Integrate nend with mediation

This guide shows you how to use the Google Mobile Ads SDK to load and display ads from nend using mediation, covering waterfall integrations. It covers how to add nend to an ad unit's mediation configuration, and how to integrate the nend SDK and adapter into an Android app.

The dashboard interface for nend uses Japanese text for its labels, buttons, and descriptions, and the screenshots displayed below have not been translated. In this guide, labels and buttons are referred to by their English equivalents. "URL スキーム," for example, is "URL Scheme," and so on.

Supported integrations and ad formats

The AdMob mediation adapter for nend has the following capabilities:

Integration
Bidding
Waterfall
Formats
Banner
Interstitial
Rewarded
Native

Requirements

  • Android API level 21 or higher

Step 1: Set up configurations in nend UI

Sign up or sign in to your nend account.

To add your application to the nend dashboard, first click the Placement Management tab, and then select Site/App. Click the Add an app button to add your app to nend.

Create an application

Enter the name of your app and choose your app platform as the application type. Enter the URL and check if your app is listed on the appropriate app store

(see nend's unreleased apps FAQ if your app has not yet been released). Select a category for your app and click Create when done.

Your application will be shown on the dashboard once it is created.

Create a placement

Once the app is registered, you can move on to creating a placement. To create a placement for banner ads, go to the Placement Management tab and click the Placement. Then click the Create a new placement button.

Select your app in the drop-down menu. Then, follow the instructions below that corresponds to your preferred ad format.

Choose Still image for the Ad type, and Banner for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, choose an Inventory format, and finally choose an Inventory size. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

Interstitial

Choose Still image for the Ad type, and Interstitial for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, and select an Ad display frequency from the drop-down list. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

For Interstitial video ads, choose Video for the Ad type, and Interstitial for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, and choose an appropriate a Category from the drop-down list. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

Rewarded

Choose Video for the Ad type, and Reward for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, and choose an appropriate a Category from the drop-down list.

Under Reward settings, select a Reward content using the drop-down list, enter your preferred Virtual currency name. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

Native

Choose Still image for the Ad type, and Native for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, and select a Ad image selection. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

For Native video ads, choose Video for the Ad type, and Native (custom) for the Inventory type. Once that's done, enter a Placement Name, fill out the Introduction to inventory, and choose an appropriate a Category from the drop-down list.

Under Native settings, select a Video ad orientation and Native ad type from the list. When finished, click the Create button to create your placement.

To set up your AdMob ad unit in the next section, you'll need the apiKey and spotID for each placement. To locate them, head to the Placement Management tab and select the SDK button under the name of your app.

Take note of the apiKey and spotID.

You'll also need your API Key for nend's reporting API, which they call the API Key for Scraping. You can find it in the Tools tab.

Step 2: Set up nend demand in AdMob UI

Configure mediation settings for your ad unit

You need to add nend to the mediation configuration for your ad unit.

First, sign in to your AdMob account. Next, navigate to the Mediation tab. If you have an existing mediation group you'd like to modify, click the name of that mediation group to edit it, and skip ahead to Add nend as an ad source.

To create a new mediation group, select Create Mediation Group.

Enter your ad format and platform, then click Continue.

Give your mediation group a name, and select locations to target. Next, set the mediation group status to Enabled, and then click Add Ad Units.

Associate this mediation group with one or more of your existing AdMob ad units. Then click Done.

You should now see the ad units card populated with the ad units you selected:

Add nend as an ad source

Under the Waterfall card in the Ad Sources section, select Add Ad Source. Then select nend.

Select nend and enable the Optimize switch. Enter the Reporting API Key from the API Key for Scraping obtained in the previous section to set up ad source optimization for nend. Then enter an eCPM value for nend and click Continue.

If you already have a mapping for nend, you can select it. Otherwise, click Add mapping.

Next, enter the Slot ID and API Key obtained in the previous section. Then click Done.

