Weird behaviour in AdMob since last week (since website was unreachable)

[NSim]

Hello everyone, for a few days now I've been experiencing an anomaly on AdMob. Without me doing anything, meaning I didn't touch anything either on the AdMob Dashboard or update the app on the Google Play Store, I've noticed an almost zero view rate on my apps. This is a widespread issue, and other people I know have also experienced this problem. I've included a screenshot of a report from one of my apps here; to try and troubleshoot, I've looked ONLY at the interstitials, as the native banners seem to be either immune or very little affected. The two images refer to this week and last week. The data is aggregated by week, and the columns show that the number of requests(Richieste) and the match rate(Tasso di Corrispondenza) have remained the same, but the view rate (Tasso di Visualizzazione) has dropped almost to zero. Without any external intervention from me, this means that something has changed in Google's backend, but the revenues have more than halved. What could have happened? Thank you very much for the support.

[NSim]

After further investigation, I found out that the incriminated version is the last one, the 1.20 which mounts the sdk GMA 22.0.0, the other versions just mitigate the issue.

I confirm this behaviour is started by itself on 9/9, before that date the SAME EXACLY app with the same version of sdk GMA had normal stats.

Other 2 screenshots, the "normal one" is Sept 4th to Sept 10th. The second one, with a critic low "Tasso di Visualizzazione" (show rate) on sdk version GMA 22.0.0 is Sept 11th to Sept 16th.

No action on my side has been done since August 25th-ish. So admob just "stopped to count" impressions on latest GMA version. I live with Admob, i need to understand if its an issue on my side and how to solve it eventually, or if its a backend issue which will be solved by itself.

[NSim]

Lastly, I tested the app with few more devices and I can clearly see the interstitials, its just like AdMob doesn't count them anymore since Sept 9th. 

This screenshot is from Firebase, Banners are ok, interstistial are barely alive (which confirm i implemented them correctly, otherwise i would see strictly 0 on them) 

[NSim]

At the end I've noticed whats weird. App is showing ads without any issue, on AdMob Dashboard i can track it but after some time, if i go back on the dashboard, the data is different. I created a report so I couldnt be mistaken in reading the data. 

The number of impression is changing in time for past time frame. For example, I had 12 impression for timeframe 3:00-3:59pm and now it only shows 1. It has been happening for whole afternoon, I'm sure about it because I'm keeping track of it now with screenshots.

It's like i keep constantly getting reverted part of estimated revenue. This happens only on latest SDK GMA (22.0.0). This has never happened before Sept 9th.

[NSim]

I have been told from the support forum to ask here since it is very specific to a single SDK. 

The "reverting revenue" on the 22.0.0 is still going on, I dont know what to do, I need help.

Thank you.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

HI Nsim,

Thank you for reaching out to Mobile Ads SDK forum.

With regard to your concern, please do note that the SDK just request an ad to the ad server and does not have any control to the performance, fill rate or any stats on AdMob dashboard. Since you mentioned that there's a sudden change on your AdMob stats (as seen on the UI) without doing and changing anything in the SDK side, then we can safely assume that there's no issue on the SDK side. What I can recommend at this point is to reach out to product team (via this link: https://support.google.com/admob/community?hl=en) to get their insight regarding this as their team are more equipped in handling stats related concern.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2omIi2:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[NSim]

Hi, thank you so much for your reply, i really appreciate it.

I already asked tin support forum but they seem to not understand whats going on either and they said me to ask here:

About SDK try ask here: Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers

So now im very worried, isnt there a way to contact AdMob directly? People on forum may be expert but they doesnt seem to be able to help me. 

At this point everything crossed my mind, i even tried to release another update with 22.4.0 but i dont have data yet to understand if its working or not.

SInce 21.3.0 is still working, my last chance will be releasing another update rolling back the version of SDK from 20.0.0 to 21.3.0. I dont know whats different between those tho except for .getVersion() or .getStore() but as long as it works, it will be fine i think.

Is there anything else i can do?

Thank you so much.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

As this matter is as important to us as it is to you, we deeply understand the inconvenience this situation has caused. As much as we want to provide you further assistance on this, the SDK does not have any control to the performance, fill rate or any stats on AdMob dashboard. What we can recommend is to try to reach out to product team (via this link: https://support.google.com/admob/community?hl=en) to get their insight regarding this as their team are more equipped in handling stats related concern. In addition to that, we always recommend to use the latest SDK version to avoid any errors in the implementation.

[NSim]

Can this be caused by a bad implementation of UHDContentCallback? So ads is shown but it is not registered correctly?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

As mentioned previously, the SDK just request an ad to the ad server, and since you're able to load ads in your app, then it means that your implementation is correct. However, you may also further check our documentation guide (https://developers.google.com/admob/flutter/quick-start) and check our sample app (https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-flutter/tree/main/packages/google_mobile_ads/example) for reference in your implementation.

[NSim]

I tried to ask in Community Forum but my account has been disabled and i have no idea why. I was a mirror of this conversation with me providing all information i could. I feel so mortified right now..

I need to keep posting here since I have no other place where to go.

Ads is perfecly showing, both test and production. I see a deduction in real time with my revenue and looking at the forum and here, many people has the same issue.

I tried with pushing an update of the app and the ad started displaying again on Sept 17th (no changes were made in the code). Now the issue came back, my interstitial keeps deducting impressions and revenue in real time since yesterday.

Account is clear (or at least its what Policy Center says)

Other apps are not affected.

Other ad formats of this app are not affected.

ONLY interstitial format of this app is affected.

I can provide App ID and Ad ID if needed for a further investigation.

I will try to appeal to my account disabling in community forum since I've always been respectful and i hurts me really bad being banned for the first time ever, in a situation where I'm desperate and trying to solve an issue impacting my lifestyle..

Thank you. 

Best Regards