Tag Archives: AdMob

Highlights from the Google for Games Developer Summit

This week, we hosted the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free digital event for game developers, publishers and advertisers to come together globally. Though we couldn’t meet in person, we’re grateful for the chance to share our latest solutions for developers to create immersive and memorable gaming experiences for players everywhere.

All keynotes and sessions from the summit are available on demand. Here are a few things we discussed during our keynote sessions:

Easier game development on Android

The new Android Game Development Kit can help make game development easier while Play as you download and the new Reach and devices data and insights tool can help get your games running on more screens and drive your launch success on Google Play.

Graphic illustration with Android logo, games controller, and user interface.

Get the most out of your games on Stadia 

Bringing games to Stadia is now even easier. We revealed new initiatives coming soon that will maximize the return on launching Stadia titles, including an affiliate marketing program, sharing monthly Stadia Pro subscription revenue with partners and an updated revenue share split for new transactional games launching under the new Stadia terms.

Drive lasting business revenue and growth with Ads

This past year, we have seen more people than ever play online games, which means there’s a growth opportunity to build a more sustainable games business. Get players back to your game while focusing on profitability with target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding for App campaigns for engagement, or maximize revenue within your game by using AdMob bidding.
Interface screenshot of target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding for App campaigns for engagement.

tROAS bidding for App campaigns for engagement in Google Ads

Bring your game to global audiences with Google Cloud

With flexible, scalable gaming solutions like Open Saves, Google Cloud helps you serve great gaming experiences all over the world so you and your players can focus on the fun.

As more people turn to games both for entertainment and for connecting with friends and family, we’re inspired by how the gaming community thrived this past year. That’s why we’re more committed than ever to help take your games to the next level.

Source: Android


Making it easier for publishers to manage privacy and messaging

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.

Google AdMob privacy and messaging tab user interface

Google AdMob privacy & messaging tab user interface

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.

General Data Protection Regulation educational card in the Google Ad Manager user interface

General Data Protection Regulation educational card in the Google Ad Manager user interface

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. 


New ways to grow your games business sustainably

Mobile gaming has been a popular outlet for people to stay entertained while spending more time at home. A recent Google Play study of mobile gamers shows that 45% of existing players have discovered more games to play in the past year than the year before — and developers need the right tools and insights to capture this opportunity and drive sustainable growth. At the Google for Games Developer Summit, we’re announcing new solutions to help you unlock more growth and navigate privacy changes effectively. 

Grow an active player base for your games 

With more players in your game, keeping them active can help you capture more value. Last year we introduced App campaigns for engagement (ACe) in Google Ads to help you re-engage existing players. Soon, you’ll be able to use target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding for ACe campaigns on Android. You can adjust bids dynamically based on the value each returning player is likely to create when they take in-game actions. This allows your ACe campaigns to maximize profitability by keeping your most valuable players loyal and active. This feature is currently available as a closed beta.

A product screenshot that shows you how to setup re-engagement ads with tROAS bidding

Capture more value from existing players with tROAS bidding for ACe

Along with tROAS for ACe, we’re announcing more features to help you find and retain a valuable player base: 

  • Deep-link free option for ACe (coming soon): Run re-engagement ads easily on Android without having to implement deep links with a new feature that automatically directs existing users to your app’s loading screen.
  • tROAS optimizing for ads revenue (in closed beta): Optimize your bids to acquire new players  who are likely to engage with in-app ads to earn more ads revenue. 
  • Re-install exclusion (closed beta): Spend ad budgets more efficiently by suppressing app ads from being shown to Android users who have previously uninstalled your game. 

Earn more from your games

Not only are people discovering more games, but also they are spending more time playing games. Our recent study also shows that 70% of existing players are playing longer sessions compared to before the pandemic. AdMob monetization solutions can help you leverage the momentum to earn more from your games.

Open Bidding, the real-time bidding solution from AdMob, hosts a fair and real-time auction for participating demand sources to compete for every ad impression. This ensures you always get the most value for your inventory. 

