Shape
What happened during each period
Chart · Ads
ARPDAU for in-app ads: ad revenue per daily ad user
Ad ARPDAU is average ad revenue per daily active ad user. RevenueDot divides ad revenue by the sum, over each day in the period, of that day's customers with at least one ad revenue event. It counts ad users only, so it is not ad revenue divided by all daily active users.
Formula
Ad ARPDAU = ad revenue ÷ (sum over days of customers with an ad revenue event that day)
API name
ad_arpdau
Measures
ARPDAU (USD)
Filter and segment by
App, Country, Platform, App version
Definition
How RevenueDot calculates ARPDAU (Ad Users)
The numerator is ad revenue in the period: the sum of rc_ads_ad_revenue events, converted to US dollars at each event's date. The denominator is customer-days: for each UTC day, the distinct customers with at least one ad revenue event that day, added up over the days of the period. One customer who earns ad revenue on three days is three customer-days.
A week or a month is the ratio of that period's totals, so it is revenue per customer-day over the whole period. If the period has no ad users, the value is blank. It is shown in dollars with four decimals because the values are small.
Your SDK ad tracking sends the events to RevenueDot's /v1/events endpoint, from an ad network adapter or by manual capture. Sandbox events are excluded. Filter or segment by app, country, platform and app version.
Find it in the dashboard under Analytics > Charts, where it is named ARPDAU (Ad Users), or call GET /v2/projects/{project_id}/charts/ad_arpdau. The response has the same shape as RevenueCat's Charts API.
Worked example
ARPDAU (Ad Users), step by step
Illustrative numbers for one week.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Ad revenue for the week | $210 |
| Customers with ad revenue, each day | 1,000 on all 7 days |
| Customer-days | 7,000 |
Ad ARPDAU = 210 ÷ 7,000 = $0.0300.
Why it matters
What ARPDAU (Ad Users) tells you
ARPDAU is the unit economics of your free users. Multiply it by the days an ad user typically stays active and you get a rough ad value per user, which you can set against what you pay to acquire one.
Compare it with what a subscriber pays per month to judge whether ads or a paywall earn more from a given country. Read it with Ad Monetized Customers: ad revenue equals ARPDAU times customer-days, so the two charts tell you whether revenue moved because of the audience or because of the revenue per user.
How to read it
- The denominator is ad users only. Do not compare the value with an ARPDAU computed on all daily active users.
- Values are small. A value of $0.0425 is about 4 cents per ad user per day.
- The chart uses ad revenue only. Subscription revenue is not included.
- Segment by country. Ad revenue per user can differ a lot between countries.
- If ARPDAU falls while Ad Monetized Customers rises, new ad users earn less than the earlier ones.
API
Get ARPDAU (Ad Users) from the Charts API
Same path and response shape as RevenueCat's Charts API, so existing scripts keep working.
Requestshell
curl "https://api.revenuedot.app/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/charts/ad_arpdau?resolution=day" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SECRET_KEY" # sk_... with charts_metrics:charts:readReference: Charts guide · REST API v2
FAQ
ARPDAU (Ad Users): questions people ask
How do you calculate ARPDAU for ads?
Divide ad revenue by the number of customer-days with ad revenue, which is the sum over days of customers who had at least one ad revenue event that day.
What is the difference between ARPDAU and ARPU?
ARPDAU is revenue per user per day. ARPU is revenue per user over a longer period, such as a month or a lifetime.
Does ad ARPDAU include subscription revenue?
No. It uses ad revenue events only and divides by customers who earned ad revenue.
Why is my ad ARPDAU blank?
No customer had an ad revenue event in the period, so there are no customer-days to divide by. Check that your SDK sends ad revenue events with a customer.
What is a good ARPDAU for in-app ads?
It depends on the country, platform, ad format and network, so RevenueDot does not publish a benchmark. Segment your own ARPDAU by country and watch the trend.
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