Tag Archives: AdMob

How app developers can optimize ads revenue during COVID-19

People are turning to apps to stay informed, inspired and entertained while spending time at home. For example, searches for "meditation apps" have grown globally by over 90 percent since last year.1 While more app usage and more ad impressions would typically suggest more revenue for app developers, reduced ad spend has led to lower overall revenue in some cases. To help developers mitigate the impact and optimize ads revenue, here are some best practices.

Capture the revenue opportunity from the growth in user engagement 

Stay on top of changing user behaviors

Enable user metrics to help understand changes in how people are using your app, so you can take actions to optimize revenue. For example, if you notice an uptick in active users, you could increase the value of rewarded ads to help drive more ad interactions. 

Help people stay engaged

Consider making changes to your app to further extend user engagement. PlayDots, maker of the popular Dots game, gave all users three hours of infinite lives daily for free for a full month in April. This allowed users to enjoy the game fully and boosted the number of levels completed, which led to more ads being watched. Rewarded ads is another great way to earn additional revenue from increased user engagement for IAP-heavy apps (in-app purchases).  Implementing rewarded ads can unlock premium content for non-paying users and keep them more engaged. 

Earn more revenue with smart segmentation

If you are concerned about negative impact from ads on paying users, smart segmentation can help you monetize non-purchasers with a personalized experience. This feature uses machine learning to predict and segment these two groups of users and will only show ads to predicted non-purchasers. BlackLight Studio Games saw a 38 percent increase in interstitial ad revenue and no impact on IAPs after implementing smart segmentation. 

Unlock more impressions to boost revenue while ensuring a good user experience

Explore more ad formats

Diversifying your ad format strategy can increase total ad placements to help drive up revenue. AdMob offers many engaging ad formats for you to choose from. For example, rewarded ads offer a great user experience. Native ads allow you to customize the look and feel to match the visual design of your app. And, banner and interstitial ads are very easy-to-implement.

Adjust ad frequency caps 

Frequency caps allow you to set the number of times ads appear to the same user. Relaxing this setting will increase ad density to help you earn more. One thing to note is that higher ad frequency caps may affect user retention. We recommend using Firebase Remote Config to A/B test the changes before rolling them out to all users to ensure a good user experience. 

Increase operational efficiency with automated features 

Maximize revenue from multiple networks with mediation

Waterfall management takes up a lot of time and manual work. Ad Network Optimization offers an easy solution to help you automate that process and free up time to spend on other areas of your business. This feature automatically pulls in the freshest CPM value from each network in the waterfall and allows the one with the highest eCPM to serve the ad.

Optimize AdMob demand on other platforms

If you are using a different platform to mediate AdMob demand, you can set your ad units to a Google optimized eCPM floor which allows Google to dynamically set the floors based on your preference. The AdMob Network’s eCPM floor placement will then be adjusted with the other ad networks automatically to help you maximize total revenue. 

We hope the best practices shared here can help inform your monetization strategy during this time. If you’re interested in other tips to help your app business, check out Google Play’s best practices for your in-app products and subscriptions.



1. Google Data, Global English, Feb 26 - Apr 25, 2020 vs Feb 25 - Apr 25, 2019

Join the beta for the new AdMob API

Today we’re announcing the open beta release of the AdMob API v1. It offers a new and improved way to interact with AdMob reporting data programmatically.

Built with app publishers in mind, the new AdMob API will replace the need for you to use the AdSense API and provide enhanced capabilities to query AdMob reporting data. For example, unlike the AdSense API that uses different definitions of certain ads metrics for app publishers, the AdMob API includes metrics that are consistent with the AdMob UI.

The AdMob API v1 beta release offers the following benefits for app publishers:

  • Receive metrics that are more accurate and consistent with the AdMob UI.
  • Gain access to mediation reporting programmatically.
  • Integrate newer technologies like JSON REST into your product sooner.

We will continue to make improvements to the AdMob API and we encourage you to join the open beta now and provide feedback to influence the product roadmap before the general release.

