Rewarded ads

Select platform: Android iOS Unity Flutter

Rewarded ads are ads that users have the option of interacting with in exchange for in-app rewards. This guide shows you how to integrate rewarded ads from AdMob into a Unity app.

Read some customer success stories: case study 1, case study 2.

This guide explains how to integrate rewarded ads into a Unity app.

Prerequisites

• Complete the Get started guide.

Always test with test ads

The following sample code contains an ad unit ID which you can use to request test ads. It's been specially configured to return test ads rather than production ads for every request, making it safe to use.

However, after you've registered an app in the AdMob web interface and created your own ad unit IDs for use in your app, explicitly configure your device as a test device during development.

Android

ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5224354917

iOS

ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1712485313

Initialize the Mobile Ads SDK

Before loading ads, have your app initialize the Mobile Ads SDK by calling MobileAds.Initialize(). This needs to be done only once, ideally at app launch.

using GoogleMobileAds;
using GoogleMobileAds.Api;

public class GoogleMobileAdsDemoScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void Start()
    {
        // Initialize the Google Mobile Ads SDK.
        MobileAds.Initialize((InitializationStatus initStatus) =>
        {
            // This callback is called once the MobileAds SDK is initialized.
        });
    }
}

If you're using mediation, wait until the callback occurs before loading ads as this will ensure that all mediation adapters are initialized.

Load the rewarded ad

Loading a rewarded ad is accomplished using the static Load() method on the RewardedAd class. The loaded RewardedAd object is provided as a parameter in the completion handler. The following example loads a rewarded ad:

// Create our request used to load the ad.
var adRequest = new AdRequest();

// Send the request to load the ad.
RewardedAd.Load("AD_UNIT_ID", adRequest, (RewardedAd ad, LoadAdError error) =>
{
    if (error != null)
    {
        // The ad failed to load.
        return;
    }
    // The ad loaded successfully.
});
RewardedAdSnippets.cs

Replace AD_UNIT_ID with your ad unit ID.

Warning: Attempting to load a new ad from the ad request completion block when an ad failed to load is strongly discouraged. If you must load an ad from the ad request completion block, limit ad load retries to avoid continuous failed ad requests in situations such as limited network connectivity.

Tip: You can use ad load calls to build up a cache of preloaded ads before you intend to show them, so that ads can be shown with zero latency when needed. Since ads expire after an hour, you should clear this cache and reload with new ads every hour.

[Optional] Validate server-side verification (SSV) callbacks

Apps that require extra data in server-side verification callbacks should use the custom data feature of rewarded ads. Any string value set on a rewarded ad object is passed to the custom_data query parameter of the SSV callback. If no custom data value is set, the custom_data query parameter value won't be present in the SSV callback.

The following code sample demonstrates how to set the SSV options after the rewarded ad is loaded.

// Create and pass the SSV options to the rewarded ad.
var options = new ServerSideVerificationOptions
{
    CustomData = ""SAMPLE_CUSTOM_DATA_STRING""
};

rewardedAd.SetServerSideVerificationOptions(options);
RewardedAdSnippets.cs

Replace SAMPLE_CUSTOM_DATA_STRING with your custom data.

If you want to set the custom reward string, you must do so before showing the ad.

Key Point: The custom reward string is percent escaped and might require decoding when parsed from the SSV callback.

Show the rewarded ad with reward callback

When presenting your ad, you must provide a callback to handle the reward for the user. Ads can only be shown once per load. Use the CanShowAd() method to verify that the ad is ready to be shown.

The following code presents the best method for displaying a rewarded ad.

if (rewardedAd != null && rewardedAd.CanShowAd()) { rewardedAd.Show((Reward reward) => { // The ad was showen and the user earned a reward. }); }

RewardedAdSnippets.cs

Listen to rewarded ad events

To further customize the behavior of your ad, you can hook into a number of events in the ad's lifecycle. The following code listens for ad events:

rewardedAd.OnAdPaid += (AdValue adValue) => { // Raised when the ad is estimated to have earned money. }; rewardedAd.OnAdImpressionRecorded += () => { // Raised when an impression is recorded for an ad. }; rewardedAd.OnAdClicked += () => { // Raised when a click is recorded for an ad. }; rewardedAd.OnAdFullScreenContentOpened += () => { // Raised when the ad opened full screen content. }; rewardedAd.OnAdFullScreenContentClosed += () => { // Raised when the ad closed full screen content. }; rewardedAd.OnAdFullScreenContentFailed += (AdError error) => { // Raised when the ad failed to open full screen content. };

RewardedAdSnippets.cs

Clean up the rewarded ad

When you are finished with a RewardedAd, make sure to call the Destroy() method before dropping your reference to it:

if (rewardedAd != null) { rewardedAd.Destroy(); }

RewardedAdSnippets.cs

This notifies the plugin that the object is no longer used and the memory it occupies can be reclaimed. Failure to call this method results in memory leaks.

Preload the next rewarded ad

RewardedAd is a one-time-use object. This means once a rewarded ad is shown, the object can't be used again. To request another rewarded ad, you'll need to create a new RewardedAd object.

To prepare a rewarded ad for the next impression opportunity, preload the rewarded ad once the OnAdFullScreenContentClosed or OnAdFullScreenContentFailed ad event is raised.

rewardedAd.OnAdFullScreenContentClosed += () =>
{
    // Reload the ad so that we can show another as soon as possible.
    var adRequest = new AdRequest();
    RewardedAd.Load("AD_UNIT_ID", adRequest, (RewardedAd ad, LoadAdError error) =>
    {
        // Handle ad loading here.
    });
};
RewardedAdSnippets.cs

Additional resources

• HelloWorld example: A minimal implementation of all ad formats.