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I would like to know when an adwhirl advert has been clicked on and the advert selected has been loaded into the browser. Is it possible to do this? If so How?

I have tried an onInterceptTouchEvent event handler in a custom adwhirl layout to at least tell me that an ad is loading but that doesn't actually work as an ad banner can be clicked on without actually loading an ad as some ads require that a button in the banner is clicked

Perhaps there is something else I can try in a custom adwhirl layout?

Any help appreciated

jamesc
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Welcome to the shady world of mobile ads network :)

No you can't, if its not in the sdk, you can't. And you won't be able to monitor the click numbers to check if they are ripping you off.

The main reason for that :

Fraudulent activity : Most ad networks have an invalid/fraud click algorithm to detect suspicious behaviors. Some will just not count the suspicious clicks, some like the Admob weirdos will simply delete your account altogether with no explanation and keep your earnings even if the invalid activity was not your fault. So anyway, even if you could count the clicks, your numbers and theirs would not match.

Also as always a word of caution : Do not ever use a single mobile network ! EVER ! Their TOS allows them to delete your account without notice and with no appeal.

Admob is famous for slamming the door on developers and most of the stories(including my own) are by developers who wouldn't risk all their revenues for a few more cheated clicks.

Adwhirl is a good start to have backups but it is still a product of Admob in the beginning so to be on the safe side I personnaly implemented another one that I can switch on all the apps already installed by changing a switch on my web server.

Yahel
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  • I'm pretty much attempting to enable/disable networks from my webserver, I would love to hear more about your implementation and thank you very much for your words of advice :) – jamesc May 21 '12 at 12:13
  • I'm actually trying to implement my own content locker using banner ads – jamesc May 21 '12 at 12:14
  • There is a few ad networks that offer a content unlocker scheme. Unfortunately using banners SDKS will probably not work. Even if you found a way to intercept the click and monitor them, you'd probably be breaking the TOS's of the ad networks. – Yahel May 21 '12 at 12:39
  • As for the web server code, it is pretty straightforward : The app downloads a configuration file at startup in which I have one xml tag with various attributes per ad network. One of the attribute being Enabled="true" – Yahel May 21 '12 at 12:42
  • It's not actually the click I need to track, I need to know when I can close my locker. I thought I'd finish the activity that displays the locker once the advert has been displayed. – jamesc May 21 '12 at 12:55
  • Ok, just a quick note before I give you an idea : Asking people to click on an ad is against all network ad TOS and a good reason for being ban. You may want to look at leadbolt or some others that offers lock mecanism already built in and legit. – Yahel May 22 '12 at 15:34
  • There is no way for you to know if the browser loaded the page or not. You best bet is to see if adwhirl uses startactivity or startactivityforresult when launching the browser. If you are in luck it is using the later and you might be able to track its return by its request code in your app via the onactivityresult method. If so then, I would simply record the time in the onpause method of your app. Then in the onactivityresult compare that time to the current time. If it is greater than 5 seconds, then I will remove the lock, else it's too short and i consider the ad was not displayed. – Yahel May 22 '12 at 15:34
  • Thank's again for your words of advice, I will make sure that we use cpc networks that are ok with encouraging people to click (I have leadbolt already but open to more suggestions as Leadbolt doesn't work in the UK at all really for reasons that I am in discussions with Leadbolt about) It's really an alternative to leadbolt that I am needing that works fine when leadbolt doesn't work. – jamesc May 22 '12 at 16:40