Content mapping for apps helps you deliver contextually relevant ads to your users and helps ensure ads are placed near content that’s suitable for your advertisers. This enables more advertisers to bid safely on your inventory, which may help to maximize your revenue.
How content mapping works
Content mapping allows you to pass one or more URLs (up to four) that correspond to what’s being shown in-app. Google crawls the corresponding URLs and uses that data to better understand the app’s content.
1. You pass URLs representing the content in your app.
You should pass URLs that completely and accurately match the content in your app. If you don’t already have a corresponding webpage, you can easily create URLs to represent your content. As long as the URL is in html format and crawlable by Google, you can pass images, videos, and even screenshots of your app. It doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing and you do not need an active, public-facing web presence.
2. Google crawls the URLs you pass.
The URLs you use for content mapping don’t have to be externally available to your users, however the URLs must be accessible to the Ads crawler for AdMob or Ad Manager. Only URLs submitted to the crawler will be crawled.
Additionally, you can password protect your content URLs to ensure that only you and Google’s crawler have access to the passed content. Check out our best practices for crawlers for AdMob or Ad Manager.
3. Google serves an ad that is contextually relevant and brand safe.
After crawling the URLs you pass, Google serves an ad from advertisers that consider your app’s content suitable, and the ad is contextually relevant to your users in accordance with our personalized advertising policies.
Types of content mapping
There are two types of content mapping:
- Content URL: Used when a single URL represents all of the content on an in-app screen that surrounds an ad.
- Multi-Content URL: Used when multiple URLs represent the content in an in-app screen that surrounds an ad.
1. Content URL
Content URL is used when a single URL can represent all the content on an in-app screen that surrounds an ad. In this case, use the setContentUrl() function. Content URL is best for static pages where the content doesn’t change regardless of who is seeing it (for example, a news article or a forum page).
How to map content URL
The example image below shows how you would map a single URL. The content surrounding the ad is accurately represented in the URL.
Example
Publisher A has a news app and website, and recently published an article about the latest shoe trends. This article is static content available on both the app and website and has three ad units.
Publisher A should use setContentUrl() on the request for each of the three ad units represented on the static page
2. Multi-content URL (Beta)
Multiple URLs represent the content in an in-app screen that surrounds an ad placement. Implement Multi-content URL mapping with setNeighboringContentUrls() and include up to 4 URLs.
Multi-content URL is best for dynamic content feeds, where the content feed is personalized for each user. Dynamic content can change at certain intervals of time or when the user refreshes the page.
How to map multi-content URL
The example image below shows how you would map two pieces of content to 2 matching URLs.
Example
Publisher A’s news app has a dynamic customized home feed that displays articles based on each user’s interests. In the home feed, there are three ad units. Publisher A uses setNeighboringContentUrls() for each of the ad units represented on the home feed page.
To accomplish this, Publisher A will include the URLs for the relevant articles around each ad unit, even though the user sees only the headline and image on the home feed. If the first ad unit has an article above for "The best sandwich is New York City" and below for "What movies should you see right now", the URLs for those specific articles should be passed to setNeighboringContentUrls().