confused with some of the data described in this post that may be interpreted as contradictory or invalid.

Please, be so kind to take a look at this case, as it may be related with lots of other CTRs suddenly dropping to zero that I've read about in this Forum and in the AdMob Community.

Take into account that lots of developers and starting companies are being damaged by this behavior as it directly impacts our revenues.

If you need any other information, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi MatJB,

Thank you for bringing this additional information to our attention. As Staed earlier, while we do not have scope of the ad serving as well as the logic or algorithms that are used in it. There does seem to be some correlations. What is causing this? That we do not and can not answer. That is why we have mentioned that you reach out to our Product Support Team . As they have the tools to better look into this for you.

[Matias Battistello]

Hi William,
We’ve tried to contact the AdMob Product Support Team on several occasions, but they never answered.
I attach a Support Ticket from the beginning of November.

AdMob Product Support has been by far the worst support we’ve received from Google.

This is seriously affecting our business.
Could you please help us so that someone on the Product Support Team can contact us?

Thank you very much!

Regards,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Matias,

Thank you for your response.

I'm sorry to hear that you're having troubles in contacting our Product Support Team. I understand that there is an urgency in your concern. However, they are the appropriate team who can help you around as this is more of an ad serving performance issues. What I can recommend for now is to wait for them to respond to you. We hope that you get a positive response from them the soonest time possible.

Regards,

Princess Pamela Pineda Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[MatJB]

Hi everyone,

It’s been a month since we opened a ticket on this issue and we have had no answer from the Google AdMob Product Support Team.
Can anyone from the AdMob SDK Team help us to escalate this issue?

Thanks,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Mat,

Let me see what I can do, I will bring this to my team to look into and see if they have anything else that they can do.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[MatJB]

Hi Willliam,
Let me know if you need the ticket number and I’ll send it directly to you.
Thanks,
Mat

[twinkle...@gmail.com]

Hello,

When migrating from lite version 19.8.0 to 20.2.0, my app does not load ads successfully. It also does not log any errors in logcat. In my testing, in my case, it seems that simply neither method in the AdLoadCallback gets called. However when I switch to 'play-services-ads:20.2.0' ads are loading.

I saw this thread and wonder if this could be the same problem. MatJB, when you released your app with lite 20.2.0, did your team get ads loading during test?

[MatJB]

Hi!

We didn't seem to have problems with ads not being shown. If you look at the graphs on the reports of my first post you will see that the impressions didn't change.

If ads hadn't been shown impressions should have dropped, and they didn't.

Our problems seemed to have been related with data processing from Google's side.

In an attempt to solve those problems, in our last app update we returned to use the non-lite SDK with which some of those data processing problems had been solved since then, but our clicks are still being completely filtered for no reason.

In our next upgrade it is highly probable that we will try to solve the click problems by generating and using new Ad Units, as we suspect the AdMob algorithm may be buggy and is still being confused with our first change from non-lite to lite SDK and it's interpreting good clicks as invalid ones in some unknown way.

Regards,

Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thanks for reaching out. Our team is now reviewing the issue.

To help with our investigation, could you please provide the following information:

• Publisher ID
• App ID
• Ad Unit ID
• Google Mobile Ads SDK version
• Mediation adapter type and version being used (if any)
• Screenshot of the whole AdMob Network report that shows the issue. The screenshot should show the filters applied, estimated earnings, impressions and clicks, and summary table. Please also indicate the date and time you take the screenshot, plus the timezone you are in. In that case we can dive into that specific time frame during the investigation.
•  

Thanks!


Regards,
Joshua

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[MatJB]

Hi Joshua!
On February 4th we sent you a private reply (reply to author) with all the information you asked.
Did you receive it?

On the other hand, around Wednesday of last week we started seeing more than 10 banner clicks per day, every day, and we thought you may have found and solved something.
Unfortunately, we found out today that they have been completely removed.

Could you give us some feedback?

This is really disconcerting.
We’ve been suffering this for more than four months!

Thanks,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

I have been constantly following up and have already bumped the priority of the issue for the engineering team to investigate.

