AdMob iPhone publishers have been given 4 weeks to stop using ad network mediation layers such as AdWhirl and Tapjoy to monetize their iPhone apps. [Update: The deadline has now been extended to 5 August.] After this grace period, AdMob won’t serve them any more ads.

This is bad news for the mediation layers and bad news for the economics of the mobile advertising market. Most publishers do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop their own ad mediation and optimisation add-in for their apps. So they have to choose one provider and stick with them, or re-release their app every time they wish to change to a dfferent provider. AdMob is laser focused on becoming the iPhone and iPod Touch adserver of choice, and this step will push many publishers to choose AdMob, the network they know now, thus limiting the competition from other ad networks. There are plenty of other ad networks vying for a place on the iPhone screen, and it will be interesting to see how this decision affects AdMob’s share.

Here’s the full text of the email sent to publishers yesterday:

Dear AdMob Publisher,
I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that beginning on July 22, AdMob will no longer serve ads requested from iPhone apps that employ ad network mediation layers such as AdWhirl or Tapjoy. We originally had decided to work alongside mediation layers, but have found that a number of problematic trends have developed over the last several months including:
-Increased complaints from end users including ad rendering problems, increased latency, and ads with broken links.
-Increased technical issues with ad requests coming from mediation layers.
-Obstruction of some key parameters that we use to optimize ad serving and maximize publisher eCPM.
We will continue to support AdMob publishers who have developed their own logic to allow the use of multiple networks. We are providing a 4-week grace period for publishers to make the necessary adjustments before we stop supporting mediation layers. Please refer to our corporate blog for additional details or contact support@admob.com with any questions.
We believe this policy change is necessary to provide our publishers, advertisers, and end users with the best possible experience and results. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Tags: admob, iPhone, mediation

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Ad network news, Industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.