How to Add Ads to Your App

Want to know how to add ads to your app? Since this is one of the leading ways to generate revenue from apps, it needs to be explored.

In this article

1. Guide to Add Ads to your Apps
2. Frequently Asked Questions on How to Add Ads to Apps

According to Statista, the global in-app advertising market is expected to reach $569.90 billion by 2030 (up from $352.20 billion in 2024), demonstarting an annual growth rate of 8.36% over this period.

Let’s explore how to integrate ads into your mobile apps.

Guide to Add Ads to your Apps

Google AdMob: A common way to add mobile advertising to your mobile app

How do you integrate ads into your mobile app? Let’s explore a popular way to do this, which is Google AdMob.

AdMob, which stands for “Advertising on mobile”, is a company originally founded in 2006. The company is based in Mountain View, California, USA, and Google acquired it in 2009. It is one of the largest mobile ad networks.

With the AdMob ad network, you can integrate ads into your mobile apps relatively easily. Apart from incorporating in-app ads, you get actionable insights. You can also access powerful tools to use AdMob with your mobile apps, and these tools are easy to use.

At the time of writing this, the AdMob website claims that 81% of the top 1,000 Android apps use it. The company claims that more than 1 million apps use AdMob, and over 1 million Google advertisers are on AdMob.

Why should you as an app developer explore AdMob? It offers SDKs for both Android and iOS, which makes it considerably easy for you to integrate ads.

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How you can integrate ads into your Android app using AdMob

How can you use AdMob to integrate ads into your Android app? We will now explore this.

You can do this in two different ways, and the difference is whether you are using Google Firebase, i.e., the “Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service” (MBaaS) from Google. If you aren’t using Firebase, then you need to do the following:

• Create a Google AdMob account and register your app.
• Import the Mobile Ads Android SDK.
• Update your AndroidManifest.xml file with the AdMob “App ID” for your app.
• Initialize the Mobile Ads SDK.
• Selec ad formats, e.g., interstitial ads, banner ads, native ads, etc.

Read the Google AdMobs Mobile Ads SDK (Android) “Get started” guide for more details.

If you are using Google Firebase for your Android app development, then you need to do the following:

• Sign-up for a Google AdMob account, and register your app.
• Connect your app to a Google Firebase project, which includes configuring it for Firebase. This requires you to add Google’s Maven repository and download the Firebase SDK for Android.

The subsequent steps are similar to the option without Firebase, which includes the following:

• Importing the Android Mobile Ads SDK;
• Updating the AndroidManifest.xml file with the AdMob “App ID”;
• Initializing the SDK and choosing an appropriate ad format.

Read the Google Firebase AdMob Android guide named “Get started in Android Studio” for more information.

Integrating ads into your iOS app using AdMob

Are you offering an iOS app too? You would likely integrate ads into that too, and AdMob can help. Once again, there are two options. You can use Google Firebase to host the mobile backend, alternatively, you can use another MBaaS platform like AWS Amplify.

If you are using Google Firebase, then you need to take the following steps:

• Install the Firebase SDK.
• If you don’t have an AdMob account already, then create one.
• You need to register your app with Firebase.
• Link the app to a Firebase project.
• Import the Mobile Ads iOS SDK.
• Update your “Info.plist” file adding your AdMob “App ID”.
• Initialize “Mobile Ads”.
• Choose an ad format that works for you from options like banner, native, etc.

Read the Firebase AdMob iOS “Get started” guide for more insights.

Are you using an MBaaS platform other than Firebase? You can still use the AdMob iOS SDK with Xcode 10 or higher, and you need to target iOS 8.0 or higher. Create an AdMob account if you don’t have one and register your app.

The remaining steps are similar to the option with Firebase, i.e., you need to install the AdMob iOS SDK, update your “Info.plist” file, and initialize the AdMob iOS SDK. Choose the ad format you want, and you are ready!

Read the AdMob iOS SDK “Get started” guide for more information.

Integrate ads into your website

You might want to integrate ads into your website, but, how do you do this? Well, you can use Google AdSense, which is a program run by Google. Website owners can use it to serve text, image, video, or interactive media ads.

Google administers, sorts, and maintains the ads. The company uses powerful analytics to serve ads that are relevant to the audience of your website, moreover, Google ensures that only high-quality ads are served.

You as a website owner can block ads that you don’t want, customize where ads will appear, and choose the kind of ads you want to display on your website.

With AdSense, you are connected to relevant advertisers. You get paid using standard methods, e.g.: CPC (cost per click), CPM (cost per thousand impressions), etc. Integrating AdSense is easy, and you need to take the following steps:

• Ensure that your website complies with the AdSense standards.
• Apply to AdSense.
• Configure your ads.
• Copy-paste the AdSense code onto your site.
• Update your privacy policy, and verify your address.

Read “How to add AdSense to your website” for more insights.

Offering excellent user experience even while integrating ads into your app

Now that you know how to integrate ads into your app, I want to remind you about the need to offer a great user experience. Many users don’t receive ads well, therefore, you need to offer an excellent user experience so that they continue to use your app. How do you do this?

If you are integrating ads into your website, then ensure that you design a great user interface (UI). Do the following:

• Design the UI in a way that mirrors the real world.
• Provide control and freedom to users.
• Maintain consistency in your UI design and follow applicable standards.
• Enable users to recognize task-related relevant information instead of making them recollect it.
• Provide flexibility and efficiency to users.
• Minimize clutter, and design an aesthetically pleasing UI.
• Minimize errors and deliver error messages that are easy to understand.
• Display help and documentation prominently.

Read “User interface design guidelines: 10 rules of thumb” for more insights.

Integrating ads into your mobile app? You need to follow the appropriate best practices for UI design, e.g.:

• Design your UI by following platform-specific guidelines. You need to follow the “Material Design” guidelines when you design the UI of an Android app, whereas, you need to consult the “Human Interface Guidelines” while designing an iOS app UI.
• Choose an appropriate mobile navigation menu pattern that suits your app. Our guide “Mobile navigation menu examples” can help you.
• Select an appropriate color scheme for your mobile app UI. You can consult “What are the Top Trends in Mobile App Color Schemes?” for more insights.
• Design icons that help your users to access the features of your app easily. We have a useful guide for this, which you can access in “How to Design the Perfect Mobile App Icon?”.

Planning to integrate ads into your app?

As you can see, integrating ads into your app while delivering excellent user experience can be hard.

I recommend that you work with a reputed and trusted development partner, and read our guide “How to find the best software development company?” to find such a partner.

DevTeam.Space has an expert software developer community experienced in developing mobile applications delivering excellent user experience using the latest cutting-edge technologies.

You can partner with these mobile app developers by filling out this quick form. One of our account managers will contact you to assist with the further process of onboarding software developers, project planning, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Add Ads to Apps