How I increased AdMob show rate from 60% to 80% and revenue by 20%

No redesign. No new features. Same app, same users. I changed where and when ads were shown, based on funnel and analytics data, and revenue went up 20%.

The problem

Two numbers decide how much an app earns from AdMob: match rate (how many ad requests got an ad) and show rate (how many of those ads were actually shown to the user).

This app had AdMob set up, but its show rate was stuck at 60%. That means 40% of the time an ad could have been shown, it wasn't. Money was being lost every day, and nobody had noticed.

What I found

I started with the analytics and funnel data, not just download numbers. I looked at where users spent the most time, where they dropped off, and which screens they kept coming back to. That showed me two problems:

• Ads were in the easy places, not the right ones. A lot of apps put a banner at the bottom and an interstitial on app open because it is technically easy, not because users are ready to see an ad there.
• Frequency capping was wrong. It was too strict in some places and too loose in others. The most active users were seeing too few ads, and users opening the app for the first time were seeing too many.

What I did

• Moved ads to natural pauses: after the user finishes an action, between sessions, and at points in the funnel where engagement was highest and users had already got value from the app.
• Fixed the showing strategy: reworked frequency capping so active users see a fair number of ads and new users are not hit with ads before they know what the app does.

The result

Show rate went from 60% to 80%. Revenue went up 20%. Same app, same users, no new features. Just smarter about when and where ads appear.

On another app, we made one change: no ads until the user had finished their first real action in the app. Same ads, same users, just different timing. Revenue went up, and the number of users who uninstalled in their first session went down.

Check your own app

Open AdMob and look at match rate and show rate. If either is low, here is where I would start:

• Low match rate: add mediation, so several ad networks compete for each slot instead of one. And stop requesting ads you will never show.
• Low show rate: preload ads before the moment you want to show them, so they are ready. But don't load them too early: loaded ads expire.
• Ads only, no paywall? Some users would happily pay to remove ads. Offer a one-time Remove Ads purchase and a subscription next to your ads. You need both.