Author Archives: Madison Addison

Become the GOAT of mobile gaming with new innovations from AdWords & AdMob

Great games are magical. They allow players to escape to new worlds, turn into superheroes, and boost their puzzle-solving powers. Now, more than ever, developers like you can become gaming legends who run successful businesses too. To help you get there, we’re sharing several new innovations designed to grow your fan base and earn you more revenue from your apps.

Win people’s attention with new video ads on Google Play

In a sea of mobile apps, it’s critical to reach the right players at the right time and place. Universal App Campaigns (UAC) use Google’s machine learning technology to find loyal fans across Google.com, Google Play, YouTube, and over 3 million sites and apps in the Google Display Network. To date, Google has delivered over 10 billion app installs for developers through ads.1 And we’re just getting started.

Over the next few months, we’ll roll out a beta for video ads — a new way to reach players on Google Play with sight, sound and motion. These placements will help you showcase your game as they tap, swipe and scroll to find their next favorite app.
                                                                       New video ads in Google Play

Find your next player with similar audiences

With a world of games available on mobile, it can be hard to know who may fall in love with your game. Google helps by analyzing millions of signal combinations in real-time to help you reach the players you care about—like the ones who are likely to beat level 1 or who are likely to make an in-app purchase. In fact, that’s how we’re already helping drive 7 billion in-app events every quarter for our partners.2

But there’s more we can do. Today, we're introducing similar audiences for UAC, to help you find people who share similar interests with your best customers, right when they’re interested in games and apps like yours.

Imagine you’re a developer with a popular mobile game and you’re launching a new title. With similar audiences, you can share your business data with Google to find more players like those playing your current game.  By connecting you with more qualified customers, similar audiences can help unlock new opportunities to grow your business. Similar audiences will be available in beta to select advertisers starting in May.


Make ad experiences more valuable with AdMob 

Video ads are more than just a canvas for showcasing your games. They can help turn your apps into a revenue-driving machine. Last year alone, we saw in-app video ad impressions grow 1.8x across our networks.3

But people will abandon even the best apps if the ad experience doesn’t fit the flow of the game or an ad doesn’t respect the player’s preferences. Rewarded ads create value for players by offering them incentives, like an extra life or a special power-up in the game when they need it most. And because players can choose when to watch, these ads don’t disrupt gameplay. That's why more than 45% of AdMob’s top 1000 gaming partners (by revenue) use rewarded ads to monetize their apps.4

Last year, we made it easy for you to deliver rewarded video ads lasting 6 to 60 seconds in portrait and landscape modes.

Today, we’re sharing two new rewarded ad experiences that will become available to AdMob developers over the next few months: playable ads and multiple-option video ads. With these new formats, you can monetize your games while ensuring your players can interact with ads in a way that doesn’t interrupt their game play.
Rewarded ads with multiple-option videos
description here
          Rewarded ads with playables
Earn more from your ad partners with Open Bidding on AdMob 

We know mediation is an important strategy to grow revenue from different ad networks. But you’ve also told us mediation can be difficult to manage. It’s time consuming to reconcile reports and chase payments from different partners. Implementing multiple ads SDKs increases development time and slows down your app. And, more than anything, mediation is based on historical CPMs, so it’s possible you’re leaving money on the table.

Our new beta, Open Bidding, takes monetization to the next level. Now, networks can bid to serve ads in your app simultaneously in a single unified auction. The result: increased competition that could lead to higher revenue. Also, there are fewer SDKs to implement, payments are simplified, and you’ll get meaningful insights from integrated reports in a single performance dashboard.

Open Bidding is already live with bids from Smaato, Index Exchange and OpenX. We’re looking forward to adding even more networks over the next few months, including AdColony and Vungle. That way you can earn more from your apps and get time back to make them even better.

To learn more about these innovations, please join us at the Game Developers Conference next week. My team and I look forward to sharing more details on the work we’re doing to make it easier for you to become the GOAT of mobile gaming.




1. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
2. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
3. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan 2016 - Dec 2017.
4. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan. 2018.

Source: Inside AdMob


Grow your app business with Google’s new education program for Universal App campaigns

Cross-posted from the Inside AdWords blog.
Today, we’re launching a new interactive education program for Universal App campaigns (UAC). UAC makes it easy for you to reach users and grow your app business at scale. It uses Google’s machine learning technology to help find the customers that matter most to you, based on your business goals — across Google Play, Google.com, YouTube and the millions of sites and apps in the Display Network.

UAC is a shift in the way you market your mobile apps, so we designed the program’s first course to help you learn how to get the best results from UAC. Here are a few reasons we encourage you take the course:
  • Learn from industry experts. The course was created by marketers who’ve been in your shoes and vetted by the team who built the Universal App campaign.
  • Learn on your schedule. Watch snackable videos at your own pace. The course is made up of short 3-minute videos to help you master the content faster.



  • Practice what you learn. Complete interactive activities based on real life scenarios like using UAC to help launch a new app or release an update for your app.

 


So, take the course today and let us know what you think. You can also read more about UAC best practices here and here.

Hope to see you in class!

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

Source: Inside AdMob


Use ad content filtering to help improve your users’ ad experience

Optimizing the ad experience on your app for a varied audience can be difficult. Showing users ads that are a better fit can improve their overall ad experience and help maximize your app’s revenue.

AdMob has launched a new feature that allows you to specify the content rating for Google ads served in your app. With the new max_ad_content_rating signal, you can now choose the content rating of Google demand that you want to deliver on a per-request basis.

Four content rating choices offer you the granularity you need to provide users at each level with a better user experience.

The four new content rating choices are:

  • G: Content suitable for general audiences 
  • PG: Content suitable for most audiences with parental guidance 
  • T: Content suitable for teen and older audiences 
  • MA: Content suitable only for mature audiences 


You can start sending the new max_ad_content_rating signal in the AdMob SDK by following these Android and iOS guides.

 To learn more about the new signal and the content rating choices, visit the AdMob help center or contact your Google account team.

Source: Inside AdMob


Get your ads ready for iPhone X

Every interaction a user has with your app matters. That’s why we’re constantly evolving our advertising recommendations and policies to ensure that no matter where and on what device users are engaging with your apps, they have good experiences.

With the launch of the iPhone X, app developers now need to plan for new design considerations as the rounded corners, notch, and home screen indicator on the extended screen can obscure content and lead to poor ad experiences for users when ads are placed in these areas.

Example of ad appearing outside of “safe area” on iPhone X
That’s why we’ve put together a guide to help you adapt your ad strategy for iPhone X. This includes guidance for how you can shift placement of banner or native ads to designated “safe areas” for this new device.

We’ve also updated our policies to indicate that ads must not be placed where objects may interfere with the user's typical interaction with the ad or app, such as under the home screen indicator on the iPhone X.

Please review these policy updates and our suggested implementation guide to ensure you’re compliant by November 20th.

If you have any questions, visit the AdMob Help Center or contact your Google account team.

Posted by Pablo Alvarez, Product Manager, AdMob

Source: Inside AdMob