Develop Reference

Ask user to watch interstitial ad?

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

Can I be banned from AdMob for seeing real ads (impressions)?

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.

Clicking the ads for solution of the game

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.

do I have control over ads in my own mobile app

I've search all over Google for this and I couldn't find an answer.
I will be building my first mobile app and I was wondering how much control do I have regarding advertising banners. That last thing I want my users to see, is some annoying banner at the bottom of my application.
As a new mobile app developer, how much control do I really have over adverting, especially from third parties in my own application?...

Ads are not an automatic thing in Android apps-- you have to choose to put them in there. For example, view this link where people ask how to add advertisements.
It should be mentioned that ads can be a good thing for a free app, and being that it's under your control, it's up to you to put the ads in a way that do not disrupt the user experience (like banner ads often do).

Third party ads are most of the time not in your control since custom ads violates their advertiser interest.
Some third party network provide custom ad showing option but in that cases you generate very little to none amount of money for the clicks.
You can become a advertiser in some ad networks and then can push your own ads.. really costly . probably a not good solution.
Position wise - most of the ad networks have banner + fullscreen ads and custom placement is available.

There are several ad services, I use and would recommend admob which is Google's own.
You have a lot of control over the ads, where they are displayed, this is done by adding the ad element to the layout xml file so you can place where you think is appropriate in your apps layout.
When to request an, auto refresh the ad after so many seconds/minutes. Also from the web interface you can control what category adverts are shown from, for example, if you didn't want to show dating adverts within your app from the web site you can block the dating category so none of your users will see adverts for that category.
You can find out more info about admob at http://www.admob.com.

AdMob Ads not displaying

I'm adding AdMob ads (say that five times fast) to my finished, published Android app. I added the code from the PDF included with AdMob, following their instructions to a tee. The test ads show up fine on my emulators and specified test devices. They just don't appear in the published marketplace app when you download and run it. I still get impressions on my AdMob page however. Any ideas?

Admob sometimes doesn't have ads to display. This is worse for some apps than others. There are a few things to do to help mitigate this problem:
Enable adsense ads - this gives a larger pool of ads
Ensure that you have house ads available for all of your apps in Admob. That way, if they can't find paying ads, they'll at least show your house ads. This will significantly raise your fill rate, but not directly raise your income (depends on what you do with the house ads).

I know that the admob code does not display anything until it connects to the server and receives an ad. In my app it can take several seconds for the ad to display, but not usually longer than that.

I notice this fairly often with admob on one of my apps, while another seems to serve up ads just fine. Can't figure it out either, but I suspect it has to do with AdMob not having any campaigns that tailor to your application description and keywords.

I'm seeing exactly the same behavior. Does your app perform any network tasks on startup? If so, here is a thread on admob's support group which might provide an explanation:
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/admob-publisher-discuss/hR7zs_GBSRw/discussion
Unfortunately for me delaying my app's network activity while waiting for admob isn't really an option, so I wish admob/google would release a fix.