Banner Ads

“Why mobile banners ads persist in a video and playable world” from AppLovin’s Blog.

Loading and Showing Banners Programmatically

To load a banner, create a MaxAdView object that corresponds to your ad unit and then call its loadAd() method. To show that ad, add the MaxAdView object as a subview of your view hierarchy. Implement MaxAdViewAdListener so that you are notified when your ad is ready and of other ad-related events.

• public class ExampleActivity extends Activity
          implements MaxAdViewAdListener
  {
    private MaxAdView adView;
  
    void createBannerAd()
    {
      adView = new MaxAdView( "ad_unit_ID", this );
      adView.setListener( this );
  
      // Stretch to the width of the screen for banners to be fully functional
      int width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT;
  
      // Banner height on phones and tablets is 50 and 90, respectively
      int heightPx = getResources().getDimensionPixelSize( R.dimen.banner_height );
  
      adView.setLayoutParams( new FrameLayout.LayoutParams( width, heightPx ) );
  
      // Set background or background color for banners to be fully functional
      adView.setBackgroundColor( … );
  
      ViewGroup rootView = findViewById( android.R.id.content );
      rootView.addView( adView );
  
      // Load the ad
      adView.loadAd();
    }
  
    // MAX Ad Listener
    @Override
    public void onAdLoaded(final MaxAd maxAd) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdLoadFailed(final String adUnitId, final MaxError error) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdDisplayFailed(final MaxAd maxAd, final MaxError error) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdClicked(final MaxAd maxAd) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdExpanded(final MaxAd maxAd) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdCollapsed(final MaxAd maxAd) {}
  
    @Override
    public void onAdDisplayed(final MaxAd maxAd) { /* DO NOT USE - THIS IS RESERVED FOR FULLSCREEN ADS ONLY AND WILL BE REMOVED IN A FUTURE SDK RELEASE */ }
  
    @Override
    public void onAdHidden(final MaxAd maxAd) { /* DO NOT USE - THIS IS RESERVED FOR FULLSCREEN ADS ONLY AND WILL BE REMOVED IN A FUTURE SDK RELEASE */ }
  }

• class ExampleActivity : Activity(), MaxAdViewAdListener
  {
    private var adView: MaxAdView? = null
  
    fun createBannerAd()
    {
      adView = MaxAdView("ad_unit_ID", this)
      adView?.setListener(this)
  
      // Stretch to the width of the screen for banners to be fully functional
      val width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT
  
      // Banner height on phones and tablets is 50 and 90, respectively
      val heightPx = resources.getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.banner_height)
  
      adView?.layoutParams = FrameLayout.LayoutParams(width, heightPx)
  
      // Set background or background color for banners to be fully functional
      adView?.setBackgroundColor(…)
  
      val rootView = findViewById(android.R.id.content)
      rootView.addView(adView)
  
      // Load the ad
      adView?.loadAd()
    }
  
    // MAX Ad Listener
    override fun onAdLoaded(maxAd: MaxAd) {}
  
    override fun onAdLoadFailed(adUnitId: String?, error: MaxError?) {}
  
    override fun onAdDisplayFailed(ad: MaxAd?, error: MaxError?) {}
  
    override fun onAdClicked(maxAd: MaxAd) {}
  
    override fun onAdExpanded(maxAd: MaxAd) {}
  
    override fun onAdCollapsed(maxAd: MaxAd) {}
  
    override fun onAdDisplayed(maxAd: MaxAd) { /* DO NOT USE - THIS IS RESERVED FOR FULLSCREEN ADS ONLY AND WILL BE REMOVED IN A FUTURE SDK RELEASE */ }
  
    override fun onAdHidden(maxAd: MaxAd) { /* DO NOT USE - THIS IS RESERVED FOR FULLSCREEN ADS ONLY AND WILL BE REMOVED IN A FUTURE SDK RELEASE */ }
  }

Loading and Showing Banners in Layout Editor

Alternatively, you can add MAX banners to your view layout XML. Ensure that your banners are fully functional by setting a background or background color (android:background) and by stretching the width (android:layout_width) to the width of the screen:

<com.applovin.mediation.ads.MaxAdView
  xmlns:maxads="http://schemas.applovin.com/android/1.0"
  maxads:adUnitId="ad_unit_ID"
  android:background="@color/banner_background_color"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="@dimen/banner_height" />

Declare the base banner height of 50dp in res/values/attrs.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
  <dimen name="banner_height">50dp</dimen>
</resources>

Declare the tablet banner height of 90dp in res/values-sw600dp/attrs.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
  <dimen name="banner_height">90dp</dimen>
</resources>

You still must call loadAd() on the MaxAdView you create in this way:

• MaxAdView adView = findViewById( R.id.ad_view );
  adView.loadAd();

• var adView: MaxAdView = findViewById(R.id.ad_view)
  adView.loadAd()

Adaptive Banners

Only Google bidding and Google AdMob, and Google Ad Manager support adaptive banners. MAX sizes banners from other networks normally.

