Monetizing your Unity project through ads offers an efficient way to generate income without directly charging players. A well-implemented ad-supported game can often earn significantly more than a premium, ad-free version sold outright. This tutorial walks you through the process of enabling Unity Ads, from setting up your project to scripting ad displays, ensuring you can seamlessly incorporate ads into your game. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your monetization strategy, mastering Unity Ads is a valuable skill for game developers.
1. Overview
Using ads to monetize your Unity projects is an effective strategy that allows you to offer your game for free while still earning revenue. A successful free-to-play model relies heavily on well-placed advertisements, which can bring in substantial income compared to traditional purchase-based models. In this guide, you’ll learn how to activate Unity Ads and embed them into your project to maximize your game’s earning potential.
2. Before you begin
Before integrating Unity Ads, you need to set up your project’s organizational structure within Unity. When activating Unity Services, you’ll assign your project to an organization—your default account name is typically your user profile. Keep in mind that organization names must be unique, and while you can add or rename organizations, deletion isn’t currently supported. It’s recommended to have separate organizations for personal projects and team collaborations to streamline management. Proper organization setup ensures smooth access to Unity Ads and related services, which is essential for effective monetization strategies. For detailed steps on configuring your development environment, consult the official Unity documentation.
3. Connect a project to Unity Ads
To display ads within your Unity project, you must first enable Unity Services:
- Open your Unity project intended for ad integration.
- Navigate to File > Build Settings and select either Android or iOS as your target platform.
- In the top menu, go to General > Services.
- Click on Ads. If this is your first time enabling Unity Services, the Project Settings dialog will prompt you to connect your project.
- Choose Use an existing Unity Project ID if your project is already registered in your dashboard. Select the appropriate project and organization.
- If creating a new Project ID, select your organization and click Create project ID. Unity may generate this ID automatically based on your project name or Player Settings.
- Specify whether your app primarily targets children under 13, which affects compliance.
- After enabling Ads, ensure you’re running the latest version of the Unity Ads SDK. If not, click Install Latest version.
- In the Project Settings window, select Ads and enable Test Mode. Running ads in test mode prevents accidental fraud detection during development.
For more details, visit the Unity Ads setup guide.
4. What is an Ad Unit?
An Ad Unit in Unity defines how ads are displayed and interacted with within your game, rather than representing a scene or object. Think of it as a configuration mode that controls aspects like sound, ad skip options, and rewarded features. For example, rewarded videos are managed through specific Ad Units that prevent skipping to ensure players view the content. Unity automatically creates three default Ad Units per platform, such as Interstitial_Android, Rewarded_Android, and Banner_Android, which serve different ad formats. Properly configuring these units is crucial for delivering a seamless user experience and maximizing ad revenue.
5. Complete your Unity Ads activation
Activating Unity Ads involves linking your project to the Unity Monetization dashboard:
- Visit the Unity Gaming Services dashboard.
- Select Monetize from the main menu.
- Choose your project from the dropdown list.
- If monetization isn’t yet activated, click Complete Activation.
- Select your preferred mediation partner. For direct Unity Ads integration without mediation, choose I’m not using Mediation, only Unity Ads.
If your activation is complete, the Mediation partner field will display Unity (not mediated). Proper activation ensures your ads will serve correctly and track revenue accurately.
6. Prepare to trigger an ad
Displaying ads programmatically requires two key pieces of information: your project’s Game IDs for each platform and the specific Ad Unit ID. These are available in the Unity Dashboard:
- Navigate to Monetization > Project Overview > Ad Units.
- Record your Game IDs for Android and iOS; verify they match those in your Unity Editor under Edit > Project Settings > Services > Ads.
- View or create Ad Units for each platform. Default IDs like Interstitial_Android and Rewarded_Android are preset.
- Choose an Ad Unit to see detailed settings, which will help you understand where and how ads are displayed.
- Once you have this information, return to the Unity Editor to prepare your scripting.
For a deeper dive into ad placement strategies, see this guide.
7. Write the script to display an ad
Creating a script to control ad display involves referencing Unity’s Advertisement namespace and initializing ads based on platform-specific Game IDs:
“`csharp
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Advertisements;
public class AdDisplay : MonoBehaviour
{
public string myGameIdAndroid = “YOUR_GAME_ID_HERE”;
public string myGameIdIOS = “YOUR_GAME_ID_HERE”;
public string adUnitIdAndroid = “Interstitial_Android”;
public string adUnitIdIOS = “Interstitial_iOS”;
public string myAdUnitId;
public bool adStarted;
private bool testMode = true;
void Start()
{
#if UNITY_IOS
Advertisement.Initialize(myGameIdIOS, testMode);
myAdUnitId = adUnitIdIOS;
#else
Advertisement.Initialize(myGameIdAndroid, testMode);
myAdUnitId = adUnitIdAndroid;
#endif
}
void Update()
{
if (Advertisement.isInitialized && !adStarted)
{
Advertisement.Load(myAdUnitId);
Advertisement.Show(myAdUnitId);
adStarted = true;
}
}
}
“`
Remember to replace `”YOUR_GAME_ID_HERE”` with your actual Game IDs, which you can find in the Unity Dashboard. Use platform directives (`#if UNITY_IOS`, `#else`) to ensure the correct IDs are used depending on the device. For more advanced scripting techniques, including callback handling, review the Unity Ads scripting documentation.
8. Complete implementation and test the ad
After scripting, add the AdDisplay component to your designated GameObject, such as “AdDisplayObject”. Enter Play Mode in Unity; a test ad should appear immediately, confirming your setup is correct. Exit Play Mode to finalize the integration. Testing with test mode enabled prevents accidental clicks from being counted as real impressions, which is vital for maintaining your account’s integrity.
9. Next steps
Unity Ads offers a straightforward yet powerful way to embed a reliable revenue stream into your game. Strategic placement of ads—such as rewarded videos after completing levels or banner ads during menus—can enhance your monetization without disrupting gameplay. Careful planning and testing will ensure ads feel natural and complement the player experience, ultimately boosting your earnings. For additional insights into optimizing your ad placements and achieving high user engagement, explore this resource.