I will get back to you with more findings within this week.

Thanks!


Regards,
Joshua

 

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[MatJB]

Perfect. Thanks!

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua,
We didn’t receive any news from your side (as promised), or any other Google representative.

Clicks continue being processed some days of the week and after a few days they are totally removed (see attached images).

On the images you will see a detail from the 22nd to the 27th of February.

Comparing both images it becomes more than clear that there is a problem and that it hasn't been solved yet.

Soon it will be 5 months (!!!) since this problem started.

Regards,
Mat

On Monday, February 14, 2022 at 3:23:59 PM UTC-3 mobileadssdk wrote:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Sorry for the delayed response.

We would still need to look into the data in-depth to understand what is the underlying cause.

We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

[MatJB]

Thanks Joshua!

We really appreciate your help.

Yesterday clicks started appearing again, as at the end of February. Hope this time they don't get "magically" removed after a few days.

I attach an image of it.

Regards,

Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thanks for the additional screenshot.

According to your previous email, you indicated that on November 15th the indicators' issue was solved.

So DAU/DAV is not an issue, but click still is, correct?

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua,
Correct. DAU & DAV returned to reasonable values almost immediately after we returned to use the non-lite SDK on November 15th.
That is explained in detail in my posts on the 22nd and 23rd of November of last year.

The problem that still haunts us is the almost complete filtering of banner clicks since October 12th (see attached image).
This month banner clicks seem to be filtered less, but as they usually disappear after a few days, we can’t say it’s solved, hopefully something seems to be changing (maybe the AdMob algorithm is slowly correcting something that started when the DAU & DAV got completely wrong?).

Can you share any results from your investigation or any idea of what could be going on?

Thanks.

Regards,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thank you for the confirmation.

I have passed that information to the engineering team and asked for an update.

I will get back to you as soon as there is one.

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua,
Fortunately, since March 7th our banner clicks seem to have stopped being filtered (I attach an image).
Hope you can find the root cause, so that this doesn’t happen again.
Our ads revenue was almost halved during the 5 month period that this problem lasted.
Unfortunately the AdMob Product Support Team has been unreachable, and this is something that Google needs to improve.
Please, be so kind as to share what you find out, as this could help us and other developers better handle these issues in the future.
Thanks.
Regards,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thanks for the reply. I am glad to hear that things have improved on your end.

The engineering team has looked into the data, which indicates for the banner ad units of the app (ca-app-pub-9025360057454297~2112750149), the clicks between 2021-11-01 and 2022-02-01 have been marked as spam.

Regarding the issue where the support team has been unreachable, we are currently looking into that.

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua,
Thanks for the feedback.
Could you give us more details on why for 3 months all our ads had been marked as spam?
Does being marked as spam mean they were invalid clicks?
Were we affected by some kind of sabotage?
We were never informed of that situation. Shouldn’t we have been informed in any way?
What can we do as developers to avoid this from ever happening again?
Should we implement some logic to remove ads when clicks are excessive? Are there any best practices you can share?

Thanks.
Regards,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thank you for the questions.

The engineering team was informed about your concerns and I will get back to you as soon as there is an update.

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua,

Do you have any answers for the questions I made last month?

We will soon be updating our app and we would like to implement any necessary logic to minimize invalid clicks.

Thanks,

Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Thanks for the follow-up.

I have reached out to the engineering team again for an update.

Based on our investigation, it seems like the users couldn't see any response when they clicked on your ads. Therefore the users may click or double-click the ads multiple times, which triggered the filters. We are going to continue on our investigation, but it would also help if you reduce any latency in your app.

[MatJB]

Hi Joshua!
Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the latency of our app, we doubt that was the cause as it is very well optimized, and on the other hand, if that was the cause, we would still have the same kind of filtering by AdMob.
In addition, it is also really strange that the clicks’ issue lasted several months and then it was “magically” solved.
We look forward to receiving more details on this.
Thanks,
Mat

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Mat,

Sorry for the delayed reply since it seems like the previous email didn't go through.

The engineering team has turned down the concerned ad spam filter in May, so the issue should now be resolved.