Category Archives: AdMob Blog

News, tips, and information on the AdMob developer platform

Regional Finalists Announced for the AdMob Student Challenge

Since January, students from around the world have been submitting entries for the AdMob Student App Challenge. Students around the world were challenged to build an app that that demonstrates their skills and monetize it with AdMob. Today, we are excited to announce the four regional finalists, hand picked based on app quality and traffic.

The regional finalists are made up of the top entry in each of our 4 participating regions - North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. Their apps have made a huge splash in the Google Play Store, with over 500,000 downloads and 10,000 reviews combined! Each member of the regional finalist teams will receive brand new Pixel C tablets and advance into the final round where the global winner will receive a seven night trip to San Francisco and a visit to Googleplex.

North America:
Team: Dodo Built
Average review: 4.6 / 5.0
Block Havoc is North America’s finalist, and deservingly so! The app is an extremely entertaining game with endless modes and patterns that challenges users to improve their reaction time on a beautiful and polished interface.


Latin America:

Team: KUNIC Apps
Average review: 5.0 / 5.0
And, LATAM’s finalist is #booleaning, a handy and well-featured calculator for boolean functions. This productivity application looks professional and is designed to save users’ time with built in logic operators, like NOT, AND, OR.


Asia/Pacific:
Team: Upskew
Average review: 4.5 / 5.0
Encode: Learn to Code is APAC’s finalist, differentiating themselves with an extremely straightforward and fun way to teach beginners how to code. The simple and intuitive tutorials and lessons allowed users to immerse themselves to build a quick and strong foundation.


Europe/Middle East/Africa: 
Team: Turbo Rocket Games
App: Dragon Sim Online
Average review: 4.4 / 5.0
Our last finalist is Dragon Sim Online, an addictive game with outstanding graphics. The application provides an epic adventure that allows you to engage and join other online players through beautiful flying and fighting animation to level up in this fantasy world.



Congratulations to the Regional Finalists, and thank you again to everyone who participated. The Global Winner will be announced on August 25, 2016, so stay tuned! 

Cindy Tran
The AdMob Challenge Team




Source: Inside AdMob


India-based Neurosurgeon Mohan Noone Builds Popular Travel App and Grows it with AdMob

“This experience has been life changing. From a hobbyist, who would have at most written apps used by a few friends, I have now an app used by millions, every day! It is just unbelievable... I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, and it has been the defining story of my life!” - Mohan Noone
Dr. Mohan Noone is a neurosurgeon who was interested in programming. In 2011, he came across a service that provided live updates on train schedules and envisioned bringing that information to mobile devices. With that spark of inspiration, Noone purchased an Android book to start learning code. As he was building his app, he made sure that it was simple, functional and compact to create the best user experience. After listing his app on the Google Play store, he saw his app Indian Railway Train Status grow to over 5M downloads in just 3 years. Today, the app has over 500K daily active users.

The problem
Several months after the app was released, Noone looked for ways to monetize his popular app. He decided to implement banners, but didn’t see great results at first due to poor ad placements.

The solution
Noone then decided to move the banner ad to the homepage and saw his revenue skyrocket about 10X. Afterwards, Noone decided to add interstitials, which helped him triple his revenue overnight. He believed that it was important not to overwhelm users with ads. Instead of showing interstitials in every session, he randomly triggered the loading, which meant fewer ads for the users.

The results
Over the years, Noone’s dedication to creating a positive user experience helped Indian Railway Train Status achieve over 5M downloads.

Indian Railway Train Status’ banner ad
To check out Mohan Noone’s success story, or any other of our other success stories, visit us at at the AdMob website. Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ page.

Posted by Henry Wang, AdMob Marketing

Source: Inside AdMob


Mobile Ads Garage: Episode 8 – Rewarded Video Mediation

Episode eight 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.

Did you know that AdMob serves ads to more than two hundred countries and territories? To celebrate, The Mobile Ads Garage presents Episode 8 in two languages! Katie from the Mobile Ads SDK team stops by to help Andrew talk about rewarded video mediation. You'll hear the basics of how and why to use AdMob mediation and the Mobile Ads SDK to show rewarded video ads in both English and Chinese.

Rewarded video is a full-screen ad format in which users watch ads in exchange for something, typically an in-game reward. Because users hold the power of choice, they don't have to see ads they aren't interested in. Plus, publishers can build the view/reward cycle into the mechanics of their games, creating monetization strategies that actually increase user engagement. When you add all that to AdMob's ability to automatically prioritize mediated networks by eCPM, you've got a complete solution.


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.

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Source: Inside AdMob


Mobile Ads Garage: Episode 7 – Native Ads Express

Episode seven 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.

