{"id":14179,"date":"2026-09-09T13:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/?p=14179"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:25:30","slug":"how-do-i-measure-whether-ads-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/business-faqs\/how-do-i-measure-whether-ads-are\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I measure whether ads are hurting retention?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compare retention (D1, D7) and session length between a group seeing your current ad load and a group with fewer or no interstitials, over at least two weeks. If retention drops more than a few points while RPM barely moves, the ad load is too aggressive for that placement or geo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a glance<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fact<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Minimum test window to trust a retention comparison<\/td>\n2 weeks<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interstitial eCPM versus banner eCPM<\/td>\n8x higher<\/td>\nmobidictum.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of RocketGoal revenue from interstitials at ~22% of impressions<\/td>\nabout 60%<\/td>\nmobidictum.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
What Playgama Ad reporting breaks down by geo\/device<\/td>\nrequests, fill\/show rate, eCPM, RPM<\/td>\nplaygama.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Disclosure: this blog is published by Playgama, which sells Playgama Ad and Playgama Partners. Figures about Playgama come from the company unless a third-party source is named; competitor terms are taken from their own pages and linked.<\/em><\/p>\n

Retention damage from ads is not something an ad network dashboard tells you. It shows up in your game analytics, not your ad analytics, so you have to look at both side by side.<\/p>\n

What actually determines the answer?<\/h2>\n

Three things decide whether ads are hurting retention: ad load (interstitials per session, banner persistence), placement timing (between levels versus mid-action), and your baseline retention going into the test \u2013 a game already struggling on D1 has less margin to absorb aggressive ad load than one with strong baseline retention, so treat your own pre-test numbers as the reference point, not a market figure.<\/p>\n

The comparison to run<\/h2>\n

Split your traffic into two cohorts, ideally with a feature flag rather than two separate builds: one keeps your current ad setup, one runs a lighter version (fewer interstitials, banners removed, or ads only after level 3). Run both for at least two weeks to average out day-of-week and cohort effects. Track:<\/p>\n