Integrating Vungle with Mediation

This guide is intended for publishers who want to use the Google Mobile Ads SDK to load and display ads from Vungle via mediation.

It covers how to add Vungle to an ad unit's mediation configuration, how to set up Ad Network Optimization (ANO), and how to integrate the Vungle SDK and adapter into an Android app.

Supported formats and features

The AdMob mediation adapter for Vungle has the following capabilities:

Formats
Banners
Interstitials
Rewarded video
Rewarded Video (new APIs)
Native Advanced
Features
Smart banners
Ad Network Optimization (ANO)

Requirements

• Android API level 16 or higher

• Latest Google Mobile Ads SDK

Limitations

• Vungle does not support loading multiple ads using the same Placement Reference ID.
  • The Vungle adapter gracefully fails the 2nd request if another request for that placement is loading or waiting to be shown.
• Vungle only supports loading 1 banner ad at a time.
  • The Vungle adapter gracefully fails subsequent banner requests if a banner ad is already loaded.

Step 1: Set up Vungle

Sign up or log in to your Vungle account.

Add your app to the Vungle Applications dashboard by clicking the Add Application button.

Fill out the form, entering all the necessary details, then click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to add your app to Vungle.

Once your app is created, select your app from the Vungle Applications dashboard.

Take note of the App ID.

Adding new placements

To create a new placement to be used with AdMob mediation, navigate to the Vungle Placements dashboard , click on the Add Placement button and select your app from the drop-down list.

Note: While Vungle automatically creates a "default" placement when you first create your app, we recommend creating a new placement for mediation with AdMob.

Details for adding new placements are included below:

Banner

Select Banner, enter your desired Placement Name and fill out the rest of the form. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to create the placement.

Take note of the Reference ID and click Sounds Good.

300x250 Banner

Select MREC, enter your desired Placement Name and fill out the rest of the form. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to create the placement.

Take note of the Reference ID and click Sounds Good.

Interstitial

Select Interstitial, enter your desired Placement Name and fill out the rest of the form. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to create the placement.

Take note of the Reference ID and click Sounds Good.

Rewarded Video

Select Rewarded, enter your desired Placement Name and fill out the rest of the form. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to create the placement.

Take note of the Reference ID and click Sounds Good.

In addition to the App ID and the Reference ID, you'll also need your Vungle Reporting API Key to set up your AdMob ad unit ID. Navigate to the Vungle Reports dashboard and click on the Reporting API Key button to view your Reporting API Key.

Step 2: Configure mediation settings for your AdMob ad unit

You need to add Vungle to the mediation configuration for your ad unit. First, sign in to your AdMob account.

Next, Navigate to the Mediation tab. If you have an existing mediation group you'd like to modify, click the name of that mediation group to edit it, and skip ahead to Add Vungle as an ad source.

To create a new mediation group, select Create Mediation Group.

Enter your ad format and platform, then click Continue.

Give your mediation group a name, and select locations to target. Next, set the mediation group status to Enabled. Then click Add Ad Units.

Associate this mediation group with one or more of your existing AdMob ad units. Then click Done.

You should now see the ad units card populated with the ad units you selected, as shown below:

Add Vungle as an ad source

In the Ad Sources card, select Add Ad Network. Select Vungle and enable the Optimize switch. For API Key, enter the Reporting API Key obtained in the previous section to set up ANO for Vungle. Then enter an eCPM value for Vungle and click Continue.

Note: You only need to set up ANO once per network.

Enter the Application ID and Placement Reference ID obtained in the previous section. If you're using version 4.x or older of the Vungle SDK, the Placement Reference ID can be any value.

Note: Ad network optimization takes a few days to gather data to accurately calculate eCPM for a mediation network. In the meantime, the ANO status will be PENDING, so you must manually set an eCPM value for the network. Once the eCPM can be calculated, ANO will automatically start updating the eCPM on your behalf.

Using rewarded video ads

In the settings for your rewarded video ad unit, provide values for the reward amount and reward type. Then, to ensure you provide the same reward to the user no matter which ad network is served, check the Apply to all networks in Mediation groups box.

If you don't apply this setting, the Vungle adapter defaults to a reward of type vungle with a value of 1. The Vungle SDK does not provide specific reward values for its rewarded video ads.

For more information on setting reward values for AdMob ad units, see Create an ad unit.

Step 3: Import the Vungle SDK and adapter

Android Studio integration (recommended)

Add the following implementation dependency with the latest version of the Vungle SDK and adapter in the app-level build.gradle file:

repositories {
    jcenter()
}

...
dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.0.2'
    implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.1.0'
    implementation 'com.google.ads.mediation:vungle:6.5.3.0'
}
...

Manual integration

• Download the latest Vungle Android SDK and extract the .jar files under the libs folder and add it to your project.

• Download the latest Vungle adapter .aar file from Bintray and add it to your project.

