Continues to request ads even when activity not shown

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I notice from LogCat that the admob requests continue every 25 secs even 
though the activity is no longer in view.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by mjc1...@gmail.com on 1 Dec 2009 at 2:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thx for your report, I have to take a look at it.
The adMob stuff is basically a Test for me how this works.

I think something in exit code is wrong or missing.
If you close MarketEnabler there is no need that the programm still runs so I 
have to
add some code that it properly exits when clicking the back button.
I hope this solves the adMob updating issue.

Btw. If the ads are too anoing or cause other problems, please report them 
because
I'm evaluating adMob with this application to see if I can use it as a business 
model
to develop free (and opensource) apps but still have some revenue of it (other 
than
just my satisfaction that I do something other people like (but it's the most 
important).

Also 25 sec. is too short, have to set it to a minimum of 60 seconds or more.

Maybe some figures from my first 4 Test days:
27.11.09 - deployement day - 12687 Requests and 12623 Impressions (8 clicks)
28.11.09 - 23487 Requests and 23416 Impressions (20 clicks)
29.11.09 - 29316 Requests and 29252 Impressions (21 clicks)
30.11.09 - 44571 Requests and 33848 Impressions (24 clicks)
01.12.09 - until now - 19533 Requests and 13623 Impressions (3 clicks)

Original comment by michel.racic on 1 Dec 2009 at 8:54

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Critical
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by michel.racic on 1 Dec 2009 at 8:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I know someone else with an ADP device running 1.6 said that the app closes 
when they 
exit out (which is what you want). But on my HTC Hero (UK version, latest HTC 
firmware) it stays running.

Yeah 60 secs would be better as suggested by AdMob themselves.

I use admob in my app too. I also use 60 secs as the refresh rate. But when I 
back 
out of the activity, the ad requests stop (even though the app is still alive). 
I 
don't do anything special so I don't know why your app behaves differently.

Maybe you need to upgrade to the latest version of admob? - released a week or 
so 
ago.

Hmm, so you get just under 0.1% click rate (wrt impressions). Mine is more like 
0.5% 
but then again it might be because your activity is only really for settings 
and so 
users don't really spend so much time there...

Original comment by mjc1...@gmail.com on 1 Dec 2009 at 9:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Second thoughts, the click rate difference is probably more because I wasn't 
refreshing 
my ads!

Original comment by mjc1...@gmail.com on 1 Dec 2009 at 9:16

[GoogleCodeExporter]

hmmm... very strange, I have to see that I implement some proper exit code that 
it is
really shutdown after exiting the app.

Strange because I even didn't added any code for adMob, just adding theire 
library
and Include the xml code in the main layout.
Did you use a programmatic approach to include ads or just like in the sample 
invlude
the xml code?
I downloaded the admob sdk 4 days ago...

Yes, the clickrate will go up (impressions down) after I set the 60s refresh
intervall, the 25 sec is a mistake, it doesn't make sense.

Mostly the app is used just for a very short period of time... if a user just 
needs
to restore the settings he maybe spends about 15 to 20 seconds on the app 
itself.

I think the big difference between requests and impressions or better said the 
bad
fill rate is coming from there... I noticed that the ads need mostly between 15 
and
30 sec to load and if a lot use the app like I used it (saved the values for US 
Tmob)
and just started the app, pressed restore and quit again to go to the market 
you wont
see any add but it got requested in the background.

Btw. clickrate is between 0.09 to 0.01

Another thing I noticed, in the last 4 days I started MarketEnabler a couple 
times to
see if the ad changes and it just always displays the same ad (in total I saw 3
different but one of them just 1 time).
And I as a user won't click the same ad more than once (or maybe twice)

Original comment by michel.racic on 1 Dec 2009 at 3:08

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Why not just leave the refresh interval as 0? This way it will only load on 
startup 
and your users won't hang around long enough for the second ad anyway. This way 
you 
don't need to write any special exit code.

Up until a few days ago, I did exactly that. I just used the XML sample code 
(maybe 
it was different a month ago when I used it - compared to now). But just 
recently I 
changed my code so that it sets the refresh interval to 60. I just set it in 
the 
onCreate() method. Nothing fancy. Maybe there is another reason the ad requests 
are 
continuing?  Anyway, if you use a 0 interval you won't have this problem.

Yeah, I've seen only a few different ads all the time I've used it (though I 
normally  
use it in test mode). Usually something about God. Something about wallpapers 
and 
that's about it! Pretty poor, but what can you do? :(

Original comment by mjc1...@gmail.com on 1 Dec 2009 at 3:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have look at it, but I think that could be good to set it to 0 for this app.
maybe in holiday I will code a AdDemo app and implement different ad provider 
and
different methods how they can be included that devs can run the app on 
different
phones and see how the ad shows on the devices (emulator with different builds) 
and
decide which provider they want to take ;-)

Until now, I'm not really happy with admob... have to search better provider or
create an own provider because the ads should be good and helpful for the users 
i.e.
for MarketEnabler maybe pointing to paid apps on the market that are 
interesting.

I always see something about ringtones on my phone and on emulator I see 
something
about God if I run it in production mode

Original comment by michel.racic on 1 Dec 2009 at 4:42

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Implemented adwhirl and didn't notice this behaviour anymore... wil be in 
v.3.0.9 (publish it in a few days

Original comment by michel.racic on 5 Nov 2010 at 2:23

• Changed state: Fixed