I've developed a Windows Store App which is ad supported. After struggling quite a bit with the actual implementation and testing locally, I (think I) managed to make it work - using the test ids provided by Microsoft my local tests showed the example ad.
After I uploaded the app to the store, however, I get the NoAdsAvailable message (I did use the correct ApplicationId and AdUnitId, not the test ones), indicating that there are no ads of the specified category available at my geographic location (it is my understanding that this is how Microsoft differentiates which ads should be shown where).
Now what I would like to know is which of the different ad rotator solutions is recommended to be used - or is this too dependent on where I live?
I've found the following three alternatives:
AdRotator
AdDuplex
AdMob
Does anyone have any experience in using them? What are the differences? Just using the pubCenter ads from Microsoft doesn't seem to be the best option as various posts I've found indicate.
What you've discovered is that ad providers won't always have an ad available to show every time you want one. This is called the "fill rate". Depending on the ad provider, the app category and where in the world the person viewing it is, this can vary dramatically. Somewhere between 10 and 40% can be seen as normal.
Your intention to use a tool to include support for multiple ad providers is a common approach to this scenario.
There are 2 tools that you can consider: AdRotator; and AdMediator (video)
AdRotator is a mature, community provided service which supports a wider range of ad providers.
AdMediator is newer and provided by Microsoft. It is integrated with the Windows Dev Center but is only available in limited locations.
Both allow you to set a number of ad providers to use on a fall-back basis. If the first doesn't have an ad it tries the next, and so on.
AdDuplex is different to PubCenter, AdMob or the other advertising providers in that it is a cross promotion service. You show ads for other apps and they show ads for yours. For every 10 ads you show, 8 ads are shown for your app. The other two spaces are sold to fund the service.
Due to the way it works, AdDuplex always has an ad for you to show, so even if you can't show an ad that will earn you money, you can show an ad that will lead to an ad for your own app being shown. Hopefully this will lead to more users for your app which will in turn lead to more money earned from ads shown in the future.
Whichever ad providers you use, it makes sense to always include AdDuplex as a final option with either AdRotator or AdMediator so that, as long as you have a network connection, you are always making use of the space in your app that you've allocated for ad space.
Disclaimer - I'm an advocate for AdDuplex.
Related
Can AD Data Connector API calls impact other currently executing APIs?
The existing projects will remain in 360 and only new projects will utilize ACC.
Here is our potential scenario:
ACC will be using the DC API approach
360 API pipeline continues in tandem with ACC API based on amount of work to transition dashboard/reports
Does anyone have any experience or information?
Will this cause resource issues like throttling, data locking, etc. OR are they actually two different data capture streams and will Not impact each other?
Searched on AD but didn't see any specific information.
Would it make a difference, when using Chrome and multiple local user accounts, to limit ad tracking being that cookies do not pass to other local sessions?
It would help, but your browser still has a "fingerprint" which can help identify who you are.
Check out this site to see some of the information you reveal to the internet:
http://centralops.net/asp/co/browsermirror.vbs.asp
Since it also reveals the IP address your coming from, pretty easy to figure out that you're the same person on different sites.
Something like uBlock or Ghostery can help provide some privacy.
We have a media buy with Pandora. For mobile users,(once clicked on banner), they are directed to our site inside of the pandora app. There app does not accept GA cookies. Does anyone have any work arounds for tracking 3rd party in-app visitors? We are currently using UTM urls for inbound clicks, so we see initial "land", but nothing more than that.
We are considering creating a duplicate of our site and dedicate it to pandora visitors. This will give us aggregate numbers, but not sessions.
Thanks,
Udi
Mobile applications such as Pandora, Facebook, Twitter etc do not pass referrer information.
There are many articles around this if you search on Google, such as: http://searchengineland.com/rip-referrer-data-how-mobile-apps-can-kill-your-mobile-metrics-79982
All visitors from mobile applications will appear in the 'Direct' section of GA.
As you mention, the use of unique UTM click url will at the very least allow you to see where the user has come from.
Be aware of the discrepancies you will see between click 'redirects' from an accredited ad server such as DFP and GA 'visits' two very different methodologies.