Step 3: Import the nend SDK and adapter

In your project-level settings.gradle.kts file, add the following repositories:

dependencyResolutionManagement {
  repositories {
    google()
    mavenCentral()
    maven {
      url = uri("https://fan-adn.github.io/nendSDK-Android-lib/library")
    }
  }
}

Then, in your app-level build.gradle.kts file, add the following implementation dependencies and configurations. Use the latest versions of the nend SDK and adapter:

dependencies {
    implementation("com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:23.0.0")
    implementation("com.google.ads.mediation:nend:10.0.0.0")
}

Manual integration

  1. Download the latest version of the nend Android SDK and add it to your project.

  2. Navigate to the nend adapter artifacts on Google's Maven Repository. Select the latest version, download the nend adapter's .aar file, and add it to your project.

Step 5: Add required code

No additional code is required for nend integration.

Step 6: Test your implementation

Enable test ads

Make sure you register your test device for AdMob. To get test ads for banners, interstitials, and rewarded, nend recommends using the API keys and Spot IDs provided in the nend test ad units page. These can be entered as the API Keys and Spot IDs for your AdMob ad units while testing, and then replaced with an actual API Key and Spot ID when your app is ready for production.

Verify test ads

To verify that you are receiving test ads from nend, enable single ad source testing in ad inspector using the nend (Waterfall) ad source(s).

Optional steps

Network-specific parameters

The nend adapter supports additional request parameters, which can be passed to the adapter using the NendExtrasBundleBuilder class. This class includes the following methods:

  • setInterstitialType(InterstitialType): Nend provides the option of selecting either TYPE_NORMAL for regular interstitial ads or TYPE_VIDEO for interstitial video ads. Nend defaults to using TYPE_NORMAL as the interstitial type if this extra parameter is not added.
  • setNativeAdsType(nativeAdsType): Nend provides the option of selecting either TYPE_NORMAL for regular native ads or TYPE_VIDEO for native video ads. Nend defaults to using TYPE_NORMAL as the native ad type if this extra parameter is not added.

Java

Bundle bundle = new NendAdapter.NendExtrasBundleBuilder()
                        .setInterstitialType(InterstitialType.TYPE_NORMAL)
                        .setNativeAdsType(FormatType.TYPE_NORMAL)
                        .build();

AdRequest adRequest = new AdRequest.Builder()
    .addNetworkExtrasBundle(NendAdapter.class, bundle)
    .build();

adLoader.loadAd(adRequest);

Kotlin

val bundle = NendAdapter.NendExtrasBundleBuilder()
                     .setInterstitialType(InterstitialType.TYPE_NORMAL)
                     .setNativeAdsType(FormatType.TYPE_NORMAL)
                     .build()

val adRequest = AdRequest.Builder()
    .addNetworkExtrasBundle(NendAdapter.class, bundle)
    .build()

adLoader.loadAd(adRequest)

Using native ads

Ad rendering

The Nend adapter returns its native ads as NativeAd objects. It populates the following Native ads field descriptions for a NativeAd.

Field Populated by the Nend adapter
Headline
Image 1
Body
App icon 2
Call to action
Advertiser Name
Star rating
Store
Price

1 Nend only provides an Image asset for native placements configured with an Ad image selection set to Horizontal (5: 3) large advertising image.

2 Nend does not provide an Icon asset for native placements configured with an Ad image selection set to No image (text only).

Error codes

If the adapter fails to receive an ad from nend, publishers can check the underlying error from the ad response using ResponseInfo.getAdapterResponse() under the following classes:

Format Class name
Banner com.google.ads.mediation.nend.NendAdapter
Interstitial com.google.ads.mediation.nend.NendAdapter
Rewarded com.google.ads.mediation.nend.NendRewardedAdapter
Native com.google.ads.mediation.nend.NendMediationAdapter

Here are the codes and accompanying messages thrown by the nend adapter when an ad fails to load:

Error code Domain Reason
101 com.google.ads.mediation.nend nend requires an activity context to load and show ads.
102 com.google.ads.mediation.nend nend server parameters configured in the AdMob UI are missing/invalid.
103 com.google.ads.mediation.nend nend ad is not yet ready to be shown.
104 com.google.ads.mediation.nend nend failed to play the ad.
105 com.google.ads.mediation.nend The requested ad size does not match a nend supported banner size.
106 com.google.ads.mediation.nend The Context object reference is null and/or was recently released from memory.
200-299 net.nend.android nend SDK returned an interstitial ad load error. See code for more details.
300-399 net.nend.android nend SDK returned an interstitial show ad error. See code for more details.
400-499 net.nend.android nend SDK returned an ad error. See code for more details.

nend Android Mediation Adapter Changelog

Version 10.0.0.0

  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 22.3.0.
  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 10.0.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 22.3.0.
  • Nend SDK version 10.0.0.

