Inside AdMob

Introducing the redesigned AdMob with new tools that make it even easier to earn

2017-06-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy time here in Mountain View as more than 7,000 developers joined us at Shoreline Amphitheater for this year’s Google I/O. We made a number of big product announcements but I can’t help being most excited about one in particular — the newly redesigned AdMob!

Many of you rely on in-app ads for revenue — in fact, over 1 million apps now use AdMob to earn across iOS and Android. And to date, we’ve paid out over $3.5 billion dollars to developers like you. But we knew we could be doing even more to help you be successful. So we rebuilt the AdMob platform from the ground up to help you build a profitable business faster and to stay profitable as you scale.

Simple to use with a brand new user interface

Your time is valuable and we want you to spend it growing your business, not navigating our screens. With the new AdMob, everything from navigation to dashboards has been organized around your apps. The tools and features you need most are right at your fingertips. We’ve also applied Material Design across the entire AdMob platform to make your experience intuitive and productive at every step.

When you log in to the new experience, you’ll see a streamlined interface that surfaces key growth trends and gives you a quick snapshot of how your apps are performing. Whether you have one app or fifty, the new app picker will help you rapidly navigate through the new AdMob experience. In addition, we’ve added a simplified dashboard with a complete breakdown of your revenue. From here you can see how ads are impacting critical metrics like lifetime value, engagement, and retention for each app.

With the new AdMob, it’s easier to find your way to what you need

Richer insights with a deep integration with Firebase

We know that you have many different options when it comes to making money for your app business. Whether you decide to use in-app purchases, subscriptions, ads, or commerce, we know how valuable a holistic view can be for making decisions and monitoring how even slight monetization changes can impact user experience. Historically compiling all of this data has required multiple tools and has been time consuming at best and impossible for most. So we’re putting comprehensive analytics at your fingertips through an integration with Google Analytics for Firebase.

With this integration you can see new reporting across all of your revenue sources and dig deeper in Firebase to see how both lifetime value and user behavior are affected.

To get started, link your AdMob and Firebase accounts and update to the latest version of the SDKs. Once linked, you'll have access to detailed ad revenue data and user insights like time spent in the app and in-app purchases—all in one place. Your Firebase account can now access your ad signals and AdMob can access your app usage signals for deeper level insights. With instant access to detailed ad revenue data plus consumer insights like session duration and ad exposure you no longer have to deal with endless spreadsheets or make wild guesses.

Power a smarter monetization strategy with the right data, all in one place.

With a more complete view of lifetime value, you now have the data you need to create a monetization strategy with complete confidence. Marcin Krakowiak, co-founder of Byss Mobile, is already a fan: “Creating a sustainable monetization strategy has been the core focus of our team as we continue diversifying our portfolio of apps. Having meaningful, accurately connected data sources is key to developing that strategy. This new integration between Firebase and AdMob does just that. We are finally able to analyze lifetime value of both in-app purchases and ads to test and create a more profitable monetization strategy.”

Advanced controls to help you scale with Mediation Groups

If you already use AdMob, you know that mediation is a great way to monetize across multiple ad networks. Well, mediation just got even better with the addition of mediation groups.

Historically, you needed to configure mediation for every ad slot and geography. Developers using mediation often found this process extremely time consuming. We’ve introduced mediation groups in AdMob, to make all of this easier. Just set up mediation once and then assign that group to different ad units and countries across all of your apps in a single step. You can also make calls to outbound networks up to three times in a mediation chain, helping you to maximize revenue.

Set up and activate a new mediation group with just a few clicks.

We hope you’ll take advantage of mediation groups and everything else the redesigned AdMob platform has to offer — because it’s been built with you in mind! We’re here to support your success as an app developer, and we’re really excited to see how you use these new tools to grow your business. Become a part of the millions of apps using AdMob by putting our new monetization tools to work.

Visit the Help Center or contact your Google account team to see when you’ll have access to these great features.

Posted by: Duke Dukellis, Group Product Manager, AdMob

Google I/O: New Ways to Put Users at the Center of Your Apps and Payments

2017-05-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

I/O is a magical time at Google. Every year, thousands of developers gather in Google's backyard to share new product ideas and learn about our latest innovations in computing.

We're meeting at an exciting time for the developer community. It's a time when consumers have more choices than ever before—like where to shop, what to watch, which games to play and how to communicate with friends and family. Your product needs to stand out. You need tools to help your business grow. And you need to make sure your users are happy.

We think we can help.

This afternoon, my team and I will share 3 new innovations for developers to make it easy for users to pay for your services, build profitable businesses and grow your user base. Check out our live stream here or at the end of this post.

Enabling users to pay with Google

Paying with Google for Panera Bread on Google Assistant

For users, this means faster checkout. Now they'll never miss a deal because they're stuck on a bus and don't want to pull out their credit card in front of strangers. They'll no longer experience the pain of stumbling on a sale that ends at midnight when they're tucked in bed with their credit card out of reach. Users can save time and headache by using credit and debit cards they've already saved to their Google Account whenever they see the option to pay with Google on supported apps or sites.

For developers, this API is a significant innovation that can enable faster checkout, drive more conversions, increase sales and reduce abandoned carts—all with a simple integration. Learn more about our Google Payment API here.

Earn more from your apps with the brand new AdMob

People turn to their mobile devices throughout the day to shop, communicate and stay entertained. For developers, in-app purchases are one way to monetize. Ads are another way.
AdMob was built to support the app ecosystem. With over 1 million apps across iOS and Android, AdMob has paid over $3.5 billion dollars in ads revenue to developers. But there's more we can do to help you succeed.

Today, we're introducing a completely redesigned AdMob. Rebuilt from the ground up, AdMob is now simpler to use and delivers richer insights about your users' in-app experiences.

Simpler to use: We've applied Material Design to all aspects of the AdMob look and feel to deliver an easy-to-use and intuitive experience across the entire platform—on mobile and desktop. You'll get more done in less time. Below you can see how easy it is to pick an app that you're monitoring, check out its key metrics and then quickly take action to fine-tune its performance.

Redesigned AdMob experience

Deeper insights: We've also integrated Google Analytics for Firebase into the core of the redesigned AdMob so you have quick access to the metrics that matter most for your business. Once you linkyour AdMob and Firebase accounts, you'll have access to detailed ad revenue data and user insights like time spent in the app and in-app purchases—all in one place.

Google Analytics for Firebase dashboard in AdMob

Know your user, find your user with Universal App Campaigns

Earning money from your app is one piece of the puzzle. You also need to think about how to grow your user base.

Google's app innovations have delivered over 5 billion installs from ads and we are now helping developers drive over 3 billion in-app events per quarter—like users adding something to their cart or reaching level 3 of a game. Developers have gravitated toward Universal App Campaigns (UAC) as the "one stop shop" campaign type that scales your reach and maximizes app installs across Google's largest properties: Google Play, Search, YouTube, Gmail and the Display Network. UAC uses Google's machine learning technology to evaluate numerous signals in real time, refining each ad to help you reach your most engaged users. We're continuing to double down on UAC, with all new innovations being built into UAC to make app promotion even more effective.

Engage users in key moments of discovery with new UAC placements in Google Play

Android reaches more than 2 billion active devices every month, with Google Play available in 190+ countries around the world. It's the place users come to discover new apps and games. Beyond searching for apps to try, users are increasingly browsing the Play store and finding recommendations for new apps.

To help those users discover more of your apps, we are introducing new ad placements on the home and app listing pages in the Google Play Store. These new placements, available exclusively through UAC, help you reach users in "discovery mode" as they swipe, tap and scroll in search of their next favorite app.

New ad placements reach users browsing in Google Play

Discover more of your best users with new bidding options in UAC

Some users are more valuable to your business than others, like the players who level-up in your game or the loyal travelers who book several flights a month. That's why we're expanding Smart Bidding strategies in UAC to help you acquire more of these high-value users. Using Smart Bidding, you can tailor bids for your unique business goals - target cost per acquisition (tCPA) or target return on ad spend (tROAS). UAC delivers the right users based on your objectives: installs, events and, coming soon, value. This update starts rolling out to iOS and Android developers and advertisers in the coming months.

Introducing App Attribution Partners, a new measurement program

Many developers rely on third-party measurement providers to measure the impact of ads and gain valuable insights about how users engage with your app. To help you take action on these insights in a faster and more seamless way, we are introducing App Attribution Partners, a new program designed to integrate data from 7 global companies right into AdWords.

Welcome to adjust, Adways, AppsFlyer, Apsalar, CyberZ, Kochava and TUNE... we're thrilled to have them onboard!

AdWords' integration with these partners ensures that you have consistent, reliable and more granular data where you review app metrics. Now you can take action with confidence and stay on top of your business performance.

As consumers live more of their lives online, it's increasingly important for developers to build user-centric experiences in everything that you do—from the apps you design, to the experiences you deliver, to the ways you help people transact. We know it's not always easy, so Google is here to help.

We look forward to continuing on this journey with you.

Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce

AdMob is heading to Google I/O 2017

2017-05-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Google I/O 2017 is one week away (May 17-19th), and we’ll be there. Google I/O brings together developers from around the globe for an immersive experience focused on exploring the next generation of tech.

This year there will be dozens of talks discussing important topics that matter to you like design & development, growing your business, the latest in mobile tech, and more. We’ll also give you a look into “what’s next” for AdMob.

Be sure to catch the keynotes to be the first to hear about the latest AdMob innovations:

Wednesday, May 17th

Google Keynote
10:00 AM PST, 5:00 PM GMT
Join Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, as he gives a “first look” into all the latest and greatest technology innovations at Google.
Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

Growth & Monetization Keynote
3:00 PM PST, 10:00 PM GMT
Hear from Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of Ads & Commerce, on how new ads and monetization innovations can help you build a customer-centric business.
Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

Here are some of the other key sessions to check out at I/O 2017:

Wednesday, May 17th

Analytics with Firebase: Overview and Updates

4:00 PM PST, 11:00 PM GMT

Analytics is at the core of your ability to build great apps, grow your user base and earn more money. In this session we will show you what's new with Firebase and how we are building simpler and more powerful reporting that gives you real-time insights into what is happening in your app.

Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

Thursday, May 18th

Build Great Monetization Experiences with the ALL NEW AdMob

4:30 PM PST, 11:30 PM GMT

Successful developers use a combination of payments, ads, and sophisticated analytics to earn more from their apps. In this session we will show you how AdMob has strengthened its platform to give you a more holistic picture of those revenue sources with deeper insights and a more intuitive user experience.

Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

Friday, May 19th

AdMob and Firebase: Better Together

8:30 AM PST, 3:30 PM GMT

Come learn how AdMob and Firebase seamlessly work together to help you optimize and generate more advertising revenue in your app. This session dives into how you can use AdMob and Firebase to understand how ads impact user experience, how different audiences interact with ads, and how to think about lifetime value.

Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

Find your Apps’ Best Users with Google’s Machine Learning

10:30 AM PST, 5:30 PM GMT

In this session we will show you the data you need, the best mathematical models for calculating lifetime value (LTV), and how machine learning is the missing link that converts LTV into actual high value users for your app.

Watch the livestream | Add to Calendar

You can check out the complete Google I/O 2017 agenda here.

If you can’t attend in person, visit an I/O extended event near you! We’ll be live tweeting and sharing posts from the event on our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ channels, using the hashtags #io17. We hope to see you there!

Posted by: Duke Dukellis, Product Manager, AdMob

Cheetah Mobile Improves User Ad Experience While Increasing App Performance with AdMob’s Native Video Ads

2017-05-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

Seven years ago, Cheetah Mobile began as a small company of ten employees that built software for PCs. Today, they are a leading developer with over one thousand employees. Their popular apps Clean Master and Battery Doctor have been downloaded by millions around the world and Clean Master itself has over 600 million MAU worldwide.

The Problem

With an ever growing user base, Cheetah Mobile needed to find creative ways to help them reach their global user base while monetizing their apps with innovative new ad formats. They needed to be able to use diversified high-quality ads to improve their revenue while also preserving the user-focused experience of their apps.

The Solution

Cheetah Mobile work with Google, using AdMob to find new ways to improve the performance of their apps. Cheetah expanded on their use of native display ads by introducing the newly launched native video format. By doing this, Cheetah was able to diversify the ad mix and increasing user engagement by tapping into the branding power of video. Opting in to video ads alongside display ads resulted in higher overall performance.

The Results

By implementing these simple changes and taking advantage of Google newest native ad format, Cheetah Mobile saw a lift in eCPM’s of +34% and were able to increase their revenue by +31%. By placing video ads optimally within the flow of the app - on the results page after the intended user action was complete - Cheetah was able to maintain a highly engaging, but non-intrusive ad experience. Customizing the video ads to match the look and feel of their apps further ensured that introducing new ads did not disrupt the user experience.

“Native ads are the leading format in utility apps, and video ads are the next big thing in mobile advertising. AdMob provided the perfect solution for both: native video ads. The performance we have seen from AdMob is very encouraging and has already resulted in a revenue boost.“ -- Chen Yong , SVP of Cheetah Mobile.

To check out our other success stories, visit us at at the AdMob website. Remember to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by Jessica O'Brien, Mobile Product Specialist

Mobile Ads Garage: Episode 15 - Mediation adapters

2017-04-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

A new episode of The Mobile Ads Garage has hit YouTube! If you haven't seen it before, The Mobile Ads Garage is a video tutorial series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and Doubleclick for Publishers. Each episode covers one aspect of the SDK, breaks down the feature, and shows screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.

After hearing from publishers that you’d like a smoother path to integrating mediation, AdMob has worked with a bunch of network partners to open the source for their mediation adapters. For those of you unfamiliar with the our mediation platform, mediation adapters allow the Mobile Ads SDK to interface with third-party ad SDKs to fetch third-party ads on your behalf.

Open source mediation adapters have a few key benefits. First, there are now two repositories on GitHub with adapter source that publishers can refer to for a look at the inner working of the adapters themselves. Second, it allows AdMob to take those adapters up to bintray, where they can be targeted with jCenter packages and CocoaPods. That means that instead of hunting down individual JAR files, publishers can simply add a line to their podfile or build.gradle, and get the adapter they need!

Included in this video is a breakdown of the new resources, as well as screencasts of Android Studio and Xcode that show how to import adapters for several networks.

If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.

We’d love to hear which AdMob features you’d like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to share ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.

