What options for Ads on a windows app?

If the microsoft ads the only option? is there anything else?

I just want to port my apps over but chartboost, admob and unityads all don't seem to support windows phone.

 

Hey man i am also searching for wp8 Admob unity plugin and seems there are 3 options according to this thread http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/how-to-use-admob-in-windows-phone-8.244393/ .
I wasn't able to build neither of the projects ,but i never tried prime31's plugin.
Does anyone has successfully set Admob for wp8 with unity control?

 

I am going to try the neatplug on, since I already have that and it supports wp

 

I am using SMAATO (www.smaato.com), it has a plugin for WSA 8.1 (Phone, Store, Universal), however I am not sure about its profitability yet...

 

You could also check out the AdMediator PlugIn.
It has Microsoft Ads, Smaato and AdDuplex (Cross-Promotion) plus very nice configuration options, even after your app has been released (like percentual distribution, refresh rates, country based setups, fallbacks etc.) If your app is Silverlight (which is not possible with Unity and Windows 8.1 !!) you even have more options, including AdMob.

 

You said besides Microsoft Ads... but just wanted to note, I just finished my first game using Microsoft Ads, and I have to say it was super easy and works great. Can't speak on revenue yet, but in my several hours of testing spanning several days, all different hours of day/night, I've been seeing pretty much 100% fill rate... I am in the US, might be worse in other parts of the world.

Took me 30 minutes or less to add them, including the time it took me to find tutorials, download the SDK, everything. It's pretty much just download/install SDK, then add a few lines to your XAML file... done. Assuming you've designed your game to have a spot for the ads to show up. In my case the ads are just always there, at the bottom of the screen, so maybe my case is very simple (don't have to turn them on/off from one screen to the next).

 

@shopguy,
Hey, can you please give me some hints, 'cause I haven't found anything simple or helpful in the microsoft ads (I think that is: pubcentre right?) information and "help"...
Can you give me the links to the helpful information you've found? I'm almost ready to give up...

 

http://blog.thomaslebrun.net/2012/1...g-the-microsoft-advertising-sdk/#.VUGx53lFCUl

That's what I followed. It is pretty long, but only because he goes in to a lot of detail, the actual steps are just a few, something like:

1. Download SDK
2. Add reference to SDK in Visual Studio
3. Register on pub center and add your app name and a few other simple steps to get some ID numbers
4. Add a few lines to the MainPage.xaml file, and include the ID numbers from step 3

That covers Windows 8.0, which I think is slightly easier. If you are doing both (8.1 also) I'd start with 8.0. 8.1 is about the same, but you download/reference the 8.1 SDK instead of 8.0. I think the 8.1 SDK is even included with Visual Studio now, if not you should be able to find it easy from MS.

Here is my MainPage.xaml for an 8.0 project, you only have to add the Ads:AdControl section, and the one using:Microsoft.Advertising line towards the top. That's it, no "code" needed.. unless you need to hide the ads, in which case you just have to add 1 or 2 lines of code to hide/show them as needed.

Code (CSharp):

1. <Page
2.     x:Class="Template.MainPage"
3.     IsTabStop="false"
4.     xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
5.     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
6.     xmlns:local="using:Template"
7.     xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
8.     xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
9.     xmlns:Ads="using:Microsoft.Advertising.WinRT.UI"
10.     mc:Ignorable="d">
11.  
12.     <SwapChainBackgroundPanel x:Name="DXSwapChainPanel">
13.         <Grid x:Name="ExtendedSplashGrid">
14.             <Image x:Name="ExtendedSplashImage" Source="Assets/SplashScreen.png"/>
15.         </Grid>
16.         <Ads:AdControl ApplicationId="YOUR_ID_GOES_HERE"
17.                AdUnitId="YOUR_ID_GOES_HERE"
18.                Height="90"
19.                Width="728"
20.                HorizontalAlignment="Center"
21.                VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
22.     </SwapChainBackgroundPanel>
23. </Page>

Edit: If you do Windows Phone 8.1 build.. the using: line is different, it looks like:

xmlns:Ads="using:Microsoft.Advertising.Mobile.UI"

I guess they gave it a different namespace. For my universal builds I end up copying/moving MainPage.xaml so I have separate ones for Phone vs non-phone builds. Then I use some conditionals (#if) in App.xaml.cs

 

Thanks @shopguy , this write-up was superb and helpful!