These release notes are archives provided for your convenience only and might not reflect current product functionality. For the latest releases, see AdMob Announcements.
Q4 2022
To help you better manage user access to your account, we’re introducing the option to create your own custom user roles.
What are user roles & permissions?
User roles determine the level of access another user has to an AdMob account. User roles have different account permissions. The permissions determine what users can see and do in an AdMob account.
Built-in user roles
Built-in user roles have predefined account permissions and are automatically available in an AdMob account. There are two built-in user roles you can assign in AdMob: Administrator and Manager.
Custom user roles
As the administrator, you can set up custom user roles with a set of permissions that fit your user needs. You can create your own custom user role by selecting the set of account permissions you’d like to apply to that role.
Account permissions
You can choose a set of predefined permissions to apply to each user. Learn more about account permissions.
What’s next?
Check out these changes in your AdMob account. To view the user page, click Settings in the sidebar of your AdMob account. Then, click the Users tab.
Learn more about AdMob user management:
We continue to experience significant payment disruption in Russia. In light of this, we are currently unable to make payments to our partners who use the Rapida e-wallet in Russia.
If you currently use the Rapida e-wallet to receive payouts from Google, we highly recommend you choose a different form of payment immediately to receive your payouts. Learn more about how to add a new form of payment.
FAQs
I receive payments from Google directly in my bank account. Am I affected by this change?
No, you should continue to receive payments as usual.
I use the Rapida e-wallet to receive payments in Russia and I have not received my payments since August 2022. What should I do?
Please add a new form of payment to receive payouts. Once we receive your updated information, we will reinitiate payouts to your new form of payment.
I use the Rapida e-wallet to receive payments but I am not based out of Russia. Am I affected by this change?
Only partners based in Russia are expected to be affected by this change. If you're not based in Russia and have not received your payouts for the month of August 2022, please visit the AdSense payment issues troubleshooter for assistance.
27 February 2023 update: Privacy Sandbox on Android has moved forward to their Beta testing phase. Google AdMob and Ad Manager product teams will evaluate the Beta privacy-preserving APIs and SDK Runtime. We will provide updates to our app developer and publisher partners when we have more information.
Today, technology platforms are adapting to meet consumers’ and regulators’ expectations for online privacy. That’s why Android joined the Privacy Sandbox initiative to develop privacy-preserving technologies that keep people’s information secure and help you deliver relevant ads experiences and gain actionable insights.
Since Android announced the development of its Privacy Sandbox in February 2022, the AdMob and Ad Manager product teams have reviewed Android’s initial proposals and developer previews for each Privacy Sandbox API. We plan to test publicly released APIs, and we’re evaluating ways to incorporate these technologies into our product innovations for advertisers and publishers. Throughout this process, AdMob and Ad Manager—alongside others in the industry—are sharing detailed feedback with Android so that the new technologies can help you monetize your in-app inventory effectively while enhancing privacy across your user base.
Like the rest of the ad tech community, our teams rely on public information to assess how the Privacy Sandbox APIs for Android intend to reduce reliance on tracking identifiers while enabling key monetization use cases. Similar to the public commitments for the Privacy Sandbox on the web that Google will not self-preference its own ads products or sites, we will continue working with regulators to ensure that we take an open and inclusive approach that works for the broader apps ecosystem.
Incorporating these new technologies into our ads products will still take time to get right. But as an app publisher, you can already start taking steps to be ready for what’s next. For example, if you’re using AdMob or Ad Manager, ensure that your app is updated with the latest version of the GMA SDK to take advantage of the newest features and functionality.
Stay tuned for updates as we explore new ways to help you effectively monetize your apps through more private ad experiences, including support for Privacy Sandbox on Android APIs and innovative first-party data infrastructure. If you’d like to learn more about the Privacy Sandbox, you can stay up to date with the Privacy Sandbox roadmap for the web and Android including the latest information on the proposal designs and timelines from the teams leading those initiatives.
To simplify and streamline reports in AdMob, we’re introducing ready-made reports.
