Native ads

Native ads let you monetize your app in a way that’s consistent with its existing design. The AppLovin MAX SDK gives you access to an ad’s individual assets. This way, you can design the ad layout to be consistent with the look and feel of your app. The SDK automatically caches images and tracks metrics. You can focus on how, when, and where to display ads.

AppLovin deprecated templates integration. If you integrate native ads into your app via templates, those ads will start no-filling at . AppLovin will remove support for templates integration in an upcoming SDK release.

Manual

Use this API if you have custom views and you want to manually load native ad assets into those views. This integration method involves three high-level steps:

  1. Bind UI components.
  2. Load the native ad.
  3. Destroy the native ad.

To use the manual API, select Manual in the Create New Ad Unit screen:

Template: ☐ Small, ☐ Medium, ☒ Manual

Bind UI components

You can bind custom UI components to the MAX SDK. Then you can render native ad assets into those components. The example below demonstrates this with custom views that you create with the Layout Editor and unique view IDs. You can also use this method if you create your views programmatically.

To accord with AppLovin’s policy, your ad must contain the Privacy Information icon. This icon links to an important privacy notice. You can bind to it via MaxNativeAdViewBinder.Builder#setOptionsContentViewGroupId(…).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content">

  <ImageView
    android:id="@+id/icon_image_view"
  … />
  <LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/ad_options_view"
  … />
  <TextView
    android:id="@+id/title_text_view"
  … />
  <FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/star_rating_view"
  … />
  <TextView
    android:id="@+id/advertiser_textView"
  … />
  <TextView
    android:id="@+id/body_text_view"
  … />
  <FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/media_view_container"
  … />
  <Button
    android:id="@+id/cta_button"
  … />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Next, bind the subviews using unique view IDs with an instance of MaxNativeAdViewBinder. AppLovin does not guarantee a network will return certain assets.

public class ExampleActivity
        extends Activity
        implements MaxAdRevenueListener
{
  ⋮
  private MaxNativeAdView createNativeAdView()
  {
    MaxNativeAdViewBinder binder = new MaxNativeAdViewBinder.Builder( R.layout.native_custom_ad_view )
            .setTitleTextViewId( R.id.title_text_view )
            .setBodyTextViewId( R.id.body_text_view )
            .setStarRatingContentViewGroupId( R.id.star_rating_view )
            .setAdvertiserTextViewId( R.id.advertiser_textView )
            .setIconImageViewId( R.id.icon_image_view )
            .setMediaContentViewGroupId( R.id.media_view_container )
            .setOptionsContentViewGroupId( R.id.options_view )
            .setCallToActionButtonId( R.id.cta_button )
            .build();

    return new MaxNativeAdView( binder, this );
  }
  ⋮
}

Follow each network’s guidance and bind their required ad assets. Otherwise, they may invalidate your impressions.

Load the native ad

Load a pre-rendered ad

To load a pre-rendered native ad, first instantiate a MaxNativeAdLoader corresponding to your Ad Unit ID. Then call its loadAd(MaxNativeAdView) method. Implement and set the MaxNativeAdLoadListener so that you are notified when your native ad’s load state changes.

Load and render ad separately

To load a native ad, first instantiate a MaxNativeAdLoader corresponding to your Ad Unit ID. Then call its loadAd() method. Implement and set the MaxNativeAdLoadListener so that you are notified when your native ad’s load state changes. Then use the MaxAd returned in onNativeAdLoaded to render the ad view. You can do this by calling MaxNativeAdLoader.render(MaxNativeAdView, MaxAd).

Native ads are expected to be shown in the ad expiration window of four hours. Impressions associated with ads that show outside of this window are invalidated.

