2021 has been a big year for app developers — global consumer spend has reached new heights; expectations around digital security continue to shift; and mobile platforms and regulators are introducing changes to better protect user privacy. These will likely continue to be major themes in 2022, so we’re sharing some monetization strategies to help you drive business growth in a fast-evolving landscape.

Diversify your demand sources to deliver more value

As the industry pivots to real-time bidding, strong demand sources can help you make the most of your unique inventory. Access to a diverse range of buyers in particular can deliver strong effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPMs) for your inventory.

Google AdMob supports many demand sources to help you earn more across real-time bidding and waterfall mediation. The AdMob network includes demand from Google Ads, Display & Video 360 and more than 200 demand-side platforms (DSPs). Soon, we’ll introduce software development kit (SDK) integrations with buyers like Snap to further enhance performance — with more to come in 2022. For direct-sold inventory support, you may want to consider Google Ad Manager.

After mobile game developer Me2Zen saw strong performance from the AdMob network, they decided to move to the AdMob platform. The team adopted both bidding and waterfall mediation and saw a 15% increase in their average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU).

Simplify operations to free up resources

An effective suite of tools to manage operational tasks can save time and help you focus on growth. For example, a robust A/B testing strategy can help you decide what levers to pull to optimize performance with confidence. With AdMob, you can set up an A/B test with a few clicks and get actionable insights to earn more.

Onboarding and testing can be another manual and time-consuming task for developers. With tools like ad inspector, you can test adapter setups, demand sources and more with the shake of your hand — which accelerates the testing process and adds a bit of fun.

RisingWings, a fast-growing casual game company, cut operational costs by 50% and saw ARPDAU increase by 8.7% after switching to AdMob. The team took an integrated approach with in-app ads for all their hybrid games, and built a reliable revenue stream without affecting user retention.

Use data and insights to drive growth

The right insights can uncover new opportunities beyond monetization. A broad understanding of user lifetime value (LTV) can help you refine your user acquisition strategy. And insights on how ads influence user retention can help you optimize total revenue while maintaining a good user experience. With resources like the ads activity report and cohort report available on AdMob, you’ll get a clear picture of ads performance and user LTV. You can then use these insights to find more high-value users through solutions like target return on ad spend (tROAS) for ads revenue.

During the transition to a hybrid model, game developer IGG combined LTV data from AdMob with internal ROI analysis to identify new growth opportunities in their top markets. These insights helped the team double their user base by increasing spend on regional App campaigns.

Apply strong brand safety controls to maintain user trust

As people’s expectations around digital privacy continue to rise, it’s critical to build trust through engaging and brand-appropriate ads. While a meaningful ad experience can complement your app and increase trust, a bad experience can lead to an uninstall or, even worse, a loss of trust in your brand.

To ensure brand safety, your platform should have a high bar for the quality of advertiser demand and provide controls to help you deliver an optimal ad experience. With AdMob, you can block ads from certain categories or specific competitors, or use the Ad review center to review ads flowing through the AdMob network and manually block them if needed. We’ll expand these same ad quality controls to third-party buyers participating in bidding in 2022.

We’ve learned so much in an industry that’s changing faster than ever. As we head into 2022, we look forward to continuing to partner together to shape the future of app monetization.

The advertising ecosystem is constantly evolving with new privacy regulations, updates to advertising identifiers and ad blocker technologies — all of which give users more transparency and control. But they can be confusing and time-consuming for publishers to manage. To help our partners streamline how they manage global privacy regulations and their user messaging journey, we’re introducing enhancements to the privacy & messaging tab in Google Ad Manager and AdMob.

The privacy & messaging tab will act as a single place for our partners to stay informed about relevant regulations, understand what actions they can take, message their users and navigate the advertising landscape to mitigate impact to their businesses. It’s also the evolution of our Funding Choices solution as we begin to move all of its features into this tab alongside ad serving controls.

Let’s take a look at the features in the privacy & messaging tab that can help support your advertising business.

Stay informed about privacy regulations 

Privacy regulations, like the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), play an important role in respecting user privacy while advertising. To help you better understand how these privacy regulations may impact your business, the privacy & messaging tab includes privacy regulation educational cards. Simply click on a card and find information on how the regulation may affect you, how you can give users control and additional Google resources like website and developer documentation all in one place.

Configure your ad serving controls

The privacy & messaging tab makes it easy to configure your ad serving controls for privacy regulations. These controls, which were previously located in the Admin tab in Ad Manager and the Blocking Controls tab for AdMob, have now migrated to the privacy & messaging tab so that you can manage all of your privacy regulation settings in one place. Easily select the types of ads you want to show users in that region, select your advertising partners and where applicable, enable additional creative controls. If you’ve previously specified these settings in your account they’ll stay the same in this tab.

Message your users and offer them control 

You also have the option to create GDPR (web and app) and CCPA (web only) consent and opt out messages in the privacy & messaging tab, making it possible for you to gather, manage and communicate user choices for advertising purposes. These features were previously available in Funding Choices, and we’ve now integrated them directly into the privacy & messaging tab in Ad Manager and AdMob to help you streamline your workflows and increase efficiency. We’ve also added new features to the messaging workflow, such as multi-language support for apps and bulk messaging so that you can easily deploy a message across all of your properties.

These messages can help you gather consent so that you’re able to continue to monetize your content in a privacy-focused way. For example, Tellonym was able to create a compelling consent experience on their app using GDPR messages. “We’ve been able to give our users choice and transparency, and gain their trust and consent,” says Maximillian Rellin, CEO at Tellonym. “This has allowed us to continue to grow our business through advertising, which is an important revenue stream for us.”

Beyond privacy regulations, in the coming months you’ll also be able to set up IDFA messages from the privacy & messaging tab to give iOS 14.5+ users additional context before they see the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt. You can use these messages to explain what their data may be used for before they decide to consent. Of course, all of these messaging features are optional and you can work with any consent management platform of your choice. 

One tab for all your privacy and messaging needs

By helping our partners stay informed of privacy regulations, manage ad control settings and implement optional messages, they’re able to more easily meet regulatory requirements and focus on growing their business. In the coming months, we’ll continue to add more features and message-types, like ad blocking recovery messages. And as the advertising ecosystem continues to evolve and new privacy regulations arise, we’ll continue to make it easy for you to find all the resources you need in the privacy & messaging tab.