I Can No Longer Recommend MoPub to Anyone

There was a time when MoPub was the underdog, even being a ‘solution’ to the AdMob sudden suspensions: https://www.mopub.com/2011/04/07/shut-down-or-disabled-by-admob

One of the main reasons that we started MoPub was to help publishers survive problems like this… imagine if you had an app that was out in the wild with thousands of active users and all of sudden your monetization strategy broke?

This comes directly from MoPub when they first started out.

So, who has MoPub become?

MoPub has become worse than AdMob. Here’s why:

MoPub is a great mediation platform. They support all of the major ad networks and have adapters for some you’ve probably never heard of. When you have MoPub as a mediation platform, you are essentially letting one entity gatekeep your entire revenue stream.

If for some reason MoPub doesn’t want you in their marketplace, regardless of whether or not you use mediation, they will shut down your entire account, often without notice. This is exactly what happened to me, something that has turned into a very important lesson.

I noticed that my ad impressions suddenly dropped to zero. I frantically reviewed my code, checked system statuses of my ad networks, and reached out to friends for help. I didn’t receive any emails, not even in spam. It didn’t occur to me that my MoPub account was even suspended, I had been on good terms with them, their customer service being friendly and responsive.

With no sign of any bad juju, I tried to log in to my MoPub account, and that was when I found out they had suspended my account. But why?

Not only had they shut off the MoPub Marketplace access, but they shut off my entire account! I was no longer serving ads at all, as my mediation access had been cut off.

I emailed them asking for clarification. They replied saying they cannot discuss policy violations due to “internal policy”. No point of contact would tell you why. And that’s the worst.

When you use a mediation service, it’s a single point of failure. You need to prepare for it. And when they are big and won’t tell you why you’ve been suspended, it doesn’t help, especially when they do it without warning.

This is why I can no longer recommend MoPub to anyone. They are absolutely draconian. They’ll throw you outside while you’re enjoying a beer, while also stealing every single thing in your pocket that you can use to get home.

I wish I could tell you why my account was suspended — My other networks have found my audience to be fine, and have paid out on time without fuss. I’ll never know why MoPub hates me. But if never want to find yourself left in the dust, I advise you to stay away from MoPub. Far, far away.