Step 4: Add required code

No additional code required for Vungle integration.

Step 5: Test your implementation

To enable test ads, go to your Vungle dashboard and navigate to Applications.

Select your app for which you would like to enable test ads under the Placement Reference ID section of your app. Test ads can be enabled by selecting Test Mode to Show test ads only under the Status section.

That's it! You now have a working mediation integration with Vungle.

Optional steps

EU consent and GDPR

Under the Google EU User Consent Policy, you must ensure that certain disclosures are given to, and consents obtained from, users in the European Economic Area (EEA) regarding the use of device identifiers and personal data. This policy reflects the requirements of the EU ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When seeking consent, you must identify each ad network in your mediation chain that may collect, receive, or use personal data and provide information about each network's use. Google currently is unable to pass the user's consent choice to such networks automatically.

The section below shows you how to enable or disable personalized ads for Vungle.

In version 6.2.5.0, the Vungle adapter added the VungleConsent class that allows you to pass consent to Vungle. The following sample code sets the consent status to OPTED_IN. If you choose to call this method, it is recommended that you do so prior to requesting ads via the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

Note: Your app must reference Vungle adapter 6.2.5.0 or higher and Vungle SDK 6.2.0 or higher to use the code below.

import com.vungle.warren.Vungle;
import com.vungle.mediation.VungleConsent;
...

VungleConsent.updateConsentStatus(Vungle.Consent.OPTED_IN);

You can also check the current consent status for Vungle using the following code:

VungleConsent.getCurrentVungleConsent();

In version 6.3.12.0 of the Vungle Adapter, the updateConsentStatus() method was updated to include a consent message version:

import com.vungle.warren.Vungle;
import com.vungle.mediation.VungleConsent;
...

VungleConsent.updateConsentStatus(Vungle.Consent.OPTED_IN, "1.0.0");

You can get this consent message version for Vungle using the following code:

VungleConsent.getCurrentVungleConsentMessageVersion();

See Vungle's GDPR recommended implementation for more information.

Network-specific parameters

The Vungle adapter supports an additional request parameter which can be passed to the adapter using the VungleExtrasBuilder class. This class includes the following methods:

setSoundEnabled(bool)

Sets whether or not to enable sound when playing video ads.

setUserId(String)

A string representing Vungle's Incentivized User ID.

Here's a code example of how to set these ad request parameters:

JAVA

Bundle extras = new VungleExtrasBuilder(placements)
         .setSoundEnabled(false)
         .setUserId("test_user")
         .build();
AdRequest request =  new AdRequest.Builder()
         .addNetworkExtrasBundle(VungleAdapter.class, extras)             // Rewarded video.
         .addNetworkExtrasBundle(VungleInterstitialAdapter.class, extras) // Interstitial.
         .build();

KOTLIN

val extras = VungleExtrasBuilder(placements)
         .setSoundEnabled(false)
         .setUserId("test_user")
         .build()
val request = AdRequest.Builder()
         .addNetworkExtrasBundle(VungleAdapter::class.java, extras)       // Rewarded video.
         .addNetworkExtrasBundle(VungleInterstitialAdapter.class, extras) // Interstitial.
         .build()

Vungle Android Mediation Adapter Changelog

Version 6.5.3.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.5.3.
• Add support for the newly-introduced Vungle's Banner format.
• Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 19.0.1.

Built and tested with:

• Google Mobile Ads SDK version 19.0.1.
• Vungle SDK version 6.5.3.

Version 6.4.11.1

• Fixed an issue where banner ads failed to refresh.

Version 6.4.11.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.4.11.
• Added support for banner ads.
• Migrated the adapter to AndroidX.
• Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 18.2.0.

Version 6.3.24.1

• Updated adapter to support new open-beta Rewarded API.
• Updated the minimum required Google Mobile Ads SDK version to 17.2.0.

Version 6.3.24.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.3.24.

Version 6.3.17.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.3.17.

Version 6.3.12.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.3.12.

Version 6.2.5.1

• Updated the adapter to invoke the onRewardedVideoComplete() ad event.

Version 6.2.5.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 6.2.5.

Version 5.3.2.1

• Updated adapter to correctly report clicks to the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

Version 5.3.2.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 5.3.2.
• Updated the Adpater project for Android Studio 3.0.
• Added the following methods to Bundle builder class.
  • setOrdinalViewCount : This field is used to pass the mediation ordinal, whenever Publisher receives the ordinal data reports from Vungle.
  • setFlexViewCloseTimeInSec : This option is used to make flex view ads dismiss on their own after the specified number of seconds.

Version 5.3.0.0

• Verified compatibility with Vungle SDK 5.3.0.

Version 5.1.0.0

• Updated the adapter to make it compatible with Vungle SDK 5.1.0.
• Changed the version naming system to [Vungle SDK version].[adapter patch version].

Earlier versions

• Added support for interstitial and rewarded video ad formats.