Destroy the native ad

If you stop using a native ad, destroy its resources by calling the destroy() method. If you do not, the performance of your app degrades over time. Below is an example of how you load and destroy a native ad. This takes place after you have bound the UI components from the previous step.

public class ExampleActivity
        extends Activity
        implements MaxAdRevenueListener
{
  private ViewGroup         nativeAdContainerView;
  private MaxNativeAdLoader nativeAdLoader;
  private MaxAd             loadedNativeAd;

  ⋮

  private void createNativeAdLoader()
  {
    nativeAdLoader = new MaxNativeAdLoader( "«ad-unit-ID»", this );
    nativeAdLoader.setRevenueListener( this );
    nativeAdLoader.setNativeAdListener( new NativeAdListener() );
  }

  private void loadNativeAd()
  {
    nativeAdLoader.loadAd( createNativeAdView() );
  }

  @Override
  public void onAdRevenuePaid(final MaxAd ad) { }

  private class NativeAdListener
          extends MaxNativeAdListener
  {
    @Override
    public void onNativeAdLoaded(final MaxNativeAdView nativeAdView, final MaxAd nativeAd)
    {
      // Destroy any pre-existing native ad to prevent memory leaks.
      if ( loadedNativeAd != null )
      {
        nativeAdLoader.destroy( loadedNativeAd );
      }

      // Save ad for cleanup.
      loadedNativeAd = nativeAd;

      nativeAdContainerView.removeAllViews();
      nativeAdContainerView.addView( nativeAdView );
    }

    @Override
    public void onNativeAdLoadFailed(final String adUnitId, final MaxError error)
    {
      // Native ad load failed.
      // AppLovin recommends retrying with exponentially higher delays up to a maximum delay.
    }

    @Override
    public void onNativeAdClicked(final MaxAd nativeAd) { }

    @Override
    public void onNativeAdExpired(final MaxAd nativeAd)
    {
      // Native ad has expired, which can occur after four hours.
      // Load the next ad.
      nativeAdLoader.loadAd( createNativeAdView() );
    }
  }

  @Override
  protected void onDestroy()
  {
    // Destroy the native ad and native ad loader to prevent memory leaks.
    if ( loadedNativeAd != null )
    {
      nativeAdLoader.destroy( loadedNativeAd );
    }

    nativeAdLoader.destroy();
    super.onDestroy();
  }
}

Asset sizes

AppLovin recommends that you incorporate as many of the native elements as are appropriate in the context of what the rest of your app looks like. These may include the Title and Media View or Icon. If you give the user more information, this helps them decide whether they want to click the ad.

For AppLovin Exchange demand, the maximum numbers of characters allowed for Title, Description, and CTA are as follows:

AssetMaximum character count
Title50 characters
Description150 characters. You can add an ellipsis (…) after 149 characters, as the 150th character.
CTA15 characters

For SDK-mediated networks, the network sets the maximum character counts.

How to get the media content aspect ratio

The following code snippet demonstrates how to get the media content aspect ratio of your native ad:

@Override
public void onNativeAdLoaded(final MaxNativeAdView adView, final MaxAd ad)
{
  MaxNativeAd nativeAd = ad.getNativeAd();
  if ( nativeAd != null )
  {
    float aspectRatio = nativeAd.getMediaContentAspectRatio();
  }
}

Some networks do not provide media content aspect ratios. For those networks, the value is zero.

Star rating

You can access and render the star rating for the advertised app. This value, when available, is a floating point number in the range of [0.0, 5.0].

The MAX SDK automatically renders the stars in the container view that you designate as the star rating container. If the network does not provide the star rating, or if the star rating is < 3, the SDK does not fill the star rating container view. You are responsible for adjusting your layout accordingly.

To retrieve the star rating for the current ad:

@Override
public void onNativeAdLoaded(final MaxNativeAdView adView, final MaxAd ad)
{
  MaxNativeAd nativeAd = ad.getNativeAd();
  if ( nativeAd != null )
  {
    Double starRating = nativeAd.getStarRating();
    if ( starRating == null || starRating < 3 )
    {
      // Star rating not available, or < 3 - hide star rating container view
      return;
    }

    // Star rating available and >= 3 - show star rating container view
  }
}

Ad placer

Ad Placer automatically inserts native ads into your existing content stream using RecyclerView. To integrate this API, take the following high-level steps:

  1. Configure native ad layout.
  2. Create ad placer settings.
  3. Configure ad placer.
  4. Configure ad rendering settings.
  5. Optionally, set listener.

This page explains these steps in greater detail below.

To accord with AppLovin’s policy, your ad must contain the Privacy Information icon. This icon links to an important privacy notice. You can bind to it via MaxNativeAdViewBinder.Builder#setOptionsContentViewGroupId(…).

1. Configure native ad layout

Ad placer supports manual native ad layouts. See the “Manual” section of this page to learn how to configure such ad layouts. See Configure ad rendering settings below to learn how to configure the ad placer to support your layout.

Follow each network’s guidance and bind their required ad assets. Otherwise they may invalidate your impressions.

2. Create ad placer settings

Create a MaxAdPlacerSettings object with your ad unit identifier. This object configures your ad placer and provides positioning information for ads in your feed.

MaxAdPlacerSettings settings = new MaxAdPlacerSettings( "«ad-unit-ID»" );

Configure ad positions

Ad placer positions ads in your feed. It does this based on at least one of the following:

  1. a list of fixed index paths that indicate where to place ads
  2. a repeating interval at which to insert ads
    • Your ad placer inserts repeating ads after the last fixed position. If you do not set any fixed positions, your ad placer adds repeating ads after the first position in the stream. This interval value must be greater than or equal to 2. An interval value less than 2 disables the ad placer.

Configure ad positions by modifying MaxAdPlacerSettings:

  1. To add a new fixed ad position (for example, at row 1):

settings.addFixedPosition( 3 );


1. To remove existing fixed positions:

settings.resetFixedPositions();


1. To change the repeating interval (for example, to insert ads at every fifth position in the feed):

settings.setRepeatingInterval( 5 );

Additional settings

You can further configure your ad placer by adjusting these settings in MaxAdPlacerSettings:

maxAdCount
Set this to the maximum number of ads in a stream (default=256). If a stream contains multiple sections, this determines the maximum number of ads per ad section.
maxPreloadedAdCount
Set this to the maximum number of ads to preload for placement in a stream (default=4).

3. Configure ad placer

Choose one of these two options when you configure your ad placer:

  1. If your feed is based on a RecyclerView, use MaxRecyclerAdapter. The helper class wraps the original adapter. It automatically renders and inserts ads into the feed. You can access the underlying ad placer by calling getAdPlacer().
  2. You may prefer either to subclass or to directly use MaxAdPlacer. You may want to do this, for example, if your feed uses some other custom UI component

Using MaxRecyclerAdapter

To configure your ad placer with MaxRecyclerAdapter follow these instructions:

  1. Initialize MaxRecyclerAdapter with your settings, original adapter, and activity:

adAdapter = new MaxRecyclerAdapter( settings, adapter, this );

  1. Set your recycler view’s adapter to the instantiated MaxRecyclerAdapter:

recyclerView.setAdapter( adAdapter );

  1. Update your code to implement the following:
    • Whenever you add or delete items from your stream, call the appropriate methods from your adapter. These methods notify the ad placer of updates to your stream:
      • notifyItemInserted()
      • notifyItemRemoved()
      • notifyItemsInserted()
      • notifyItemsRemoved()
    • If you register any data observers on your original adapter, register them on the MaxRecyclerAdapter instead. This way, they receive the adjusted position of content items after ad insertion.
    • If any other parts of your code depend on a content item’s position before ad insertion, convert the position to its original position. Do this by calling adAdapter.getOriginalPosition().
  2. Call loadAds() to start loading ads:

adAdapter.loadAds();

The following code shows how you load ads into a recycler view by using MaxRecyclerAdapter:

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
  super.onCreate( savedInstanceState );
  // Create your own recycler view and original adapter
  ⋮

  // Configure ad adapter
  MaxAdPlacerSettings settings = new MaxAdPlacerSettings( "«ad-unit-ID»" );
  settings.setRepeatingInterval( 5 );
  adAdapter = new MaxRecyclerAdapter( settings, originalAdapter, this );

  // Optionally, register listener
  adAdapter.setListener( this );

  // Configure recycler view and load ads
  recyclerView.setAdapter( adAdapter );
  adAdapter.loadAds();
}

@Override
public void onDestroy()
{
  adAdapter.destroy();
  super.onDestroy();
}

4. Configure ad rendering settings

Call setNativeAdViewBinder on the ad placer before you load ads. Always set the ad size. This optimizes rendering.

5. Optionally set listener

The ad placer supports an optional listener that notifies you of events:

  • onAdLoaded()
  • onAdRemoved()
  • onAdClicked()
  • onAdRevenuePaid()
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