An animation that explains how AdMob’s real-time bidding solution works to help you earn more revenue from ads

Maximize ads revenue with AdMob bidding

We’re introducing new changes to Open Bidding that will give you more control and transparency on how you want to work with access to 200+ real-time bidders. Soon, you’ll be able to customize the policy setup for each bidder to adjust how they spend on your inventory. And we’re continuing to add more buyers such as Snap and InMobi to increase competition and help you earn even more. With this expansion, we are announcing that Open Bidding is now generally available to all app developers. This technology represents such a fundamental improvement to how developers monetize that we are updating the product name to simply be AdMob bidding.


IGG, the creator behind popular strategy games like Lords Mobile, was looking for a monetization platform to help diversify revenue streams beyond in-app purchases. After moving to the AdMob platform and implementing bidding across all of their new casual games, the team saw their ads ARPDAU double. 

Stay informed about relevant regulatory changes 

While we’ve seen many positive trends in mobile gaming, developers also face new challenges as they work to navigate the changing environment for privacy. The latest enhancements to the Privacy & messaging tab in AdMob can help you easily understand regulations that may impact your business, and discover tools to help with your compliance strategy. For example, you’ll be able to find EU User consent settings under the GDPR card to configure ad serving for users in these regions. The new updates are now available to all. 

A product screenshot about the Privacy & messaging tab in AdMob that shows you how to view relevant regulations and the actions you can take to stay compliant

Navigate privacy regulations easily with the Privacy & messaging tab

To hear more about how these solutions can help you drive lasting growth for your games business, watch the Ads keynote session and check out other sessions at the Google for Games Developer Summit livestream.  

Join us for Google for Games Developer Summit 2021

With a surge of new gamers and an increase in time spent playing games in the last year, it’s more important than ever for game developers to delight and engage players. To help developers with this opportunity, the games teams at Google are back to announce the return of the Google for Games Developer Summit 2021on July 12th-13th. 

Hear from experts across Google about new game solutions they’re building to make it easier for you to continue creating great games, connecting with players and scaling your business.  Registration is free and open to all game developers.

Register for the free online event at g.co/gamedevsummit to get more details in the coming weeks.  We can’t wait to share our latest innovations with the developer community.

Reminder to migrate to the AdMob API

Starting on October 12, 2021, developers will no longer be able to retrieve AdMob data from the AdSense Management API v1.4. Please start to migrate to the AdMob API which is generally available.

Where can I get my AdMob data?

After October 12th, 2021, using the AdMob API will be the only way you can access your AdMob data programmatically. The AdMob API helps app developers retrieve:

  • metrics that are consistent with the AdMob UI definitions and calculations
  • mediation reports that are not available through the AdSense API

What do I need to do?

Start migrating from the AdSense API to the AdMob API as soon as possible. If you do not complete the migration by October 12th, 2021, you will lose access to AdMob data through the AdSense API, which may impact your ability to make data-driven business decisions.

Follow the instructions in the migration guide to migrate your API workflow. Review these additional resources to support your migration:

Feel free to reach out to us via the AdMob API forum if you have questions or feedback regarding the AdMob API.

 - Amira Badreldin, AdMob API team

Reminder to migrate to the AdMob API

Starting on October 12, 2021, developers will no longer be able to retrieve AdMob data from the AdSense Management API v1.4. Please start to migrate to the AdMob API which is generally available.

Where can I get my AdMob data?

After October 12th, 2021, using the AdMob API will be the only way you can access your AdMob data programmatically. The AdMob API helps app developers retrieve:

  • metrics that are consistent with the AdMob UI definitions and calculations
  • mediation reports that are not available through the AdSense API

What do I need to do?

Start migrating from the AdSense API to the AdMob API as soon as possible. If you do not complete the migration by October 12th, 2021, you will lose access to AdMob data through the AdSense API, which may impact your ability to make data-driven business decisions.

Follow the instructions in the migration guide to migrate your API workflow. Review these additional resources to support your migration:

Feel free to reach out to us via the AdMob API forum if you have questions or feedback regarding the AdMob API.

