In order to help mobile app publishers review ad issues (e.g., out-of-memory caused by graphic intense creatives, violations of Ad Manager policies, or AdMob policies and restrictions) in production apps, we have recently added an ad response ID to the ResponseInfo and GADResponseInfo objects in the Google Mobile Ads Android SDK (v. 19.0.0) and iOS SDK (v. 7.49.0). An ad response ID is a unique string for each ad response from the AdMob or Ad Manager server, regardless of ad formats. If the same ad is returned more than once, the ad response ID will differ each time.

You can look up an ad response ID in the Ad Review Center (AdMob, Ad Manager) to find and block the offending ad. You can also report problematic ads to Google using the ad response ID, especially when it is difficult to capture a mobile ad's click string.

The screenshot above shows an ad response ID in Android Studio logcat.

If you use Firebase, you can refer to the Firebase Crashlytics Android (AdMob, Ad Manager) or iOS (AdMob, Ad Manager) guide for logging the ad response ID. This technique can be useful for debugging production app crashes as you would have both the SDK symbols and the ad response ID data in the same log.

We hope this new feature makes it easier to troubleshoot ad issues.

If you would like to give us feedback on this feature, please post your comments and questions on our Google Mobile Ads SDK Technical Forum.

 - Thang Duong, Mobile Ads Developer Relation

With the Firebase 3.6.0 launch comes the release of version 7.11.0 of the Google Mobile Ads SDK, which has been optimized for the latest release of iOS. Any app that supports iOS 10 should be built against v7.11.0 or higher of the Mobile Ads SDK. AdMob publishers can grab the latest version of the SDK using the Firebase/AdMob CocoaPod or via the Firebase manual download. DFP publishers can get the latest version from the Google-Mobile-Ads-SDK CocoaPod or via the Mobile Ads SDK manual download.

What changed?

With the rollout of iOS 10, the App Store’s privacy policy requires apps to provide a usage description when attempting to access privacy-sensitive data, such as a user’s calendar or Bluetooth. You may have seen the following errors when attempting to upload your app to iTunes Connect:

"This app attempts to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's Info.plist must contain an NSCalendarsUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data."

"This app attempts to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's Info.plist must contain an NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data."

The latest version of the Mobile Ads SDK has been updated for iOS 10, and will no longer cause these errors to appear.

Information for MRAID creative designers

To comply with the App Store privacy changes, we removed support for the mraid.createCalendarEvent() and mraid.storePicture() methods. You will now see that the mraid.supports("calendar") and mraid.supports("storePicture") methods always return false. Per the MRAID v2 spec, MRAID creatives should check for support of these features before using them, and correctly handle the case where they’re unavailable.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact us through our forum.

 - Tristan Emrich, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

During the keynote at I/O 2016, we announced that Firebase has become a complete mobile platform that helps developers build high-quality apps, grow their user base, and earn more money. AdMob is part of how Firebase helps publishers earn revenue, and now that the dust has settled on I/O, you might have some questions about what the change means and how it affects people already monetizing with AdMob ads.

How does this affect my existing apps?

The short answer is: however you want it to. The apps you've already built are just fine the way they are, and they can keep monetizing with AdMob exactly as they do now, without changes. We've also made sure that when you do make the decision to integrate Firebase, the process is simple and straightforward. You can link your AdMob apps to Firebase projects right from the AdMob console. Firebase Analytics comes out of the box with the Firebase SDK, and you're free to choose the particular combination of Firebase services that fits your app.

Do I have to use Firebase with my new apps?

Nope. If you prefer to use AdMob by itself, that's just fine. You can import the Google Mobile Ads SDK the same way you do now, and continue to create ad units, campaigns, and reports at apps.admob.com.

My app is small! How big is the Firebase SDK?

We know SDK size is a big deal for mobile developers, and Firebase has been designed from the start to minimize its footprint. Publishers can pick and choose which services they're interested in, and only need the gradle libraries and frameworks they actually use. In our testing on Android, for example, importing the Mobile Ads SDK using the firebase-ads:9.0.0 gradle library instead of play-service-ads:9.0.0 increased the post-ProGuard size of our banner example's APK by about 100kB (though your results may vary).

Which Firebase service should I start with first?

All of the services are built to help mobile developers through the “develop, grow, and earn" lifecycle, so it depends which stage you’re at. Analytics, though, is something that every app can benefit from. Just by registering a Firebase project and importing the Firebase SDK into your app, you can start monetizing more intelligently with Firebase's free and unlimited analytics solution. Things like sessions, user demographics, revenue from in-app products, and a lot more will appear in the Firebase Analytics dashboard, with no extra code required.

Publishers can also add their own Analytics events and track them to improve their monetization strategy. For example, by adding events to monitor how users navigate between screens within an app, publishers can better understand the flow of action and find the best places to show interstitials without disrupting their users.

Are AdMob's developer resources going away?

No. The developer site has moved to a new domain, and we've added new content where appropriate, but everything you're used to is still there.

Our samples for iOS and Android now include the Firebase SDK when they build. We've also changed our quick-start guides for iOS and Android to help publishers get on board with Firebase, and the guys behind the Mobile Ads Garage are cooking up a new episode right now.

For more direct support, Firebase has a bunch of options, and as always, If you have technical questions about the Mobile Ads SDK, you're welcome to stop by our support forum.

 - Andrew Brogdon, Mobile Ads Developer Relations