In-app ads

Use the Monetize > In-app ads page in Partner Center to create and manage ad units for:

• Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that use the Microsoft Advertising SDK.
• Previously published Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x apps that use the Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows and Windows Phone 8.x.

For more information about how to integrate these SDKs with your apps to display ads, see Display ads in your app with the Microsoft Advertising SDK.

Create ad units

To create an ad unit for a banner ad, interstitial ad, or native ad in your app:

1. Go to the Monetize > In-app ads page in Partner Center and click Create ad unit.

2. In the App name drop-down, select the app in which your ad unit will be used.

3. In the Ad unit name field, enter a name for the ad unit. This can be any descriptive string that you want to use to identify the ad unit for reporting purposes.

4. In the Ad unit type drop-down, select the ad type.

   • If you are showing a banner ad in your app, select Banner.
   • If you are showing an interstitial video ad or interstitial banner ad in your app, select Video interstitial or Banner interstitial (be sure to select the appropriate option for the type of interstitial ad you want to show).
   • If you are showing a native ad in your app, select Native.

5. In the Device family drop-down, select the device family targeted by the app in which your ad unit will be used. The available options are: UWP (Windows 10 or Windows 11), PC/Tablet (Windows 8.1), or Mobile (Windows Phone 8.x).

6. Configure the following additional settings as desired:

   • If you select the UWP (Windows 10 or Windows 11) device family for the ad unit, you can optionally configure mediation settings for the ad unit.
   • If you select the PC/Tablet (Windows 8.1) or Mobile (Windows Phone 8.x) device family for a banner ad unit, you can optionally select Show community ads in your app to opt in to community ads.

7. If you haven't yet set the COPPA compliance for the selected app, choose an option in the COPPA compliance section.

8. Click Create ad unit.

After you create the new ad unit, it appears in the table of available ad units in the Monetize > In-app ads page.

Review and edit ad units

After you create ad units for one or more apps in your account, these ad units appear in a table at the bottom of the Monetize > In-app ads page. This table displays the Application ID and Ad unit ID for each ad unit, along with other information. To show ads in your app, you'll need to use these values in your code. For more information, see Set up ad units in your app.

• If your app shows banner ads, assign these values to the ApplicationId and AdUnitId properties of your AdControl object.

• If your app shows interstitial ads, pass these values to the RequestAd method of your InterstitialAd object.

• If your app shows native ads, pass these values to the NativeAdsManagerV2 constructor.

  Important

  You can use each ad unit in only one app. If you use an ad unit in more than one app, ads will not be served for that ad unit.

  Note

  You can use multiple banner, interstitial, and native ad controls in a single app. In this scenario, we recommend that you assign a different ad unit to each control. Using different ad units for each control enables you to separately configure the mediation settings and get discrete reporting data for each control. This also enables our services to better optimize the ads we serve to your app.

To edit the mediation settings for a UWP ad unit or the COPPA compliance for the app in which the ad unit is used, click the ad unit name.

Mediation settings

When you create a new UWP ad unit or edit an existing UWP ad unit, use the options in this section to configure ad mediation for the ad unit. Ad mediation enables you to maximize your ad revenue and app promotion capabilities by displaying ads from multiple ad networks, including ads from other paid ad networks and non-revenue generating ads for Microsoft app promotion campaigns. We take care of mediating banner ad requests from the ad networks you choose. If you have a UWP ad unit that is already associated with a banner, interstitial, or native ad in your app, enabling ad mediation requires no code changes in your app.

To configure ad mediation settings for a UWP ad unit in your app:

1. Create an ad unit or select an existing ad unit.

2. On the In-app ads page, go to the Mediation settings section and configuration your settings.

   • By default, the Let Microsoft optimize my settings check box is selected. We recommend that you use this option. This option uses machine-learning algorithms to automatically choose the ad mediation settings for your app to help you maximize your ad revenue across the markets your app supports. When you use this option, you can also choose the ad networks you want to use in the configuration. Uncheck the ad networks that you don't want to be part of the configuration and our algorithm will ensure that your app only receives ads from the selected ad networks.
   • If you want to choose your own ad mediation settings, choose Modify default settings.

   Note

   The remaining steps in this section are only applicable if you choose Modify default settings.

3. In the Target drop-down, choose Baseline to configure the default configuration for your ad mediation settings. This default configuration will be applied to all markets, except for markets where you define market-specific configurations.

4. Next, specify the ratio of ads you want to show in your control from paid networks (which pay you revenue for impressions) and other ad networks (which do not pay you revenue for impressions). To do this, enter a value between 0 and 100 in the Weight fields for Paid ad networks and Other ad networks.

5. In the Paid ad networks section, select the check box in the Active column for each paid network you want to use, and then use the arrows in the Rank column to order the networks by rank (this specifies how often each network should be used by your control).

6. If you have selected a Banner or Banner interstitial ad unit, you will also see a section named Other ad networks. The networks in this section do not earn you revenue for ad impressions. Instead, these networks show ads from sources such as app promotion campaigns.

   In the Other ad networks section, select the check box in the Active column for each other network you want to use, and then use the arrows in the Rank column to order the networks by rank (this specifies how often each network should be used by your control). The following other networks are currently supported:

7. For each market where you want to override the default mediation configuration, select the market in the Target drop-down, and update the ad network selections and ranking.

8. Click Create ad unit (if you are creating a new ad unit) or Save (if you are editing an existing ad unit).

Supported paid ad networks

The following table lists the paid networks we currently support for each ad type. Note that some of these networks are not available in all markets.

Other ad networks

The following table lists the other networks we currently support for each ad type.

Supported markets for ad networks

The available ad networks serve ads in all supported markets, with the following exceptions.

COPPA compliance

When you create an ad unit or select an existing ad unit, the COPPA compliance section appears at the bottom of the page if the selected app for the ad unit has at least one submission that has reached the in the Store step in the app certification process.

For purposes of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), you must select This application is directed at children under the age of 13 in this section if your app is directed at children under the age of 13. If you select this option, Microsoft will take steps to disable its behavioral advertising services when delivering advertising into your app.

The COPPA compliance setting you choose is automatically applied to all ad units for the selected app.