 - Amira Badreldin, AdMob API team

Advancing mobile app inventory quality with app reviews

To help create a clean and safe ads ecosystem for both developers and advertisers, we’re introducing a new app review process across AdMob and Ad Manager. The process will help enhance the mobile app inventory quality for developers who choose to monetize with either platform. Together with initiatives such as support for app-ads.txt and sellers.json, we continue to increase inventory quality and strengthen advertiser trust to create more value for publishers. 

What’s the new app review process?

App review is a new process that evaluates a mobile app’s inventory quality before allowing unrestricted ad serving. In going through the process, publishers will get a unified view of all their apps' approval status with actionable feedback. The feedback will help them resolve issues upfront and lessen the likelihood of future policy violations. App reviews will be rolled out gradually in 2021 with two features: app readiness and app claiming.

AdMob App Review Status

AdMob publishers will see the review status of their apps in one view.

Ad Manager App Review Status

Ad Manager publishers will see the review status of their apps in one view.

App readiness  

With app readiness, publishers will need to link new mobile apps they want to monetize with AdMob or Ad Manager to at least one supported app store. Linking an app will kick off a review process which checks things like the app source, the publisher’s ownership of the app, and compliance with AdMob or Ad Manager policies. These checks help ensure that the apps entering our networks have high inventory quality, and bring value to the users and advertisers. 

We will gradually roll out app readiness to all publisher accounts for AdMob and Ad Manager starting in April 2021.

App claiming

With app claiming, publishers can declare a comprehensive list of their apps’ inventory with the ability to manage and track all apps' review status directly in their AdMob or Ad Manager account. With this feature, publishers will receive suggestions of mobile apps that are being monetized using their publisher ad code, but haven’t been added to their AdMob or Ad Manager account. Publishers can act on suggestions starting in mid-2021, and eventually will be required to add all apps to their account to allow unrestricted ad serving. 

How to prepare for the changes

We recommend publishers complete the app review process by linking mobile apps to supported app stores and claiming their mobile apps to prevent potential interruptions in monetization. If next steps are required from a publisher to complete the process, we'll send timely updates in the publisher’s account, the policy center or via email. 

We're excited about the benefits app review can bring to publishers and advertisers. And we’ll continue to share our efforts in creating a healthy and sustainable ads ecosystem. 

Find the right Certified Publishing Partner for your monetization needs

Building a sustainable business from a website or app can take time away from the work publishers love the most, creating great content to connect with their audiences. Our Google Certified Publishing Partners are here to help you earn more, find opportunities, and grow your audience. 


To help you select the right partner for your needs, we recently relaunched the Find a Partner page on the Google Certified Publishing Partner website. The new page includes a more detailed list of services that partners offer and more detailed full-page profiles of each company. You can learn more about what a partner specializes in, read publisher success stories and find other useful information to make the right decision.


How Certified Partners can help

Our Certified Partners are experts on Google monetization products and provide innovative solutions and services to support over 50,000 publishers worldwide across all sizes and verticals including news, lifestyle, fashion, gaming and food, among other content categories. Our partners are highly trained and aware of the different challenges that publishers in different verticals face. 

Monetization services

The core solutions that our partners provide are around helping publishers monetize their site or app content to reach their highest potential, using Google Ad Manager, AdMob, or AdSense along with custom products and solutions. This includes ad set-up, trafficking and optimization, programmatic solutions and technical support on a day-to-day basis. 

Many partners also provide focused monetization support in areas like video, mobile apps and custom ad formats. Our partners are here to support you in every step of the monetization process, regardless of your expertise or experience. 

Complementary services 

Beyond monetization, Certified Partners also offer a wide range of additional services to help you grow your business. This includes user acquisition services, content management, page speed optimization, mobile app and website analytics and more. 

You can find the full list of services and definitions here. Certified Publishing Partners may offer additional products and services on their own websites.


Look for the badge

To become certified, service providers are carefully reviewed by Google and must demonstrate product expertise through annual product exams. The official badge also shows that the partner has met quality requirements to ensure their performance and value in the online and apps publishing ecosystem.


