Native Ads Advanced

This guide shows you how to use the Google Mobile Ads Unity plugin to implement AdMob Native Ads Advanced in a Unity app, as well as some important things to consider along the way.

Native ads match both the form and function of the user experience in which they're placed. They also match the visual design of the app they live within. AdMob's native ads advanced format enables publishers to render ads that are seamless with content. You can use this technology to implement highly custom renderings that take full advantage of the native code in Unity apps.

Native advanced ads are shown using the same types of GameObjects with which you're already building your apps and can be formatted to match the visual design of the user experience in which they live. When a native ad loads, your app receives a native object that contains its assets and the Unity app (rather than the SDK) displays them.

There are two standard native ads advanced field descriptions: app install and content. App install ads are represented by NativeAppInstallAd, and content ads are represented by NativeContentAd. These objects contain the assets for the native ad. Read customer success stories: case study 1, case study 2.

Prerequisites

Load native ad formats

Native Ads Advanced are loaded via the AdLoader class, which has its own AdLoader.Builder class to customize it during creation. The ForNativeAppInstallAd() method configures the AdLoader to handle app install ads and the ForNativeContentAd() configures the AdLoader to handle content ads. 

private void RequestNativeAd() {
    AdLoader adLoader = new AdLoader.Builder(INSERT_AD_UNIT_HERE)
        .ForNativeAppInstallAd()
        .ForNativeContentAd()
        .Build();
}

Register for AdLoader ad events

To be notified when a native advanced ad either successfully loads or fails to load, add delegates to the AdLoader class for the events listed below.

OnNativeAppInstallAdLoaded
Invoked when a native app install ad is successfully loaded. It is required to have a delegate for this event to access the ad that loaded.
OnNativeContentAdLoaded
Invoked when a native content ad is successfully loaded. It is required to have a delegate for this event to access the ad that loaded.
OnAdFailedToLoad
Invoked when a native ad fails to load.

Load the ad

Once you've finished building an AdLoader, call its LoadAd() method to request an ad:

adLoader.LoadAd(new AdRequest.Builder().Build());

Put the ad request together

The code snippet below demonstrates how to build an AdLoader that is configured to request app install and content ads, sets delegates for successful and failed ad loads, and makes an ad request.

private void RequestNativeAd() {
    AdLoader adLoader = new AdLoader.Builder(INSERT_AD_UNIT_HERE)
        .ForNativeAppInstallAd()
        .ForNativeContentAd()
        .Build();
    adLoader.OnNativeAppInstallAdLoaded += this.HandleNativeAppInstallAdLoaded;
    adLoader.OnNativeContentAdLoaded += this.HandleNativeContentAdLoaded;
    adLoader.LoadAd(new AdRequest.Builder().Build());
}

Handle failed ad loads

The OnAdFailedToLoad event is of type EventHandler<AdFailedToLoadEventArgs>. Parsing the reason for an ad load failure from this event is shown below.

private void HandleNativeAdFailedToLoad(object sender, AdFailedToLoadEventArgs args) {
    MonoBehaviour.print("Native ad failed to load: " + args.Message);
}

Display an ad

When a Native Ad Advanced loads, the ad event for the corresponding ad format is invoked. Your app is then responsible for displaying the ad, though it doesn't necessarily have to do so immediately.

Handle app install ad load

The OnNativeAppInstallAdLoaded event is of type EventHandler<NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs>. The app install ad, encapsulated in a NativeAppInstallAd object, can be retrieved from NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs as shown:

private NativeAppInstallAd appInstallAd;
...
private void HandleNativeAppInstallAdLoaded(object sender, NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs args) {
    MonoBehaviour.print("App install ad loaded.");
    this.appInstallAd = args.nativeAd;
}

Handle content ad load

The OnNativeContentAdLoaded event is of type EventHandler<NativeContentAdEventArgs>. The content ad, encapsulated in a NativeContentAd object, can be retrieved from NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs as shown:

private void HandleNativeContentAdLoaded(object sender, NativeContentAdEventArgs args) {
    MonoBehaviour.print("Content ad loaded.");
    this.contentAd = args.nativeAd;
}

Retrieve native ad assets

Once ads have loaded, their assets can be accessed as shown below. Graphical assets are returned as Texture2D objects and text assets are returned as string objects.

private bool appInstallAdLoaded;
private NativeAppInstallAd appInstallAd;
...
void Update() {
    ...

    if (this.appInstallAdLoaded) {
        this.appInstallAdLoaded = false;
        // Get Texture2D for icon asset of app install ad.
        Texture2D iconTexture = this.appInstallAd.GetIconTexture();

        // Get string for headline asset of app install ad.
        string headline = this.appInstallAd.GetHeadlineText();
    }
}
...

private void HandleNativeAppInstallAdLoaded(object sender, NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs args) {
    MonoBehaviour.print("App install ad loaded.");
    this.appInstallAd = args.nativeAd;
    this.appInstallAdLoaded = true;
}

It is important to note that ad assets can only be accessed from the Update() method of a Unity script.

AdChoices asset

It's a requirement to display the AdChoices ad asset as part of the Native Advanced ad. Also, it's important that the AdChoices ad asset be easily seen, so choose background colors and images appropriately.

Register GameObjects for ad asset

For each ad asset to be displayed, you must register the GameObject to use to display the asset within the Unity app. Every method to register a GameObject for an ad asset will return a bool indicating if registration was successful. If registration of an ad asset unsuccessful, impressions and clicks on the corresponding native ad will not be recognized.

if (!this.appInstallAd.RegisterIconImageGameObject(icon))
{
    // Handle failure to register ad asset.
}

The GameObject that is registered for an ad asset asset must have a convex Collider component that is representative of the size and shape of the GameObject. If GameObject objects registered to ad assets are missing Collider components or have an incorrectly configured one, native advanced ads will not operate correctly.

In the code snippet below, a BoxCollider is added to GameObject that uses a TextMesh to display the headline ad asset of an app install ad. Once the BoxCollider is attached to the GameObject, it will automatically scale to accommodate the text of the TextMesh component.

// Create GameObject that will display the headline ad asset.
GameObject headline = new GameObject();
headline.AddComponent<TextMesh>();
headline.GetComponent<TextMesh>().characterSize = 0.5 f;
headline.GetComponent<TextMesh>().anchor = TextAnchor.MiddleCenter;
headline.GetComponent<TextMesh>().color = Color.black;

// Get string of the headline asset.
string headlineText = this.appInstallAd.GetHeadlineText();
headline.GetComponent<TextMesh>().text = headlineText;

// Add box collider to the GameObject which will automatically scale.
headline.AddComponent<BoxCollider>();

Demo

The following code demonstrates how to retrieve the icon asset of a successfully loaded app install ad, display the icon ad asset by setting the texture of a Quad, and register the GameObject to use to display the asset. This process of retrieving the ad asset and registering it with the native ad class should be repeated for each of the assets that the app displays.

private GameObject icon;
private NativeAppInstallAd appInstallAd;
private bool appInstallAdLoaded;
...
void Update() {
    ...

    if (this.appInstallAdLoaded) {
        this.appInstallAdLoaded = false;
        // Get Texture2D for icon asset of app install ad.
        Texture2D iconTexture = this.appInstallAd.GetIconTexture();

        icon = GameObject.CreatePrimitive(PrimitiveType.Quad);
        icon.transform.position = new Vector3(1, 1, 1);
        icon.transform.localScale = new Vector3(1, 1, 1);
        icon.GetComponent<Renderer>().material.mainTexture = iconTexture;

        // Register GameObject that will display icon asset of app install ad.
        if (!this.appInstallAd.RegisterIconImageGameObject(icon))
        {
            // Handle failure to register ad asset.
        }
    }
}
...

private void HandleNativeAppInstallAdLoaded(object sender, NativeAppInstallAdEventArgs args) {
    MonoBehaviour.print("App install ad loaded.");
    this.appInstallAd = args.nativeAd;
    this.appInstallAdLoaded = true;
}