First, let’s look at Jason Ting, who built an app that turns an LED camera flash into a flashlight. In a screenshot posted online, he made in $1,372.20 in iAd revenue on 9,300 ad impressions with an impressive click-through of 11.8 percent in one day. Therefore, his effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM) was a shockingly high $147.55.

Now let’s examine what Ballenegger reports. He has been running iAd on “relatively high traffic since day one,” and says his eCPM is between $10 to $15, which is much lower, but still extremely high. Of course, both may be getting a lift because of the novelty factor of iAd right now.

Ballenegger also makes a couple of strong points that makes iAd look disappointingly average. He said the $1,400 in revenues reported by Ting likely includes Apple’s 40 percent cut, meaning that the developer earned closer to $800. As for the eCPM, that can be deceiving, too. He said iAd only refreshes the ad every three minutes vs. other ad networks, which refresh every 30 seconds (effectively lowering the number of ads served, and the amount of money you can make). He says because of that, he adjusts the eCPM. When those two factors are accounted for, he calculates his eCPM is closer to $1 to $1.50. In an email, Ballenegger tells us that still beats Google, which is second best at 80 cents to $1.

What’s more, he considers iAd’s fill rates “appallingly low.” He said it’s improving, but they remain below 10 percent, whereas other ad networks frequently generate 100 percent. His best case scenario? “Run iAd as a first option, but fall back to another network for failed requests.”