Integration Mobile Ads SDK

System: Yandex Advertising Network, Adfox

Integrating the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK into your app is the first step toward serving ads and generating revenue. After integrating the SDK, you can choose an ad format for your app monetization (for example, banner ads or rewarded ads) and perform its setup.

Prerequisites

To prepare your app, follow the steps described in the next sections.

App requirements

• Use Android Studio 2021 or higher.
• Use Android Gradle Plugin version 8.7.0 or higher.
• Check that your app's build file uses the following values:
  • minSdkVersion 21 or higher.
  • compileSdkVersion 34 or higher.
• If you use the AppMetrica SDK in your app, make sure that you have version 7.2.1 or higher (within major version 7) installed.

Setting up the app in your Yandex Advertising Network account

Here's how to register your app in the Yandex Advertising Network:

1. Log in or register your account in the Yandex Advertising Network.
2. Register your app in the Yandex Advertising Network.

Set up your app

1. Add support for the Google and Maven Central repositories to the project configuration.

   Depending on the build settings, these repositories can be added either to the project's build.gradle file or to the repositories block in settings.gradle as shown below:

   build.gradle

   settings.gradle

   // Project-level build.gradle file
   buildscript {
       repositories {
           google()
           mavenCentral()
       }
   }
   
   allprojects {
       repositories {
           google()
           mavenCentral()
       }
   }
   

   // Project-level settings.gradle file
   pluginManagement {
       repositories {
           google()
           mavenCentral()
           gradlePluginPortal()
       }
   }
   dependencyResolutionManagement {
       repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
       repositories {
           google()
           mavenCentral()
       }
   }
   

2. Add a dependency on the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK to the Gradle file at your app's module level, usually app/build.gradle:

   dependencies {
     implementation 'com.yandex.android:mobileads:7.18.5'
   }
   

3. Set up permission to use an advertising ID (for apps using SDK versions older than 4.5.0).

   How to set up permission to use the ad ID

   The ad ID is a unique identifier provided by Google Play services for displaying ads to users who opt in to personalized ads. Users can opt out of ad personalization or reset their ID in the settings. In this case, advertising networks won't be able to use the ID to select relevant ads for the user.

   If your app runs a Yandex Mobile Ads SDK version below 4.5, add com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID to the AndroidManifest.xml file:

   <manifest>
       <application>
       <!-- For apps targeting Android 13 or higher & Yandex Mobile Ads SDK versions lower than 4.5.0 -->
           <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID"/>
       </application>
   </manifest>
   

   As of version 4.5.0, the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK adds com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID by default. Because of this, you don't have to specify it in the application's main manifest. The permission allows you to use an ad ID to select more relevant ads from advertising networks.

   You can delete the permission if necessary. For example, if a policy does not allow the use of an ID for ad selection, such as the Families Policy.

   To keep the permission from being added to the application's main manifest, add the following code to AndroidManifest.xml:

   <manifest>
       <application>
           <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID" tools:node="remove"/>
       </application>
   </manifest>
   

   Warning

   Lack of permission and access to the ID may impact your revenue, because your app may serve less relevant ads.

Initialize the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK

Successfully initializing the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK is a prerequisite for correctly integrating the library. By default, the SDK is initialized automatically on app startup. This speeds up ad loading and thus increases your monetization revenue.

If you need to set up privacy policies for personal data in your app, make sure to do this before initializing the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK.

You can set up these policies using the AndroidManifest.file or right before initializing the SDK manually.

<manifest>
    <application>
        <!-- Disable the use of child's personal data for app monetization.  -->
        <meta-data
          android:name="@string/yandex_mobileads_age_restricted_user"
          android:value="true" />
    </application>
</manifest>

Manual SDK initialization

If necessary, you can disable auto initialization and initialize the library manually by using the initialize() method:

<manifest>
    <application>
        <!-- Disable automatic sdk initialization.  -->
        <meta-data
            android:name="com.yandex.mobile.ads.AUTOMATIC_SDK_INITIALIZATION"
            android:value="false" />
    </application>
</manifest>

We recommend adding the initialization code to the onCreate method of the Application class. Make sure to set up the privacy policies for personal data before you initialize the SDK:

class MyApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        // Configure the user data privacy policy before sdk init
        MobileAds.initialize(this) {
            // Now you can use ads
        }
    }
}

public class MyApplication extends Application {
    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
       super.onCreate();
        // Configure the user data privacy policy before sdk init
        MobileAds.initialize(this, () -> {
            // Now you can use ads
        });
    }
}

Testing SDK integration

You can verify the success of the library integration using the SDK's built-in integration testing tool.

To do so, after adding the dependency and initializing the SDK, rebuild the project.

Open Logcat and search for the “Yandex Ads” keyword.

The command outputs the integration status logs. You'll see a message indicating whether the integration was successful. If there's a problem, you'll see a detailed description along with steps to resolve it. Sample command output:

mobileads$ adb logcat | grep 'Yandex Ads' -i
[Yandex Ads]  I  Yandex Mobile Ads 7.18.5 integrated successfully
[Yandex Ads]  I  Yandex Mobile Ads 7.18.5 initialized successfully

The log shows two separate events:

• integrated successfully: Integration check (SDK hasn't been initialized yet).
• initialized successfully: Successful SDK initialization.

Indicator of an outdated library version

If the version of the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK is outdated, an indicator in the form of a toast message will be displayed on library initialization or when loading an ad.

Issue details are also logged to the app logs.

Sample logs:

***************************************************************************************
* The integrated version of the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK is outdated.                    *
* Please update com.yandex.android:mobileads to the latest version.                   *
* Learn more about the latest version of the SDK here:                                *
* https://yandex.com/dev/mobile-ads/doc/android/quick-start/android-ads-component.html *
* Changelog: https://yandex.com/dev/mobile-ads/doc/intro/changelog-android.html        *
***************************************************************************************

To disable the indicator, call the enableDebugErrorIndicator method set to false:

MobileAds.enableDebugErrorIndicator(false)

Lint check for the latest SDK version

When building the app's release version, a lint check will be run to verify that you're using the latest SDK version.

Lint checks are triggered by a call to the lintVitalRelease gradle task, which crashes if the advertising SDK version is outdated.

The check won't let the app build if there's a newer SDK version available.

To disable checking for the the latest SDK version, use the standard way of preventing lint checks through gradle code (for more information, see the Android documentation).

android {
    lintOptions {
        disable 'MobileAdsSdkOutdatedVersion'
    }
}

Next steps

Once you've successfully integrated the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK, you can proceed to implementing your ad formats.

Select one of the following types of ads that best suits your app: