AppLovin MAX vs Professor ARPDAU

AppLovin MAX helps mobile games earn revenue from ad impressions by running a real-time auction among ad networks; the highest bid wins. Supported formats include rewarded video, app open, interstitial, MREC, banner, and native ads. Publishers can review user-level and impression-level data in built-in reports or through an API, and use A/B testing to compare networks, price points, and regional setups. Ad Review offers control over which ads users see and flags problematic or competitor ads. The SDK is described as lightweight, with tools for SDK validation and pre-launch ad testing through Mediation Debugger. The product supports Android and iOS apps and lists integrations for Unity, React Native, Flutter, Cordova, Adobe AIR, Unreal, Godot, and Defold. MAX is free for publishers; bidding networks pay AppLovin a fee on generated ad revenue. A mediated network requires its own account, app and ad unit registration, and approval to serve ads. Custom networks cannot use in-app bidding or Auto-CPM. Publishers must obtain consent where applicable and pass consent flags to AppLovin.

Professor ARPDAU is a web service for product managers and teams working on free-to-play mobile games. Its analytics tools model retention, lifetime value, campaign break-even timing, daily active users and revenue. The retention calculator fits a regression curve from D1, D3, D7 and optional D30 observations; at least two observations are needed, while a 0% observation is excluded. The LTV predictor multiplies ARPDAU by the retention-curve total. A break-even analyzer uses CPI, observed LTV and retention metrics to estimate when cohort revenue exceeds acquisition cost. Another predictor models DAU from daily installs and retention scenarios, then estimates daily revenue with ARPDAU. Its geographical pricing tool can update in-app prices by country, with user-controlled targeting and adjustments, using Google Play Console access and Google’s API. Free modeling tools need no account.