Today I noticed that in the Chrome web store dashboard, under my extension's settings there is a check-box labeled "Ads Behavior", and whose description is "This extension injects ads into some third-party websites.".
My questions are:
Can an ad-supported extension inject advertisements in a page visited by the user?
If so, what is an acceptable policy?
Can the extension replace existing advertisements (even though that seems to me kind of unethical/stealing) or must it only create new ones?
Is it possible to use any ads network or must it be adsense?
Thanks
Is it possible to use any ads network or must it be adsense?
Actually it can't be AdSense. It's specifically mentionned in their program policies:
Currently, we don't permit Google ads or AdSense for search boxes to be distributed through software applications, including but not limited to, toolbars, browser extensions and desktop applications.
I wonder if any ad provider allows such a thing.
Can an ad-supported extension inject advertisements in a page visited by the user?
The fact the checkbox exists suggests it's acceptable as long as you declare it, so users are aware of it.
If so, what is an acceptable policy?
I would argue anything that makes it clear to users what you're doing and follows the terms of the ad network.
Can the extension replace existing advertisements (even though that seems to me kind of unethical/stealing) or must it only create new ones?
Agree it's unethical, most content and apps out there cost money and it deprives publishers. But as with a lot of extensions, it's seen by the browser as the user's choice. That's basically how the web works - users have control over the client. The most popular extensions for browsers are ad blockers, so I doubt the Chrome team would ban an extension that swapped ads. Please do consider the website owners though. Adding ads is at least better than replacing them.
Is it possible to use any ads network or must it be adsense?
Any, I'm fairly sure. Google wants Chrome to be seen as generally independent from its services. You'll even see Google's various competitors promoted in the Chrome Web Store at times for that reason.
*However*, there's a big caveat here. It's very possible this kind of ad injection is forbidden by the ad network in question. It's certainly the case with many affiliate links, that you can't just inject your own, or swap in your own, link. The argument is the user was already going to click on it anyway. So if you're injecting ads, the biggest constraint is going to be your ad provider, not Chrome.
I too had concerns about this, specifically a Chrome app extension called Bookmark Sentry as while it does do a great job of managing your bookmarks, it also injects itself and intercepts advertisements replacing it with it's own affiliate network.
Specifically in viewing the source code it appeared to contain a 'whitelist' and 'blacklist' of sites to intercept advertising while navigating. The user is given the choice to opt-out of advertising in settings but it is poorly explained as 'marketing' with no explanation as to what it is doing.
I raised concerns to Google Chrome through flagging of abuse. Through a contact I was informed however that:
"Ad injections are not in violation of the Chrome Web Store program policies. The policy requires that ads must be presented in the context of the extension or, when present within another page, ads must be outside the page's normal flow and clearly state which extension they are bundled with. We believe that ads are a legitimate way to monetize, but that they should be a known cost to the extension user."
So in this particular case at least, Google viewed it as acceptable, curiously both Kaspersky Labs and Microsoft Security Essentials reported this immediately to me as malware and removed the Extension.
So, going from the discussion here where I was soundly rebuked and for good reason. I want to give clients unique code snip-its that allow me to change a banner ad without requiring them to FTP anything or change their site. Security is clearly a concern. The ad is code, not an image, as we are testing multiple ad networks. So, to summarize:
-client gets a couple lines of code for each place on their site an ad is placed
-I insert code from ad network (adsense, etc) or our own ad for the location without the client needing to lift a finger
-no security breaches or impact on client site
What would be the best approach to this problem? Minimizing developer time and maximizing security...
One of my clients uses Adjuggler to do exactly what you are talking about. The ads are administered by the agency that sells their ads, they just put a little snippet of Javascript on the site and the ads load dynamically based on the settings and campaigns that the agency sets up.
http://www.adjuggler.com/
The best and quickest solution would be to install an existing advertisement framework that will allow you or your client to add, remove and edit ads through a web interface. There are also a number of CMS suites (drupal, CMSMS, Tiki, etc) that either support ad management natively or have ad modules available. Either solution would require no code be written and allow powerful advertising options.