Microsoft is releasing several new capabilities that allow developers the opportunity to enhance app advertising revenues. These include a new Microsoft Universal Ad Client SDK for Windows 10; additional support for video interstitials on Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10; and ad mediation for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 apps to manage multiple ad SDKs and increase fill rate.
The Microsoft Universal Ad Client SDK is now available for Windows 10 devices, Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 apps. The SDK supports video interstitials, which can especially useful for monetizing gaming apps given the opportunity to show video ads between levels.
The new ad SDK is built using native code and does not require .NET runtime, reducing the memory used and increasing performance. In addition, the new Ad SDK integrates several bug fixes and reduces the minimum refresh time to 30 seconds (previously it was 60 seconds when the app was running in metered networks).
Microsoft has also updated ad mediation for Windows Phone apps which provides developers with the ability to manage multiple ad SDKs from different providers. Updates to the platform include:
- A new ad mediator for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 C# and VB XAML apps, supporting ads from Microsoft Advertising, Smaato and AdDuplex.
- An update to the existing ad mediation SDK for Windows Phone 8.x apps, including bug fixes and performance enhancements, supporting ads from Microsoft Advertising, AdDuplex, Google AdMob, Inneractive, Smaato, InMobi, and MobFox adMediation.
With the new release developers will continue to have the same capabilities and reports provided previously for Windows Phone ad mediation, such as tracking fill rate for each ad network and users by configuration. Ad mediation is supported by both Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013, and supports Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.x, and Windows 10 UWP apps.