AdMob Review – Review of AdMob for Publishers

Introduction to AdMob

AdMobAdMob is a Google-owned ad network that allows developers and publishers to monetize their mobile apps with relevant ads from a huge inventory of advertisers (over one million). Developers simply need to sign up for a free account and install the SDK into their app. Revenue is usually earned on a CPC basis, though there is also some CPM advertising available.

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
  • What We Like: High fill rates, competitive eCPMs, cross-platform monetization (Android, iOS, and Windows 8).
  • What We Don’t Like: AdSense account required, ad placement limits.

AdMob Company Stats

AdMob Support & Contact Information

  • Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View CA 94043
  • Phone Number: 650-253-0000
  • Support Email: https://support.google.com/admob/contact/approval_process

Publisher Requirements

  • Publisher Terms: https://support.google.com/…/1307237?hl=en
  • Traffic Minimum: None.
  • Publisher Language Requirement: There is no specific language requirement.
  • Prohibited Publisher Content: Pornography, violence, racial intolerance, excessive profanity, hacking/cracking, illicit drugs, drug paraphernalia, sales of beer or hard alcohol, sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products, sales of prescription drugs, sales of weapons or ammunition, sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer or other goods, sales or distribution of coursework or student essays, programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites, or reading emails, any other illegal content.

Advertisers & Offers

  • Advertising Types: Mobile App Monetization.
  • Offer Types: CPC, CPM.
  • Verticals: All.
  • Network Size: Unknown.
  • Sampling of Publishers: Unknown.

Tech Implementation

AdMob Tech Implementation Rating: 5 out of 5.

Example of AdMob ad unit on iPhone
Example of AdMob ad unit on iPhone
  • Creating an Ad Unit: Creating an ad unit with AdMob is very similar to creating an ad unit with Google AdSense. Publishers and developers can customize the color scheme of text ads, select the ad unit size, and specify a refresh rate (how often the ad reloads on the user’s screen).
  • Display Ad Unit Sizes Available: 320×50, 300×250, 468×60, 728×90, and smart banners in the following sizes: 320×50, 360×50, 480×32, 533×32, range of sizes from 480×32 to 682×32, 768×90, 1024×90, 800×90, 1280×90, 600×90, 1024×50.
  • Implementation Technology: SDK.
  • Compatible with Google AdSense: N/A.
  • Mobile Ad Units Available: Yes.
  • WordPress Plugin Available: N/A.

Publisher Reporting & Admin Control Panel

AdMob Publisher Reporting & Admin Control Panel Rating: 5 out of 5.

AdMob publisher control panel
AdMob publisher control panel
  • Control Panel: The AdMob control panel is cleanly laid out and relatively easy to use. Via the top navigation menu, publishers and developers can easily click around to see reports (Monetize), create or edit ad units (Promote) or change account settings (Account). Monetizing a new app is as simple as clicking the “Monetize new app” button. From there, creating the new app’s ad unit(s) is a straightforward process.
  • Reporting: Reporting within the AdMob control panel is very good. Publishers and developers have multiple reporting options at their disposal, including the ability to filter by time or add numerous dimensions to create truly granular reports, much in the same way that Google Analytics allows. Reports also can be exported easily into multiple formats, including CSV for usage in Excel. AdMob also provides Ad Mediation Reports, which is explained in more detail in the editor’s review below.
  • Control Panel URL: http://www.admob.com/login/

Payment

AdMob Payment Rating: 5 out of 5.

  • Publisher’s Share of Revenue: 60%.
  • Payment Methods Available: Check, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Wire Transfer, Western Union Quick Cash, EFT via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Rapida.
  • Payment Terms: Net-21.
  • Minimum Payout Threshold: $10 (to register) $100 (to receive payment).

Account Help

AdMob Account Help Rating: 2 out of 5.

 


FAQ's

What are the AdMob publisher requirements? 

There are no app traffic or download requirements to get started with AdMob.  All you need is a google account, sign up, install and get started right away.  You must abide by the publisher restricted content guidelines. 

What is the difference between AdMob and Adsense? 

While AdMob is owned by Google, AdMob and Adsense are not the same.  AdMob focuses on in-app monetization. Their network covers all application categories from utilities to game apps both on IOS and Android with worldwide coverage.

What is the AdMob Minimum payment threshold?

To setup your account to receive payments, you must first reach $10 to register to receive an authorization letter.  Once your payment account is setup, the payment minimum balance is $100 to receive payment. 

What are the AdMob payment methods? 

AdMob offers publishers a NET21 payment terms after the end of month.  So for earnings in the month of June, you will receive payment on July 21, provided you met the minimum payment threshold.  You can receive payments by check, EFT, wire transfer, western union, EFT, and rapida.


