Google announces ads updates for app developers at Google I/O

With the kickoff of the annual Google I/O developer conference today, Google announced updates for app developers buying and selling ads via AdWords and AdMob, respectively.

Google added that Android users downloaded 94 billion apps from Google Play last year. That’s up from 82 billion apps downloaded in 2016. There are more than 2 billion active Android devices, Google announced last year.

In a new beta, advertisers will be able to show more content within their app promotion ads in Google Play. As one example, a shopping or e-commerce app can connect their product catalog feeds to AdWords to show a carousel of product images and descriptions in their ads. Google says this test will be available in the coming months.

Additional content shows within a Google app promotion ad.

In March, Google introduced Google Play Instant for users to be able to try out a game app from an ad before downloading it. That format is now being tested in AdWords to make it available via Universal App Campaigns, which provide distribution to inventory across Search, Google Play, YouTube and the Google Display Network.

View-through conversion (VTC) reporting will be available for app advertisers in AdWords later this month. VTC reporting reflects when a user has been shown a viewable impression and also converted. VTC reporting uses the Media Rating Council (MRC) definitions of ad viewability. For display ad impressions to count as viewable, 50 percent of the ad’s pixels need to be in view for at least one second.

To help developers that sell ads on their apps report on viewability in a more streamlined manner, Google is integrating the IAB Tech Lab’s Open Measurement SDK with its own Google Mobile Ads and Interactive Media Ads SDKs. App developers using DoubleClick AdExchange and DoubleClick for Publishers can ask to join the beta as of this week.

A new rewarded ads report in Google’s mobile app publisher network, AdMob, shows estimated earnings, engaged users and daily activity metrics from rewarded ads, which users watch in exchange for in-app incentives like more lives or coins or access to content that would otherwise be behind a paywall.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Associate Editor, assisting with the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.