Author Archives: Elena Elfimova

AdMob: a new look and feel

Today we’re excited to announce a fresh new look for AdMob!

We’re committed to delivering a world-class app monetization experience, which is why we’re evolving the way AdMob interacts with developers from our website to our product and everywhere in between. We’re updating our name, logo, and best of all we’re introducing a cast of characters known as “AdMobsters”.

Each AdMobster represents a core way in which AdMob can help you build a thriving app business.

You’ll get to know this colorful cast in different interactions with AdMob. We hope they will add clarity and delight to your monetization journey. Check out our new website to learn more.

Source: Inside AdMob


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

Chinese game developer Avid.ly wanted to boost revenue across its portfolio of 50+ games. To supplement revenue from in-app purchases, it tested AdMob rewarded video ads in Tasty Treats and two other casual games. The net result: not only did ad revenue surge, but session duration grew, too. Building on this success, Avid.ly implemented rewarded ads in all of its games.
Using ads to monetize users who don’t spend on in-app purchases (IAP)
In most apps, only a small percentage of players buy digital goods, and the same was true for Avid.ly's casual games. The team knew that to grow revenue, they had to find new ways to monetize their apps — so they turned to ads. Avid.ly first began working with AdMob to integrate banner ads and static interstitials into their apps and then use mediation to maximize revenue.

Blocking controls helped Avid.ly automate the quality control of ad creatives, saving them time on ad operations. One important tool unique to AdMob is the ability to set different country-level CPMs for each ad network in mediation, which allows ad networks to compete at different price points and ultimately increase revenue.
“AdMob has been our top revenue partner for 4+ years because it consistently delivers the highest eCPMs and provides the most advanced set of monetization tools,” said Alix Liu, Avid.ly’s director of product management. “For example, setting different ad unit floors at the country-level is very important to our bottom line — that’s not available on other platforms.”
After years of experience monetizing with static ads, Avid.ly was ready to take its revenue and user experience to the next level.
Powering up with rewarded ads
When AdMob released rewarded ads, Avid.ly was among the first publishers to try it. As the name suggests, these ads reward users for watching an ad. Here’s why they work: first, players choose to watch or engage with the ad, putting them in control of their experience. Once the ad concludes, players receive digital goods that make the game more fun to play and allow them to continue playing. Rewarded ads largely feature video creatives, which are more engaging and deliver higher CPMs than traditional static ads. Together, these aspects can deliver a better app experience and help developers earn more.

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

Growing ARPU and user happiness
After implementing rewarded ads, Avid.ly saw ARPU skyrocket by 40%. Users were spending up to 20% more time playing and buying in-app goods 18% more often. Longer playing time meant players had more opportunities to watch ads and make in-app purchases, growing both ads and IAP revenue in a virtuous cycle.
“After seeing such clearly positive test results, we decided to implement rewarded video ads in all 50+ games to grow revenue and retention,” said Liu. “It’s been impactful in growing our business.”


Posted by Elena Elfimova, Product Marketing Manager, AdMob

Source: Inside AdMob


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

Chinese game developer Avid.ly wanted to boost revenue across its portfolio of 50+ games. To supplement revenue from in-app purchases, it tested AdMob rewarded video ads in Tasty Treats and two other casual games. The net result: not only did ad revenue surge, but session duration grew, too. Building on this success, Avid.ly implemented rewarded ads in all of its games.
Using ads to monetize users who don’t spend on in-app purchases (IAP)
In most apps, only a small percentage of players buy digital goods, and the same was true for Avid.ly's casual games. The team knew that to grow revenue, they had to find new ways to monetize their apps — so they turned to ads. Avid.ly first began working with AdMob to integrate banner ads and static interstitials into their apps and then use mediation to maximize revenue.