Ready-made reports are preset with the most common metrics and dimensions for a report type. These reports help you view the most important information in one click, with no customization required.
What’s new?
The Mediation and AdMob Network reports are now available as ready-made reports. These reports are preset with the most relevant charts, dimensions, and metrics for analyzing your ads performance. You can use the reports as-is or customize them further.
Ready-made reports are part of the Ads Activity report. The Ads Activity report is a single, unified report with data from all of your ad sources. This includes the AdMob Network as well as third-party waterfall and bidding ad sources.
What’s changing?
With this launch, we’re also announcing the deprecation of the existing AdMob Network, Bidding, and Mediation reports. You can still view legacy Mediation, AdMob Network, and Bidding reports, but cannot update or save them. Any saved legacy reports will be migrated to the Ads Activity report in early 2023.
Reports available as ready-made
The following ready-made reports are available to use:
- Mediation: View ads performance across your mediated traffic. This includes bidding data as well as your waterfall mediation data.
- AdMob Network: View ads performance for the AdMob Network.
There are no changes to the Cohort report and the User Activity report.
We continue to experience significant payment disruption in Russia. In light of this, we foresee significant delays in making payments to our partners who use the Rapida e-wallet in Russia starting from the August 2022 payments cycle.
If you're affected by this change, we recommend you choose a different form of payment to receive your payouts. Learn more about how to add a new form of payment.
FAQs
I receive payments from Google directly in my bank account. Am I affected by this change?
No, you should continue to receive payments as usual.
I use the Rapida e-wallet to receive payments in Russia and I have not yet received my payments for August 2022. What should I do?
Please add a new form of payment to receive payouts. Once we receive your updated information, we will reinitiate payouts to your new form of payment.
I use the Rapida e-wallet to receive payments but I am not based out of Russia. Am I affected by this change?
Only partners based in Russia are expected to be affected by this change. If you're not based in Russia and have not received your payouts for the month of August 2022, please visit the AdSense payment issues troubleshooter for assistance.
Q3 2022
Check out the latest product news and be sure to subscribe to our newsletters to stay updated with new products, features, and insights to grow your apps.
Scale your mediation setup faster and easier
To better support the monetization needs of large app developers, we’ve enhanced the scalability of the AdMob platform to allow increased ad units, mediation groups and ad source instances with a faster loading experience. Learn more
Increased control of your AdMob account
We have enhanced the AdMob account management experience so you can now share access with other people to view, edit and manage any part of your AdMob account. Learn more
Better understand user activities with impression-level ad revenue
Get the revenue data for each ad impression to better calculate the lifetime value (LTV) of your users. You can also use it in your internal systems or other third-party tools to fully analyze user behaviors. Learn more
Tellmewow improves ROAS 31% with impression-level ad revenue
Casual game developer Tellmewow needed to better understand the return on ad spend (ROAS) across their 200+ user acquisition campaigns to scale the effort in a profitable way.
Using impression-level ad revenue, they were able to gain an accurate understanding of user LTV. Combined with campaign CPI data, the team achieved a 22% improvement in ROAS across all UA campaigns. Learn more
Available now: Google for Games 2022 Mobile Insights Report
Innovating with the latest insights is critical for finding global success. Learn more about what mobile players are thinking and doing in our insights report. View here
Google Play recently updated their Inappropriate Ads policy to include associated offers within an ad as part of the policy. The ads and their associated offers (for example, the ad is promoting the download of another app) shown within your app must be appropriate for the content rating of your app, even if the content by itself is otherwise compliant with Google Play’s policies.
AdMob provides various tools to help you have more control over the content of the ads shown to your users, including setting a maximum ad content rating. Learn how to use AdMob to set the content rating for your app, account, or each ad request.
We recently launched the AdMob newsletter. Our goal is to provide you with a valuable resource containing the latest product announcements and actionable insights to help you grow your app business.
If you missed the first newsletter, we've included a summary below.
Introducing the new Ads Activity report
Gain powerful insights with the new Ads Activity report on the AdMob platform, which combines key metrics across the AdMob Network, bidding and mediation to provide a centralized view of your ads performance.
Test custom event setup with ad inspectorAd inspector requires no coding so it’s fast and easy to use - just shake your hand to get valuable serving insights like third-party ad source testing and now custom event testing in real time. |
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Maximize ad revenue with new demand sourcesGet more value from your app inventory with the addition of new demand sources such as Pangle, now available in open beta. |
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Unlock new ad placement with app open ads
See how app open ads have helped app publishers like CrazyLabs to increase its ARPU by 5%.
New webinar to help you get the most out of AdMob bidding
Learn the latest features and best practices from AdMob bidding to help you earn more ad revenue and save time.
GungHo adopts AdMob for new hybrid strategy
GungHo, creator of the hit title “Puzzle and Dragons,” partnered with AdMob to transition to an IAP and IAA hybrid model and saw a major lift in total revenue, user engagement and retention rates.
We are introducing new user roles to help you manage user access to your account. You can now assign more specific user roles with different account permissions and limit the apps your users can access in your account.
What's new?
When you share your account with other people, you can now assign one of the following user roles:
- Administrator: This role can manage the entire account. Administrators can view and manage all apps and features in an account, cancel an account, add users, and more.
- Manager: This role can view and manage all apps and features in an account. However, they cannot manage administrator tasks like adding a user, canceling an account, and accepting new terms and conditions.
- Monetization manager: This role can view and manage all features related to inventory management and reporting. You can specify which apps this role has access to within an AdMob account.
- Ad operations manager: This role can view and manage all features related to inventory management. You can specify which apps this role has access to within an AdMob account.
- Viewer: This role can only view features related to inventory management and reporting. You can specify which apps this role has access to within an AdMob account.
The following table details the permissions associated with each level of access.
| Admin-istrator | Manager | Monetiz-ation manager | Ad operations manager | Viewer | |
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Inventory management:
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View only | ||||
| Reporting | View only | ||||
| Payments | |||||
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Account Management:
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Administrator Tasks:
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Access to specific apps:
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N/A Access to all apps. |
N/A Access to all apps. |
Get started
If you have administrator permissions, you can add a user to your account:
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Settings in the sidebar.
- Click the Users tab.
- Click Add user.
- Enter the email address of the user you’re inviting to have access to your account and select the user role you’d like to assign that user.
- Click Send invite. This sends an invitation to the email you entered. The user is added to your users page with the status of Pending invite.
- Click Done.
You can change the user’s role or remove the user from your account at any time. Note: The user must accept the invitation before you can change the user’s role.
Allow access to specific apps
Administrators can limit the number of apps a user can access in an AdMob account. You can specify which apps you’d like a user to access for the following user roles:
- Monetization manager
- Ad operations manager
- Viewer
Once the user has accepted your invitation, you can specify which apps they can access. The user can’t access any apps until you select and confirm the apps this user can access:
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Settings in the sidebar.
- Click the Users tab.
- In the App access column of the user, click
.
- Select the apps you’d like this user to access, or click the toggle next to Select all current and future apps to give the user access to all apps in your AdMob account.
- Click Confirm.
.Note: If you have mediation groups and campaigns that target ad units belonging to multiple apps, you’ll need to grant the user access to all the apps that share any mediation groups or campaigns.
For example, if you want app A to share a mediation group with app B, you must first grant the user access to both app A and app B.
If you don’t want a user to have access to other apps, consider splitting the mediation groups and campaigns to target one app only.
For example, if you want a user to only have access to app A, but app A shares a mediation group with app B, you can make a new mediation group to target only app A. You can also copy existing mediation groups.
AdSense access
If you also use the AdSense account that’s associated with this AdMob account, you’ll see the users you’ve added to your AdMob account listed in your AdSense user management page.
If you assign the Administrator or Manager role in AdMob, the same level of access to AdSense will be granted to the user you’re adding to AdMob. For example, if you add a user to your AdMob account as an administrator, they will also be an administrator in AdSense.
Also note that the manager role is the same as standard user access in AdSense. The following table details how the AdMob user roles correspond to the AdSense user roles.
| AdMob user role | Corresponding AdSense user role |
| Administrator | Administrator |
| Manager | Standard |
| Monetization manager | AdMob-only (This user can’t access your AdSense account) |
| Ad operations manager | AdMob-only (This user can’t access your AdSense account) |
| Viewer | AdMob-only (This user can’t access your AdSense account) |
Q2 2022
As previously announced, Google is expanding ad-serving protections for teens globally. The protections will apply on Google Accounts of people above the digital age of consent but under 18 years of age (“teens”), and are in addition to protections already rolled out across Europe and Australia. With the launch of this new teen ads policy, we will:
- Disable ads personalization
- Disallow sensitive creative categories from serving
Depersonalization will occur across all products, and creative ad filtering will be applied on Ad Manager, AdSense, and AdMob. We will begin enforcing the policy August 15, 2022.
Previous protections established in response to child-directed regulations, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), and the Australia Online Safety Act (AU OSA), will continue to apply where relevant.
Please review this policy to understand which ad categories may be restricted for teens. While you may notice an impact on performance, there is no action required on your part.
In December 2021, we launched the new Ads Activity report, which combines the functionality of the AdMob Network report, Mediation report, and Bidding report into a single, unified report. The Ads Activity report provides a centralized view of your ads performance and increases transparency around the ad sources that are included in the AdMob Network.
What's new?
Starting today, we’re launching the following changes to enhance the Ads Activity report. You can now:
- Track the impact of the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) impact on monetization using the new ATT consent status dimension.
- Analyze earnings and eCPM, including data from third-party waterfall ad sources, by app versions and serving restrictions.
- Group and breakdown AdMob Network ad sources through new Ad source and Ad source (full list) dimensions.
- Easily access filters through more discoverable, easy-to-use layout.
Get started
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Reports in the sidebar.
- Click Ads Activity report.
Over the last year, we introduced app readiness reviews to help improve mobile app inventory quality. Today, all new apps must be reviewed and approved before they're ready to serve ads.
Beginning in September 2022, if you have an existing app that isn't set up in AdMob and linked to a supported app store, you'll be required to confirm your app in AdMob to avoid or lift ad serving limits. Ad serving limits may impact your revenue.
Confirming your app means that you either finish setting up your app in AdMob or you block ads from serving to that app. You can view a list of all the apps that need to be confirmed in the Apps to confirm tab of your Apps list.
What's new?
We’re introducing a new page in your AdMob account to help you better manage your apps’ setup. The Apps to confirm page lets you review a list of mobile apps that are being monetized using your publisher ad code, but haven’t been added to your AdMob account.
You must confirm your apps by September 2022 in order for ad serving to continue to those apps. Once you’ve confirmed your app, you'll be able to:
- Avoid ad serving limits
- Stay informed about your app status
- See revenue, impressions, and more
What's next?
View the Apps to confirm page to check if you have apps that require action:
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Apps in the sidebar.
- Click View all apps.
- Click the Apps to confirm tab.
If you own and want to continue monetizing the apps that appear, click Finish setup. You’ll be able to create a new app or add the store ID or package name to an existing app in AdMob. All new apps must be reviewed and approved in AdMob in order for ads to serve.
If you don't own an app that appears, click Not my app. This stops ads showing in the app and marks the app as “blocked.” If you change your mind later, filter this list to show “Blocked apps” and then unblock the app. You’ll be prompted to finish setup and add it to the apps list.
Solution Coupons is a newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) and has been added to the list of Ad Technology Providers for the LGPD.
We’re introducing new data collection controls as part of ongoing efforts to help you better manage the data you share with Google and the bidding ad sources included as part of the AdMob Network. With the new data collection controls, you can choose how these bidding sources collect data from your apps.
We are currently rolling out support for the data collection feature. Over the next few weeks, your AdMob Network and Google (Google ads, Display & Video 360) sources will start using this setting. You can review and make changes to the setting now.
Other AdMob privacy tools (e.g. non-personalized ads) will continue to be available and function as before. Note that the default setting for data collection is Allowed.
Learn more about data collection controls and how to update your preferences.
We’re introducing a comprehensive way to manage linking to additional Google services in your AdMob account. The Linked services page allows you to turn on user metrics and link your apps to Firebase from a single page in your AdMob account.
To view your Linked services page:
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Settings in the sidebar.
- Click the Linked services tab.
Q1 2022
Note: This feature is currently in beta release for Android apps only. For iOS apps, this feature is in an alpha release to a limited group of publishers.
We’re introducing a new campaign goal called max cost per install (CPI). CPI campaigns help increase the effectiveness of cross-promoting your apps.
With CPI campaigns, you can now set a maximum amount you want to spend for app installs to help ensure that campaign ads are only served when it’s best for your user acquisition and monetization strategy.
CPI campaigns work together with your mediation setup and help you set better goals for your house ad campaigns.
How it works
First, you’ll input the max cost per install, which is the maximum amount you want to spend to acquire a new user for your app.
For each impression, AdMob calculates the estimated cost (i.e. the revenue missed out by serving a campaign ad). If the estimated cost is less than the max cost per install you set, a campaign ad is served. If the estimated cost is more than the max CPI you set, a campaign is not served.
Understanding estimated cost
Estimated cost is the estimated revenue you may miss out by serving a campaign ad instead of an ad that earns revenue. Campaign ads are ads that are from your house ad or direct sold campaigns, while paid ads are from mediation and bidding.
You can also interpret estimated cost as how much it costs to get conversions through campaign ads.
AdMob campaigns are always free, but serving a campaign ad means you aren’t serving an ad that would have earned revenue.
AdMob campaigns optimize your impressions to deliver the most conversions while keeping your estimated cost below your max cost per install.
Get started
To get started, create a new campaign and select max cost per install as your goal type. Once your campaign starts, you can monitor the performance in the Campaigns section of your account.
Conversion tracking
To accurately track your app installs, you must enable conversions in your associated Google Ads account.
To track Android app installs:
- Follow the instructions for tracking app conversions with Google Play.
- Select Don’t use a value when asked for the install value.
- Add this conversion for each of the apps you are promoting.
To track iOS app installs:
- You must integrate with Firebase or a third-party app attribution partner (AAP). In Firebase or your AAP, you must create an app conversion event and import it into Google Ads.
- If you’re using Firebase, follow the instructions for measuring app conversions from Google Analytics 4 properties. If you’re using a third-party AAP, follow the instructions for tracking app conversions with third-party app analytics
- Select Don’t use a value when asked for the install value.
- Add this conversion for each of the apps you are promoting.
We've redesigned the ad source page in the Mediation section of your AdMob account to increase transparency and provide more controls that help you manage demand from ad sources in AdMob.
What’s changing?
There are a few new changes you’ll notice with this redesign. To check out the new ad source page, sign into your AdMob account and click Mediation in the sidebar.
New ad source tabs
We’ve created 2 new tabs to separate bidding ad sources and waterfall ad sources.
Additionally, there is more information visible for each ad source directly on the page. For bidding ad sources, you’ll see the option to change the ad filtering settings. For waterfall ad sources, you’ll see the ad network credentials directly on the page.
Select the ad source you’d like to view from the sidebar of the ad source page.
More visible bidding ad sources
We’ve increased transparency around the bidding ad sources that were previously included as part of the AdMob Network. You’ll now see these bidding ad sources automatically added to your account. No additional setup required.
You can monitor the performance of these ad sources, as well as your other bidding and waterfall ad sources, in the Ads Activity report.
Ad filtering settings for bidding ad sources
You can now adjust the ad filtering settings for eligible bidding ad sources. This means that you can decide whether to apply the Google Ads network policy and your blocking controls to a specific bidding ad source.
