More and more ad providers are starting to provider ad service for Windows Phone platform. As a Windows Phone developer, I find it very difficult to find any blog post or review comparing the ad providers in Windows Phone. (You can find a lot for Android and iOS.) I’m writing this blog post according to my own experience as a Windows Phone developer dealing with the ad providers. Hopefully this can help you select which ad providers to include in your apps without going through too much trouble.

 

Before you continue read this post, you need to understand the following things:

• The fill-rate, CTR (click through rate), eCPM (pay per thousand impression) and eCPC (pay per click) are vary according to app, category, country and platform.
• I only used the SDK for Windows Phone 7 version the ad providers given instead of Windows Phone 8 version since I wanted to support as many device as possible.
• The list below are sorted according to my own preference according to their performance previously.
• Those are my own experiences, it maybe vary from others.
• Please don’t compare the eCPM or eCPC with other platform like Android or iOS… just don’t.

Millennial Media

One of the popular ad provider in Windows Phone platform. It work OK for me which I use it as a backup plan when other ad provider failed to show any ad.

Pros:

• Friendly and fast developer support.
• Average eCPM (I manage to got 0.16 USD – 0.66 USD eCPM out of my 3 apps submitted.)

Cons:

• Inconsistent and poor fill-rate. (Fill-rate can go as low as 3% and now getting better around like 40%-50%)
• Lengthy payout time with limitation.
• A buggy and confusing website. (Running with IE won’t cause you too many problems, but still you can’t check your total earning easily.)

 

Smaato

One of the early ad provider that support Windows Phone platforms. I have been using their service more almost 2 years time.

Pros:

• Powerful analytical tool. (One of the best you can find from Windows Phone ad providers.)
• Advertising target countries is wide and good.
• No minimum payout limit.

Cons:

• eCPM and eCPC highly depended on CTR (eCPM can go as low.0.008 and eCPC can go as low as 0.01 if your CTR is low or zero.)
• Terrible developer support. (So far they only replied 1 of 4 support ticket I open.)
• Terrible SDK and documentation. (Their Windows Phone 7.5 SDK have a bug that cause no click recorded when user click on the ad. Cause random crashes.)

 

Microsoft Advertising pubCenter

Microsoft very own advertising platform for Windows Store Apps and Windows Phone Apps. Used to be the best ad provider for Windows Phone platform, but recent adjustment is horrible. It cause low fill rate and low eCPM. Although they claim it as error and they are working on a fix, the never ending fixing date just turn away many developers. Unless they fix everything, else I won’t recommend this to anyone.

Pros:

• Simple and easy to integrate with your apps.
• Good developer support.

Cons:

• Used to have eCPM, now is very unstable and low. (None of my app get more than 0.10 USD eCPM in March 2014)
• Inconsistent eCPM between different categories, time, countries and language support. (Some can go very high, more than 1 USD eCPM and some can go very low, 0.06 USD eCPM.)
• Available in limited countries only. (For both developer account registration and advertising target countries)
• Poor analytical and reporting tool. (They only added fill-rate in recent update.)
• Only support bank transfer, no pay-pal option. (Only U.S. developer can have their payout check mailed.

 

Leadbolt

A popular ad provider in Android platform. Although they don’t provide any SDK for Windows Phone, but it do allow HTML base advertisement on Windows Phone. (Still gathering more data on this ad provider)

Pros:

• Super fast and friendly support. (You will be assigned to a representative which will handle all your question)

Cons:

• No Windows Phone SDK and manually integration lack of proper documentation.
• Reporting missing fill-rate. (I think this is important to the developer)

 

AdDuplex

Technically, AdDuplex won’t give you any money because it is a cross promotion network for Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. I find it useful to fill in the ad space when all other ad providers are out of ad to show.

Pros:

• Easy and straight forward integration with apps.

Cons:

• Does not generate you revenue…

 

AdMob

Google owned advertising platform which recommended by many Android developers, but does it work the same in Windows Phone platform? My account got banned without a proper reason given after running with it more than half year time. Basically I already dropped AdMob from most of my app due to the SDK random crash issue but only one of the app is running with it. Then AdMob e-mailed me and accuse me and my users for intensionally click on the ad, which I have no idea about it. The whole account total revenue so far only have around 1 USD, seriously?

If you are using Windows Phone 8, they you may try their new SDK which I never tried before.

Pros:

• Advertising target countries is wide and good.

Cons:

• Terrible SDK for Windows Phone 7. (Randomly crash your app and never update.)
• Terrible support for Windows Phone developer. (They may ask you to supply them your user’s IP addresses for investigation which I found it horrible.)

 

MobFox

One of the early ad provider that support Windows Phone platform. My friend recommended this to me, but I don’t found it worth continue trying. They claim their tool can integrate many different ad providers into it, but I found it too complicated to be useful.

Cons:

• Poor fill-rate. (The fill rate just far lower compare with other ad providers I used before.)
• Unknown eCPM and eCPC. (The only ad provider which won’t tell you how much they are paying you, but only show your the revenue for today.)
• Poor analytical tool. (Unable view detail of the ad performance history.)

 

InMobi

I only used this platform about less than 2 months and I decided to quit. 30,000+ impression which resulted in less than 0.50 USD revenue is totally unacceptable for me. Furthermore, their only SDK (usually ad providers provide 2 SDK, one with location tracking, one without) included location capability permission which creep my users out even my app is not using the location service at all.

Cons:

• Terrible eCPC. (I only manage to got an average of 0.02 USD eCPC out of my 3 apps submitted.)
• Poor eCPM. (I only manage to got an average of 0.03 USD eCPM out of my 3 apps submitted.)
• Poor SDK which cause app to show location capability in Windows Phone store even the app isn’t using it (User hate this!).

 

Inneractive

Technically, I never tried their service before. I discovered that their SDK for Windows Phone 7 have some memory leak issue. I e-mailed them about this problem but they never bother to fix it, so I dropped their services until today.

Cons:

• Memory leak happen in their SDK for Windows Phone 7. (I have even published a post regarding to this problem.)
• Terrible developer support. (They replied my e-mail 3 months later without solving the problem.)

 

Other Ad Providers

There are still some ad provider I know but I haven’t yet try. I will update this post once I have the chances.

• Tapjoy

 

Feel free to leave your comment or feedback regarding your experience with ad providers in Windows Phone.

 

Last Update: 17 March 2014

by Ooi Keng Siang via Ooiks’s Blog