Blocking controls helped Avid.ly automate the quality control of ad creatives, saving them time on ad operations. One important tool unique to AdMob is the ability to set different country-level CPMs for each ad network in mediation, which allows ad networks to compete at different price points and ultimately increase revenue.
“AdMob has been our top revenue partner for 4+ years because it consistently delivers the highest eCPMs and provides the most advanced set of monetization tools,” said Alix Liu, Avid.ly’s director of product management. “For example, setting different ad unit floors at the country-level is very important to our bottom line — that’s not available on other platforms.”
After years of experience monetizing with static ads, Avid.ly was ready to take its revenue and user experience to the next level.
Powering up with rewarded ads
When AdMob released rewarded ads, Avid.ly was among the first publishers to try it. As the name suggests, these ads reward users for watching an ad. Here’s why they work: first, players choose to watch or engage with the ad, putting them in control of their experience. Once the ad concludes, players receive digital goods that make the game more fun to play and allow them to continue playing. Rewarded ads largely feature video creatives, which are more engaging and deliver higher CPMs than traditional static ads. Together, these aspects can deliver a better app experience and help developers earn more.

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

Growing ARPU and user happiness
After implementing rewarded ads, Avid.ly saw ARPU skyrocket by 40%. Users were spending up to 20% more time playing and buying in-app goods 18% more often. Longer playing time meant players had more opportunities to watch ads and make in-app purchases, growing both ads and IAP revenue in a virtuous cycle.
“After seeing such clearly positive test results, we decided to implement rewarded video ads in all 50+ games to grow revenue and retention,” said Liu. “It’s been impactful in growing our business.”


Posted by Elena Elfimova, Product Marketing Manager, AdMob

Source: Inside AdMob


Taking the guesswork out of app monetization with Firebase Predictions

Earlier this year, at the Game Developers Conference, we shared how we’re innovating across our platforms to help our partners grow their audience and earn more from their apps. One emerging trend in game monetization is the use of both in-app purchases (IAPs) and ads. Last year alone, the number of gaming apps in the Google Play store employing this “hybrid monetization” strategy grew by more than 50 percent.
Building a successful hybrid monetization model isn’t easy -- developers don’t want to cannibalize the sales of digital goods by showing ads to players who are on the brink of paying. To help developers make smarter decisions, like which players to show ads to, the team launched Firebase Predictions (beta) last year. Today, we’re sharing how you can use Predictions to take the guesswork out of app monetization.


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

These predictive segments are updated daily based on actual and ongoing user behavior. Armed with this information, you can take a variety of actions such as personalizing the UI of your app for users who are predicted to spend money in-app using Firebase Remote Config or sending users an offer via Cloud Messaging.
Helping developers show ads to the right audiences 
Developers like Rockbite have successfully used Predictions to build smarter monetization strategies. For their game Deep Town, the Rockbite team incorporated rewarded ads to complement revenue from the sale of digital goods. To optimize their monetization strategy and ensure they weren’t showing ads to paying customers, the team first experimented with segmenting players and serving ads by demographics. However, the results from these experiments were inconclusive. So, they turned to Predictions.

Predictions used machine learning to segment the game’s users based on their likelihood to spend. Rockbite started showing ads only to those players who were predicted to not spend. The net result: a 24 percent increase in revenue from the predicted nonspender group! 


Optimizing app strategies with Predictions 
Predictions can help developers optimize their app strategy in many other ways. Halfbrick, for example, used experiments in Predictions to test different strategies for re-engaging customers and minimizing churn. Developers can set up a variety of experiments with Predictions, to maximize their revenue and user engagement. Some examples include:
  1. Experiments with ad frequency Tuning ad frequency (more or less) for players who are predicted to churn or tuning ads so that they’re only shown to users not predicted to spend
  2. Experiments with ad content Showing rewarded house ads for other games in your portfolio to players who are predicted to churn or promoting unique IAP offers to players who are expected to spend 
  3. Experiments with different rewards Predictions can be combined with other analytics attributes, user properties or audience insights to fine tune your strategy so you may, for example, reward only users predicted not to spend in specific geos or regions, or who play your game in specific ways. 
Get started with Predictions 
Predictions has only been in beta for a little while, but we’re encouraged by the results our partners are already seeing with it. If you’re already using Google Analytics for Firebase, you can enable Predictions with a single click in the Firebase Console. Refer to our implementation guides to try some of these strategies for yourself. 

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


Posted by Jumana Al Hashal, Firebase Product Management


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

Source: Inside AdMob


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

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


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


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


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

Grow your user base

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

Surface more relevant content in your app promotion ads

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

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


Google Play Instant compatible with AdWords


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

Earn more from your app

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

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

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

Rewarded reporting in AdMob


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


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


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

Source: Inside AdMob