How can I join the beta?

The beta is available to all AdMob users. You can start with the Getting Started guide or use the client libraries that we have created for you. Additional client library samples will be coming soon.

Where can I learn more?

If you have any questions or need additional help, please contact us via the forum. We look forward to hearing your feedback.

 - Amira Badreldin, AdMob API team

Grow your games business with a player-first approach

As an avid gamer, every year I look forward to spending time with developers at GDC to celebrate together and learn from their successes. We are all disappointed that this year's conference was postponed, but we applaud the organizers for taking steps to protect our global community. 

Although we won’t be gathering in person this year, the Google team is hosting the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free, digital-only experience where developers can watch the announcements and session content that was planned for GDC. We still wanted to share these updates with you because we think these new products will help developers succeed and are a direct response to feedback from our developer community. 

As we study emerging gaming trends one of the most consistent things we've noticed over the years is that those who build a strong games business always put players first. That means deeply understanding players at every stage of their app journey. Today, we’re announcing new solutions that help you launch a game people love, improve it based on player insights, and earn more during the time that someone is engaged with your game. 

Launch a game players love with scaled user testing

Appealing to players at launch is essential to the success of your game. Based on recent Google internal data, more than half of installs come within the first 8 weeks of an app’s release. To make the most of this influx of users, leading developers like Big Fish Games test their apps in beta before releasing them publicly.  That’s why last year we introduced open testing in the Google Play Console to help you get early feedback from real users before your full release. 

To get even more testers into your app, you’ll soon be able to promote Android games with open testing in Google Ads as well. By running open testing ads in App campaigns, you can drive early users to your app to test things like app stability, user retention, monetization, and effectiveness of ad creatives—then use the learning to improve your results when you launch. 

In one example, Chinese developer NetEase used open testing ads to reach more beta users that helped them optimize in-app purchase behavior based on open testing data.  For their new game, Dawn of Isles, Netease was able to double in-app purchases which ultimately led to higher lifetime value (LTV) at launch.

E02526911 Google Ads PAM Mobile Phone Mock GIF Feb20-GDC_v03.gif

Improve your game by learning from your players

Many developers use Google Analytics to understand how people are playing their game. Now, we’re taking it a step further by introducing a gaming-specific Analytics experience to help you get relevant insights even faster. Starting today, App + Web properties in Google Analytics will proactively surface gaming-specific user funnel metrics like acquisition, retention, engagement, and monetization in one place.


Engagement_report_w_laptop@2x.png

With games reporting, you can see how players move through the lifecycle. Then, you can use that insight to improve the game experience and drive more revenue using both ads and IAPs. For example, you could group the players that have dropped off after one week in your game and share that audience to Google Ads to re-engage them with a tailored message and offer. There’s no extra work to set up games reporting in your Google Analytics App + Web property. Learn more to get started.  


In addition to Google Analytics games reporting, coming soon are a few other new ways for you to use Google tools to unlock more valuable insights about your players. 

  • Updated Google Ads asset report: Understand how your App campaign creatives are resonating with new users and optimize campaign performance more easily. 

  • AdMob cohort report: Understand the LTV of your players across their user journey.

  • AdMob mobile app:Quickly access ads monetization reports on the go via a new mobile app.

Earn more from your game

In addition to using player insights, another way to earn more from your game is with AdMob mediation. Leading developers like GameHouse, Playdots, and StickyHands, who use AdMob mediation have seen revenue increases of up to 30%—and now they can earn even more. 

We’re introducing a new tool called Mediation A/B testing, so you can test and refine your ads monetization setups directly in your AdMob account. For example, you’ll soon be able to run a test to see how much more you could earn by using Open Bidding compared to waterfall mediation. 

mediation ab testing.jpg

Disclaimer: revenue results may vary. 

Using Google’s internal A/B testing engine, mediation A/B testing will split your traffic to run on your control group and the variant at the same time. This approach provides unbiased results that can help you maximize the value of every ad you show to players. 

To learn more about how these solutions will help you build a strong games business, tune into our broadcast keynote of the Google for Games Developer Summit on Monday March 23 9AM PT. Get all the details on the digital event at g.co/gamedevsummit. 

Source: Google Ads


Grow your games business with a player-first approach

As an avid gamer, every year I look forward to spending time with developers at GDC to celebrate together and learn from their successes. We are all disappointed that this year's conference was postponed, but we applaud the organizers for taking steps to protect our global community. 

Although we won’t be gathering in person this year, the Google team is hosting the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free, digital-only experience where developers can watch the announcements and session content that was planned for GDC. We still wanted to share these updates with you because we think these new products will help developers succeed and are a direct response to feedback from our developer community. 

As we study emerging gaming trends one of the most consistent things we've noticed over the years is that those who build a strong games business always put players first. That means deeply understanding players at every stage of their app journey. Today, we’re announcing new solutions that help you launch a game people love, improve it based on player insights, and earn more during the time that someone is engaged with your game. 

Launch a game players love with scaled user testing

Appealing to players at launch is essential to the success of your game. Based on recent Google internal data, more than half of installs come within the first 8 weeks of an app’s release. To make the most of this influx of users, leading developers like Big Fish Games test their apps in beta before releasing them publicly.  That’s why last year we introduced open testing in the Google Play Console to help you get early feedback from real users before your full release. 

To get even more testers into your app, you’ll soon be able to promote Android games with open testing in Google Ads as well. By running open testing ads in App campaigns, you can drive early users to your app to test things like app stability, user retention, monetization, and effectiveness of ad creatives—then use the learning to improve your results when you launch. 

In one example, Chinese developer NetEase used open testing ads to reach more beta users that helped them optimize in-app purchase behavior based on open testing data.  For their new game, Dawn of Isles, Netease was able to double in-app purchases which ultimately led to higher lifetime value (LTV) at launch.

E02526911 Google Ads PAM Mobile Phone Mock GIF Feb20-GDC_v03.gif

Improve your game by learning from your players

Many developers use Google Analytics to understand how people are playing their game. Now, we’re taking it a step further by introducing a gaming-specific Analytics experience to help you get relevant insights even faster. Starting today, App + Web properties in Google Analytics will proactively surface gaming-specific user funnel metrics like acquisition, retention, engagement, and monetization in one place.


Engagement_report_w_laptop@2x.png

With games reporting, you can see how players move through the lifecycle. Then, you can use that insight to improve the game experience and drive more revenue using both ads and IAPs. For example, you could group the players that have dropped off after one week in your game and share that audience to Google Ads to re-engage them with a tailored message and offer. There’s no extra work to set up games reporting in your Google Analytics App + Web property. Learn more to get started.  


In addition to Google Analytics games reporting, coming soon are a few other new ways for you to use Google tools to unlock more valuable insights about your players. 

  • Updated Google Ads asset report: Understand how your App campaign creatives are resonating with new users and optimize campaign performance more easily. 

  • AdMob cohort report: Understand the LTV of your players across their user journey.

  • AdMob mobile app:Quickly access ads monetization reports on the go via a new mobile app.

Earn more from your game

In addition to using player insights, another way to earn more from your game is with AdMob mediation. Leading developers like GameHouse, Playdots, and StickyHands, who use AdMob mediation have seen revenue increases of up to 30%—and now they can earn even more. 

We’re introducing a new tool called Mediation A/B testing, so you can test and refine your ads monetization setups directly in your AdMob account. For example, you’ll soon be able to run a test to see how much more you could earn by using Open Bidding compared to waterfall mediation. 

mediation ab testing.jpg

Disclaimer: revenue results may vary. 

Using Google’s internal A/B testing engine, mediation A/B testing will split your traffic to run on your control group and the variant at the same time. This approach provides unbiased results that can help you maximize the value of every ad you show to players. 

To learn more about how these solutions will help you build a strong games business, tune into our broadcast keynote of the Google for Games Developer Summit on Monday March 23 9AM PT. Get all the details on the digital event at g.co/gamedevsummit. 

Join us for the digital Google for Games Developer Summit

Last month, Game Developers Conference (GDC) organizers made the difficult decision to postpone the conference. We understand this decision, as we have to prioritize the health and safety of our community. GDC is one of our most anticipated times of the year to connect with the gaming industry. Though we won’t be bringing the news in-person this year, we’re hosting the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free, digital-only experience where developers can watch the announcements and session content that was planned for GDC.  

Google for Games Developer Summit

The Developer Summit kicks off on March 23rd at 9:00AM PT with our broadcasted keynote. Immediately following, we’ll be releasing a full lineup of developer sessions with over 10 hours of content to help take your games to the next level. 

Here are some types of sessions to expect:

  • Success stories from industry leaders on how they’ve conquered game testing, built backend infrastructure, and launched great games across all platforms. 
  • New announcements like Android development and profiling tools that can help deploy large APKs to devices faster, fine tune graphic performance, and analyze device memory more effectively.
  • Updates on products like Game Servers (currently in alpha)—a fully managed offering of Agones, letting developers easily deploy and manage containerized game servers around the globe.

Sign up to stay informed at g.co/gamedevsummit. 

Support for the game developer community

We recognize every developer is impacted differently by this situation. We’re coordinating with the GDC Relief Fund to sponsor and assist developers who’ve invested in this moment to further grow their games.

We also understand many developers were looking forward to sharing their content with peers. To help with this, developers can use YouTube to stream events from small to large using tools like Live Streaming andPremieres. 

We can’t wait to share what we have in store for gaming. Discover the solutions our teams have been building to support the success of this community for years to come.

Source: Google Ads


Join us for the digital Google for Games Developer Summit

Last month, Game Developers Conference (GDC) organizers made the difficult decision to postpone the conference. We understand this decision, as we have to prioritize the health and safety of our community. GDC is one of our most anticipated times of the year to connect with the gaming industry. Though we won’t be bringing the news in-person this year, we’re hosting the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free, digital-only experience where developers can watch the announcements and session content that was planned for GDC.  

Google for Games Developer Summit

The Developer Summit kicks off on March 23rd at 9:00AM PT with our broadcasted keynote. Immediately following, we’ll be releasing a full lineup of developer sessions with over 10 hours of content to help take your games to the next level. 

Here are some types of sessions to expect:

  • Success stories from industry leaders on how they’ve conquered game testing, built backend infrastructure, and launched great games across all platforms. 
  • New announcements like Android development and profiling tools that can help deploy large APKs to devices faster, fine tune graphic performance, and analyze device memory more effectively.
  • Updates on products like Game Servers (currently in alpha)—a fully managed offering of Agones, letting developers easily deploy and manage containerized game servers around the globe.

Sign up to stay informed at g.co/gamedevsummit. 

Support for the game developer community

We recognize every developer is impacted differently by this situation. We’re coordinating with the GDC Relief Fund to sponsor and assist developers who’ve invested in this moment to further grow their games.

We also understand many developers were looking forward to sharing their content with peers. To help with this, developers can use YouTube to stream events from small to large using tools like Live Streaming andPremieres. 

We can’t wait to share what we have in store for gaming. Discover the solutions our teams have been building to support the success of this community for years to come.

Source: Google Ads


Protecting the mobile app ecosystem

Mobile apps have transformed the way people engage with the world. From gaming, to ride sharing, to messaging, apps enrich the lives of billions — and are often funded by ads. Ads help make content available to everyone, creating a more diverse ecosystem of apps for people to enjoy. But one of the biggest threats to ad-supported content is ad fraud, a pervasive issue for users, developers, and advertisers alike. 

For over 20 years, Google has been heavily investing in creating a healthier ads ecosystem that generates value fairly, for everyone involved. In 2019, we delivered on key initiatives to protect advertisers, publishers, and users. 

  • Protected advertiser spend by reducing ad fraud:Google blacklisted numerous bad actors that were found to be committing large scale invalid traffic and ad fraud, which violates Google policies. In 2019 Google removed tens of thousands of apps and developers that were found to be in violation of our policies, from both AdMob and Play. Taking corrective action was an imperative step in protecting advertiser dollars, leveling the playing field for legitimate publishers, and removing bad app experiences for users.
  • Protected publisher revenue from app spoofing: Bad actors may attempt to disguise their inventory as a high value app to unfairly claim associated ad revenue. To help publishers publicly declare authorized inventory to combat this issue, we launched our app ads.txt solution in August 2019 and in just four months, the majority of Google’s app ad inventory is now ads.txt-protected.
  • Improved safety of family-friendly content for users: In addition to fighting ad fraud, the Google Play and Ads teams both announced new steps to help ensure that ad content served in apps for children is appropriate for their intended users. The Play team updated its Families Policies and the requirements for inclusion in its Designed for Families (DFF) program to better ensure that apps for children are appropriate. AdMob now offers a maximum ad content rating to give publishers more control over the ad content shown to their users. 
We know that ensuring a safe and high quality app experience has never been more important to the success of your business. That’s why multiple teams across Google are coming together to further secure and protect the ads ecosystem for our most important audiences. As a preview, here are three key areas where we are focused and you can expect to hear more from us in the months ahead:

  • Double down on safeguarding advertiser spend from invalid traffic: One area of focus for the Ads team is developing new ways to detect disruptive ads shown outside of the app — for example, out-of-context ads from an app not currently in use. This behavior violates Google policies, so Google removes these apps from both AdMob and Play — in fact, a recent enforcement sweep resulted in the joint removal of nearly 600 apps. Our investigations are ongoing and when we find violations we will continue to take action.
  • Help app publishers towards compliance with industry regulations:As industry regulations evolve, Google is providing tools for app publishers to manage their compliance strategy, maintain user trust, and minimize the risk of losing revenue.
  • Give users more control over their app experiences:Android is making fundamental platform changes to minimize interruptions in app experiences and keep the user more in control of what's shown on their screen. 

We’re excited to build on this momentum in app ad safety as well as peace of mind. Stay tuned for more updates over the next year on how Google is protecting its ad systems and improving ad traffic quality. 

Join the Women of Publishing webinar series

The 2020 Women of Publishing Leadership Series is now open for registration. This annual program is designed to facilitate industry connections, provide access to resources, and enable the future growth of women-led small publishing businesses. Apply by February 21 to join us on the live stream sessions, as well as an in-person event bringing together our female publishing community.


What you can expect

This March, the Women of Publishing Leadership Series is bringing together female entrepreneurs and leaders, who have successfully funded their passions through monetization platforms using Google AdMob or AdSense. The first online class kicks off on March 10, just after International Women's Day. 


This multi-part web series will teach you how Google tools can help to fuel the growth of your publishing business. The course will include data-driven monetization tactics for both web and apps, as well as discussions on sustaining momentum in this fast-paced and evolving digital ecosystem.


You can find detailed information about the online course below: 

Keynote

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 10 at 1:30 PM ET 

  • Summary: Join an honest discussion on one woman’s journey in the publishing industry. We will also discuss how to optimize your audience engagement strategy.


Monetization and Reporting Deep-Dive, Web

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 17 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Get a closer look at how to efficiently earn more for your website using the new and improved AdSense Auto ads.


Monetization and Reporting Deep-Dive, Apps

  • Date and time: Thursday, March 19 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Learn how to think about optimizing your app’s monetization structure and which metrics matter the most in tracking your app’s performance.


Protecting our Digital Ecosystem

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 24 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Gain insight on how to maintain user trust and secure your content in an evolving ecosystem.

Google is committed to women’s success in the publishing industry

We’ve seen great strides  toward women’s parity in the global labor market in recent years. However, there’s still work to do. The empowerment of female entrepreneurship is especially critical. Globally, there are less women than men among entrepreneurs, contributing to the 50 percent gap in total income (all types of revenues) between men and women.


The Women of Publishing Leadership Series was designed to help participants learn how to maximize the value of their publishing business and earn more revenue. The curriculum is tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. Women from all types of digital backgrounds: apps, news, gaming, entertainment, video, e-commerce, etc. are encouraged to apply. Not using Google AdMob, AdSense, or Ad Manager? No worries—join the program to learn which product best suits your business needs.


Applications close on February 21, 2020. Join the 2020 Women of Publishing community by applying on our website.


Source: Inside AdSense


Join the Women of Publishing webinar series

The 2020 Women of Publishing Leadership Series is now open for registration. This annual program is designed to facilitate industry connections, provide access to resources, and enable the future growth of women-led small publishing businesses. Apply by February 21 to join us on the live stream sessions, as well as an in-person event bringing together our female publishing community.


What you can expect

This March, the Women of Publishing Leadership Series is bringing together female entrepreneurs and leaders, who have successfully funded their passions through monetization platforms using Google AdMob or AdSense. The first online class kicks off on March 10, just after International Women's Day. 


This multi-part web series will teach you how Google tools can help to fuel the growth of your publishing business. The course will include data-driven monetization tactics for both web and apps, as well as discussions on sustaining momentum in this fast-paced and evolving digital ecosystem.


You can find detailed information about the online course below: 

Keynote

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 10 at 1:30 PM ET 

  • Summary: Join an honest discussion on one woman’s journey in the publishing industry. We will also discuss how to optimize your audience engagement strategy.


Monetization and Reporting Deep-Dive, Web

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 17 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Get a closer look at how to efficiently earn more for your website using the new and improved AdSense Auto ads.


Monetization and Reporting Deep-Dive, Apps

  • Date and time: Thursday, March 19 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Learn how to think about optimizing your app’s monetization structure and which metrics matter the most in tracking your app’s performance.


Protecting our Digital Ecosystem

  • Date and time: Tuesday, March 24 at 1:30 PM ET

  • Summary: Gain insight on how to maintain user trust and secure your content in an evolving ecosystem.

Google is committed to women’s success in the publishing industry

We’ve seen great strides  toward women’s parity in the global labor market in recent years. However, there’s still work to do. The empowerment of female entrepreneurship is especially critical. Globally, there are less women than men among entrepreneurs, contributing to the 50 percent gap in total income (all types of revenues) between men and women.


The Women of Publishing Leadership Series was designed to help participants learn how to maximize the value of their publishing business and earn more revenue. The curriculum is tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. Women from all types of digital backgrounds: apps, news, gaming, entertainment, video, e-commerce, etc. are encouraged to apply. Not using Google AdMob, AdSense, or Ad Manager? No worries—join the program to learn which product best suits your business needs.


Applications close on February 21, 2020. Join the 2020 Women of Publishing community by applying on our website.


Source: Inside AdSense


Google for Games Developer Summit is coming to GDC 2020

We’re excited to see you at the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) from March 16-20 in San Francisco. If you can’t make it in person, sign up to keep up to date with our announcements and view the livestream. You’ll learn about new products and solutions from Google that will help developers for all platforms take their game to the next level. 

Everything kicks off with the Google for Games Developer Summit Keynote on Monday, March 16th where product leaders from across Google will share the biggest announcements for game developers. After the keynote, join in on two days of developer sessions to learn how to use Google solutions to create great games, connect with more players, and scale your business. Check out the agenda today.

Starting Wednesday, March 18th, visit our booth in the GDC Expo to experience demos and meet one-on-one with Google product experts. 

If you can’t attend GDC in-person, you can still watch the Keynote and other Developer Summit sessions via the live stream at g.co/gdc2020.

We’ll be sharing more details about what we have planned at GDC in the coming weeks—be sure to sign up to be among the first to hear the latest updates. On-site events are part of the official Game Developers Conference and require a pass to attend.

See you there!