Don’t Get Left Behind: The Surprising Results of Our 5-Day Next-Gen SDK Test

In This Article We Will Discuss:

• Compatibility

• Technical Updates

• Initial Experimental Results

• Recommendations

What Is Next Gen SDK: As we know, an SDK is a mediation network within an AdMob account which helps bid, send, and receive ad requests and helps with latency. Today, we are diving into the most awaited update from AdMob and what it means for AdMob publishers. Speed is always the most discussed topic among publishers, and the Next Gen SDK comes with faster speed and a much smaller size. However, it is only for Android publishers. We do not have any idea why iOS has not been included yet. Due to that, I will consider this a downside for the newly updated SDK.

Compatibility: As we have elaborated earlier, the only update is for Android. So, iOS publishers will keep on using the same SDK, meaning iOS is not compatible with the update. Support for Flutter and Unity apps is also not compatible yet. Fingers crossed for the near future, as it can happen anytime soon. In our experiment, Unity apps have also not shown any compatibility. I

t seems like Next Gen is still in its first phase of testing and integration for further development.

Technical Updates: Our research—which includes AdMob SDK notes, early release notes, and the Google blog for developers—shows that the size is 30–40% smaller and the latency is 40% faster as compared to its previous counterpart. What does it stand for regarding publishers? It will help reduce app loading time as the size has reduced and the app has more space to function. Receiving and sending request fill rates will be improved.

Tip: Fill rates and visibility are two separate factors. This is the most frequently asked and misunderstood question. Fills are the result of the SDK’s request to fill an ad slot a publisher has placed on an app. Whereas the visibility is related to how much our ad has been visible to a user during a session. In order to enhance visibility, I will discuss it another day in “Announcing the Google Mobile Ads Next-Gen SDK for Android.”

Initial Experimental Results: According to our initial assessments, we had a 30% improvement in general. But this is not the result of a full experiment; this is an assessment encompassing five days.

Mainly, We have noticed improvements in:

• Reduction in slow start apps

• Request fulfill rates

• (In our research, we have found out that the Next Gen is also built to notice ANRs—App Not Responding)

We are dedicated to sharing the full results of our experiment to help publishers improve their performance.

Integration Recommendation: We would love to share a few best practices regardin

g integration to make it as smooth as possible:

1. The testing and integration process is fully controlled by publishers.

2. Importantly, do not make any changes prior to the initiation of an integration process. Instead, integrate your SDK first and then test to confirm if everything is in place and performing smoothly.

   • Ask How? Release the updated version using the Google Play Console and release the update

     

   • d version to a small subset of your total app traffic. Moving forward, monitor it for a time to make sure all areas are fully operational.

3. Now it’s time to have the updated version for 100% of your app’s traffic.

If a publisher observes any glitch or operational issue, they are in control to revert the updates back to the old version.

Final Thoughts 

The update is quite new, and these are the practical notes we have collected so far. We are also dedicated to observing how the updated version interacts with mediation groups and waterfalls. We are also looking forward to seeing how the updates will impact eCPMs. (We understand that eCPMs are not only related to SDKs, but it might have an impact on them).

First released article about New Gen SDK is here: