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
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:
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
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
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.
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.”
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.
Posted by Dmitry Mazilo, AdMob Business Development Lead
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.
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.
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.
Posted by: Andrew Brogdon, Mobile Ads Developer Relations Team
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):
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):
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.
Posted by: Tom Ambrose, AdMob Publisher Quality Team
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:
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.
Posted by: Suzy Headon - Inside AdMob Team
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.
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.
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());
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.") } }
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:
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:
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
"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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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:
Our main keynote will take place in Room 3009 in the West Hall of Moscone Center on Wednesday, March 1.
We’ll also be hosting two additional ads focused workshops on Thursday, March 2.
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.
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.
Posted by: Zac Campbell, AdMob Publisher Quality Team
