[Android] AdMob + IMA

[Igor]

Hi.

  I assume AdMob SDK still doesn't support Android TV which is an issue for us. Quite a months ago your team suggested switching to IMA SDK which we did finally, however, all instructions about using AdMob as ad provider for IMA SDK disappeared.

  Do you guys know what's going on and how to use AdMob as ad provide for IMS SDK for our game? Providing a contact person could be an awesome option either.

  Thanks in advance for your time and efforts.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for reaching back to us about this. While some people have asked about this, it currently is not something that is supported. Especially because of the fact that the IMA SDK does handle this. It does not seem like something that is in the foreseeable future as it would require a complete new SDK to be built.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Igor]

Hey, William.

  I'm a totally confused. Not quite sure what do you mean by "IMA SDK does handle this" and what exactly not supported.

  Just to make sure we are on the same page: at the moment we need an ad source to feed into IMA SDK. When we've started IMA SDK integration there was an article how to use AdMob account to provide ads for IMA SDK. However, we didn't manage to find it anymore. Documentation was updated and the link to the article disappeared. Do you possibly know how to do it or do you have a contact who could help with this?

  Please, let me know I what I write is a complete nonsense.

  P.S. please, note that IMA SDK guys are surprised by the fact we can't use AdMob SDK for Android TV and don't know that you suggest using it. LOL.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for the response. The way we would suggest for us to be able to serve ads to your Android TV app would be to use the IMA SDK. As this is best built for Android TV. AdMob does not have any way to serve ads to you. While you are able to create an app and have it appear on the TV it is not going to be supported by the AdMob SDK, which can cause problems. The best way to handle ads for you would be to use the IMA SDK instead. We also have no documents on dealing with Android TV and have no reference for a person or team that is able to advise on this.

[Igor]

Hi William.

  What I'm saying, we want to use IMA SDK on android TV. As far as I understood this is exactly what you suggest. We already have IMA SDK integrated and we have test ads playing. Not quite sure if IMA SDK can stream ads from your servers. This is what we need further assistance with.

  I'm not a native speaker and it is possible I'm missing something though. Sorry.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for responding to us. Here is a link to the IMA SDK that deals exactly with the Android TV. This should help to get you going. If you need any other assistance feel free to inquire.

Regards,

William Pescherine IMA SDK Team

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[Igor]

Ok. I'll try it the different way:

  is it possible to play Ads from AdMob server using IMA SDK?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for the response. The SDK's work on 2 different backends, so ads for one are not mixable with being served on the other. 

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Igor]

Thanks for bearing with be.

  Fair enough. So you don't have IMA fronted on your servcers.

  Ad Manager is told to be a proper backend for IMA SDK. IMA SDK documents used to have a notice that it is possible to connect AdMob account to Ad Manager and use AdMob ads via Ad Manager (if I understood everything correctly). However, the link to the instructions how to do this disappeared from IMA SDK documentation.

  Any chance you've heard anything about this? Or is it possible I've misread something?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for the responses. So the quick answer is yes, you can use Ad Manager for both Admob and IMA to set up your ad serving. But the actual system that will send the ads to you are different, they send you ads in different ways and they send you different types of ads. And this is why you are unable to get Admob ads in IMA, so for example you can not get banner ads in IMA.

[Igor]

Thanks a lot for your reply.

  It seems that I know what is the source of misunderstanding for me: too many different instances are called similarly. So let me check if I understand you correctly:

  This is not possible for AdMob server to be a source of the ad videos for AdManager server so that we use IMA sdk to show those videos using IMA protocol (AdMob server -> AdManager server -> IMA protocol -> IMA SDK). (We don't need banners, just video ads).

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

Thank you for the response. Yes, that is more accurate of a description. We have had many ask about serving admob to IMA but the way that ads are served is literally different, with the IMA you will be using the VAST/VMAP and things like that with all videos, a few static images in companion ads. Where as AdMob is the opposite with how the ads are called, and the type of ads being called. So even if you wanted to call an ad from AdMob to the IMA SDK, we literally have no way to do this. AdManager is more like the umbrella for both systems.

[Igor]

Thanks a lot.

  It took me some time to let go the idea to get all the ads from the same source. I understand that nowadays the ads are more than just the videos.

  Its a pity you can't support TV for some reason and since 20.0 rewarded ads no longer just work on the TV.

  Thanks guys for your time.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Igor,

I raised your request for GMA support for Android TV with my team, you may monitor our blog for an update.

Regards,

Aryeh Baker Mobile Ads SDK Team

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