Remember to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by: Ram Parameswaran, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

How to test your rewarded ads

2017-04-27T09:11:00.001-07:00

Have you started using AdMob rewarded video, but feel like you could be getting more out of it?

We know it can be hard to get it right the first time, so we recommend A/B testing when implementing rewarded video in your app. Why? Because rewarded video gives you so much more flexibility and even the smallest tweaks can make a huge difference in your app revenue or give you peace of mind that you’re improving your user experience. With that in mind, here are four steps to help you run an effective A/B test.

1. Start with a defined goal and a hypothesis: Step back and decide on a single hypothesis that has the most potential to improve your business and start there. So where should you start testing? One good place is the design elements in your ad template and how it can impact greater user ad engagement.For example, if you have a hypothesis that font sizes impact clarity and user engagement then you could create two variations with different font sizes (10pm and 13pm) to test key metrics like click through rates, ad revenue and of course, app exit rates. Meanwhile, key metrics to look for would be click through rate, ad revenue, and app exit rates.

Example variables that you could test are:

Font size
Ad size
Reward settings
Ad placement within app

2. Remember to test only one variation at a time for it to be a true A/B test: The testing stage will require two variations of your app screen – the current version and your re-designed version. When creating these variations, using an A/B testing platform will make it easy to design, run, and monitor your tests.

3. Run the experiment: Time to test your results. Set up your app to randomly show your original set-up to half of your users (i.e., the “control group”) and the second variation to the other 50% (i.e., the “experimental group”). By using a control group, you’re collecting baseline data to compare against your results. Without it, you can’t tell the difference between the response to your new designs or other variables, like seasonal chance.

4. Make a decision: Once the experiment is done, it’s time to crunch the data. First thing to do is to revisit your initial goal and hypothesis, and make that all-important final calls on whether the new variation is worth changing. Don’t be too hasty to lock in a new look. If the changes are significant, it’s smart to run the experiment over several time periods to ensure the results aren’t due to seasonality, or other variables.

As you continue to run more tests, remember that even with helpful tools, testing takes time and resources. Don’t waste time testing elements that won’t significantly impact your goal. Use app analytics data to help uncover spots in your app with a lot of opportunity and potential (think: screens with high traffic, high engagement, or large user drop off, for example). A good idea might be to have a devoted team member spend 25% of their time on monitoring analytics, identifying ad optimization ideas, and testing them.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

The AdMob Team

It's time to share your feedback on AdMob

2017-04-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

To improve our product and service, we send out a survey to our developers every 6 months.

In the past, we have used your feedback to improve our service model, product interface, and ad formats. This year the survey is shortened and mobile friendly. Our questions should only take about 10-15 minutes to answer.

You may have received a survey by email over the last few weeks, if so please take the time to respond to it as we value your input.

To make sure that you're eligible to receive the next survey email, please:

Update your contact details
Update your email preferences to receive ‘occasional survey’ messages

Whether you’ve completed this survey before or you’re providing feedback for the first time, we’d like to thank you for sharing your valuable thoughts. We’re looking forward to feedback!

Posted by: Susie Reinecke, Publisher Happiness Team

Winning with rewarded Video: Two app success stories

2017-04-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

AdMob’s rewarded video is a quick and simple way to monetize your app effectively. Two developers share their learnings and success stories of using rewarded video ads to grow their revenue and business.

1. JOYCITY: Game of Dice

JOYCITY, a leading mobile-first developer of games and entertainment for iOS and Android, released Game of Dice, a fast-paced, quirky game that has amassed a legion of fans worldwide.

How they use rewarded ads

JOYCITY aimed to monetize non-spending users in the in-app-purchase (IAP) heavy game without cannibalizing IAP revenue. By implementing AdMob’s rewarded video ads demand and by including multiple third party demand sources via the AdMob mediation feature, JOYCITY were able to incorporate rewarded video ads into their gaming app and increase revenue.

Results

JOYCITY saw overall revenue of Game of Dice increase, with their IAP revenue in particular increasing by 10%, while also maintaining their daily active user rates.

Somin Oh, Ad Monetization Manager for JOYCITY said -

“Implementing AdMob rewarded ads helped us not just monetizing non-spending users but increasing overall revenue of the game, including IAP revenue. Also, AdMob mediation made it easy to compare our ad performance across ad networks.”

2. Cheetah Mobile: BADLAND 2

BADLAND 2 is the brainchild of, one of the world’s leading developers, Cheetah Mobile, and won the "Most Beautiful" reward of Google Play "Best of 2016" in Great Britain, Australia and India!.

How they use rewarded ads

Cheetah Mobile aimed to monetize BADLAND 2 without interrupting user’s gaming experience. They were able to implement AdMob’s rewarded ads at natural breaks in the game and offer a valuable reward in exchange for the viewer watching a video. This allowed Cheetah Mobile to ensure a great user experience while monetizing the app effectively.

Results

By using AdMob rewarded video ads and other rewarded local networks, within one week Cheetah Mobile saw a 40% increase in eCPM and a fill rate in the US of over 93%. Rewarded video also had a positive impact on monthly user retention rates.

Chen Yong, SVP of Cheetah Mobile said -

“AdMob rewarded video showed excellent performance among all networks on fill rate and eCPM in our main marketplaces. With rewarded video ads implemented in suitable scenarios in our games apps, we even see better user engagements.”

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Duolingo keeps education free with AdMob native ads

2017-04-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Duolingo is an online education platform that helps millions of people around the world learn languages and also one of the most popular educational apps globally. It was selected by Apple as iPhone App of the Year in 2013, and by Google as Best of the Best for Android in 2013 and 2014.

The Problem

Building, supporting, and expanding on a platform used by that many people can be expensive and complex. Thus, Duolingo faced a profound challenge — how could they monetize a free, beloved product without undermining their mission or hurting the trust of their users.

The Solution

Duolingo saw ads as a way to build a sustainable business while still placing product value as the most important feature. When implemented properly ads can have a transformational effect on a business's ability to grow. However, if implemented poorly they can be intrusive, poorly designed, erode trust and result in a bad user experience.

So to ensure the best user experience, Duolingo chose to use AdMob native ads — a format that allows fully customized ads to be placed in ways that don’t disrupt their students’ learning flow. Below you can see what the app looked like prior to the update and then after Duolingo integrated AdMob’s native ads solution with an improved design.

The Results

Duolingo had tested different ad formats, image sizes, designs, and messaging with the goal of increasing click through rate (CTR) without hurting user retention. Through these tests, they found that using large images, calling attention to the visuals of the native ad, and fully styling ads to match Duolingo’s distinctive visual brand delivered the most striking results. For example, Duolingo saw a 101% improvement in ad CTRs and an RPM increase with a single change by switching from small images to larger ones and emphasizing the call-to-action buttons within the ad unit.

Remember to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by Dmitry Mazilo, AdMob Business Development Lead

Three ways AdMob make UX a priority with Rewarded video

2017-04-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

At AdMob, we know how important user experience is to creating a great app. Non-intrusive ads make for happy users and higher ad engagement rates, and we think rewarded videos are the next step in meeting and exceeding a users expectations for a great experience. Here are three ways AdMob can help improve your user experience with rewarded video ads.

