Interstitial ads

Interstitial advertising is a full-screen ad format embedded within the app content during natural pauses, such as transitioning between game levels or completing a target action.

When an app displays an interstitial ad, the user can either click through to the advertiser's site or close the ad and return to the app.

During interstitial ad impressions, the user's attention is fully focused on the ad, which results in a higher cost for such impressions.

Appearance

This guide will show how to integrate interstitial ads into iOS apps. Besides code samples and instructions, it contains format-specific recommendations and links to additional resources.

Prerequisite

1. Follow the SDK integration steps described under Quick start.
2. First, you need to initialize the advertising SDK.
3. Make sure you're using the latest version of the Yandex Mobile Ads SDK, and if you're using mediation, the latest version of the unified build.

Implementation

Key steps for integrating interstitial ads:

• Create and configure the InterstitialAdLoader ad loader.
• Load the ad.
• Pass additional settings if you're using Adfox.
• If needed, set a delegate for the ad object and implement the required InterstitialAdDelegate methods.
• Render the ad.

Features of interstitial ad integration

1. All calls to Yandex Mobile Ads SDK methods must be made from the main thread.

2. We strongly advise against attempting to load a new ad immediately after a loading error. With completion handlers, this corresponds to the .failure case. With Swift Concurrency, it's the catch block. If you need to retry loading ads from the error handler, limit the number of retries. This helps prevent endless failed ad requests during network issues.

3. We recommend maintaining a strong reference to the ad and its loader throughout the lifespan of the screen where the ad interaction is taking place.

Loading ads

To load interstitial ads, you need to create an instance of the InterstitialAdLoader class.

To load an ad, use the loadAd(with:completion:) method with a completion handler or the Swift Concurrency-powered loadAd(with:) method.

You can expand ad request parameters through AdRequest, by passing user interests, contextual page data, location, or other additional info. Adding extra context to ad requests can greatly improve ad relevance. To learn more, see Ad targeting.

The following example shows how to load an interstitial ad from the View Controller:

final class InterstitialViewController: UIViewController {
    private lazy var interstitialAdLoader = InterstitialAdLoader()
    private var interstitialAd: InterstitialAd?

    func loadAd() async {
        let request = AdRequest(adUnitID: "R-M-XXXXX-YY")
        do {
            let ad = try await interstitialAdLoader.loadAd(with: request)
            interstitialAd = ad
            ad.delegate = self
        } catch {
            // Load error
        }
    }
}

final class InterstitialViewController: UIViewController {
    private lazy var interstitialAdLoader = InterstitialAdLoader()
    private var interstitialAd: InterstitialAd?

    func loadAd() {
        let request = AdRequest(adUnitID: "R-M-XXXXX-YY")
        interstitialAdLoader.loadAd(with: request) { [weak self] result in
            switch result {
            case .success(let ad):
                self?.interstitialAd = ad
                ad.delegate = self
            case .failure:
                // Load error
                break
            }
        }
    }
}

Displaying ads

Interstitial ads should be displayed during natural pauses in the app's usage. A good example of this would be impressions between game levels or when a user completes an action, such as downloading a file.

Once the interstitial ad loads, save and display it:

final class InterstitialViewController: UIViewController {
    private lazy var interstitialAdLoader = InterstitialAdLoader()
    private var interstitialAd: InterstitialAd?

    func showAd() {
        interstitialAd?.show(from: self)
    }
}

Testing interstitial ad integration

Using demo ad units for ad testing

Use test ads to check your ad integration and the app itself. To make sure that test ads are returned for each ad request, you can use a special demo ad placement ID.

Demo adUnitId: demo-interstitial-yandex.

For the list of all available demo ad placement IDs, see Demo ad units for testing.

Testing ad integration

You can test your ad integration using the native Console tool.

To view detailed logs, call the YandexAds class's enableLogging method.

YandexAds.enableLogging()

To view SDK logs, go to the Console tool and set Subsystem = com.mobile.ads.ads.sdk. You can filter logs by category or error level.

If you're having problems integrating ads, you'll get a detailed report on the issues and recommendations for how to fix them.

Additional resources

• Link to GitHub.