One of my apps got disabled on Admob a few days ago.
The app is one of my least cared about, minimal development time apps. Its just a flashlight app that offers extra colours with some basic UI.
Admob quoted this in their e-mail:
In order to ensure a high quality user experience and appropriately targeted ads, AdMob ads may only be placed on original, information-rich apps that are easy for users to navigate.
Ads should not be the main focus of an app and/or be more prominent than the content itself. This may include pages that a user visits before potentially exiting an app (i.e., “exit pages” or “dead end" screens), and some log-in pages.
Apps should be well organized and users should be able to easily click through your pages and find the information they are seeking.
Now obviously my heart sunk when I got this e-mail, as I’ve used Admob for nearly 3 years without issues and I’ve even spoken over the phone with them a few times.
O.K the app isn’t original, and frankly 80% of apps on Google Play are not original, but why the hell should that matter? If you haven’t stolen assets or breached copyrights then it is fair game. Note we are talking about Admob and not Google Play (yes Google owns both, but they aren’t the same entity). Why should it matter to Admob ads if they are being used in similar apps?
Also, the app has 1 banner ad at the bottom, away from the UI and is not the focus of the app at all. How they justify this measure I do not know.
In any case, I wasn’t making much from the banner ad and I still have my Admob account.
Just thought I’d let you all know of my experience.
If you have common apps that don’t bring much to the table you might consider archiving the ad units for those apps and finding another solution.
should have seen this coming man, just like adsense, getting tighter and tighter. I will try my best to stay away from google monetization solution from now on (wallet, adsense, admob, etc) as soon as google be part of your finance institution (google bank) or something like that, that will be scary time.
OMG ! Now Google has successfully ‘merged’ admob with adsense ! I was thinking the same. So thing is when android was less famous, less apps, they opened the gate. Now store is full of apps, android is in good position, they’ll do this thing.
“Ads should also not be placed in an application screen when users do not have their focus on the screen. For instance, in the case of “Flashlight” apps, ads should not be on the screen while the flashlight is in use. In applications of this type, where the phone is used as a tool, the user’s focus will be off-screen and accidental clicks are very likely. However, an application of this type could still have an ad on menu screens, as these screens will have normal user interaction.”
I believe the problem is Admob does not allowed to be displayed in flashlight app.