Tag Archives: native_ads_express

Native Express Video

If you've created a Native Express ad unit recently, you may have noticed a new template format alongside App Install and Content: Video App Install. In the past few weeks, AdMob has rolled out support for video assets in Native Ads Express, giving publishers a new way to create more engaging presentations for their users.

How to get started

Enabling video demand for a Native Express ad unit is easy. Just open the ad unit's settings in the AdMob console, and look for the Ad type checkboxes at the top of the editor:

Check the checkbox marked "Video app install," and save the change. In a short while, your ad unit will start serving video creatives alongside the other two formats, with no code changes to your app required. That means you can update your existing apps to display this new format without redeploying to the Play Store or App Store.

An important thing to note is that video creatives are only available for ad units using the Large template size. The video player needs a certain amount of space, and the Large template ensures that it's available.

Customizing the experience

While there's no mobile code required to take advantage of Native Express Video, AdMob has introduced some new features to the API that allow publishers to customize the user experience. In particular, a new video options class (VideoOptions on Android, and GADVideoOptions on iOS) gives publishers a way to influence how the ads behave.

For example, the following code will cause video ads appearing in an Android NativeExpressAdView to begin playing with their audio on: 


mAdView = (NativeExpressAdView) findViewById(R.id.adView);
mAdView.setVideoOptions(new VideoOptions.Builder()
    .setStartMuted(false)
    .build());

Staying in the know

App publishers can retrieve information about the video assets in their ads through the use of a video controller object (VideoController on Android, GADVideoController on iOS). The ad view classes for native express have been updated to include video controller properties that apps can grab and query for info like whether a video is present in the ad, and what its aspect ratio is. Even if the ad doesn't contain an video asset (or no ad has been loaded at all), you'll always get a valid reference to the ad view's video controller.

For example, here's a Swift snippet that shows how to check if an ad that just loaded contains a video asset: 


func nativeExpressAdViewDidReceiveAd(_ nativeExpressAdView: GADNativeExpressAdView)
{
  if nativeExpressAdView.videoController.hasVideoContent() {
    print("Received an ad with a video asset.")
  } else {
    print("Received an ad without a video asset.")
  }
}

More Info

Native Express is designed to make implementing native ads easy, but if you have questions about how to get up and running or how you can best put it to use in your apps, stop by our support forum. The Mobile Ads Garage recently released an episode covering Native Express Video as well, with feature details and screencasts for iOS and Android:

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Mobile Ads Garage #12: Native Express in a UITableView

Episode twelve of The Mobile Ads Garage is live on YouTube! If you haven't seen it before, The Mobile Ads Garage is a video tutorial series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and DoubleClick for Publishers. Each episode covers one aspect of the SDK, breaks down the feature, and shows screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.

With their customizable presentations and ability to be precached, Native Express ads fit right in with list-based user interfaces:

In this deep dive episode of the Mobile Ads Garage, you'll learn how to integrate Native Express ads into an iOS app that uses a UITableViewController for its primary UI. Along the way you'll get a detailed set of step and see screencasts of an implementation in Xcode. The episode also covers a handy technique for tapping into the ad lifecycle to load native express ads sequentially, from the top of the list to the bottom.

If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.

We'd love to hear which AdMob features you'd like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to toss out ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

AdMob Native Express ads in a content feed

Today we're excited to announce iOS and Android sample projects that display AdMob Native Express ads in a feed. These samples address a common use case for monetizing apps with feeds or lists of content. The iOS (Swift and Objective-C) apps display Native Express ads in a UITableView and the Android app shows them in a RecyclerView.

Native Express ads work well in lists of content for two reasons. First, impressions are not counted until the ad is on screen, which enables you to preload the ads ahead of time. Preloading can help with optimizing scroll performance by making sure the ad is ready to be displayed when the user scrolls through the list. Second, you have more control over the styling of the ads, allowing you to create presentations that fit naturally with your content.

You can check out these sample apps by downloading them from our iOS and Android GitHub repos, and you can see them being coded in the Mobile Ads Garage YouTube series. Episode 11 walks you through the implementation for adding native ads into an Android RecyclerView. Episode 12, which will cover the implementation of native ads in an iOS UITableView, is due out next week.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding our SDK, feel free to contact us through our forum.

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Mobile Ads Garage #11: Native Express in a RecyclerView

Episode 11 of The Mobile Ads Garage is live on YouTube! If you haven't seen it before, The Mobile Ads Garage is a video tutorial series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and Doubleclick for Publishers. Each episode covers one aspect of the SDK, breaks down the feature, and shows screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.

In a break with tradition, this video is a deep technical dive on one subject: Native Ads Express in an Android RecyclerView. You'll learn how to modify an existing RecyclerView implementation to include Native Express ads, all the way from updating the adapter to loading the ads. In addition, you'll get a clever trick that makes sure your ads are always sized to match the UI, so they fit right in with your content.

If you haven't used Native Ads Express before, you can see them in action in Episode 7. Andrew and Gary cover all the basics: loading ads, placing them in layouts and storyboards, and using CSS to style the ads to match your app.


If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.

We'd love to hear which AdMob features you'd like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to toss out ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.

Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Mobile Ads Garage #7: Native Ads Express

A new episode of The Mobile Ads Garage has hit YouTube! If you haven't seen it before, The Mobile Ads Garage is a video tutorial series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and Doubleclick For Publishers. Each episode covers one aspect of the SDK, breaks down the feature, and shows screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.

Have you tried AdMob's Native Ads Express? It's a new native ads format open to all AdMob publishers that can help you slim down the monetization code in your apps, plus give you the chance to update your ad layouts without a redeploy. In this episode you'll see sample ads, implementations in Xcode and Android Studio, and details on how to create CSS templates that'll make sure the ads in your apps look the way you want. If you've been considering a move to native ads, this is a great way to get started.


If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.

We’d love to hear which AdMob features you’d like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to toss out ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations