What is Google AdMob?

If you've built a mobile app, Google AdMob is the platform that can turn your creation into a source of revenue. It’s one of the most popular and straightforward ways for developers and publishers to monetize their mobile applications. This article breaks down exactly what AdMob is, how it works, the different ad formats available, and practical steps to start earning.

What Exactly Is Google AdMob, and How Does It Work?

Google AdMob is a mobile advertising platform that lets you generate revenue by displaying ads within your app. Think of it as Google AdSense, but specifically designed for mobile applications. It acts as a middleman, connecting app developers who want to sell ad space (publishers) with advertisers who want to promote their products and services to a mobile audience.

The entire process is automated and works through a real-time auction, ensuring you get the highest possible price for your ad space. Here’s a simple breakdown of the process:

1. You Integrate the SDK: You start by integrating the Google Mobile Ads Software Development Kit (SDK) into your Android or iOS app. This small piece of code is what allows your app to "talk" to the AdMob network.
2. Your App Requests an Ad: When a user opens your app and reaches a point where an ad is supposed to show, the SDK sends a request to AdMob. This request includes information like the ad size and format you’ve specified (e.g., a banner at the bottom of the screen).
3. AdMob Finds the Highest Bidder: AdMob runs an auction among a vast network of advertisers competing for that ad space. It also works with third-party ad networks through a process called mediation to further increase competition and fill rates.
4. The Winning Ad is Displayed: The ad from the highest bidder is instantly sent back to your app through the SDK and displayed to the user.
5. You Get Paid: You earn money based on different metrics, commonly a cost-per-click (CPC) basis when a user taps the ad, or a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis just for showing the ads.

In short, AdMob handles all the complex background work - finding advertisers, running auctions, and serving ads - so you can focus on building a great app experience while generating income from your user base.

Key Ad Formats in Google AdMob

One of AdMob's biggest strengths is its variety of ad formats, each suited for different app layouts and user experiences. Choosing the right combination of formats is essential for balancing revenue generation with user satisfaction. Here are the most popular ones:

Banner Ads

Banner ads are the oldest and most common form of mobile ads. They are rectangular ads that typically appear at the top or bottom of the screen, staying in view while the user interacts with the app content. Modern banners, known as adaptive banners, automatically adjust their size to fit different devices and screen orientations.

• Best For: Apps with a consistent screen layout where a small, persistent ad doesn't interfere with the main functionality. Think utility apps, news readers, or simple games.
• Tip: Place them where they won’t be accidentally clicked and won't cover interactive elements. A common mistake is placing a banner right above a primary navigation button.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitials are full-screen ads that cover the entire interface of an app. Because they take over the whole screen, they have higher engagement and click-through rates. The key is to display them at natural transition points in the user journey.

• Best For: Apps with clear start and stop points, like games (between levels), photo editing apps (after an image is saved), or utility apps (after a task is completed).
• Tip: Never surprise the user with an interstitial. A great user experience means the user expects a pause, for instance, after a level in a game. Make it a natural part of the flow before they continue. Overusing them will quickly lead to user frustration and uninstalls.

Rewarded Ads (or Rewarded Video Ads)

Rewarded ads are full-screen video ads that users voluntarily choose to watch in exchange for an in-app reward. This format is a win-win: users get something valuable (like extra lives, in-game currency, or access to a premium feature for a day), and you earn significant revenue from high-value video ads.

• Best For: Mobile games are the most obvious fit, but they can be used creatively in any app where you can offer a tangible digital reward. A productivity app could offer a premium template in exchange for watching an ad.
• Tip: Clearly communicate what the user will receive before they opt-in to watch the video. This transparency builds user trust and increases engagement with the ad format.

Native Ads

Native ads are designed to seamlessly blend in with your app's design and content. Instead of looking like a distinct, separate ad unit, they are formatted to match the appearance and function of the media in which they appear. An ad in an article feed that looks and reads like another article headline is a classic example.

• Best For: Content-heavy apps like news aggregators, social feeds, product listing pages, or blogs.
• Tip: Customization is everything. Use AdMob's tools to style the fonts, colors, and layout of native ads to match your app's UI perfectly. When done right, they feel less disruptive and provide a much better user experience.

App Open Ads

This is a relatively newer interstitial-like format designed to be shown when a user opens or switches back to your app. It appears on the loading or splash screen, monetizing the initial entry point without disrupting the user once they are already engaged with the app's content.

• Best For: Any app with a frequent user base. It helps capture revenue upfront.
• Tip: App Open ads are designed with a timeout to prevent them from showing too frequently. Always allow for a clear 'skip' path, making sure they do not turn the start-up sequence into an inconvenience for the user who wants to access the app fast.

Google AdMob vs. Google AdSense: What's the Difference?

