B4A Library Leadbolt Ads

Also for those using content lockers... I believe point 3 is against such thing too, unless you provide a close button:

Quote:

3. Ad Walls
Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app provides a poor user experience and is prohibited. Users must be able to dismiss the ad without penalty.

Im not sure how to read the

"Ads must not simulate or impersonate system notifications or warnings."


Is it saying that an ad cannot be any sort of notification or it can not pretend to be a system notification ie "Your battery is running low" or "Your phone is running slow" type ads.


Because if it's no notification at all, then Leadbolt will have an uphill battle. The notification ads were what made the money. Take them away and I may as way stick with Admob or find another banner network.

This also will effect the devs wanting to make apps if there is no money in advertising on Android. Sure some will go for the pennies Admob offers, but who would put out an AA (much less AAA) title for Admob income? Apps will be more paid than free.

Exactly what I'd like to know too...

I've sent an email to my account manager, she is awaiting the tech guys to respond on this.

If only Leadbolt would be more active here too, it would be real nice.

straybullet said:

Im not sure how to read the

"Ads must not simulate or impersonate system notifications or warnings."


Is it saying that an ad cannot be any sort of notification or it can not pretend to be a system notification ie "Your battery is running low" or "Your phone is running slow" type ads.


Because if it's no notification at all, then Leadbolt will have an uphill battle. The notification ads were what made the money. Take them away and I may as way stick with Admob or find another banner network.

This also will effect the devs wanting to make apps if there is no money in advertising on Android. Sure some will go for the pennies Admob offers, but who would put out an AA (much less AAA) title for Admob income? Apps will be more paid than free.

Click to expand...

If you're interested in testing out an innovative display network, you should consider checking out AppLovin .

Feel free to reach out to me directly at rafael@applovin.com I'd be able to give you a more in-depth run down on the opportunity.

Best,

Rafael Vivas
rafael@applovin.com

Banners, Revenue and other questions

Hey,

I'm not yet using Basic4Android as my codebase, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading this forum and SSG's blog, and finding very valuable info and a very active developer community. I hope in spite of me not using the B4A codebase, I'll still be welcome here, as a developer of a large number of apps.

I finally decided to register and post, as opposed to just reading, as I'm hoping for some help or suggestions or information regarding the way things are going, and perhaps for greater communication with other members.

Here is my situation:

I publish apps which use webviews to display a mobile site, on which the users access their content (personalization). I run html banners on the site, so they are NOT called from within the app code itself, instead, they are just coded into the mobile site's index page.

I started by using Adsense, but got banned, and can only assume the ban came from their policy of "Adsense ads may not be displayed within mobile applications, even if displayed via a webview".

There followed a period of trying to find out what should be used in my scenario, since I am both a "mobile site" publisher and an "app publisher". At this stage, AdMob stated that in-app banners should use Admob, but mobile websites should use Adsense. And Adsense stated that mobile sites displaying Adsense cannot be displayed in-app. I asked some people from Google, and no-one really seemed to know which I should use so I abandoned Google altogether.

I then moved to Leadbolt, using their non-SDK html ad banners for my sites, and using their SDK notifications. Over the last couple of months, though, revenue has dropped significantly (it dropped immediately by 80% when changing from Adsense to Leadbolt, and the 20% left has since dropped by another 50% in July).

For banners on the site, I have been rotating Leadbolt's, Buzzcity's and Smaato's, all of which provide HTML code I can just rotate on my sites.
Buzzcity happily supplied banners over the last couple of months until today (when first payment became due), when they suspended my account. No reason was given, but BEWARE - looks like Buzzcity likes to just accrue until you are due to be paid, then suspend, and keep your income
Smaato seems to be good, but, being NET 60, I have not yet been due a payment, so, who knows?

Reading this forum has led me to now apply for AppLovin, and I also hold an account at AdMob, but I'm no longer sure whether I should be recoding apps (have over 500, so it's major work) to include in-app banners, or stick to my current system of only using banner codes within the site. I'm also unsure of whether AppLovin provides straightforward banner codes.

Today, I received the PLAY developer notice regarding their changes to ad policies. Now I'm concerned about the notifications and considering disabling them.

Another option I'm toying with is this:

Within the app, which is a WebView of the site, display one day's worth of content at a time. If user's want more, they have two options:
a) Use the app again tomorrow, and see tomorrow's content, or
b) Click on a link, and see ALL the content right now.
If "b" is chosen, the link will take them out of the app, and into their browser. The code on site detects whether they are in the app or the browser, and either displays a day's content, or ALL the content.

So, here are my hundred and one questions, ANY answers, suggestions or advice regarding any of them will be very gratefully received:

1. This "moving people out the app and onto the website, using a browser" option, does anyone know if I could then display Adsense, having previously detected that these are browser visitors to the site (i.e. I'm no longer displaying Adsense "within" a mobile app, nor within a WebView)?

2. Leadbolt notifications - does anyone know how I could code things so that my users have the option to "opt-out" of the Notification ads, and/or how I can let users know that notifications belong to MY app, as required by the new PLAY policies?

3. General Banner placements - I'd LOVE to hear user's opinions on whether it would be better for me to just use in-app banners, and code them into my apps, or to stick to the website banners, which are WAY easier to handle and modify.

4. If I were to finally choose in-app banners, can anyone suggest some code which would choose from a rotating list, preferably hosted on a web-accessible server? My ultimate aim is to change one file (external to the apps) if I change banner ad supplier/s, as opposed to having to recode every single app I have published on PLAY.

Any help with any of the above, and/or suggestions regarding Networks, ways to comply with G's new policies, ways to increase revenue whilst preserving a reasonably fair user experience, etc will be most welcome.

Anything anyone feels I could help with, just ask, I'll be happy to answer whatever I can.

Thanks in advance

Leadbolt responded that their notification ads is fully in compliance with the new ad terms. I have not received any notification ads for ages from leadbolt.

So could someone please let us know on whether leadbolt's notification ads show which app it was created in? This is one of the new requirements in the ad policy.

androidappdevnow said:

So, here are my hundred and one questions, ANY answers, suggestions or advice regarding any of them will be very gratefully received:

1. This "moving people out the app and onto the website, using a browser" option, does anyone know if I could then display Adsense, having previously detected that these are browser visitors to the site (i.e. I'm no longer displaying Adsense "within" a mobile app, nor within a WebView)?

2. Leadbolt notifications - does anyone know how I could code things so that my users have the option to "opt-out" of the Notification ads, and/or how I can let users know that notifications belong to MY app, as required by the new PLAY policies?

3. General Banner placements - I'd LOVE to hear user's opinions on whether it would be better for me to just use in-app banners, and code them into my apps, or to stick to the website banners, which are WAY easier to handle and modify.

4. If I were to finally choose in-app banners, can anyone suggest some code which would choose from a rotating list, preferably hosted on a web-accessible server? My ultimate aim is to change one file (external to the apps) if I change banner ad supplier/s, as opposed to having to recode every single app I have published on PLAY.

Click to expand...

Woah, dude(or dudette)... with over 500 apps, it would really be tough to make the changes in app. I am not familiar with adsense, but here are my opinions:

1 - Looks like a good idea. Adsense can be used on mobile websites right? Also, I believe the browsers in the android devices do use webviews (I could be wrong).

2 - Leadbolt needs to work this one out. An alternative is asking users on first app launch if they would like to receive notification ads.

3 - I'd probably look at integrating the ads on the web side instead of the app's side as 500++ apps is really huge.

4 - No idea on this. Sorry.

The above are just my opinions And welcome to the community!

Hi SSG

Notification ads does NOT show, which app they come from and some of them still looks like system messages, like the battery status...

By the way, the Battery campaign, was a hoax. the app, that was installed here in Denmark, tried to send very expensive service sms once per week. The company behind the battery app is currently being investigated by the danish police.

Kind regards
Jakob

Thanks Jakob.

That's what worries me. My AM says it is fine, all notification ads are in compliance with the ad policy, when in fact their notification ads are NOT in compliance.

And ads like that battery campaign, how are we to control those ad types? How much trust can we put into ad networks that they put out ads that are allowed types only?

Note that in Android 4.1 you can see which app put the notification, and you can block this app from putting anymore notifications.

I just received an answer from Leadbolt. They told me they are working on an "advanced SDK" and will release it next week. They will also send out a recommendations document and a check list.

About the notifications they basically told me their ads do not mimic system messages and that "All Leadbolt notification ads have an opt-out."

I think it is good to hear that they are taking steps at their end.

@AppLovin I didn't know you guys are also from the bay area, now I might have to consider your banner ads haha

Leadbolt's ads are less "naughty" compared to airpush, so lesser risk there.

I wonder if their new SDK will also show the name of the app that created the ad like what Airpush does. This is really needed as a compliance rule for the new terms.

Yeah that was my answer to that mail (show the name of the app)

And let the user decide whether to install the icon or not.

SemiKolon said:

I just received an answer from Leadbolt. They told me they are working on an "advanced SDK" and will release it next week. They will also send out a recommendations document and a check list.

About the notifications they basically told me their ads do not mimic system messages and that "All Leadbolt notification ads have an opt-out."

I think it is good to hear that they are taking steps at their end.

@AppLovin I didn't know you guys are also from the bay area, now I might have to consider your banner ads haha

Click to expand...

@SemiKolon -

Great to meet you! Yeah, we're based out of Palo Alto but also have a small office in San Francisco as well. If you're ever around the area, feel free to always shoot me an e-mail directly and we can grab lunch!

I'd recommend testing our social ads but don't listen to me look at everyone else's results . On a serious note, i'd recommend testing several ad sdk's and see which one works best for your applications.

Best,

Rafael Vivas
rafael@applovin.com

Ok
I recive email from Leadbolt about their changes from Google Play Developer Program Policies.
What if ????

I have some apps on Android Market but I have also apps which are not on Google market and I don't give a fu*k about their policies

Do we need to make changes if we don't want to?

Changes are only required for Google Play.

In fact most of the changes are done on Leadbolt side, hardly anything to do on our side... good move from Leadbolt on this.

can i use only one leadbolt add on every app?

ringmyr said:

can i use only one leadbolt add on every app?

Click to expand...

I believe you are not allowed to do so, as Leadbolt needs to approve every app registered for ads.

Hmm, looks like Leadbolt has forgotten about this forum, and not providing any support here...

For what it's worth, I am finally seeing an improvement, though a slight one, in the revenues generated. Hope it gets back to where it was.

Cheers!

ringmyr said:

can i use only one leadbolt add on every app?

Click to expand...

We strongly discourage using the same ad generated for a particular app for all of your apps.

ssg said:

Hmm, looks like Leadbolt has forgotten about this forum, and not providing any support here...

Click to expand...

I'm here

How about putting more games under the same app in the way, that each has its own ad-link?

e.g.
App=MaxPuzzle
ad1=MaxPuzzle Cheerleaders
ad2=MaxPuzzle Hot Cars
ad3=MaxPuzzle cute.....

name clearly stated for each ad.

Would that be ok?

Kind regards
Jakob