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I am developing a new iOS/Android App and for legal reasons I need to restrict users in certain countries from being served any Ads via AdMob.

I have looked all over AdMob and there does not seem to be any way to 100% restrict a specific country being served Ads which is very strange. Mediation does not seem to be a 100% solution either as from what I read it seems like it would still allow some ads through by default.

According to one person that tested different potential solutions, none of these worked:

We would like to block ad serving to a country - without restricting traffic to the rest of countries - in one of our apps. So far we have tried several workarounds - but none of them work 100% of the time:

  • Workaround 1: create a mediation group targeting that country and these app ad units' and set minimum eCPM to the max value - 1000$.

  • Workaround 2: set the minimum eCPM of these ad units - in Admob App Page -> Ad units - to 1000$ for that country.

  • Workaround 3: block ads by not requesting them if Android TelephonyManager returns that user is in that country.

  • Workaround 4: prevent app distribution in this country in Google Play Console.

None of them block 100% requests/impressions/clicks.

How can we achieve blocking ad serving to a country/group of countries in Admob? It would be GREAT do to this from Admob Control Panel. I'm suggesting Admob would return always a "ERROR_CODE_NO_FILL" for these blocked countries.

Another person mentioned this possibility with no confirmation that it actually works:

1)Create house ad targeted for countries you don’t want to show ads 2)Add your house ad in mediation , set it to top priority for that country 3)Set limit of impressions on your house ad so that let’s say after 10 impressions house ad will not show 4)and ultimately no ads will be shown for that country

I have read above approach somewhere on admob group on google so you may try it out

Also, I don't want to have to request new App permissions from all users in all countries just to prohibit ads from one or two countries.

So how can one fully restrict certain countries from being served Ads via AdMob?

ProgrammerGirl
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  • There is no direct way given by admob to block country specific advertisement. I have requested it via helpdesk to add that feature, i also recommend you to request it via support center. If there are enough requests maybe they will add it as a feature – Amod Gokhale Sep 16 '22 at 12:34

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There are several ways, easiest way would be get the sim country & there by hide the ad views, for example, in Kotlin

        val locale =  getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE) as TelephonyManager
        Log.e("Country ", locale.simCountryIso)

This will give you country code, & if the code is among your list, hide the ad view.

You could do the same in Swift too.

In addition to that, you can get the lastknownlocation & the address/country etc. You can get the country from that too.

Heshan Sandeepa
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  • Would this stop someone from a non-restricted country travelling to those restricted from being served Ads inside the restricted countries? Also, do any of these features require extra user permissions in iOS/Android? – ProgrammerGirl Sep 16 '22 at 08:49
  • If you worry that much, using the active location is the best way for your requirement. Above method wont request any special permission but location does. – Heshan Sandeepa Sep 16 '22 at 08:54