Google beefs up mobile app insights with new AdMob API

Google’s AdMob is upgrading its reporting and analytics for mobile publishers and developers. The company is rolling out a new API, which will provide publishers with more accurate insights into user behavior, ad performance and revenue.

New dashboard views. In the AdMob dashboard, users will be able to see metrics such as estimated earnings in a more granular way: by app, ad unit, format and country. Graphs are also more interactive and allow for two-metric data comparisons such as impressions and RPM (revenue per thousand) in individual charts.

The initial App Overview dashboard will now offer more detailed insights, such as active users, ad exposures per session, session duration, ARPU and retention.

Revenue reporting will also include in-app purchases and subscriptions. In app purchase revenue is only available, for the time being, for iOS devices but is coming soon to Android. AdMob is also presenting earnings data from programmatic inventory and data on engagement with Rewarded Ads.

Rewarded Ad units provide “rewards” for engaging with different content (i.e.., video ads, playable ads surveys). However they can only be served after the users explicitly indicates interest in seeing or interacting with a Rewarded Ad unit.

Gaining access to these new AdMob analytics capabilities requires updating to the new SDK (Android SDK 18.1.0 or later, iOS SDK 7.44 or later) and then logging in to enabling the new reporting.

Why we should care. Developers and publishers that use AdMob should upgrade. More complete reporting should provide greater insight into users and smarter decision-making around monetization. In theory that should translate into more revenue for publishers.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He previously held leadership roles at LSA, The Kelsey Group and TechTV. Follow him Twitter or find him on LinkedIn.