It's a common point of confusion, as both are Google-owned ad platforms for publishers. The main difference lies in the medium they are built for.

Google AdSense is for websites. You copy a small piece of HTML/JavaScript code and paste it onto your website. AdSense then serves ads that are relevant to your website's content or the user's browsing history to your website visitors.

Google AdMob is exclusively for mobile apps. It requires developers to integrate its Software Development Kit (SDK) into the app's code for iOS or Android. AdMob provides specialized app-centric ad formats like rewarded video and app open ads that don't exist in a website context.

Here's a quick comparison:

While you create and manage your AdMob account separately, it links to your Google AdSense account for payment processing. Think of AdMob as the app-specialized branch that wires your earnings through the main AdSense payment system.

Getting Started with AdMob: A Step-by-Step Guide

Setting up your AdMob account is straightforward, although the actual ad implementation requires some development work.

1. Sign Up for a Google AdMob Account: Navigate to the AdMob website and sign up using your Google account. During this process, you will also create or link an existing Google AdSense and Google Ads account. This trifecta is needed for billing, payments, and promoting your own apps if you choose to.
2. Add Your App to AdMob: In the AdMob dashboard, go to "Apps" and click "Add Your First App." You’ll specify the platform (iOS or Android) and follow the prompts to link an app already listed on an app store or register an app you haven’t published yet.
3. Create Ad Units: An ad unit is essentially a designated space within your app where you want to show ads. For each placement (e.g., the banner at the bottom of the home screen), you'll create an ad unit. Navigate to your app, select "Ad Units," and click "Add Ad Unit." You'll choose an ad format (Banner, Interstitial, etc.) and give it a descriptive name (e.g., “LevelEndInterstitial”). AdMob will provide you with a unique ID for each ad unit.
4. Integrate the Google Mobile Ads SDK: This is the most technical step. Your developer (or you, if you’re the coder) will need to add the Google Mobile Ads SDK to your app's codebase. Detailed, step-by-step documentation for both Android and iOS is available on Google's developer site. This involves fetching ads using your ad unit IDs and programming when and how they should be displayed.
5. Review, Publish, and Monitor: Thoroughly test your ad implementation to ensure it complies with all AdMob policies and doesn’t negatively impact the user experience. Once you publish your app (or update it), you can start monitoring your performance directly in the AdMob reporting dashboard.

How to Maximize Your AdMob Revenue

"Flipping the switch" is only the beginning. Optimizing your strategy is what turns a trickle of revenue into a steady stream.

1. Understand Key Metrics

Get familiar with your AdMob reporting dashboard and watch these numbers:

• eCPM (effective Cost Per Mille): This represents the estimated revenue you make for every 1000 ad impressions served. Tracking eCPM helps you understand the value of your ad inventory.
• Fill Rate: The percentage of ad requests that result in an ad actually being shown. A low fill rate might mean there's not enough advertiser demand for your inventory or there might be an issue during configuration of the ads.
• Impressions: The total number of times an ad has been displayed to a user.

2. Use AdMob Mediation

Don't just rely on Google's own ad network. AdMob Mediation allows you to add multiple third-party ad networks to the bidding process. This creates more competition for your ad space, which drives up bids and increases your eCPM and fill rate. Essentially, you make different ad networks fight over your inventory, and you always get paid by the highest bidder.

3. A/B Test Your Ad Placements and Frequency

Don’t guess what works best - test it. Use tools like Firebase Remote Config to A/B test different aspects of your monetization strategy. You could test:

• Showing an interstitial ad after every three levels vs. every five levels.
• Placing a native ad every 10 posts vs. every 20 posts in a feed.
• The color or style of a native advertisement's container.

Let data guide your decisions on how to optimize revenue without hurting user retention.

4. Focus on User Experience Above All

It sounds counterintuitive, but the best way to make more money from ads is to make your users forget they are there. An aggressive, intrusive ad strategy will cause users to leave negative reviews, churn, and ultimately kill your potential revenue. Focus on creating a valuable app that people want to use regularly. A large, engaged user base is the foundation for any successful monetization strategy.

Final Thoughts

Google AdMob is an incredibly powerful platform that lets app publishers of all sizes earn real revenue from their work. By understanding the different ad formats, implementing them thoughtfully, and continually optimizing based on performance data, you can build a sustainable income stream that supports your app's growth.

Pulling together your AdMob revenue data with your marketing performance metrics from other platforms - like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or your CRM - can be a huge manual struggle. To understand your true return on ad spend (ROAS), you have to connect acquisition costs with monetization LTV. This is where we built Graphed to help. You can connect all your marketing and sales data sources in one place and use natural language to create real-time dashboards, letting you see the full picture without ever opening a spreadsheet.