Re: IAB_BANNER vs. BANNER fill rate

[Eric Leichtenschlag]

Hey stereomatch,

I don't know what the numbers are for CPC, CTR, and fill rate for the two formats.  My guess is that we have more inventory for BANNER, but I don't know what the fill rate difference is.  It also can vary by country.

Keep in mind that the IAB_BANNER format is against the AdMob T&C on phones.  The lines get blurry with some of these devices - I'd recommend only using IAB_BANNER on what Android considers to be a "Large" screen size.

Generally, the best monetization advice is to use the format that best fits your application.  You could use size-specific layout XML files for this as previously mentioned.  You can then use Mediation to improve fill rates if you choose to go with a higher sized ad.  Another option to consider using the SMART_BANNER option, which will provide you with a full-width ad whose height depends on size of device (determined by the SDK).  However, keep in mind that only AdMob supports the SMART_BANNER format right now on Android (iAd works with SMART_BANNER on iOS).

Cheers,
Eric

On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 11:22 PM, stereomatch <stere...@yahoo.com> wrote:

My upcoming app works in landscape mode - the BANNER ad seemed a bit small, and the IAB_BANNER seemed visually to be better suited for the app - at least on these devices:

HTC Desire (android 2.3.3)
Samsung Galaxy Note (android 4.0.3)

Using these banner sizes:
https://developers.google.com/mobile-ads-sdk/docs/admob/intermediate
BANNER (320x50)
IAB_BANNER (468x60)

Which I was specifying via XML:
ads:adSize="BANNER"
or
ads:adSize="IAB_BANNER"


Both worked at least on the above two devices.

The question now is if there is a problem with use of IAB_BANNER ?

- will IAB_BANNER ad not appear on some of the smaller android phones ?  Or is it scaled to fit ?
- does IAB_BANNER have lower inventory (thus lower fill rate) than BANNER - I didn't see a problem there but one would expect so (and problem maybe worse by country ?)
- if so, is that compensated by a higher CPC (advertisers willling to pay slightly higher CPC because the CTR click thru rate is higher on larger ads ?)

If the CPC improves AND the CTR improves for an ad format it maybe be multiplicatively beneficial to the app developer.

I also noted the type of ads were slightly different on the IAB_BANNER (more technical - industrial product ads etc. - maybe they target tablet users more or higher resolution smartphone users ?) vs. BANNER (more consumer/shopper demographic).

So is it preferable to use IAB_BANNER if the user's phone/tablet has the space to display it (CPC and CTR higher on the IAB_BANNER ?).

One way to handle lack of IAB_BANNER on small devices maybe to use size-specific layout XML files.


I am just assuming the click-through rate is higher on larger ads - since there can be some variation from the expected results.

This post for example points out that roughly created banner ads seem to generate higher click-through (the ostensible reason being that users maybe jaded by slick ads and respond to crudely created or simple ones - perhaps it is something learned from real-life internet use - the less glossy the ad there is more info there vs. some slick campaign ?).

I suspect that while admob maybe able to fill IAB_BANNER ads (i.e. have adequate inventory) if people start using other ad networks that the inventory on the already low-inventory (but higher paying) ad networks may go down further if you choose IAB_BANNER.

So maybe this is the reason to continue to stick with BANNER ?

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