How to implement mobile apps in Ad Manager

When adding mobile apps to Ad Manager, we recommend you follow these steps.

Step 1: Determine your ad strategy

Before you begin, you need a plan for what formats and sizes you want to use in your app and the ad placements. 

Mobile app ads have different capabilities than web ads. Therefore, it's important to have a different mobile app strategy for ads, specifically around which ad sizes, formats, and placements would work for your app.

Of the various creative sizes and formats, certain formats for banners and interstitials have better performance than others. Among the standard IAB sizes, 300x250 size works best, bringing higher eCPMs. For more details, please refer to IAB's Mobile Guidelines and best practices here.

In terms of ad placement, various mobile app categories perform better with different ad placement strategies. Some categories and successful placements observed include:

Category	Placements
Content consumption app (for example, news, feed)	Native content ads or app install ads Combination of 300x250 and 320x50 ads for article pages Interstitial in-between articles
Retail app	300x250 and 320x50 banners
Gaming app	Native app-install ads or interstitials placed at various game levels that are natural breaks for the user 320x50 non-intrusive adhesive banners
Social app	Native ads in the stream

Step 2: Design your inventory structure

You may want to use your inventory structure to differentiate between web and apps, and to differentiate any content that may monetize differently. You can also use content URLs to connect your website to your apps.

Step 3: Integrate and set up the SDK with your app

1. Download the Google Mobile ads (GMA) SDK for Android or iOS. 
2. Use the Android or iOS quick start guides in the developer documentation to integrate the GMA SDK into your app. Learn about Firebase integration when setting up the app.
3. Depending on your ad strategy and inventory structure, you can request Ad Manager ad units in various supported sizes and formats (for example, banners, interstitials, and native).
   
   For additional parameters like key-values, audience segments, audience pixels, and so forth, refer to the "Targeting" section in the developer documentation for Android and iOS.

App developers can also review GMA API references with Google Play Services and code samples on the GitHub page.

Note: New iOS apps will not show Google ads until they're listed in the Apple App Store. To test your unreleased iOS app, use a test device or set up demo ad units. Learn how to test your app in the AdMob Help Center

Step 4: Set up your apps in Ad Manager

1. Create apps in Ad Manager.
2. Copy the app ID and share it with your developer.

Step 5: Configure ad units and traffic in Ad Manager

1. Use existing ad units or create any app-specific additional ad units, key-values and audience segments.

   The ad units will be called from your app, and any custom criteria can be added as extra parameters in the request.

2. Traffic line items and creatives for mobile apps.

   Consider separate creatives and line items for different apps or operating systems (iOS and Android) with targeting.

3. Find the ad unit IDs and sizes to be used by your development team when integrating the Mobile Ads SDK.

   Learn more about additional parameters that can be passed from your app and used in Ad Manager.

Step 6: Test your setup

You're now ready to test your app and see some ads serving.