Inside AdMob: 2018

AdMob: a new look and feel

September 17, 2018

new website

Avid.ly grew total revenue by 40% with AdMob’s rewarded ads

July 2, 2018

Using ads to monetize users who don’t spend on in-app purchases (IAP) Blocking controls helped Avid.ly automate the quality control of ad creatives, saving them time on ad operations. One important tool unique to AdMob is the ability to set different country-level CPMs for each ad network in mediation, which allows ad networks to compete at different price points and ultimately increase revenue.

“AdMob has been our top revenue partner for 4+ years because it consistently delivers the highest eCPMs and provides the most advanced set of monetization tools,” said Alix Liu, Avid.ly’s director of product management. “For example, setting different ad unit floors at the country-level is very important to our bottom line — that’s not available on other platforms.”

After years of experience monetizing with static ads, Avid.ly was ready to take its revenue and user experience to the next level.
Powering up with rewarded ads

When AdMob released rewarded ads, Avid.ly was among the first publishers to try it. As the name suggests, these ads reward users for watching an ad. Here’s why they work: first, players choose to watch or engage with the ad, putting them in control of their experience. Once the ad concludes, players receive digital goods that make the game more fun to play and allow them to continue playing. Rewarded ads largely feature video creatives, which are more engaging and deliver higher CPMs than traditional static ads. Together, these aspects can deliver a better app experience and help developers earn more.

Despite these benefits, Avid.ly was worried that rewarded ads might cannibalize IAP revenue. So, it started small, testing rewarded ads in only three of its games. In the test, Avid.ly prompted players with the choice to watch a rewarded ad when they ran out of lives. When players watched the entire video ad, they earned new lives or game currency and were able to resume gameplay. It didn’t take long to see the impact of this change on Avid.ly’s business.

Growing ARPU and user happiness
After implementing rewarded ads, Avid.ly saw ARPU skyrocket by 40%. Users were spending up to 20% more time playing and buying in-app goods 18% more often. Longer playing time meant players had more opportunities to watch ads and make in-app purchases, growing both ads and IAP revenue in a virtuous cycle.

“After seeing such clearly positive test results, we decided to implement rewarded video ads in all 50+ games to grow revenue and retention,” said Liu. “It’s been impactful in growing our business.”

Posted by Elena Elfimova, Product Marketing Manager, AdMob

Taking the guesswork out of app monetization with Firebase Predictions

May 23, 2018

how we’re innovatingFirebase Predictions

Predicting in-app behavior with Google’s machine learning expertise Predictions uses deep-learning models powered by TensorFlow to predict app user behavior such as the likelihood of a user buying a good in a game or the chances of a user becoming inactive. Making the most of game event data from the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK, it dynamically groups users into different segments based on their predicted behavior.

These predictive segments are updated daily based on actual and ongoing user behavior. Armed with this information, you can take a variety of actions such as personalizing the UI of your app for users who are predicted to spend money in-app using Firebase Remote Config or sending users an offer via Cloud Messaging.

Helping developers show ads to the right audiences Developers like Rockbite have successfully used Predictions to build smarter monetization strategies. For their game Deep Town, the Rockbite team incorporated rewarded ads to complement revenue from the sale of digital goods. To optimize their monetization strategy and ensure they weren’t showing ads to paying customers, the team first experimented with segmenting players and serving ads by demographics. However, the results from these experiments were inconclusive. So, they turned to Predictions.
Predictions used machine learning to segment the game’s users based on their likelihood to spend. Rockbite started showing ads only to those players who were predicted to not spend. The net result: a 24 percent increase in revenue from the predicted nonspender group!

Optimizing app strategies with Predictions Predictions can help developers optimize their app strategy in many other ways. Halfbrick, for example, used experiments in Predictions to test different strategies for re-engaging customers and minimizing churn. Developers can set up a variety of experiments with Predictions, to maximize their revenue and user engagement. Some examples include:

Experiments with ad frequency Tuning ad frequency (more or less) for players who are predicted to churn or tuning ads so that they’re only shown to users not predicted to spend
Experiments with ad content Showing rewarded house ads for other games in your portfolio to players who are predicted to churn or promoting unique IAP offers to players who are expected to spend
Experiments with different rewards Predictions can be combined with other analytics attributes, user properties or audience insights to fine tune your strategy so you may, for example, reward only users predicted not to spend in specific geos or regions, or who play your game in specific ways.

