[URGENT] "Direct sold" ads will never get delivered (except as test ads)

[Siwalu]

Re-posting our issue, which has originally been posted in the Android category, to ensure that it will get noticed accordingly, because it applies to iOS as well:

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Hi,

As the title states, our problem is that none of our direct-sold ads are ever served by AdMob.

We've enabled direct-sold campaigns in every possible configuration of parameters (e.g. with/without targeting, different goals, text ads vs. images etc.). None of these campaigns ever get a single impression. Even though the prediction included in the AdMob console states that our goals will get reached.

In general, the AdMob integration is working fine for any other kind of ads and we're using it for about three years now. It used to work for direct-sold campaigns, too, but it stopped working (don't know when exactly). The issue affects only the direct-sold ad campaigns, but not the ones regularly served by Google. 

It occurs on Android as well as on iOS. Both platforms using the latest mobile ads SDK. So it seems to be a server-side issue. (I selected the Android category for. this post, because I had to select one.)

Somehow, those direct-sold ads are served when requesting test ads on a test device, but never in production.

We've googled a lot already and found that some people used to have such issues when having a missing or incomplete payment configuration. However, our payment information are all set. As said before, our AdMob integration is working since a few years and we're regularly receiving payments from AdMob.

We've also submitted several support requests to various support hotlines of Google AdMob/Ads/Adsense/. Looks like none of them can/wants to help us actually though. We're always getting a "I'll redirect this and someone else will contact you" answer, but usually no one ever gets back to us in the first place. Sometimes people call us back, but claim that they can't see any information about our case or about us having called before and thus we're just telling them the same issue again and again until we once again get an "I'll redirect this and someone else will contact you" answer and so on..

We're more than frustrated about this, as we actually have to pay back money to our customers, because we simply can't deliver any of their ads. So this is really urgent to us.

Looking forward to receiving your answer soon. Any help is appreciated very much.

Best regards

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PS: As invalid payment data was the only potential solution we could find, we've experimented with our payment information by closing the old payment profile and replacing it with a new one(, which we have been using already successfully for other Google products). That change may have messed up the current situation even further: As of now, we can't select the primary payment method in the AdMob console. We googled that issue, too and found that this isn't possible before reaching earning of at least 10$. Unfortunately, our payment section does constantly state that our earnings are 0$ now, even though all other metrics describe our actual income. We've waited a week for this issue as well, but it didn't change. Don't know whether this may be related to the same error cause or not. Either way, the actual issue concerning the direct-sold campaigns has existed before this change, too. So for anyone having a look at our current data: our new payment profile is not the (only) error cause of the current situation.

PPS: Sorry for the duplicate, we really need to get this fixed..

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Siwalu,

Unfortunately, this forum can only support integrating the Mobile Ads SDK into apps and you are experiencing a server side issue. The AdMob Forum is the correct forum for server side issues. Test ads on a test device run and you are getting ads from your other sources. That proves that the SDK is set up correctly. From the little I know of server side set up, did you try raising the expected eCpm of your campaign or setting your campaign as 100% of your impressions? Did you put restrictions on what or who you are serving? I can only suggest and not support.

Kind regards,
Aryeh Baker
Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Siwalu,

I see that you posted on another thread and I already answered you there.

Kind regards,
Aryeh Baker
Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Siwalu]

Hi Aryeh,

Thanks for your quick response as well as your suggestions. Yes, we've tested all of your proposed configuration  changes  as well as any other option we can do on our own. Even setting the target to 100% of the impressions doesn't do anything.

Unfortunately, the link you've posted doesn't point to any place where we could discuss this issue with AdMob employees, but only with other AdMob users, right? While we appreciate your intent, this will probably not help us as the server side issue can most likely only get solved by AdMob itself. As described  before, we already tried all possibilites to contact the support by phone and mail. No one is helping or even answering. Is there  any way you can contact your colleagues directly? There's obviously some technical issue, but it looks like we got no chance to reach the technical team being in charge of this..

Best,
Siwalu

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Siwalu,

I work along with Aryeh. I'm sorry to hear that you're having troubles in contacting our Product Support Team. I understand that there is an urgency in your concern. However, since they more equipped and the appropriate team who can help on you around as this is more of an ad serving issue, I'm afraid that we can only offer you the link to the AdMob Help Center at this point, as we don't have any other point of contact to them as well.

Regards,
Teejay Pimentel