Google Certified Publishing Partner badge

Start your search now 

Our partners are prepared to help you improve your results. See how other publishers found success working with a Certified Partner. Then, check out the improved Find a Partner page to begin browsing for the right support. Please keep in mind that each partner might have different criteria and expectations for the publishers they onboard. Additional costs may apply.

Hear how digital businesses grew in our new podcast, PubCast

PubCast is a new podcast by Google that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who turned their passions into profit with Google. In this four-part miniseries, you’ll hear from founders and small business leaders about how they got started, how they grew their businesses and the challenges they faced along the way. 


You can listen to the miniseries on the Talks@Google podcast channel anywhere you find podcasts -- just look for PubCast in the episode title. 


Here’s a peek into our 2021 season: 


1.Shankar Uprety | Creating community and Nepal's most popular app: Shankar Uprety is the CEO and Founder of Hamro Patro, the most popular app in Nepal. After building the app as a side project to stay connected to Nepal, Shankar has grown Hamro Patro to six million monthly active users and created a global Nepali community. 


2. Doug Hexter | Transforming ad dollars into animal shelter donations: Doug Hexter is the CEO and Founder of WoofTrax, the dog-walking app that supports animal organizations with every step. Since launching the app, dog walkers have contributed over 50 million walks supporting more than 8,500 animal shelters.


3. Kevin Binkley | Taking old-school card games digital: Kevin Binkley is the CEO and Founder of NeuralPlay, a card-game app builder that has brought together over 500,000 bridge players globally. With a passion for old-school games, Kevin has transported them into the future using AI-based gaming. 


4. Peter Kim | Finding your niche and following your dreams: Peter Kim is a cofounder at SBLY (formerly Shareably), a company he started with his longtime friend Kevin Chen in their living room after graduating college. SBLY has been using media and technology to build digital brands and audiences since 2015.


Are you a digital business owner who uses AdSense, AdMob or Ad Manager and interested in being featured on PubCast? Fill out our feedback form and share your contact information and few sentences about your business. If you’re interested in learning how you can earn money from your site or app, see how Google AdSense and AdMob could help you.

Hear how digital businesses grew in our new podcast, PubCast

PubCast is a new podcast by Google that explores the stories of website creators and app developers who turned their passions into profit with Google. In this four-part miniseries, you’ll hear from founders and small business leaders about how they got started, how they grew their businesses and the challenges they faced along the way. 


You can listen to the miniseries on the Talks@Google podcast channel anywhere you find podcasts -- just look for PubCast in the episode title. 


Here’s a peek into our 2021 season: 


1.Shankar Uprety | Creating community and Nepal's most popular app: Shankar Uprety is the CEO and Founder of Hamro Patro, the most popular app in Nepal. After building the app as a side project to stay connected to Nepal, Shankar has grown Hamro Patro to six million monthly active users and created a global Nepali community. 


2. Doug Hexter | Transforming ad dollars into animal shelter donations: Doug Hexter is the CEO and Founder of WoofTrax, the dog-walking app that supports animal organizations with every step. Since launching the app, dog walkers have contributed over 50 million walks supporting more than 8,500 animal shelters.


3. Kevin Binkley | Taking old-school card games digital: Kevin Binkley is the CEO and Founder of NeuralPlay, a card-game app builder that has brought together over 500,000 bridge players globally. With a passion for old-school games, Kevin has transported them into the future using AI-based gaming. 


4. Peter Kim | Finding your niche and following your dreams: Peter Kim is a cofounder at SBLY (formerly Shareably), a company he started with his longtime friend Kevin Chen in their living room after graduating college. SBLY has been using media and technology to build digital brands and audiences since 2015.


Are you a digital business owner who uses AdSense, AdMob or Ad Manager and interested in being featured on PubCast? Fill out our feedback form and share your contact information and few sentences about your business. If you’re interested in learning how you can earn money from your site or app, see how Google AdSense and AdMob could help you.