1. Consistency

With reliable UX patterns, you’ll form clear breaks in your apps where users are expecting to see engaging ads. And when it comes to rewarded video, ads that appear at just the right moment will provide a mutual benefit to both user and publisher. For example, in a gaming app, you might want to reward your user with extra lives in exchange for watching a video at a moment when the game would otherwise end. Your users will thank you for it!

2. No tricks

A rewarded video is still an ad, so it is important to make the value exchange between user and publisher transparent. Users are presented with a clear description of the action required from them and what they will get in return, before choosing whether to opt-in to view the rewarded video. And while advertisers pay for an install, the option to install an app as a result of watching a rewarded video is not incentivized: the user is rewarded for viewing the message and the action to install is optional.

3. Optimum engagement

We use Firebase Analytics to help you understand your audience better. With Firebase, A/B testing is simple and can ensure you are getting the most out of your exchange with the user. Optimizing reward value, frequency of ads, and ad placement in app all contribute to a successful rewarded strategy that results in happy users.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Mobile Ads Garage: Episode 14 - AdMob Rewarded Video in Unity

2017-04-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

Episode fourteen of The Mobile Ads Garage is live on YouTube! If you haven't seen it before, The Mobile Ads Garage is a video tutorial series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and DoubleClick for Publishers. Each episode covers one aspect of the SDK, breaks down the feature, and shows screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.

This video is a special one for two reasons. Not only is it the first to feature AdMob's open source plugin for Unity, but it's also the Garage debut of AdMob's own rewarded video ads! Previously, publishers who wanted to use the Mobile Ads SDK to integrate rewarded video ads had to use mediation to source ads from other networks. Now, however, AdMob has its own rewarded demand, which means you can take advantage of the format with no mediation required.

In this episode, you'll see screencasts and a breakdown of how to request and show rewarded video ads with the AdMob Unity plugin. Unity is one of the most popular tools for game development, and allows publishers to write engines once in C#, then build for multiple platforms (including Android and iOS). With the AdMob plugin, apps can load and display ads from AdMob using a single, cross-platform C# interface.

If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.

We’d love to hear which AdMob features you’d like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to toss out ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.

Remember to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by: Andrew Brogdon, Mobile Ads Developer Relations Team

Using Splash Pages to Avoid Unexpected Launch Interstitials

2017-04-04T05:55:00.001-07:00

In this post, we’re going to discuss an easy way to help avoid violating our policy against interstitial ads that unexpectedly launch (Layout Encourages Accidental Clicks - Unexpected Launch Interstitials): implementing a splash page (Loading/Title Screen) in your app. A splash page is a static screen, containing no clickable content, which launches before the user gets to the ‘Home Screen’ of your app.

First, we’ll talk about the violation itself. If you choose to implement interstitial ads in your app, you need to ensure that your implementation won’t encourage users to click on it accidentally. An example of a violating implementation can be found below (Fig.1):

Fig.1: This interstitial ad implementation violates our policies, as an interstitial launches on the ‘Home Screen’ of the app without any action by the user.

In the example above, an interstitial ad launches while the user is idle on the ‘Home Screen’ of the app. This implementation is in violation of our policies, as interstitial ads should only be implemented at logical breaks in between your app's content . One potential way to fix this violation, without removing the interstitial ad altogether, would be to implement a splash page that launches as the first screen of the app, before the ‘Home Screen’. This page will show while the interstitial ad pre-loads. The Interstitial ad should then launch in the transition between the splash screen and the ‘Home Screen’. You can find an example of this correct implementation below (Fig.2):

Fig.2: This implementation does not violation policy. The first screen the user sees is a splash page, followed by an interstitial. Then, when the user closes the interstitial, they are shown the ‘Home Screen’ of the app.

Now that the user sees that content is loading, they won’t be encouraged to accidentally click on the interstitial ad once it launches. Then, when the user closes the ad, they are shown the ‘Home Screen’ of the app.

NOTE: When the user closes the interstitial ad, they must be shown a new screen. Interstitial ads are only to be implemented at logical breaks in between your app's content, so you can’t have the splash page still be there when the user closes the ad. That would be a policy violation.

To have the interstitial ad trigger at the right time, you may need to preload it. You can find more information about preloading interstitials here. As mentioned, as the developer of your app, the design of your splash page is up to you. The only requirement is that the screen doesn’t contain any elements that might encourage users to accidentally click on the interstitial ad once it launches.

It is important to note that, as a developer, it is your responsibility to ensure compliance with our policies. You can consult our Help Centre for even more helpful information regarding our policies and best practices.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by: Tom Ambrose, AdMob Publisher Quality Team

3 reasons to use AdMob rewarded video demand and mediation

2017-04-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Implementing in-app ads can be time-consuming and complicated, but with AdMob you can start integrating rewarded ads quickly and simply. Aside from making rewarded ads easy to set-up and available to everyone, we also incorporated other features that are unique to AdMob. Here are 3 reasons why you should be using AdMob rewarded video demand and mediation.

User Experience
Google’s rewarded video ad format is focused on delivering a great user experience. Rewarded ads offer users the choice to watch a video in exchange for an in-app reward, like a new life in a game. To do this successfully, this experience needs to complement rather than interrupt a user’s flow. With intuitive user prompts and clear options to opt-out, our rewarded ad format puts your user in control of their in-app experience.

Yield optimization
In order to ensure an optimal user experience and avoid ad blindness due to repetition, you need to ensure that you have a diverse set of ads to show users. Rewarded mediation allows you to manage multiple third party demand sources via one platform, in addition to Google demand. This helps ensure there is always an ad available to show and that the ad shown is also the most valuable. By choosing to work with multiple demand sources and managing them optimally, publishers can increase revenue through competition between sources.

Beyond that, our rewarded mediation solution gives publishers maximum control over their users’ rewarded ad experiences. Experimenting and optimizing the rewarded setup is easy with ad unit level configuration, which lets publishers try different, customized rewarded settings at different places in their apps. Server side settings mean there’s no need to republish the app after changes are made, so experimenting is easy.

Firebase Analytics
Using Firebase Analytics to analyse the effectiveness and impact of your rewarded ads is unique to AdMob. The first step is to check out the Firebase Audiences tab to segment your users in ways that are important to your business. It’s then possible to analyse the impact on the experiences of these different user segments. Experimentation and understanding what resonates with your high value users is key to the success of rewarded.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Join us live on May 23rd as we announce the latest Ads, Analytics and DoubleClick innovations

2017-03-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

What: Google Marketing Next keynote live stream
When: Tuesday, May 23rd at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET.
Duration: 1 hour
Where: On the Inside AdWords Blog

Be the first to hear about Google’s latest marketing innovations, the moment they’re announced.

Watch live as my team and I share new Ads, Analytics and DoubleClick innovations designed to improve your ability to reach consumers, simplify campaign measurement and increase your productivity. We’ll also give you a sneak peek at how brands are starting to use the Google Assistant to delight customers.

Register for the live stream here.

Until then, follow AdWords on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn for previews of what's to come.

Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce

Help the AdMob team help you

2017-03-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

We often hear from developers that you’re looking for tips and ideas for growing your app. Our team of apps experts are constantly building new resources and insights to help developers like you grow your business. We regularly share personalized suggestions for your app via email in addition to news on the latest product features. Additionally, we send periodic invitations to live video sessions and events offering personalized tips for your region.

