Lately I've been thinking about how to increase the revenue I get from my Android apps, and have come to the conclusion that I "need" to include interstitial ads in some form. I don't want them to feel forced or annoying like in many other apps where they pop up when they are the least desirable. Instead I have been toying with the idea of simply having a seperate "Support The Developer" screen in my app dedicated to explaining to the user that although making apps is fun it's also time-consuming and challenging and ask them to support the developer by watching a short interstitial ad. The user would then either tap a button to show an interstitial ad or tap another button to return to the main menu. Of course there would be no attempt to motivate the user to actually click on the ad - Just simply watch it.
I have scanned the web, AdMob/AdSense policies and other questions on here to try to find a clear answer on if this is against any rules. I certainly don't want to do this to have my app removed for violating any policies. I know that there are rewarded interstitials that you can implement, but since this approach doesn't award the user with anything in the app it doesn't seem like the right path.
I really want to ethically be on the right track here, so if anyone has any expereience regarding this, please help.
I have scanned the web, AdMob/AdSense policies and other questions on here to try to find a clear answer on if this is against any rules. I certainly don't want to do this to have my app removed for violating any policies. I know that there are rewarded interstitials that you can implement, but since this approach doesn't award the user with anything in the app it doesn't seem like the right path.
-> You are not violating any policies regarding asking user to click on button as long as you don't break any other policy for interstitial ad. ( e.g. you can't have consecutive Interstitial Ad, there has to be 2 clicks before you show another ad).
Refer this link for Admob interstitial ads invalid policies https://support.google.com/admob/answer/6201362?hl=en&ref_topic=2745287
Lot of games gives away goodies for viewing videos. In your case you can use ad finish event to process further. For solution refer to this link.
Listening to Video Ad. Finish Event in Interstitial Ad (Google AdMob)
I'm not a mobile developer but I'm a heavy mobile app user on both Android and Windows Mobile. From user experience on games and apps I use a lot, I would watch the videos if they are not in my face, do not start unwanted and bring me some 'benefit' when I watch them. In a game that would mean I would receive some advantage or a prize, usually linked with the game pace where I'm allowed to watch a new video only a certain number of times per hour/day so I can continue playing almost non-stop. In apps some premium options could be unlocked temporarily (for one time use/for 10 minutes/etc) after the user watches a video.
In the end, if the product is good and you have not spoiled the user's experience by putting advertisements all over the place, you can ask the user to switch to Pro version without ads and with more functionality.
You can tease users to become Pro by allowing "trial" period of Pro features for Free users. For example, one of the Pro features might become available to Free users for a day, so they can experience the Pro version. Next week you might allow "trial" for another feature, etc. If your product would have long usage life you should first of all make sure the customers like it, are able to easily use it and then they will gladly give you a fee to use it.
I hope this helps you.
Regards,
Georgi
P.S. The best way to make money out of a good product is to convert it into a service and then earn money from service subscriptions, additional features (like support, customization, plugins, etc). Of course, I don't know what your Android apps are.
I have implemented rewarded ads. The reward is banner or interstitial ads will temporarily be removed. Here is the rewarded ads welcoming message:
In order to use this application without ads, please watch the
following video
Related
I have seen in many apps, that it allows the user to view rewarded video ads, only certain number of times in a day. But, the more ads the users see, more is the revenue for the developer. Then, why is the developer doing so?
P. S - I am developing an app myself. So, I needed to know the reason behind it, so as to decide whether to implement it or not.
Watching rewarded ads means that you avoid paying for premium features that the app offers. The developer that way allows you to see how it would be to use the premium features but does so with the restriction that you can only do that after watching ads and only for a few times. In the long run, the developer will make more money from people buying the premium version of the app than they would have made from people watching adds.
It is very similar to the idea that a lot of online subscription services will offer a month for free to anyone, and then start charging after the second month of use. A lot of people will take advantage and only use the free month, but statistically more people will decide to pay in order to continue having access to the service. (eg audible, amazon prime, youtube premium, etc)
Then, why is the developer doing so?
