Can I use any sized ad banner on any device?

Hymloe

Can I use any sized ad banner on any device?

The drop down list says...

320x50 (Phones)
300x250 (All)
120x600 (iPad)
468x60 (iPad)
728x90 (iPad)

Are these just recommendations? Or are they requirements?

If I am making a universal build, and I want an ad to appear along the top that's wide and short, which one would I pick?

I want to just use 320x50, I think. But it says "Phones".

Will that still work for me on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, in the final App Store version of the game?

Thanks.

Hymloe

Does anyone have some advice here?

I've pretty much got my banners working now. But I'm experiencing different appearances (and non-appearances) in different situations. Some expected, some unexpected.

I'm using the Top and Bottom 320x50 (Phone) banner size, in my universal app.

Ad Hoc versions
When running AdHoc builds, I see the appropriate Banner ads along the top and bottom for iPad (running a letterboxed version of my project), but I'm not seeing any ads on my Ad Hoc versions for iPod Touch 3 or 4.

iOS Viewer versions
I get almost the opposite in the iOS Viewer.
On the iPad, I'm not seeing any ad banner positions shown onscreen.
On the iPod Touch 4, I do get shown the banner position onscreen.

Hymloe

Question 1
Do I need to detect which device I'm on, and then show a banner listed as "iPad" for iPad, and one for "Phone" for the iPod Touch and Phones?

Question 2
Why are the ads not appearing on iPod Touch 3 and 4 in Ad Hoc builds, seeing as I am using the Phone sized ones there?

Hymloe

Has anyone done a good detailed tutorial on the deeper workings of ad implementation lately?

I found an old @MotherHoose video about it from January 2012, but it doesn't really relate to the latest version of the iAd behaviour.

I'm confused about which banner sizes are compatible with which devices, and what to expect from the ads in the various different preview modes (AdHoc, iOS Viewer, Creator, Android, etc).

I'm primarily interested in getting my Universal version of my game out, and really want to know some detailed information about which banners will work on which devices, and how to accurately test them.

Hymloe

Seeing as I can't find any up-to-date useful information about how to best implement banner ads (?!??), here's an update on how things are going, in the hope that it will help others in future...

Testing on iOS viewer, to get the right size and position for devices
I'm working to get all my banners showing up correctly in the iOS Viewer on my iPad 2 and my iPod Touch 3 and 4, as the iOS Viewer seems to give the best actual representation of banner ads and how they're positioned and sized.

Getting the AspectRatio and therefore the DeviceName
When my game first loads, I look at the Screen Width and Height, and use this to change an Attribute called AspectRatio.

AspectRatio = game.Screen.Size.Width / game.Screen.Size.Height


From this, I deduce another attribute called DeviceName.

If AspectRatio <1.4, then DeviceName =iPad
If AspectRatio >=1.4 & <1.6, then DeviceName =iPhone4 (also covers iPod Touches & iPhone 3)
If AspectRatio >=1.6, then DeviceName =iPhone5


Showing appropriate banner size for the device
Then, whenever I need to show a banner, I say...

If DeviceName =iPad, then show banner 468x60 (iPad)
OTHERWISE,
If DeviceName =iPhone4 or iPhone5, then show banner 320x50 (Phone)


Put banners in timers to make them reliable
I'm using Timers with "Run to Completion" checked, to specify the duration of how long a banner should be shown, because without them, I find the banners are not as reliable. Using a timer setup such as this seems to work well...

Timer: Every 20 seconds (run to completion)
Timer: For 14 seconds (run to completion)
Show Banner [using rule above to choose appropriate banner size for the device here]


This seems to be working well so far.

PH03NIX

Thank you for this comment. I was having the same trouble, so I will try out what you said. Hopefully it works