To ensure you’re getting this information from us, we need to have up-to-date contact details and communication preferences for you. Here are a few quick and simple steps you should take when you log in to your AdMob account, to make sure we can get in touch:

Step 1:

Make sure that the email address you've listed in your account to receive communications from us is correct and is one that you’re regularly checking. You can check which email address we’re using to reach you by logging into your AdMob account and going to your Personal settings under the Account section on the left menu bar.

Step 2:

Opt in to receive emails from us. We categorize the emails we send based on the content they include. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Customized help and performance suggestions - Includes personalized revenue and optimization tips customized specific for your website.
Periodic newsletters with tips and best practices - Includes general AdMob tips, best practices and product updates.
Occasional surveys to help Google improve your AdMob experience - Gives you a regular opportunity to share your feedback on AdMob.
Special Offers - Includes invitations to events in your country and live YouTube events..
Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you - Occasional updates on other Google products like Firebase Analytics or Google Cloud Platform.

You can update your email preferences by checking the boxes in your Personal settings section.

Step 3:

Choose your language preference. Did you know that AdMob emails are available in 38 different languages? You can choose the language that suits you best by using the Display language drop-down menu directly under the email preferences checkboxes.

Remember, updates to your personal settings and contact information won’t change the email address you use to sign in to your AdMob account or other information you’ve provided to AdMob, such as the information shown in your Payee profile.

Get the most from the AdMob team and ensure you can hear from us. Log in to your account now and check your contact details and communication preferences. It takes no more than two minutes.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by: Suzy Headon - Inside AdMob Team

A beginners guide to implementing AdMob rewarded ads

2017-03-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

With faster devices and more bandwidth come richer apps with more immersive ads. AdMob has cutting-edge formats to help you deliver high quality ads that load fast. AdMob can help you build audiences by integrating rewarded ad formats into your app mechanics. Using the right technology you could earn money and enhance your user experience. Here’s a quick guide to help get you started, it’s easy – we promise.

Before you get started, make sure your SDKs are updated (Android v9.0 or higher and iOS v7.9.1 or higher), then…

Sign in to your AdMob account
Create a new AdMob rewarded interstitial ad unit
Configure your ad unit settings (this is where you can tinker with the reward amount, the reward itself, and set an ad frequency cap to ensure your users don’t see the same ad too many times).
Implement the rewarded interstitial ad unit and ad unit ID where the ad will be shown in the app. Take a look at our Android implementation guide and iOS implementation guide for help.
Optionally integrate the SDKs of third-party demand sources

That’s it! Once your ads are fully integrated, we recommend experimenting with Firebase Analytics to analyse the effectiveness of your rewarded ads. Experimentation and understanding what resonates with your high value users is key to the success with rewarded. With Firebase, A/B testing is simple and can ensure you are getting the most out of your exchange with the user: optimizing reward value, frequency of ads, and ad placement in app all contribute to a successful reward strategy.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

The AdMob Team

Rewarded 101: Important things you need to know about rewarded video

2017-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Rewarded video is changing the way publishers monetize their content. We’ve seen advertising evolve to become mutually beneficial to both the user and the publisher, while also providing a better, richer experience. This is a huge potential opportunity for app developers, but how can you use rewarded video to augment your user experience and monetize your app? Here’s a quick overview of what rewarded advertising is, and some of its important features.

What’s rewarded? Rewarded video is a non-intrusive, short-form video that creates a value exchange between a publisher and a user: user’s voluntarily give their time to watch an ad in exchange for a reward, or in-app currency.

Rewarded video isn’t a new thing. Gaming publishers have been taking advantage of user opt-in video for several years, but we’ve recently seen rewarded video gaining traction across several different verticals. Publishers are exploring the potential of leveraging premium features, exclusive content, or upgraded services to incorporate Rewarded video ads seamlessly into their apps.

Focus on the user and all else will follow. A positive user experience is key to the success of rewarded video. Each ad should complement the user experience by appearing at an appropriate time offering a valuable reward (like gaining an extra life in your favorite game instead of the level ending, or an hour of uninterrupted listening time when streaming music) in exchange for watching a video. With AdMob, the user controls their experience by choosing to watch a video and receive the reward, or to not watch the video and forfeit the reward. It’s also easy to set a frequency cap to ensure that a user doesn’t see the same ad too many times.

You can earn more by doing less with AdMob mediation. Our ad unit level configuration allows you to try different advertising networks, network order, and reward settings at different points in your app. Our ad network also automatically fetches CPM values from these networks, and optimizes accordingly: expect high fill rates and maximum revenue. The best part? Thanks to our server-side settings you can keep tinkering in the background until you’ve got your reward settings nailed, minus the hassle of changing your code or re-releasing your app.

The most important thing to remember about rewarded video? When done well, it adds value to all parties. Users explicitly choose to opt-in and engage with an ad that complements their game or app in exchange for a reward. Publishers benefit from a non-interruptive high CPM monetisation format, increased retention, and potentially more ARPU (rewarded users play more and spend more). And advertisers reach valuable, engaged users that are more likely to complete an ad view. Everyone’s a winner!

Integrating rewarded ads into your apps is easy. Follow these simple steps to get started...

Create a new AdMob Rewarded interstitial ad unit
Make sure your SDKs are updated (Android v9.0 or higher and iOS v7.9.1 or higher)
Implement the rewarded interstitial ad unit and ad unit ID where the ad will be shown in the app. Take a look at our Android implementation guide and iOS implementation guide for help.
Optionally integrate the SDKs of third-party demand sources

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

The AdMob team

Native Express Video

2017-03-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Cross posted from the Google Ads Developer Blog.

If you've created a Native Express ad unit recently, you may have noticed a new template format alongside App Install and Content: Video App Install. In the past few weeks, AdMob has rolled out support for video assets in Native Ads Express, giving publishers a new way to create more engaging presentations for their users.

How to get started

Enabling video demand for a Native Express ad unit is easy. Just open the ad unit's settings in the AdMob console, and look for the Ad type checkboxes at the top of the editor:

Check the checkbox marked "Video app install," and save the change. In a short while, your ad unit will start serving video creatives alongside the other two formats, with no code changes to your app required. That means you can update your existing apps to display this new format without redeploying to the Play Store or App Store.

An important thing to note is that video creatives are only available for ad units using the Large template size. The video player needs a certain amount of space, and the Large template ensures that it's available.

Customizing the experience

While there's no mobile code required to take advantage of Native Express Video, AdMob has introduced some new features to the API that allow publishers to customize the user experience. In particular, a new video options class (VideoOptions on Android, and GADVideoOptions on iOS) gives publishers a way to influence how the ads behave.

For example, the following code will cause video ads appearing in an Android NativeExpressAdView to begin playing with their audio on:


mAdView = (NativeExpressAdView) findViewById(R.id.adView);
mAdView.setVideoOptions(new VideoOptions.Builder()
    .setStartMuted(false)
    .build());

Staying in the know

App publishers can retrieve information about the video assets in their ads through the use of a video controller object (VideoController on Android, GADVideoController on iOS). The ad view classes for native express have been updated to include video controller properties that apps can grab and query for info like whether a video is present in the ad, and what its aspect ratio is. Even if the ad doesn't contain an video asset (or no ad has been loaded at all), you'll always get a valid reference to the ad view's video controller.

For example, here's a Swift snippet that shows how to check if an ad that just loaded contains a video asset:


func nativeExpressAdViewDidReceiveAd(_ nativeExpressAdView: GADNativeExpressAdView)
{
  if nativeExpressAdView.videoController.hasVideoContent() {
    print("Received an ad with a video asset.")
  } else {
    print("Received an ad without a video asset.")
  }
}

More Info

Native Express is designed to make implementing native ads easy, but if you have questions about how to get up and running or how you can best put it to use in your apps, stop by our support forum. The Mobile Ads Garage recently released an episode covering Native Express Video as well, with feature details and screencasts for iOS and Android:

- Andrew Brogdon, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Detecting and eliminating Chamois, a fraud botnet on Android

2017-03-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

A more technical version was cross posted on the Android Developers blog

Google works hard to protect users across a variety of devices and environments. Part of this work involves defending users against Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs), an effort that gives us the opportunity to observe various types of threats targeting our ecosystem. For example, our security teams recently discovered and defended users of our ads and Android systems against a new PHA family we’ve named Chamois.

Chamois is an Android PHA family capable of:

Generating invalid traffic through UI overlays that pop up with ads having deceptive graphics inside the ad
Performing artificial app promotion by automatically installing apps in the background
Performing telephony fraud by sending premium text messages
Downloading and executing additional plugins

Interference with the ads ecosystem
We detected Chamois during a routine ad traffic quality evaluation. We analyzed several malicious apps based on Chamois, and found that they employed several methods to avoid detection and tried to trick users into clicking ads by displaying deceptive graphics. This sometimes resulted in downloading of other apps that commit SMS fraud. So we blocked the Chamois app family using Verify Apps and also kicked out bad actors who were trying to game our ad systems.

Our previous experience with ad fraud apps like this one enabled our teams to swiftly take action to protect both our advertisers and Android users. Because the malicious app didn’t appear in the device’s app list, most users wouldn’t have seen or known to uninstall the unwanted app. This is why Google’s Verify Apps is so valuable, as it helps users discover PHAs and delete them.

Google's approach to fighting PHAs
Verify Apps protects users from known PHAs by warning them when they are downloading an app that is determined to be a PHA, and it also enables users to uninstall the app if it has already been installed. Additionally, Verify Apps monitors the state of the Android ecosystem for anomalies and investigates the ones that it finds. It also helps finding unknown PHAs through behavior analysis on devices. For example, many apps downloaded by Chamois were highly ranked by the DOI scorer. We have implemented rules in Verify Apps to protect users against Chamois.

Google continues to significantly invest in its counter-abuse technologies for Android and its ad systems, and we’re proud of the work that many teams do behind the scenes to fight PHAs like Chamois.

We hope this summary provides insight into the growing complexity of Android botnets. To learn more about Google’s anti-PHA efforts and further ameliorate the risks they pose to users, devices, and ad systems, keep an eye open for the upcoming “Android Security 2016 Year In Review” report.

Posted by Security Software Engineers—Bernhard Grill, Megan Ruthven, and Xin Zhao

Understanding account suspensions due to invalid traffic

2017-03-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

In today's post, we'll be discussing AdMob account suspensions due to invalid traffic.

We have found that there are two types of publishers who may have invalid traffic issues with their accounts. The first are publishers who may unintentionally send invalid traffic to their accounts, typically by testing on live ads. For those, we hope that increased transparency into our policies and processes can decrease these unintentional violations and help our publishers play by the rules. The second are publishers who intentionally bypass our rules, ending up with a variety of invalid traffic issues in order to artificially inflate their ad revenue. That’s why we work hard to maintain a policy compliant ecosystem for our publishers, advertisers, and users. In short, if you play by the rules, AdMob is here to help you grow your business.

We receive many questions about account suspensions, so let's go through the top questions about this process and steps you can take to help keep your account in good standing.

What is invalid traffic anyway?

Invalid traffic includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. Invalid traffic covers both intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.

Please note that clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest, and any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions is strictly prohibited by our program policies. If we observe high levels of invalid traffic on your account, we may suspend or disable the account to protect our advertisers and users.

What is an account suspension?

If your account was suspended due to invalid traffic, ad serving has been turned off on all of your content for a fixed period (most frequently 30 days). This includes any website, YouTube channel, and/or mobile app. Please know that we will deduct revenue from your account and will credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible. If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically re-enabled after the fixed period.

Please note that your account is still active, and an account suspension is not the same as having your account disabled. If your account was disabled due to invalid traffic, your account is no longer serving ads, and you will be unable to monetize with any Google ad solutions. As with account suspensions, please know that we will deduct revenue from your account and will credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts or disabled accounts due to invalid traffic.

Why did my account get suspended?

In addition to monitoring for policy violations, we analyze all clicks and impressions to determine whether they might artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that your account has invalid traffic, then we may suspend or disable your account. Please know that we may deduct revenue from your account and may credit advertisers for the invalid traffic we detect.

Here are common reasons why your account may get suspended:

Clicking ads on your own app: Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods. Testing your own ads by clicking on them is not allowed. For AdMob ad placements, please use test ads (available for Android, iOS) to avoid generating invalid traffic.
One or more users repeatedly clicking your ads: Don't encourage or ask your friends, family, co-workers, or general users to click on your ads. This includes asking for users to support your app, offering rewards to users for clicking ads, and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior.

We recommend that you check your associated AdMob email for more information regarding your account suspension.

What steps should I take during the suspension period?

Account suspension gives you time to investigate the sources of invalid traffic, identify and block suspicious traffic, and put measures in place to ensure clean traffic. We recommend using Firebase Analytics to help you best understand, monitor, and evaluate the traffic to your app. This may also help you identify sources of invalid traffic.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic.

How can I appeal an account suspension?

Account suspensions are currently not appealable.

You can use this time to investigate your traffic sources and make adjustments to help prevent invalid traffic in the future. Provided that there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will automatically be reinstated once your suspension period is served.

Please don't fill out the invalid traffic appeal form because that form is reserved for disabled accounts, and you will receive an email that says we can't process this appeal.

If you would like to provide additional feedback to help us improve our processes and communications, you may do so using our suspended publisher feedback form.

When will my account be re-enabled?

If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically re-enabled after the fixed period (most frequently 30 days).

What happens if after my account was re-enabled, my account continues to generate invalid traffic?
If, after your account has been re-enabled, invalid traffic persists and continues to contribute low value traffic to our ads ecosystem, then we may need to disable your account.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic. We look forward to your return to the AdMob network in good standing after the suspension ends.

Posted by: Danielle Chang, Ad Traffic Quality team

AdMob is “leveling up” your business with new app monetization innovations

2017-03-02T19:19:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), we announced important updates to AdMob that could help you unlock new business with rewarded video formats and free, unlimited and real-time analytics reporting. These features will help you monetize your games more effectively by helping you keep your players engaged with more immersive ads and by giving you a faster understanding of how they are interacting with your game.

Over the last year, developers embraced AdMob’s platform to mediate rewarded video ads to nine leading rewarded networks, including TapJoy which we announced yesterday. And we’re not stopping there. AdMob developers around the world now have access to Google’s own video advertising demand from Google AdWords, significantly increasing the breadth and scale of rewarded demand available. That means AdMob now offers a single platform solution including mediation, demand, and reservations. And for those publishers currently using either IronSource or MoPub, adaptors are now available to add Google demand.

Our native ads have also seen tremendous growth over the last year as a way for developers to deliver rich, immersive ad experiences. For developers building their games in Unity, a popular gaming engine, we will shortly be releasing a plugin that supports native ads and native ad mediation on both iOS and Android. This will expand AdMob’s platform and network support for Unity developers beyond banner, interstitial, and rewarded ads available today.

We are also investing in better measurement tools for developers by bringing the power of Firebase Analytics to more game developers with a generally available C++ SDK and an SDK for Unity.

C++ and Unity developers can access Firebase Analytics stream view for real-time player insights

Here’s what developers have to say about rewarded ads in AdMob:

"Implementing AdMob rewarded ads helped us not just monetize non-spending users but increase overall revenue of the game, including IAP revenue. Also, AdMob mediation made it easy to compare our ad performance across ad networks." - Somin Oh, Ad Monetization Manager @ JoyCity

If you haven’t tried AdMob rewarded ads yet, here’s how you can get started. We’re hosting a series of Hangouts on Air around rewarded demand and mediation. During these session we will share best practices to implement and optimize the format and highlight key areas that AdMob rewarded can help you be successful in, including:

Access the scale of Google’s video demand: With AdWords’ global presence and advertiser base, AdMob publishers will benefit from geographically diverse demand.
Diversified demand with rewarded mediation: Help ensure that there’s always an ad available to show, and that the ad shown is the most valuable to you.
User-friendly ad formats: Clear guidance to users at all touch points, including opt-out option for full user control over ad experience.
Great User Experiences: AdMob provides highly engaged ads such as landscape and portrait video formats in rewarded ads where there is no incentivization of the download giving a clear value exchange for the user.
Popular Game Engine Support: New integrations with Cocos2d-x and Unity game engines allow you to seamlessly support rewarded ads in your games.

It’s been a privilege to meet so many of you at GDC and learn about the amazing games that you’re all building. We are committed to continuing on this journey with you to build a smart monetization platform for you to grow long-term gaming businesses.

Make sure to stay connected on all things AdMob, follow our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

The AdMob Team

“Level up” your gaming business with new innovations for apps

2017-03-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

Mobile games mean more than just fun. They mean business. Big business. According to App Annie, game developers should capture almost half of the $189B global market for in-app purchases and advertising by 2020¹.

Later today, at the Games Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, I look forward to sharing a series of new innovations across ad formats, monetization tools and measurement insights for apps.

New playable and video ad formats to get more people into your game
Integrations to help you create better monetization experiences
Measurement tools that provide insights about how players are interacting with your game

Let more users try your game with a playable ad format

There’s no better way for a new user to experience your game than to actually play it. So today, we introduced playables, an interactive ad format in Universal App Campaigns that allows users to play a lightweight version of your game, right when they see it in any of the 1M+ apps in the Google Display Network.

Jam City’s playable ad for Cookie Jam

Playables help you get more qualified installs from users who tried your game in the ad and made the choice to download it for more play time. By attracting already-engaged users into your app, playables help you drive the long-term outcomes you care about — rounds played, levels beat, trophies won, purchases made and more.

"Jam City wants to put our games in the hands of more potential players as quickly as possible. Playables get new users into the game right from the ad, which we've found drives more engagement and long-term customer value." Josh Yguado, President & COO Jam City, maker of Panda Pop and Cookie Jam.

Playables will be available for developers through Universal App Campaigns in the coming months, and will be compatible with HTML5 creatives built through Google Web Designer or third-party agencies.

Improve the video experience with ads designed for mobile viewing

Most mobile video ad views on the Google Display Network are watched on devices held vertically². This can create a poor experience when users encounter video ad creatives built for horizontal viewing.

Developers using Universal App Campaigns will soon be able to use an auto-flip feature that automatically orients your video ads to match the way users are holding their phones. If you upload a horizontal video creative in AdWords, we will automatically create a second, vertical version for you.

Cookie Jam horizontal video and vertical-optimized video created through auto-flip technology

The auto-flip feature uses Google's machine learning technology to identify the most important objects in every frame of your horizontal video creative. It then produces an optimized, vertical version of your video ad that highlights those important components of your original asset. Early tests show that click-through rates are about 20% higher on these dynamically-generated vertical videos than on horizontal video ads watched vertically³.

Unlock new business with rewarded video formats, and free, unlimited reporting

Developers have embraced AdMob's platform to mediate rewarded video ads as a way to let users watch ads in exchange for an in-app reward. Today, we are delighted to announce that we are bringing Google’s video app install advertising demand from AdWords to AdMob, significantly increasing rewarded demand available to developers. Advertisers that use Universal App Campaigns can seamlessly reach this engaged, game-playing audience using your existing video creatives.

We are also investing in better measurement tools for developers by bringing the power of Firebase Analytics to more game developers with a generally available C++ SDK and an SDK for Unity, a leading gaming engine.

C++ and Unity developers can now access Firebase Analytics for real-time player insights

With Firebase Analytics, C++ and Unity developers can now capture billions of daily events — like level completes and play time — to get more nuanced player insights and gain a deeper understanding of metrics like daily active users, average revenue per user and player lifetime value.

This is an exciting time to be a game developer. It’s been a privilege to meet so many of you at GDC 2017 and learn about the amazing games that you’re all building. We hope the innovations we announced today help you grow long-term gaming businesses and we look forward to continuing on this journey with you.

Until next year, GDC!

Posted by: Sissie Hsiao, Product Director, Mobile Advertising, Google
Last played Fire Emblem Heroes for Android
1 - App Monetization Report, November 2016, App Annie
2 - More than 80% of video ad views in mobile apps on the Google Display Network are from devices held vertically video, Google Internal Data
3 - Google Internal Data

Meet The AdMob Team at Game Developers Conference (GDC) Next Week

2017-02-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is less than one week away in San Francisco. We’re excited to give you a glimpse into how we are helping mobile game developers build businesses and improve user experiences, while monetizing successfully.

Our Google Developer Day will take place in Room 2020 of the West Hall of Moscone Center on Monday, February 27. We'll share how new devices, platforms, and tools are helping developers grow successful businesses and push the limits of mobile gaming. Then stay with us for a diverse set of lightning talks and panels covering topics including virtual reality, machine learning, monetization and more. Here’s a look at the schedule:

Opening Keynote || 10AM: We’ll kick off the day by sharing how Google is ramping up efforts to help game developers grow their businesses and make Android a great platform for games. From Play store updates optimized for discovery and engagement, to performance upgrades making high fidelity gaming come to life on Android devices, 2017 will be another year full of exciting gaming experiences.
Lightning Talks || 11:10AM: Stay with us for a variety of 5-minute talks covering all the latest to know to develop great games using Google's technological edge with Machine Learning, VR for everyone, Cloud Gaming, Firebase and more... and learn how to make them profitable.
3 x Panels || 2:00PM: After lunch, we'll host panels to hear from developers first-hand about their experiences launching mobile games, building thriving communities, and navigating the successes and challenges of being an indie developer.

Our main keynote will take place in Room 3009 in the West Hall of Moscone Center on Wednesday, March 1.

Smarter Growth, powered by Google's Machine Learning || 9:30AM: Join Jane Butler, Sissie Hsiao and Brendon Kraham, where we’ll discuss how the mobile games industry is becoming more sophisticated as technology, player demographics, motivations and community participation becomes more diverse. As a result, marketers are tasked with finding smarter and more efficient ways to engage high-value users. Using over a decade of machine learning technology, Google is driving innovations in growth and monetization across the player lifecycle. Hear from Google app promotion specialists on how to combine the power of data and technology to drive profitable growth for your games business.

We’ll also be hosting two additional ads focused workshops on Thursday, March 2.

Find Your Biggest Fans with Google's Machine Learning || 2:00PM: Join this session, hosted by Mark Heneghan, Analytical Lead, to learn how Google can help you grow both your game and profitability with a little help from machine learning.
Earn more revenue from Rewarded and the AdMob platform || 3:00PM: This talk will be hosted by Apoorva Sharma, AdMob Account Manager and in this advanced session, the AdMob team will provide a technical deep dive into how the right ad technology helps you earn money and enhance user experience.

See all the details about our Google Developer Day here and check out all the other Google talks here.

For more information on our presence at GDC, including a full list of our talks and speaker details, click here. Remember, these events are part of the official Game Developer's Conference, so you will need a pass to attend. For those who can't make it in person, watch the live stream on YouTube starting at 10am PST on Monday, February 27th.

We’ll also be live tweeting on Twitter and sharing on Google+ and LinkedIn, so stay in the loop with what’s happening with #Google #GDC17.

Posted by the Google AdMob Team.

Preloading Interstitial Ads

2017-02-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

In today’s topic, we’re exploring how you can help stay compliant with AdMob policies when using the AdMob interstitial ad format. If you have ever received a policy message for “Layout encourages accidental clicks - Interstitial Ads”, or have had trouble with implementing interstitials to trigger on time, read ahead for our best practices.

App layouts that encourage accidental clicks are a common policy issue for publishers. When implementing interstitial ads within a mobile app, there may be a slight delay in when the ad gets triggered after a user selects an action. In the example below we can see that an interstitial ad launches unexpectedly with a delay on the second screen after the page has already loaded. This delay can occur due to carrier latency when requesting the interstitial ad.

Carrier Latency causing a delay in the interstitial ad

Pre-loading your interstitial ads will allow you to avoid latency when the ad is displayed to the user.
In the corrected example below, the user now clicks on a transitional button and an interstitial ad is shown immediately on action. Once the user closes the interstitial ad they will now be on the next loaded page.

Pre-loading the interstitial ad to trigger on action

To learn more about how to preload your interstitial ads, please follow the AdMob Interstitial Ad developer guidelines for apps developed for Android and iOS.

Implementing these ads in the right way is better for your users, advertisers and for you. AdMob policies are designed to create a positive user experience. For further tips on AdMob Interstitial Ads and Best Practices, check out our official best practices video.

Remember to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by: Zac Campbell, AdMob Publisher Quality Team

Optimizing App Monetization with Google AdMob

2017-02-20T07:42:00.001-08:00

All views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author, and not that of Google. This guest post is from Sreeraman Thiagarajan, a Google Developers Expert in the app marketing and monetization space and a published author on the Economic Times. Sreeraman is featured as our guest blogger to share insights and tips from his experience to help AdMob developers grow their earnings. If you’re new to AdMob, be sure to sign up here.

In the introductory post we saw how AdMob lets app developers take control of monetizing their apps - here’s the second part on optimization and measuring.

Optimizing revenue and volume: A counter question I often get goes like this “But other networks offer better eCPM (more dollar for every one thousand impressions served), why must I choose AdMob?” Answer for this lies in understanding two metrics and the two respective fundamentals behind each of these metrics.

The first metric is ‘fill rate’ which means how many relevant ads can the ad network fulfill as requested by your app? A simple demand-supply equation is the fundamental behind this metric, because there are a lot of advertisers on Google, nearly 1million plus advertisers who want to show their ads (demand) to a potential audience who could be using your app (supply). This equation generates a very high amount of ‘ad requests’ of 200 billion per month, globally. With AdMob on your app, you can join the supply side.

The second metric of eCPM is how much money per thousand impression your app can earn? eCPM differs from network to network, however a simple multiplication of eCPM with fill rate answers this question. If network A offers $1 at a fill rate of 85% then you get 85 cents revenue per thousand ad request (aka RPM). Now if network B offers twice as much at $2 but with a lower fill rate of 30% then you only get 60 cents of RPM. That’s a 25% loss on potential earnings.

Choosing the type of ads to show: There a few standard types of ads, namely Banners, Interstitials, Rewarded, and Native. There’s no fixed formula for which type of banner to use, but one principle developers must strongly adhere to is to ‘preserve user experience’ by integrating ads as unobtrusively and as natively as possible.

Game developers have an advantage in using rewarded ads, this a form of interstitial ad units that enables you to reward users with in-app items such as an extra life, a level jump, a feature unlock, etc., for watching video ads.

Native ads is a boon for publishers and content based apps. It is a component based ad format that matches the look and feel of the app where the ad is being displayed. This makes the ads look like they are a part of the app and reduces obtrusiveness. A simple example of this is a promoted tweet on Twitter or a promoted post on Facebook. It is essentially a tweet or post like any other, but an identified sponsor has paid to promote it.

Banners and interstitials are pretty standard formats. Apps can choose to display banners at fixed positions on screen like the top or bottom. The full-screen ads are called interstitials, these are displayed at natural transition points in the user journey such as between two levels in a game, between two news articles, etc.

Stop guessing and start testing: App developers often suffer from the curse of knowledge, that is, they assume their users know and use the app the way it was meant to be. But more often than not, this is not true and building the app’s advertising strategy on gut feel is bad for business. Optimal monetization happens when users’ journey from acquisition to retention is deeply understood. Thanks to the integration of Google Firebase with AdMob, app developers can use Firebase’s free & unlimited analytics solution for deploying intelligent ad monetization strategies.

Importing Firebase SDK into apps requires no complicated coding. Once integrated, developers can get details like sessions, demographics of users, revenue from in-app purchases, etc., from Firebase Analytics. Besides this, AdMob’s own reports will give you a ringside view on how revenue is generated.

To optimize monetization, it is imperative developers inculcate a habit of continuous testing and tweaking their product strategy based on data and hard insights.

In conclusion, ads are above fifty percent of total revenue generated by apps. According to data point by App Annie and IDC, in-app ads are projected to grow at 3.2X in next two years¹. As stated by Gartner, this year, over 268 billion apps are expected to be downloaded worldwide²; apps have no boundary and you never know audience from which country maybe your biggest fans.

Successful app monetization happens when there’s a mind-set of growth. Grow your audience base, preserve user experience, integrate AdMob, and ad revenue will start taking care of itself. Thus giving developers bandwidth to build more products or enhance existing features.

Google has made a lot of resources available on AdMob and if you are a developer with apps that has over 100,000 downloads you can request a free consultation. Both the resources are free of cost. Godspeed and love to see India rise up in charts for generating app revenue.

1 - https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.appannie.com/reports/App-Annie-IDC-Mobile-App-Advertising-Monetization-Trends-2013-2018-EN.pdf
2 - http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2654115