Android Question Are WebView-based apps having issues with AdMob?

[Waldemar Lima]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been seeing a lot of mixed reports about using AdMob in apps that are mostly WebView (basically a website wrapped inside an app), and I’d like to understand the current situation.

Common issues people mention:

• Ads not showing even with correct integration
• App or account flagged as “Valuable Inventory / Framed Content”
• Ad serving limited without a clear policy violation
• Rejection due to “low value” or “low quality” content

At the same time, Google still provides official documentation for AdMob + WebView, which makes things confusing.

My questions:

• Is there an unofficial or practical restriction against WebView-based apps?
• Does the issue only happen when the app adds little or no native value beyond the website?
• Has anyone recently managed to monetize a WebView app successfully?
• Is there any example of an app currently live that uses WebView with AdMob?

Any real-world experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[FrostCodes]

Hi, all my apps use webview with Admob and they are monetized fine.
I think you need to answer a different set of questions.

1) Does your app load a remote website (not the best if your core app depends on this)
a) If it does do you handle the error states, like loading failed or the site is down?
b) Do you prove that you own the content, like adding your app link boldly on your website
c) Can you cache the content for offline access ? If yes, please do, and update in the background if possible, when there is a network connection

2) Are your core app features or content available offline (without the need for a network) ? This is better
3) Does your app have enough content because you need to maintain a good content-to-ad ratio? You need solid content in your app, you can make it more full by adding images/video/audio to it, and not text-to-speech only like some apps do.


You can check out my apps and see how they work (especially Examina):

All my apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Punchline+Technologies

 

[asales]

In addition to the FrostCodes tips, I had a problem with WebView in AdMob.
I placed a privacy policy HTML file in the application that contains a link to my website's main page.
On the main page, there is a link to another page with YouTube videos.
On that page, if you click on the video, YouTube opens and displays an ad.
Google's robots followed all that path to find a problem, and because of that, I received a policy violation in AdMob.

I think AdMob's policy is more restrictive for web applications than for native applications.
Maybe is better to mix native functions with webview and check that the webview don't show ads in the pages with the ads in the app screen.

 

[FrostCodes]

In addition to the FrostCodes tips, I had a problem with WebView in AdMob.
I placed a privacy policy HTML file in the application that contains a link to my website's main page.
On the main page, there is a link to another page with YouTube videos.
On that page, if you click on the video, YouTube opens and displays an ad.
Google's robots followed all that path to find a problem, and because of that, I received a policy violation in AdMob.

I think AdMob's policy is more restrictive for web applications than for native applications.
Maybe is better to mix native functions with webview and check that the webview don't show ads in the pages with the ads in the app screen.

The youtube video is not the issue because my app also links to YouTube. A quick question, do you use Chrome custom tabs to handle youtube video clicks? If not, you should. You can intercept the link and open Chrome custom tabs this way when links not relevant to your app is clicked, it opens in a separate browser window on top your app so Admob ads is not showing below the youtube video with an ad also, Google hates this.

Once again you can check my app to see how I implemented this flow fully if you want.