Have you tried AdMob's Native Ads Express? It's a new native ads format open to all AdMob publishers that can help you slim down the monetization code in your apps, plus give you the chance to update your ad layouts without a redeploy. In this episode you'll see sample ads, implementations in Xcode and Android Studio, and details on how to create CSS templates that'll make sure the ads in your apps look the way you want. If you've been considering a move to native ads, this is a great way to get started.



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

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Source: Inside AdMob


Supercharge your Game with AdMob at Casual Connect USA 2016

Are you attending Casual Connect USA 2016 in San Francisco from July 18th to 20th? If the answer is yes, come meet the AdMob team at the Google booth (#106), where you’ll learn how to grow your gaming revenue! AdMob specialists will be in attendance to help answer any questions you might have and optimize your account on the spot.


On Monday, July 18th at 11:30am, don’t miss our talk: Find and Engage High Value Users From the Start; Google’s Mobile Ad Platform from Soft-launch through Growth with Google’s mobile ad product management leader, Sissie Hsiao. After this session, you’ll be fully up to speed on how to harness Google’s powerful automation to find high value players and build a thriving gaming business.

After the talk, come check out our workshops from 1:00pm to 4:00pm where you’ll meet with our product leaders and get a deep dive on a range of topics. These workshops are 20 minutes long and open to everyone. Seating is limited so be sure to come 5 minutes early to the workshop you want to attend.

1:00pm - 1:25pmBest practices for finding and engaging high quality players

Find out how Google’s insights and automated ads tools can help you understand what your players value the most and how to find them.
1:25pm - 1:50pmBuild the buzz and get the install – the one-two punch of awareness and intent

Samantha and Connie from the the App Dev team will discuss ways you can improve your keywords to get the best performing Search campaigns.
1:50pm - 2:15pmAligning monetization with player happiness

Gaming BD Lead Alejandro Manchado will discuss how to maximize your revenue across ads and IAP and tailor your monetization by user segment with AdMob and Firebase.
2:15pm - 2:40pmMore than a glimpse – storytelling using engaging formats

As the team lead for Google’s App Developer Sales, Beth will share insights and best practices on how you can use Google’s app promotion solutions to take your app to the next level.
2:40pm - 3:05pmTips for taking your game global – efficiently

Google has made it really easy for you to launch your app globally. Find out how Google helps you identify which market to enter and localize your app content for users.


Even if you can’t attend this year, you’ll be able to stay in the loop. We’ll be live tweeting and sharing the event on our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ channels, using the hashtags #Google #CasualConnect .

Posted by Henry Wang, Product Marketing, AdMob

Source: Inside AdMob


Game developer Balloon Island Increases Revenue by 150% with AdMob Mediation

"With AdMob taking care of the revenue part, we can focus on doing the fun part, which is making great games for our users.” - Tenny Woo, Direct and Frankie Lee, CTO


After working 20 years in a job that didn’t tap into his passion, Tenny Woo decided to quit in 2011 and start developing gaming apps to express his creativity. Today, he’s the managing director of Balloon Island, a successful Hong Kong-based mobile gaming company with more than 1M downloads and popular games like Ultimate Jewel, Star Gems and Lollipops series.

The problem
Balloon Island develops apps for both Android and iOS to make their games more widely accessible. Woo knew that it was important to sustain and grow his company. Woo decided to turn to AdMob because of its reputation for publisher support and global reach.

The solution
To keep user experience intact, Balloon Island used a combination of banner ads and interstitials, showing only relevant ads. After implementing ads, Balloon Island took advantage of AdMob mediation to ensure that it earned the most money possible for ad space.

The results
Balloon Island saw its revenue grow approximately 150% to $2K daily and its ad inventory increase to more than 4M daily, as a result of implementing AdMob mediation. Thanks to AdMob, Balloon Island has continued its growth and connected with users around the world.

Banner ad in Ultimate Jewel
To check out Balloon Island’s success story, or other AdMob success stories, visit us at at the AdMob website. Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by Henry Wang, AdMob Marketing

Source: Inside AdMob


Keep your Android apps nimble with the Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK

We understand how critical it is for apps to be lightweight. A lightweight app means taking up less space on a user’s phone, and faster loading on app launch. That’s why we’re committed to keeping the Google Mobile Ads SDK lean.

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK, a lightweight Google Mobile Ads SDK that can be integrated in your Android app at a fraction of the size of the regular SDK. We also significantly reduced the number of methods, which will assist in keeping your method count low.

The Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK will help you continue earning money from your Android apps without compromising the size or speed of your apps. Here’s what one of our developers had to say about SDK Lite:
“At Holaverse, we pride ourselves on developing highly-optimized, lightweight mobile apps. Users spend less time downloading and more time enjoying the functionality and experiences we've crafted for them. When system resources or data bandwidth is limited, every byte saved is one more byte we can use to create and deliver greater value. The Android Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK allows us to do this, to do more, to effectively monetize our hard work with Google's powerful advertising solutions without adding unnecessary bloat to our apps, and without compromising our apps' user experience." - Xie Feng, CEO, Holaverse
The Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK has the same capabilities as the standard SDK, but is specific for devices with Google Play Services. Developers publishing Android apps to an app store that is not the Google Play Store should use the standard SDK.

For more information about Google Mobile Ads Lite SDK, visit our developer documentation and stay connected on all things AdMob, follow our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Posted by Alan Ni, Associate Product Manager

Source: Inside AdMob


Mobile Ads Garage: Episode 6 – AdMob with Firebase

Episode six 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.

At I/O '16, Google announced that Firebase has become a unified mobile platform that can help you quickly develop high-quality apps, grow your user base, and earn more money. Part of that platform is AdMob, and this episode features not only Andrew and Gary, but also the Garage's first ever guest star: David East from the Firecasts series! David and Andrew will cover what the benefits of Firebase are for AdMob publishers, how to import both SDKs into a project, and how to link an AdMob app to a Firebase project so you can take advantage of Firebase's free and unlimited analytics.



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

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Source: Inside AdMob


Introducing AdMob Campaigns, a powerful way to cross promote your apps and manage direct sold campaigns

Thousands of AdMob publishers leverage AdMob house ads to cross promote their apps and scale adoption of new apps to their existing users. Today, we’re taking this to the next level with the launch of AdMob Campaigns. We’re enriching our house ads functionality and adding direct sold capability to the AdMob platform. With this launch you can take advantage of:

  • Innovative formats: Use app promotion, image, text, HTML5, Video CTD ads that outperform legacy formats.
  • Advanced ad serving controls: Set four different goal types and allocate your inventory more efficiently with detailed performance reports such as campaign progress tracking. Run goal forecast to help predict whether your campaigns will meet their goals.
  • Best in class conversion tracking: Track your cross promotions using the same AdWords conversion tag, which is tightly integrated with third-party conversion trackers. No new tags required.




Going forward, you can manage all of your house ad campaigns and direct sold campaigns from one place. With AdMob, you can focus on building great apps while we do the hard work for you.

For more about AdMob Campaigns, visit our help center, and to stay connected on all things AdMob, follow our Twitter and Google+ pages.

Posted by Sarah Faulkner
Product Manager, AdMob

Source: Inside AdMob


Game developer Mobirix increases revenue from paying users by 44%

“Gaming app users are often exposed to ads but when we show them AdMob in-app purchase (IAP) ads, we are able to convert some of them into paying users, which helps us generate more IAP revenue.” - Hyun Kwan Ro, Director, Mobirix



Mobirix is a Korean mobile gaming developer and publisher that transitioned from creating games for feature phones to smartphones. Today, they have developed and published over 200 games for users around the world. Mobirix prides itself on creating great user experiences and not using push notifications, believing that users will come back to their apps without needing reminders.
The problem

After building a large user base, Mobirix looked at its monetization strategy to generate revenue. It started by working with a game developer to find a way to monetize its popular game, Zombiehive. At first, Mobirix’s game developer didn’t want to incorporate ads, but Mobirix understood that it was common for users to see ads and that mid-core and hard-core players were more likely to make an in-app purchase. As a result, Mobirix took a segmented approach to monetize non-paying and paying users.

The solution

Based on AdMob’s recommendation, Mobirix decided to implement a hybrid monetization model, which used a combination of in-app ads and in-app purchases. With AdMob IAP house ads, AdMob automatically predicts likely spenders based on Google’s proprietary data and models, and shows them IAP ads. This helped Mobirix maximize revenue while improving user experience for its likely to spend? users. For the rest of the users who are unlikely to spend, AdMob serves regular ads to help maximize revenue.

The results

Adding ads to the mix allowed Mobirix to monetize non-paying users without relying solely on revenue from IAP. After implementing the hybrid monetization model of IAP and ads for its app, Zombiehive, Mobirix saw an approximate 15% uplift in the number of paying users and about a 43% increase in average revenue per paying user.

Having seen such impressive results, Mobirix is excited for what the future holds. With approximately 90% of its total ad revenue coming from AdMob, Mobirix plans to design future games based on a hybrid monetization model.

An in-app purchase house ad in Zombiehive

To check out Mobirix’s success story, or any other of our other success stories, visit us at at the AdMob website. Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter and Google+ page.

Posted by Henry Wang
AdMob Marketing

Source: Inside AdMob