Enable test ads

This guide explains how to enable test ads in your ads integration. It's important to enable test ads during development so that you can click on them without charging Google advertisers. If you click on too many ads without being in test mode, you risk your account being flagged for invalid activity.

There are two ways to get test ads:

  1. Use one of Google's demo ad units.
  2. Use your own ad unit and enable test devices.

Prerequisite

Demo ad units

The quickest way to enable testing is to use Google-provided demo ad units. These ad units are not associated with your AdMob account, so there's no risk of your account generating invalid traffic when using these ad units.

Here are demo ad units that point to specific test creatives for each format:

Ad format Demo ad unit ID
App Open ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/9257395921
Adaptive Banner ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/9214589741
Fixed Size Banner ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/6300978111
Interstitial ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1033173712
Rewarded Ads ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5224354917
Rewarded Interstitial ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5354046379
Native ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2247696110
Native Video ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1044960115

Enable test devices

If you want to do more rigorous testing with production-looking ads, you can now configure your device as a test device and use your own ad unit IDs that you've created in the AdMob UI. Test devices can either be added in the AdMob UI or programmatically using the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

Follow the steps below to add your device as a test device.

Add your test device in the AdMob UI

For a non-programmatic way to add a test device and test new or existing app builds, use the AdMob UI. Learn how.

Add your test device programmatically

If you want to test ads in your app as you're developing, follow the steps below to programmatically register your test device.

  1. Load your ads-integrated app and make an ad request.
  2. Check the logcat output for a message that looks like the one below, which shows you your device ID and how to add it as a test device: 
    I/Ads: Use RequestConfiguration.Builder.setTestDeviceIds(Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231"))
to get test ads on this device."
    Copy your test device ID to your clipboard.
  3. Modify your code to call RequestConfiguration.Builder.setTestDeviceIds() and pass in a list of your test device IDs.

    Java

    List<String> testDeviceIds = Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231");
RequestConfiguration configuration =
    new RequestConfiguration.Builder().setTestDeviceIds(testDeviceIds).build();
MobileAds.setRequestConfiguration(configuration);

    Kotlin

    val testDeviceIds = Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231")
val configuration = RequestConfiguration.Builder().setTestDeviceIds(testDeviceIds).build()
MobileAds.setRequestConfiguration(configuration)
    You can optionally check isTestDevice() to confirm that your device was properly added as a test device.

  4. Re-run your app. If the ad is a Google ad, you'll see a Test Ad label centered at the top of the ad (banner, interstitial, or rewarded video):

    For native advanced ads, the headline asset is prepended with the string Test Ad.

Ads with this Test Ad label are safe to click. Requests, impressions, and clicks on test ads will not show up in your account's reports.

Note: To see the Test Ad label, you need to be using an SDK version of 11.6.0 or higher.

Testing with mediation

Google's sample ad units only show Google Ads. To test your AdMob Mediation configuration, you must use the enable test devices approach.

Mediated ads do NOT render a Test Ad label. You are responsible for ensuring that test ads are enabled for each of your mediation networks so these networks don't flag your account for invalid activity. See each network's respective mediation guide for more information.

If you aren't sure whether a mediation ad network adapter supports test ads, it is safest to avoid clicking on ads from that network during development. You can use the getMediationAdapterClassName() method on any of the ad formats to figure out which ad network served the current ad.