Enabling test ads

This guide explains how to enable test ads in your ads integration. It's important to enable test ads during development so that you can click on them without charging Google advertisers. If you click on too many ads without being in test mode, you risk your account being flagged for invalid activity.

There are two ways to get test ads:

1. Use one of Google's sample ad units.
2. Use your own ad unit and enable test devices.

Prerequisite

• Complete Get Started.

Demo ad units

The quickest way to enable testing is to use Google-provided demo ad units. These ad units are not associated with your AdMob account, so there's no risk of your account generating invalid traffic when using these ad units.

Key Point: Make sure you replace these IDs with your own ad unit ID before publishing your app.

Here are demo ad units that point to specific test creatives for each format:

Ad format	Sample ad unit ID
App Open	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/3419835294
Banner	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/6300978111
Interstitial	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1033173712
Interstitial Video	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/8691691433
Rewarded	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5224354917
Rewarded Interstitial	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5354046379
Native Advanced	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2247696110
Native Advanced Video	ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1044960115

Caution: If you set up an app-ads.txt file for your app, you need to also include this line in your app-ads.txt file in order to load ads using the demo ad units:

google.com, pub-3940256099942544, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

Alternatively, you can enable test devices and use your own ad unit IDs instead.

Enable test devices

If you want to do more rigorous testing with production-looking ads, you can now configure your device as a test device and use your own ad unit IDs that you've created in the AdMob UI. Test devices can either be added in the AdMob UI or programmatically using the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

Follow the steps below to add your device as a test device.

Key Point: Android emulators are automatically configured as test devices.

Add your test device in the AdMob UI

For a simple, non-programmatic way to add a test device and test new or existing app builds, use the AdMob UI. Learn how.

Key Point: New test devices typically start serving test ads in your app within 15 minutes, but it can also take up to 24 hours.

Add your test device programmatically

If you want to test ads in your app as you're developing, follow the steps below to programmatically register your test device.

1. Load your ads-integrated app and make an ad request.
2. Check the logcat output for a message that looks like the one below, which shows you your device ID and how to add it as a test device:

   I/Ads: Use RequestConfiguration.Builder.setTestDeviceIds(Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231"))
   to get test ads on this device."

   Copy your test device ID to your clipboard.
3. Modify your code to call RequestConfiguration.Builder.setTestDeviceIds() and pass in a list of your test device IDs.

   Java

   List<String> testDeviceIds = Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231");
   RequestConfiguration configuration =
       new RequestConfiguration.Builder().setTestDeviceIds(testDeviceIds).build();
   MobileAds.setRequestConfiguration(configuration);
   

   Kotlin

   val testDeviceIds = Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231")
   val configuration = RequestConfiguration.Builder().setTestDeviceIds(testDeviceIds).build()
   MobileAds.setRequestConfiguration(configuration)
   

   You can optionally check AdRequest.isTestDevice() to confirm that your device was properly added as a test device.
   Be sure to remove the code that sets these test device IDs before you release your app.

4. Re-run your app. If the ad is a Google ad, you'll see a Test Ad label centered at the top of the ad (banner, interstitial, or rewarded video):

   

   For native advanced ads, the headline asset is prepended with the string "Test mode".

   

Ads with this Test Ad label are safe to click. Requests, impressions, and clicks on test ads will not show up in your account's reports.

Note: To see the Test Ad label, you need to be using an SDK version of 11.6.0 or higher.

Note: Mediated ads do NOT render a Test Ad label. See the section below for details.

Testing with mediation

Google's sample ad units only show Google Ads. To test your mediation configuration, you must use the enable test devices approach.

Mediated ads do NOT render a Test Ad label. You are responsible for ensuring that test ads are enabled for each of your mediation networks so these networks don't flag your account for invalid activity. See each network's respective mediation guide for more information.

If you aren't sure whether a mediation ad network adapter supports test ads, it is safest to avoid clicking on ads from that network during development. You can use the getMediationAdapterClassName() method on any of the ad formats to figure out which ad network served the current ad.