Version 9.0.1.0

  • Updated adapter to use new VersionInfo class.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 22.0.0.
  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 9.0.1.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 22.0.0.
  • Nend SDK version 9.0.1.

Version 9.0.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 9.0.0.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 21.2.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 21.2.0.
  • Nend SDK version 9.0.0.

Version 8.2.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 8.2.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 21.0.0.
  • Nend SDK version 8.2.0.

Version 8.1.0.1

  • Updated compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion to API 31.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 21.0.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 21.0.0.
  • Nend SDK version 8.1.0.

Version 8.1.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 8.1.0.
  • Fixed a NullPointerException crash when nend returns a null ad image or logo URL.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 20.5.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 20.5.0.
  • Nend SDK version 8.1.0.

Version 8.0.1.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 8.0.1.
  • Fixed a bug where some AdError objects were returned using the incorrect domain.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 20.4.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 20.4.0.
  • Nend SDK version 8.0.1.

Version 7.1.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 7.1.0.
  • Updated error codes to capture the nend UNSUPPORTED_DEVICE error.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 20.2.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 20.2.0.
  • Nend SDK version 7.1.0.

Version 7.0.3.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 7.0.3.
  • Added descriptive error codes and reasons for adapter load/show failures.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 20.0.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 20.0.0.
  • Nend SDK version 7.0.3.

Version 7.0.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 7.0.0.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 19.4.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.4.0.
  • Nend SDK version 7.0.0.

Version 6.0.1.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 6.0.1.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 19.3.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.3.0.
  • Nend SDK version 6.0.1.

Version 6.0.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 6.0.0.
  • Updated minimum Android SDK version to API 19.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.2.0.
  • Nend SDK version 6.0.0.

Version 5.4.2.1

  • Updated the adapter to support inline adaptive banner requests.
  • Fixed a rare race condition crash that may happen when smart banner ads are destroyed.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 19.2.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.2.0.
  • Nend SDK version 5.4.2.

Version 5.4.2.0

  • Added support for native ads.
  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.4.2.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 19.0.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.0.0.
  • Nend SDK version 5.4.2.

Version 5.3.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.3.0.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 18.2.0.

Built and tested with

  • Google Mobile Ads SDK version 18.2.0.
  • Nend SDK version 5.3.0.

Version 5.2.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.2.0.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 18.1.1.

Version 5.1.0.4

  • Fixed an issue where Banner and Interstitial ads were not forwarding the onAdClicked() event.
  • Fixed an issue where a NullPointerException was thrown when a nend Banner ad was destroyed.
  • Migrated the adapter to AndroidX.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 18.0.0.

Version 5.1.0.3

  • Added implementation to display a part of nend banner in SmartBanner. Appropriate size for SmartBanner
    • Portrait and Landscape
      • Phones: 320×50
      • Tablets: 728×90 or 320×50

Version 5.1.0.2

  • Added support for flexible banner ad sizes.

Version 5.1.0.1

  • Updated adapter to support new open-beta Rewarded API.
  • Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 17.2.0.

Version 5.1.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.1.0.

Version 5.0.2.1

  • Removed function that forward user features because following methods are deprecated on AdRequest.Builder.
    • setGender()
    • setBirthday()
    • setIsDesignedForFamiles()

Version 5.0.2.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.0.2.

Version 5.0.1.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.0.1.

Version 5.0.0.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 5.0.0.

Version 4.0.5.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 4.0.5.

Version 4.0.4.1

  • Supported onRewardedVideoCompleted() method of RewardedVideoAdListener.

Version 4.0.4.0

  • Verified compatibility with nend SDK 4.0.4.

Version 4.0.2.1

  • Added the ability to create a Bundle of mediation extras using the NendExtrasBundleBuilder class.

Version 4.0.2.0

  • First release in Google Mobile Ads Mediation open source project.
  • Added support for banner, interstitial, and rewarded video ads.