New Ad Policy on Google Play

[bill1979]

Folks.... discussion on new ad policy...

My understanding is that notification ads are now not allowed on Google Play.

And that content unlockers MUST have a close button.

And shortcut/icon ads and browser changes needs consent from the users before installing them in.

Time for a change of monetisation strategy?

Link: http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

[Llama]

3. Ad Walls
Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app provides a poor user experience and is prohibited. Users must be able to dismiss the ad without penalty.

It's quite vague. What do "fully use" and "without penalty" mean? So if you have levels or features to unlock via TapJoy or Leadbolt unlocker, and the user chooses not to unlock those features, does that mean he can't "fully use" an app? I hope not!

[bill1979]

It looks like that is what it is. I too hope it is not, as Google does not support many countries for selling paid apps or in-app-purchase, and the developers in these countries rely on ads as revenue source.

[mind]

Well, I know several people (myself included) who spoke out about dropping icons/etc and notifications .... and called them SPAM.

Guess we now know which side of the fence Google weighed in on

[bill1979]

Well... if developers mention about the notification and icon/browser ads in their description, and yet users download them and complain... I call that stupidity on the user's side.

On the other hand, sneaking those ads in is definitely spam.

[fiveHellions]

The problem is that a lot of developers that use those types of ads don't go out of the way to inform the user. I would say that even putting it in the app description is not enough to notify most users. I don't think users read every word of the description before downloading. Is that stupidity on their part? Maybe, but that is the way it is.

So It ends up hurting android as a platform. It comes across as a virus to users. I applaud Google for taking a stand against it to give a better overall experience.

There may be a handful of apps that don't have another good way to monetize besides being a paid app and the developer notifies the users correctly and the users accept the ads. But those cases are a minority and I think this change will do more good than it will harm developers.

[mapiko]

Google Play Developer Program Policy (“Content Policy”) Update
As of July 31, 2012, the new Google Play Developer Program Policy (“Content Policy”) will be in effect for all new applications submitted to the service. Any pre-existing applications must achieve compliance or be voluntarily unpublished by the developer within 30 days of the issuance of this notification.

[Max]

Seriously - did anyone NOT see this coming sooner or later? It was hurting Google ecosystem and it had to go.

[XdebugX]

Folks.... discussion on new ad policy...

My understanding is that notification ads are now not allowed on Google Play.

And that content unlockers MUST have a close button.

And shortcut/icon ads and browser changes needs consent from the users before installing them in.

Time for a change of monetisation strategy?

Link: http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

The way I read it notifications are allowed as long as you get the users consent first and they don't look like they are SYSTEM notifications.

Edit - Actually for notifications you don't need consent because it doesn't change the users device. You only need to make sure they can tell which app the ad has come from and you can't simulate a system notification.

[falo]

I've never seen a good implementation of notification ads that a) I was warned about sufficiently by the app and b) made it clear where they were coming from. Ergo spam.

To be honest, most of those cases sound spammy to me and intrude too much into the device. Ads for monetisation should be used as a way to get revenue while the user users the application, not just because it happens to be installed.

Note that with Jelly Bean you can now long press on notifications to find the app info and choose to suppress notifications.