Adaptive banners are responsive banners with heights that derive from the device type and width of the banner. You integrate adaptive banners in a similar way to how you integrate regular banners, except that you must set the height to the value returned by MAAdFormat.banner.adaptiveSize.height instead of 50 or 90. Optionally, for more specific integrations you can set a custom width (in DP) using the local extra parameters API, as of Google adapter version 21.5.0.3 and Google Ad Manager adapter version 21.5.0.2. You can fetch the appropriate height for your custom adaptive banner by using the adaptive size API. Before you load the ad, set the banner extra parameter adaptive_banner to true as in the code below:

• void createBannerAd()
  {
    adView = new MaxAdView( "ad_unit_ID", this );
    adView.setListener( this );
  
    // Stretch to the width of the screen for banners to be fully functional
    int width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT;
  
    // Get the adaptive banner height.
    int heightDp = MaxAdFormat.BANNER.getAdaptiveSize( this ).getHeight();
    int heightPx = AppLovinSdkUtils.dpToPx( this, heightDp );
  
    adView.setLayoutParams( new FrameLayout.LayoutParams( width, heightPx ) );
    adView.setExtraParameter( "adaptive_banner", "true" );
    adView.setLocalExtraParameter( "adaptive_banner_width", 400 );
    adView.getAdFormat().getAdaptiveSize( 400, context ).getHeight(); // Set your ad height to this value
  
    // Set background or background color for banners to be fully functional
    adView.setBackgroundColor( … );
  
    ViewGroup rootView = findViewById( android.R.id.content );
    rootView.addView( adView );
  
    // Load the ad
    adView.loadAd();
  }

• fun createBannerAd()
  {
    adView = MaxAdView("ad_unit_ID", this)
    adView?.setListener(this)
  
    // Stretch to the width of the screen for banners to be fully functional
    val width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT
  
    // Get the adaptive banner height.
    val heightDp = MaxAdFormat.BANNER.getAdaptiveSize(this).height
    val heightPx = AppLovinSdkUtils.dpToPx(this, heightDp)
  
    adView?.layoutParams = FrameLayout.LayoutParams(width, heightPx)
    adView?.setExtraParameter("adaptive_banner", "true")
    adView.setLocalExtraParameter("adaptive_banner_width", 400)
    adView.adFormat.getAdaptiveSize(400, context).height // Set your ad height to this value
  
    // Set background or background color for banners to be fully functional
    adView?.setBackgroundColor(…)
  
    val rootView = findViewById<ViewGroup>(android.R.id.content)
    rootView.addView(adView)
  
    // Load the ad
    adView?.loadAd()
  }

If you need to do any UI configurations that depend on the adaptive banner size, you can retrieve the width and height of the loaded ad, in DP, as follows:

• @Override
  public void onAdLoaded(final MaxAd maxAd)
  {
    AppLovinSdkUtils.Size adViewSize = maxAd.getSize();
    int widthDp = adViewSize.getWidth();
    int heightDp = adViewSize.getHeight();
  }

• override fun onAdLoaded(ad: MaxAd?)
  {
    val adViewSize = ad?.size!!
    val widthDp = adViewSize.width
    val heightDp = adViewSize.height
  }

Stopping and Starting Auto-Refresh

There may be cases when you would like to stop auto-refresh, for instance, when you hide a banner ad or want to manually refresh. Stop auto-refresh for a banner ad with the following code:

• // Set this extra parameter to work around SDK bug that ignores calls to stopAutoRefresh()
  adView.setExtraParameter( "allow_pause_auto_refresh_immediately", "true" );
  adView.stopAutoRefresh();

• // Set this extra parameter to work around SDK bug that ignores calls to stopAutoRefresh()
  adView.setExtraParameter( "allow_pause_auto_refresh_immediately", "true" )
  adView.stopAutoRefresh()

Start auto-refresh for a banner ad with the following code:

• adView.startAutoRefresh();

• adView.startAutoRefresh()

Manually refresh the contents with the following code. You must stop auto-refresh before you call loadAd().

• adView.loadAd();

• adView.loadAd()