Implementing ads in Android / Mobfox - Part 3

Ok, we've come to the next installment in our series about installing a MobFox / Admob combination on our free application. While I'm not positive MobFox is the best choice, since it focuses on Europe and I'm more North America / Asia, it backfills Ad Mob, so it's kind of a flexible strategy, and easy to implement. I'm kind of curious as to what the other backfill networks offered by MobFox are.

Ah, just as I suspected. inMobi is the other one. And they are bigger in Asia, as a company based in India. I know AdMob is supposed to pay peanuts. inMobi is getting big in Indonesia, for example, per this link:

http://www.inmobi.com/company-news/2011/03/24/mobile-advertising-surging-rapidly-in-asia-pacific-region/

With more than 1 billion advertising requests in January, Indonesia is the second largest market in the Asia-Pacific region with a share of 26 percent after India with a 44 percent share and before Vietnam with an 8 percent share and Japan with a 6 percent share

But these aren't really my target countries. Well, to an extent they are - my top downloaded countries for the free level 1 app are the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

For Level 2, it's South Korea, Taiwan, U.S., Japan and Hong Kong. For Level 3, it's South Korea, U.S., Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.

Those are the largest downloaders, since the JLPT 1 and 2 are the only ones which really mean something in Japan - the rest are more motivational, like a target to shoot for, than something you would use to justify employment for example as is the case with levels 1 and 2.

So, what's up with Indonesia and Vietnam? Where are Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong? Why does Japan only have 6%?

With plenty of room in the Indonesian market, InMobi targets a higher number of partners from Indonesia, Atija said.

So, it sure looks like there's not much going on in mobile ads in my most likely customer's countries. inMobi is just starting to up their presence in Indonesia. No matter how you slice it, advertising is not a sweet spot for eastern Asia.

Still, let's go with the one that has the Pacific orientation. They have better tech support, and Ad Mob does't pay much. They're big enough that they probably pay something at the end of the day.

Ok, I'm registering with inMobi now. I know by now to go (after registering) straight to "My Sites/App". Nicely, they ask for package name for Android, so you know you won't get your apps crossed up.

Let's pick up again at the Android Quickstart guide *http://www.projectjourneyman.com/free-android-income-quickstart-guide) which we've been following (

◦ After you receive the confirmation email, you can go back into the

“Sites & Apps” section and click “Edit eCPMcontrol”

◦ Click the “Only serve CPC ads that pay a minimum...” option and enter

a low value, such as 0.020. This is lower than their recommendation,

but it will give you better information to tweak the settings later. Once

you find out what ads are paying for your app on Admob, you can

adjust these numbers.

Ok. The guide says:

What have we done? We've told MobFox to only serve ads that have

a minimum pay-per-click value. If it can't find any ads that meet that

criteria, it sends the ad traffic to Admob, just as if you sent it there in

the first place. I find that my click-through rate is actually better than

if I just sent it to Admob in the first place. It's a win-win situation.

Then, the guide goes on to discuss how to insert MobFox into your app, which we've already done. It also talks about testing and how to deploy the app.

Then, it pick ups at the MobFox part again:

Enable Ad serving

Before deploying, email MobFox support and tell them that your app is about to

go live (give a time frame, such as within a few hours). While they technically

state to email them “once you are ready to show live advertisements”, I give

them this notice a few hours in advance to hopefully shorten the time that the

app is out before it is serving ads. They state that they will approve within 24

hours, but they have usually responded much more quickly for me.

Even if you forget this step until after you have released your app, it just means

that users of your app won't see ads until MobFox turns on live ads.

Here it is on the MobFox site:

Note: We do not automatically review submitted applications. Please e-mail us at support@mobfox.com once you are ready to show live advertisements. We will then approve your application / mobile website within 24 hours.

So, let's put together this email. Ok - I sent them the email. I should note that my status with inMobi is still pending as well.

While waiting for these status changes, we can go ahead and put some changes in to accomodate the differences in handling MobFox between the free and full versions.