Put yourself in the position of the user.
On the plus side, he / she wants to use the app.
On the minus side, he / she doesn't want to watch the video ads. But he / she puts up with them.
If you force users to watch too many videos, they will eventually get fed up and stop using your app entirely. And when that happens, you get no more revenue from that user. They are gone. They probably won't come back.
The developer gets to choose which strategy to use when showing ads.
Question 1:
I know that clicking on real ads in my own app can get me banned but does that include impressions ?
I developed app and tested ads with test ads but now I want to see how it looks with real ads (which ads appear ....). How can I test that if I can be banned for that ?
Question 2:
Does AdMob gets data on how many ads were seen because I implemented code that sends event to Firebase Analytics each time ad is shown to user? Do I need it (should I delete that part of code)?
Well, Admob collects how many users have seen the add and how many times and clicks too and this is how they decide CPM which is cost per thousand impression and CPC which is cost per click. CPC and CPM are essential to evaluate your earnings through ads.
As far as first question is concern regarding clicking your ads, you can test your beta releases here and here too. However they don't ban immediately as one can click real ads mistakenly but repeated such event can cause a ban.
Answering your seccond question if you just want how many users have seen the ad, Admob can give you that metrics.
I can answer first question. Impression on your own app does not ban you, I always install my own app after it is live in play to see if real ads are showing or not, but don't click on them. Also do not encourage any friends to click on them on their mobile. Google knows everything!
If you will press to the ad one or two times you will not be banned. But it really not needed, cos' you can use test-ads; they have got the same lifecycle.
Inside admob it is possible to see total amount of shown/clicked ads and how much money you have earned. Imo, in most cases you need not to write such statistic.
I am new to android development and i have developed a puzzle game with about 50 levels. I know that users will hate my app if they stuck at a level for a long time. so i like to implement a strategy like - 'if you click on 2 ads from the ads below you will get the solution for that level'. can i do it. is it legal? i haven't saw any app using this strategy- why? is there any drawback in it? wont i make much money through this strategy? or is it impossible to implement this strategy through code or something?
It is against the Admob publisher policies:
Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior or placing images next to individual ads.
I would strongly advise against it, while I couldn't find anywhere where admob explicitly mentions encouraging users to click on your ads, I know adsense has strict policies against encouraging users to click on ads and will ban you for life for these types of schemes.
I have read a few places that Google is going to bring interactive video advertisements to their AdMob platform for Android developers. However, on their site, I cannot find any information on how to implement it, how much they usually pay per impression/click (average, not actual earnings), and there is even such a service from them. No SDK, no resources, no webpage, and no code; it seems non-existent. However, I have found a lot of sites that state that Google is bringing thease to Android.
What could be going on? Did they cancel it? How can I implement these if I want to? Do I use the normal SDK? Does anybody know any of the average/typical earnings with this per impression or click?
EDIT: I found this article and it says that there is a new SDK, but they are only bringing it to certain apps?!?! Any advice would be appreciated.
I believe you mean Admob interstitial ads. These are available now using the Admob SDK. Instead of using an instance of AdView you want to use an instance of com.google.ads.InterstitialAd but otherwise it is not too dissimilar.
You are paid on a CPC basis unless Admob has specifically tapped you on the shoulder for a pay per impression service (you need a fair amount of traffic for that). I find that eCPM for the interstitials is about 3 to 5 times that of banner ads.
In free app, I'd like to hide ads forever after some number of clicks on banner. And users will know about this rule.
In my opinion, if user made some money for developer, let's let him be free from ads. But all systems of ads are checking for cheating to avoid auto-clicks or something like that. So, what can you tell about major ads platforms on Google Play (Google ads, AdMob, etc.) - is it possible to do such thing or it will be judged like cheating then many users will become to do many clicks one after another to remove ads? Is simple in-app like "Remove ads" better?
This is against the terms and conditions of every ad network that I am aware of. It could also get you banned on Google Play.
It would be best to use in app purchases for this. It will not get you banned on any of the ad networks or Google Play, and is reasonably easy to integrate.