Success Story

  • With AdMob Mediation, GameHouse increase their ad revenue 30%

GameHouse established in Netherlands, 2001. They have developed many games that are played by users in over 40 countries. Their goals are to increase the number of ad networks to scale revenue and drive engagement, and to find a solution to manages multiple ad networks without crashing. 

By implemented Admob mediation, they were able to increase their ad revenue by 30% and have a stability rate by 99.5% for Admob Mediation

  • Switching to AdMob, StickyHands earn 20% more ad revenue. 

StickyHands is mobile game charts based in South Korea. They create games to relax the players by providing unique game architectures that players have not seen before. 

StickyHands facing the challenges to increase their ad revenue and decrease their operational cost. 

By using A/B test open bidding against mediation in solitaire cooking tower, StickyHands sees positive results. They increase 22% in ARPDAU and increase 20% in total ad revenue

  • Playdots, Inc achieves on uplift 28% their ad revenue

Playdots, Inc. is a mobile game company founded in New York, 2013. They focus on providing meaningful play experiences to the players. They were having challenges to improve ad inventory, increase the revenue and minimize time spent managing mediation solutions. 

By implemented AdMob mediation into two dots game, Playdots, Inc. sees their growth in ad revenue by 28%, increases their eCPM by 60% and get 68% boost in ad revenue for Android.

Editor's AdMob Review

The following review was contributed by Michael Johnston on January 3, 2014.

AdMob is one of the largest and most popular tools for monetizing mobile apps. AdMob was acquired by Google in 2010, and has since been rebuilt to incorporate many of the core functionalities of the Google advertising network. The result is an extremely deep pool of advertisers, which generally leads to very good fill rates and competitive eCPMs. It also means there is an extensive support guide and numerous forums dedicated to solving any technical issues that arise. In other words, AdMob is basically AdSense for mobile traffic. The network functions across all major platforms, including Android, iOS, and Windows 8.

AdMob can be used by both basic and advanced app publishers. The simplest way to use AdMob is to create standard-sized ads to appear in your app and to be filled using the Google mobile ad network. You'll split any revenue earned with the network (approximately 40% goes to Google) and your earnings will be deposited into your account each month (assuming you meet the $100 payment threshold, or relevant amount in foreign currencies).

The process for creating and activating a new AdMob ad unit is fairly straightforward, and works in much the same way AdSense does. You'll have the ability to customize your text ad units with specific colors and fonts in order to maximize visibility and click rates (and to test and optimize down the road). AdMob also lets you specify a refresh period for your app's ads, which can result in a larger number of ads shown and higher click rates. The refresh period can be as short as 30 seconds, at which point the ad would be refreshed and a new ad would appear.

For more advanced appmakers looking to max out their mobile earnings, AdMob also includes a tool called "AdMob Mediation" that facilitates ongoing optimization. This feature allows users to display ads from multiple sources, including the AdMob network and other mobile ad networks as well. By having these line items compete against one another, you'll be able to identify the highest payers and gradually shift your impressions toward the ads with the highest payout. This process requires ongoing maintenance and monitoring, but can pay off big for large volumes of traffic. You can also let AdMob do the optimization for you, by enabling their "Ad network optimization" feature to automatically pull eCPMs from different networks based on historical performance.

It's important to note that this AdMob Mediation feature does NOT support all mobile ad networks. Rather, there's a limited number of ad networks who can run within this optimization framework.

AdMob can also be used to serve either house ads that promote your own products or ads from third parties with whom you've reached an advertising arrangement. In other words, if you sign a deal directly with an advertiser to run their banners in your app, AdMob features tools that let you set up, deliver, monitor, and report on that campaign. If you plan on selling your app's ad space directly to third party advertisers (which will likely result in much higher eCPMs than using ad networks), the AdMob functionality will come in handy.

AdMob also features targeting and filtering capabilities similar to what appears within Google AdSense. That means that users are able to control which types of ads appear in their apps, banning advertisers that they don't want to associate with their brand and tilting exposure towards (or away from) certain verticals.

Also similar to AdSense is the reporting interface. AdMob features a detailed and customizable reporting dashboard that allows for both basic and advanced analytics.

AdMob does place some strict limits on ads; you're not allowed to have more than one ad per static page, or more than one visible at a time if the page scrolls. For some apps, that may be a drawback that limits the overall earning capacity. They also have requirements regarding positioning of ad units so as not to solicit invalid clicks.

For mobile sites and apps, AdMob is generally a very good monetization solution. In addition to the extremely deep Google mobile ad networks, the functionality allows for certain third party networks to be plugged in with relative ease (which, in turn, allows for relatively easy optimization). Publishers should be able to achieve 100% fill rates from the very beginning, and the optimization algos employed by Google will help to maximize clicks and earnings.

References

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