New AdMob tools help you build a smarter, faster mobile app business

There are many different ways for developers to make money from mobile apps. Paid downloads have been a popular choice among developers, but with only a third of users willing to pay¹, increasingly apps are free Now, more and more developers are making money with in-app advertising and freemium models, with revenue for both growing over 70% from 2013 to 2014.²

That�s why today, at our annual I/O conference, we announced a set of tools to help you create smarter ways to monetize through segmentation, scale your business through reservations and integrate rich ad formats into apps more easily.

Smarter tools for greater success

As a developer, you want to know your most valuable users and be able to create different experiences for them in your app. Recently we launched the Audience Builder tool, powered by Google Analytics, that enables you to segment users based on how they are using your app. Now we�re announcing a new smart feature in beta, that enables you to define a list of users and show ads to them, while hiding ads from the rest of your users. For example, you might show ads to casual users, but hide ads from highly-engaged users who love sharing your app with their friends on social networks. If you�d like to be considered for this beta, please sign up here.

Targeting ads to an audience in AdMob

Smarter monetization should mean earning the most revenue possible, and AdMob�s free mediation tool has helped many developers run other mobile ad networks through the AdMob platform to simplify management and improve competition. Today we announced that AdMob mediation now supports 40 mediation partners, with 15 networks added in the past year alone. We're pleased to welcome Tencent GDT as our newest mediation partner, one of the largest mobile ad networks in China.

Helping you scale your app faster

Many app businesses with global reach and scale are growing very quickly in the ecosystem. These apps have dedicated sales teams who work with large advertisers to sell their inventory. Today, we announced a beta to support mobile app sales teams called AdMob Reservations. These sales teams will be able to take ad campaign bookings from advertisers they work with directly, upload ad creatives, and manage the delivery of these campaigns for free, using the AdMob platform.

Fast-growing app developers are choosing AdMob to monetize. Last week, Etermax, who created one of the world�s most popular trivia games in Trivia Crack, became one of our newest partners.

Making ad integration easier

We want to bring native ads to more app developers in a scalable way and with minimum fuss, so we�re improving our ability to serve these types of ads. In the coming months, we�ll be introducing Native Ads Express, a new way to take advantage of native ads that requires no custom engineering work by you. We know there are many developers who don�t have the resource to design a custom native ad that matches their app, but still want the flexibility that native ads offer. With this feature you can simply define the style of your ad using CSS, and AdMob serves the ad adhering to your specs. You can update the ad�s appearance on the fly by adjusting the CSS, so there�s no need to change your app�s native code when you want to test a different look. We have ads from millions of advertisers that can be styled in the way you want.

We�ve already made great strides to help you integrate AdMob ads across platforms with plugins for games engines such as Unity and Cocos2d-x. Now, we�re excited to announce the integration of AdMob into Android Studio. This powerful new feature will let you quickly and easily create AdMob ad units as you build your app.

AdMob Ads Activity in Android Studio

At Google, we�re passionate about fostering successful app developers, and as the AdMob platform continues to grow, with over 650,000 apps, we�re continually working to give you the tools you need to build your app business, intelligently. Visit the AdMob website to get started, and put our new monetization tools to work in your apps.

Lastly, if you�re interested in driving app installs and measuring campaign performance, see the latest exciting I/O announcements from our AdWords and Google Analytics teams.

Posted by Jonathan Alferness, 

Vice President, Product Management

______

1. eMarketer, February 2015
2. App Annie, App Annie & IDC Mobile App Advertising and Monetization Trends, March 2015

Almost time to share your feedback on AdMob

To improve our product and service, we send out a survey to our developers every 6 months. The next survey will be released over the coming weeks and we�re looking forward to getting your responses.

Thanks to your suggestions from our last survey, we�ve launched new features to improve our product and help you grow your earnings. These include launching in-app purchase house ad formats, allowing developers to create audience lists for re-marketing, introducing TrueView video ad interstitials and native ad formats.

Provided we have the right email address for you and you�ve opted in to �occasional surveys�, you could get an email giving you access to complete the full survey. Please double check that:

• You�ve updated your contact details
• You�ve opted into receive �occasional survey� messages

Whether you�ve completed this survey before or you�re providing feedback for the first time, we�d like to thank you for sharing your valuable thoughts.

We�re excited to get your feedback!

 

Posted by Rachel Barrett

AdMob Developer Happiness Team

Share your feedback on AdSense, AdMob, and other Google publisher solutions

It�s time to share your feedback! To improve our product and services, we send out a survey to a random group of our publishers every 6 months. The next survey will be sent soon and we�re looking forward to hearing from you.

Your feedback and comments are important to us, and we really do read and consider everything you write. Thanks to previous suggestions, we�ve launched a number of new features to improve our services and help you grow your earnings. These include the redesign of the performance reports with a brand new dashboard, Matched content to help you increase engagement with your site visitors, and welcoming Malay and Hindi languages to the AdSense family.

You may receive a survey by email over the coming weeks. To make sure that you can receive the survey email, please take the following steps as soon as possible:

• Update your contact details.
• Update your email preferences to receive �occasional survey� messages.

Whether you�ve completed this survey before or you�re providing feedback for the first time, we�d like to thank you for sharing your valuable thoughts. We�re looking forward to feedback!

Posted by Adriana Satmarean
AdSense Publisher Happiness Team

Register to see Jonathan Alferness' app monetization livestream at Google I/O 2015

Google I/0 2015 is just around the corner (May 28-29th), and we�ll be there. There�ll be more than 200 talks centered around some important topics which matter to you: Design & Develop, to help you build beautiful, powerful apps; Earn & Engage, where we�ll cover tools to grow your user base and create sustainable, successful businesses; and What�s Next, a peek into Google�s emerging platforms.

Be sure to tune into our session featuring Jonathan Alferness, VP of Product Management and Global Head of Mobile Display Ads Products for Google on Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 2pm PDT . He�ll be discussing how AdMob brings the power, scale and innovation to app developers who want to monetize effectively through tools like ad mediation for higher fill rates, new formats like native ads, and Audience builder with Google Analytics for list building and targeting. In this talk, we will also be unveiling some new features that will help make things simpler for developers. Click here to register for the livestream.

Posted by the Google AdMob Team

More reasons for you to go multi-screen

"Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014"* was a memorable headline a few years ago. We're passing the mobile tipping point and seeing a 70% year over year increase from AdSense impressions on mobile devices. This is just one reason why it�s more important now than ever before for your website to be multi-screen friendly. Here are a few more reasons why you should take an action now.

1. Mobile Google Search algorithm has been changed 

Recently, we announced that Google Search uses a website�s multi-screen friendliness as a ranking signal. This means that websites that are mobile friendly are now easier to find than those that aren�t, for users searching on their mobile devices.  If your website is not mobile friendly, this change will affect its discoverability, which may impact your traffic and AdSense long-term revenue.

2. More publishers are seeing success from going multi-screen

Shifting your website strategy to multi-screen takes time. The good news is that more publishers are starting to see a positive impact including: increased traffic, longer user engagement, and higher AdSense performance. Check out these stories from publishers who have successfully shifted to multi-screen: digiSchool, Famous Birthdays, ThriftyFun.com, and more.

3. More resources are available to ease your policy concerns 

Policy concerns, such as ensuring proper ad placement on a small screen, might be one of the reasons stopping you from going multi-screen, so we�ve created some new resources for you. Check out our Policy FAQs for mobile optimized (multi-screen) websites to help you understand what you should consider when placing ads on your mobile site.

4. Additional resources are available to help you go multi-screen

Do you lack the time or the expertise needed to build your multi-screen friendly website? We�ve identified some vendors** who can help you transition to a multi-screen friendly site easily. You can search these vendors by location, type of website, and services provided.

New vendors added in the past 6 months:

Keep your mobile strategy going with our Multi-Screen Guidelines. This guide will give you everything you need to know about multi-screen strategy from the basics to beyond. If you�re starting out, the Starter Guide will walk you through how to build a multi-screen friendly website. If you�ve already got a multi-screen friendly website, the Implementation Guide can give you more tips around monetization, user experience and SEO.

*Mary Meeker, 2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update
**Note that recommended vendors are independent companies and not affiliated with Google in any way. Google assumes no liability for any vendor's actions.

Posted by Maiko Fujita - Multi-Screen Strategist
Was this blog post useful? Share your feedback with us.

Refer a friend and be eligible to win

Great developers know other great developers. Starting today, you can refer developers to sign up for AdMob through our AdMob Referral Program. Both you and your eligible referral* will have the opportunity to win a trip to Google Headquarters to meet the AdMob team.

Registering for the program is simple. Just fill out our referral form by June 30, 2015 to invite your friend. Both you and your eligible referral will be eligible to win a round-trip flight to Google Headquarters to meet the AdMob team, an opportunity for your app to be features in the AdMob App Spotlight video series, a Nexus 6, and more!

Ready to refer? Submission deadline is June 30, 2015. Multiple referrals are welcome. Send any questions to admobreferrals@google.com.

Posted by the Google AdMob Team

*Qualified developer referrals exclude existing AdMob developers. For more details, review the full terms and conditions for the AdMob Referral Program and the Referral Program Contest, including additional details about eligibility.