Get started with Predictions

Predictions has only been in beta for a little while, but we’re encouraged by the results our partners are already seeing with it. If you’re already using Google Analytics for Firebase, you can enable Predictions with a single click in the Firebase Console. Refer to our implementation guides to try some of these strategies for yourself.

Reach out to us if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Jumana Al Hashal, Firebase Product Management

1. Google Play data, Global, Jan. 2017 vs. Jan. 2018. Developer-declared ads & IAP flags utilized from Google Play Store.

Google I/O: Grow and Earn with AdWords and AdMob

May 8, 2018

I/O is an inspiring moment. Every year, we’re excited to connect with the developer community and hear all of the amazing things you’re building, especially mobile apps.

These apps are the very reason many people consider their phones indispensable. People use these apps to stay connected, be entertained, and get everyday tasks done. Last year alone, people downloaded 94 billion apps from Google Play.

This means more opportunities for developers. With millions of apps in the ecosystem, your ads have to work harder to make your app stand out. And with users being more selective about the apps they keep, you need to create user-first ad experiences to monetize effectively.

In order to build a successful app business, you need tools that help you grow and earn more. That’s where Google can help. This afternoon, you’ll hear about ads innovations designed to help you do just that and examples of developers who are thriving with them. Check out the livestream here.

Grow your user base

Developers have driven more than 10 billion app installs with AdWords. Today we’re announcing several new innovations to help you find valuable users for your app.

Surface more relevant content in your app promotion ads

70% of users decide whether to install an app based on how much they’ll use it. To provide users more helpful information, we’ll launch a beta that allows developers to surface relevant app content within ads. For example, Wish, a shopping app, can link its product catalog to AdWords and surface relevant in-app product images and descriptions in its ads. This beta will be available in the coming months.

Surfacing relevant in-app content in ads

Get more people playing your game
Another way we’re helping developers find new users is by making app discovery easier. For gaming developers, we launched Instant Games in March to enable new players to try your game without having to download it first. Recently, we’ve started early testing to make Instant Games compatible with AdWords. Users can then try out games directly from ads across all the channels that Universal App campaigns reach.

Google Play Instant compatible with AdWords

See a more complete view of your advertising results
To give you a more complete picture of how your ads are working, we’re planning on making view through conversion (VTC) reporting available to AdWords app advertisers later this month. With VTC reporting, you can understand which viewable ad impressions were associated with conversions. For example, you can use these reports to better understand how well your video and display ads influenced app installs. VTC reporting will consider only impressions that meet the Media Rating Council (MRC) definition of ad viewability.

Earn more from your app

Save time and show value with standardized ad measurement
When developers sell ad placements in their app, advertisers want to know if their ads are being seen and are working. To date, developers who needed to report viewability data to advertisers have had to integrate multiple SDKs and reconcile disparate methodologies. To address this, we joined an IAB-led working group to simplify and standardize in-app viewability measurement. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve integrated IAB Tech Lab’s Open Measurement SDK into our Google Mobile Ads (GMA) and Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDKs. This solution will save developers time and reflect the true value of their app inventory. Starting today, developers on DoubleClick can request to join this beta.

Optimize your rewarded ads in AdMob
We’re seeing more and more users engaging with rewarded ad experiences. Users opt-in to view ads and in exchange receive in-app incentives or digital goods, such as an extra life in a game or content that she would have had to pay for otherwise. Since launching rewarded ads last year, we’ve seen a 9x increase in impressions, across both free and paid apps.

To help developers make the most of their rewarded ads, we’re introducing rewarded reporting in AdMob. Developers on AdMob will have access to rewarded ad metrics such as opt-in rate, consumption rate and rate of reward use. With these insights, developers can finetune their rewarded ads, addressing questions such as: ‘Do more users opt-in when the ad is shown after Level 1 or Level 4?’ ‘Which type of rewards do users prefer — coins or lives?’ ‘How often do people use their rewarded items?’. Rewarded reporting will be available in AdMob as an open beta coming soon.

Rewarded reporting in AdMob

Developers are building apps that connect, entertain and help millions of users. We’re looking forward to helping you grow and earn so you continue sharing the magic of your apps to the rest of the world!

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, VP of Product, Mobile App Advertising

1. Google Play Data, Global, April 2018.
2. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018
3. Ipsos & Google, April 2018
4. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2017 - Feb 2018

Introducing Open Bidding, a new way to monetize

March 22, 2018

At AdMob, we’re dedicated to building simple and powerful tools that help developers earn more from their apps. It’s why we’ve steadily increased our investment in monetization solutions such as mediation groups and ad network optimization. But we aren’t stopping there.

Last week, we announced the closed beta of Open Bidding -- a new way for you to grow revenue by maximizing the value you get from your various ad partners. Today, we're sharing more details on how Open Bidding works and why developers and our industry partners are excited about it.

Earn more with real-time pricing

Say you’re selling a house. Would you sell it to the first person in line based on their estimated offer or would you collect all offers at the same time and sell to the highest bidder? You should be doing the same with ads in your app.

Open Bidding allows your ad sources to bid on each impression in real time. Unlike traditional mediation that uses historical data to prioritize networks and call them one at a time, Open Bidding calls all participating networks simultaneously, enabling them to compete equally in a single, unified auction. For any given impression, the winner is always the highest paying advertiser because all networks get the same priority (including Google).

It’s simple–you win when more advertisers compete for the attention of your user at the same time.

Maximize demand from Google’s real-time advertisers

Open Bidding is powered by the same technology used by the world’s leading publishers on Google’s DoubleClick platform. For more than ten years, DoubleClick has been connecting these publishers with thousands of advertisers looking to buy inventory in real-time across a variety of ad formats. Open Bidding brings the full benefits of this technology to AdMob to help you grow your revenue by letting all your networks and the real-time advertisers across Google’s demand sources compete in a unified auction.

Simplify operations and save precious development resources

Not only can you earn more with Open Bidding, but you can also eliminate tedious tasks such as updating CPMs, integrating multiple SDKs, and managing billing cycles. Here’s how Open Bidding works to keep your business running smoothly:

Real-time CPMs: Forget about manually updating CPMs. Open Bidding pulls in real-time CPM data directly from demand partners so you can save time, make more money, and eliminate costly mistakes.
Simplified billing & payments: Unlike other solutions, we show you how various partners are doing in one centralized dashboard and we consolidate payouts from multiple partners so you have fewer things to worry about.
Fewer SDKs: You now have the option to access demand from participating partners without adding new SDKs to your app -- all you need is the Google Mobile Ads (GMA) SDK.

Developers in the closed beta are already seeing benefits:

“One of the biggest challenges in monetization is managing the daily fluctuation of CPMs, when working with different networks. We’re excited to participate in Open Bidding because it allows us to hit the highest CPM per request, thus optimizing revenue and leaving no money on the table.”

—Roy Tzayag, Head of Monetization, Ilyon Dynamics

Open Bidding is already live with bids from Smaato, Index Exchange and OpenX. As the mobile ads industry embraces real-time auctions to get greater access to your valuable inventory, we’re looking forward to integrating even more networks, including AdColony, over the next few months.
Want to test Open Bidding? Contact your AdMob Account Manager to sign up for this closed beta.

Posted by Vishal Kumar, Senior Product Manager

Become the GOAT of mobile gaming with new innovations from AdWords & AdMob

March 15, 2018

Great games are magical. They allow players to escape to new worlds, turn into superheroes, and boost their puzzle-solving powers. Now, more than ever, developers like you can become gaming legends who run successful businesses too. To help you get there, we’re sharing several new innovations designed to grow your fan base and earn you more revenue from your apps.

Win people’s attention with new video ads on Google Play

In a sea of mobile apps, it’s critical to reach the right players at the right time and place. Universal App Campaigns (UAC) use Google’s machine learning technology to find loyal fans across Google.com, Google Play, YouTube, and over 3 million sites and apps in the Google Display Network. To date, Google has delivered over 10 billion app installs for developers through ads.¹ And we’re just getting started.

Over the next few months, we’ll roll out a beta for click-to-play video ads — a new way to reach players on Google Play with sight, sound and motion. These placements will help you showcase your game as they tap, swipe and scroll to find their next favorite app.

New video ads in Google Play

Find your next player with similar audiences

With a world of games available on mobile, it can be hard to know who may fall in love with your game. Google helps by analyzing millions of signal combinations in real-time to help you reach the players you care about—like the ones who are likely to beat level 1 or who are likely to make an in-app purchase. In fact, that’s how we’re already helping drive 7 billion in-app events every quarter for our partners.²

But there’s more we can do. Today, we're introducing similar audiences for UAC, to help you find people who share similar interests with your best customers, right when they’re interested in games and apps like yours.

Imagine you’re a developer with a popular mobile game and you’re launching a new title. With similar audiences, you can share your business data with Google to find more players like those playing your current game. By connecting you with more qualified customers, similar audiences can help unlock new opportunities to grow your business. Similar audiences will be available in beta to select advertisers starting in May.

Make ad experiences more valuable with AdMob

Video ads are more than just a canvas for showcasing your games. They can help turn your apps into a revenue-driving machine. Last year alone, we saw in-app video ad impressions grow 1.8x across our networks.³

But people will abandon even the best apps if the ad experience doesn’t fit the flow of the game or an ad doesn’t respect the player’s preferences. Rewarded ads create value for players by offering them incentives, like an extra life or a special power-up in the game when they need it most. And because players can choose when to watch, these ads don’t disrupt gameplay. That's why more than 45% of AdMob’s top 1000 gaming partners (by revenue) use rewarded ads to monetize their apps.⁴

Last year, we made it easy for you to deliver rewarded video ads lasting 6 to 60 seconds in portrait and landscape modes.

Today, we’re sharing two new rewarded ad experiences that will become available to AdMob developers over the next few months: playable ads and multiple-option video ads. With these new formats, you can monetize your games while ensuring your players can interact with ads in a way that doesn’t interrupt their game play.

Rewarded ads with multiple-option videos

Rewarded ads with playables

Earn more from your ad partners with Open Bidding on AdMob

We know mediation is an important strategy to grow revenue from different ad networks. But you’ve also told us mediation can be difficult to manage. It’s time consuming to reconcile reports and chase payments from different partners. Implementing multiple ads SDKs increases development time and slows down your app. And, more than anything, mediation is based on historical CPMs, so it’s possible you’re leaving money on the table.

Our new beta, Open Bidding, takes monetization to the next level. Now, networks can bid to serve ads in your app simultaneously in a single unified auction. The result: increased competition that could lead to higher revenue. Also, there are fewer SDKs to implement, payments are simplified, and you’ll get meaningful insights from integrated reports in a single performance dashboard.

Open Bidding is already live with bids from Smaato, Index Exchange and OpenX. We’re looking forward to adding even more networks over the next few months, including AdColony and Vungle. That way you can earn more from your apps and get time back to make them even better.

To learn more about these innovations, please join us at the Game Developers Conference next week. My team and I look forward to sharing more details on the work we’re doing to make it easier for you to become the GOAT of mobile gaming.

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, VP of Product, Mobile App Advertising

1. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
2. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
3. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan 2016 - Dec 2017.
4. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan. 2018.

Grow your app business with Google's new education program for Universal App campaigns

February 26, 2018

Cross-posted from the Inside AdWords blog.Universal App campaigns (UAC)first course

Learn from industry experts. The course was created by marketers who’ve been in your shoes and vetted by the team who built the Universal App campaign.
Learn on your schedule. Watch snackable videos at your own pace. The course is made up of short 3-minute videos to help you master the content faster.

Practice what you learn. Complete interactive activities based on real life scenarios like using UAC to help launch a new app or release an update for your app.

So, take the course today and let us know what you think. You can also read more about UAC best practices here and here.

Hope to see you in class!

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, VP of Product, Mobile App Advertising at Google

Use ad content filtering to help improve your users’ ad experience

January 18, 2018

max_ad_content_rating signal

G: Content suitable for general audiences

PG: Content suitable for most audiences with parental guidance

T: Content suitable for teen and older audiences

MA: Content suitable only for mature audiences

max_ad_content_ratingAndroidiOSAdMob help center

Inside AdMob

AdMob: a new look and feel

Avid.ly grew total revenue by 40% with AdMob’s rewarded ads

Taking the guesswork out of app monetization with Firebase Predictions

Google I/O: Grow and Earn with AdWords and AdMob

Introducing Open Bidding, a new way to monetize

Become the GOAT of mobile gaming with new innovations from AdWords & AdMob

Grow your app business with Google's new education program for Universal App campaigns

Use ad content filtering to help improve your users’ ad experience

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