Learn how to adjust the ad filtering settings for your bidding ad sources.
We’re introducing personalized optimization recommendations in your AdMob account to help you maximize your revenue.
If you haven’t turned on optimization for all of your eligible ad source instances, AdMob calculates the monthly estimated earnings you could make if you turned on optimization for those instances. These recommendations also include an option to turn on optimization for all of your eligible ad sources with a single click.
Note: Estimates are based on variables that may change.
What’s changing?
If you aren’t currently optimizing all of your ad source instances, you’ll see a recommendation to turn on optimization when you edit your mediation groups.
You’ll also see a new card in your home dashboard. The Earn more by optimizing your ad sources card includes additional details about the estimated increase in ad revenue.
This card includes:
- Your total estimated earnings: This is your current estimated earnings without optimization turned on for all eligible ad sources.
- Your total potential earnings: This is the estimated amount you could be earning if you turn on optimization for all eligible ad sources.
- Your missed earnings: The estimated amount that you are missing out on earning by not turning on optimization for all eligible ad sources.
It also shows estimated earnings increase by your top mediation groups. To take action after reviewing this card, click Get started. This takes you to the mediation group that includes the eligible ad source instances.
Then, click Turn on optimization. This turns on optimization for all eligible ad sources in this mediation group.
What is optimization?
Optimization helps maximize your revenue and saves you time. It helps ensure you’re getting a more accurate eCPM and eliminates the need for you to manually order your ad sources in the mediation waterfall.
Turning on optimization allows AdMob to adjust the eCPM of a waterfall ad source. This means that optimized ad sources are dynamically placed in the mediation waterfall based on historical data from the ad source and your app’s traffic.
AdMob detects trends and changes in the ad source, then updates the eCPM accordingly. Learn more about optimization.
What’s next?
If you haven’t turned on optimization for all of your eligible ad source instances, check your account for your personalized recommendation. Check if your mediation groups have eligible ad source instances by going to the Edit mediation group page.
By clicking Turn on optimization, you’ll turn on optimization automatically for all eligible ad sources in that mediation group.
Other FAQs
Expand all Collapse allOnce you have turned on optimization from the notification, you can’t undo it in a single click. However, you can turn off optimization for each ad source instance. Although you can turn off optimization for each ad source instance, we recommend that you don’t.
Your potential estimated earnings are calculated based on all eligible sources being on. If you turn off optimization for some ad source instances, you may not receive all of the potential estimated earnings.
To turn off optimization for an ad source instance:
- Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
- Click Mediation in the sidebar.
- Click the mediation group with the ad source instance you’d like to change.
- In the Waterfall ad sources section, click edit next to the eCPM of the ad source instance you’d like to change.
- Turn off the toggle next to eCPM optimization.
- Click Confirm.
We've added a new "General ad category" filter in the Ad review center. This new filter makes it easier for you to find ads from general categories and subcategories in the Ad review center. You might want to use the new filter if you're concerned about ads from a specific category appearing on your site. Learn more about how to find ads in the Ad review center.
The Google Mobile Ads (GMA) SDK version 21.0.0 (Android) or 9.0.0 (iOS) will be released in early 2022. In the update to these major versions, a number of existing APIs will be changed or deprecated. Minimum required Android and iOS versions will also be updated.
Please consider the following:
- Before these versions become available, please consider updating API usage in existing apps per the migration guides below.
- When GMA SDK version 21.0.0 (Android) or 9.0.0 (iOS) becomes available, please ensure all app(s) have been updated according to the migration guides below before releasing your app(s).
- Updating the GMA SDK version 21.0.0 (Android) or 9.0.0 (iOS) without also making changes to the following APIs per the migration guides will cause issues with apps building or compiling and may affect revenue.
- The breaking changes in GMA SDK to version 21.0.0 (Android) or 9.0.0 (iOS) will not break existing implementations that target older SDK versions.
For a full list of changes (including additional breaking changes), refer to the following migration guides: