Why user-first ad experiences build the strongest app businesses

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Why user-first ad experiences build the strongest app businesses

Sponsored by Google Publisher Connections  •  November 12, 2026  •

Today’s mobile users are searching, streaming, scrolling and shopping in bursts as they go about their day. According to RealityMine, the average smartphone user interacts with around 18 different apps per day, racking up to 200 app sessions daily.¹ In each of those moments, attention is won second by second — and lost just as quickly.

Capturing value in those seconds is remarkably difficult. When audience acquisition is expensive, and engagement is just as hard to earn, app studios cannot afford ad experiences that cause churn.

The real cost of a disruptive ad

In-app ads are a core part of the overall app experience, yet monetization and user retention are still too often treated as competing priorities. The assumption is that earning more revenue requires heavier ad loads, which damages the user experience, while protecting that experience means leaving money on the table.

“Disruptive ads have a severe, compounding negative impact on both current engagement and future user acquisition,” said Scott Sheffer, vp of global partnerships on Google’s sell-side monetization team. “Disruptive ads not only drive current users away but also prompt negative reviews, discouraging future users from downloading the app. Seems intuitive, but now there is data to back that.”

According to a Deloitte and Google AdMob study, a single encounter with a disruptive ad increases a user’s likelihood to churn by 6% to 7%.² When those experiences repeat, 52% of gamers say they leave the app for good.³ On the flip side, high-quality, user-first ad experiences actively protect engagement: 72% of gamers keep playing when ads are high quality⁴ and 20% report playing more often.⁵ These metrics demonstrate how ad quality serves as a fundamental growth engine beyond a cosmetic choice.

“App economics are not an either-or,” Sheffer said. “With quality ad experiences, users can stay engaged longer and you can naturally unlock more opportunities for other revenue streams, like in-app purchases and subscriptions.”

Sustainable revenue growth doesn’t come from aggressive ad strategies that disrupt audiences. It comes from pairing global, premium demand with uncompromising quality controls. This foundation protects in-app experiences and grows long-term revenue opportunities.

To truly scale revenue, safety cannot be restricted to a single network. Google built its advanced ad quality protections to extend across the AdMob network and participating third-party bidders. This means studios can filter out unwanted categories, block problematic creatives and apply brand rules across their bidding partners from a single interface. 

Toss, a financial app company from South Korea’s Viva Republica, chose AdMob as its mediation partner to grow revenue through quality ad experiences. By using AdMob’s real-time ad review and rigorous A/B testing capabilities, Toss grew ad revenue 891% year over year while driving a 17% uplift in next-day retention for one of its app’s features.⁶ 

Across the wider app ecosystem, SensorTower data shows that apps primarily using AdMob’s mediation platform have a 25% higher 60-day and 90-day user retention rate than apps primarily using competing platforms.⁷˒⁸

“Our focus on quality and long-term growth explains why, in recent research, Kantar found that app developers rank Google AdMob No. 1 in both providing high-quality ads and in maximizing revenue — ahead of other leading app monetization platforms,” said Sheffer.⁹˒¹⁰

As app development cycles continue to accelerate, monetization operations must keep pace. 

Instead of losing critical hours to manual creative review, app developer teams can lean on Google’s intelligent brand safety systems to help. For example, improved AI models in the Ad Review Center can swiftly flag off-brand creatives for removal. In parallel, click-through-rate-based filtering helps to block deceptive ad behaviors like forced redirects, fake buttons or hidden close icons. This tactic helps developers eliminate these formats across all bidding sources before they trigger player frustration.

For ads that need a closer look, revamped search filters in the Ad Review Center help teams find creatives faster — such as sorting creatives by revenue to prioritize the reviews that impact the bottom line.

Designing for what’s next

Delivering on ad quality and making monetization simple is only the start. Google is building new tools to help teams catch performance anomalies, implement and validate ad placements and preserve player retention.

“We believe enterprise-grade AI and monetization requires secure, native integration across the tools you already use today,” Sheffer said. “That is why Google AdMob is continuously expanding what an advanced monetization platform can do. By shifting routine diagnostics, complex yield optimizations and brand safety into intelligent, automated workflows, we are bridging the gap between app development and ad operations — so you can build, test and ship ad setups with the same speed and safety as your app code.”

Partner insights from Google Publisher Connections 

Publisher Connections brings together publishers, buyers and their audiences. Across a suite of trusted platforms — from GoogleAd Manager,AdMobandAdSense, to their buyer solutions — they deliver continuous innovation and powerful results.

1. RealityMine, “US Consumers use 18 apps a day”, 2025.
2. Google/Deloitte, Mobile App Ad Quality Study, USA, Germany, India, Vietnam, South Korea, 2025, n=7,000 mobile gamers, fieldwork completed March 10 – April 11, 2025.
3. Google/Deloitte, Mobile App Ad Quality Study, USA, Germany, India, Vietnam, South Korea, n=7,000 mobile gamers, fieldwork completed 3/10/25 – 4/11/25. This claim is 52% of the survey population which is 3,640 participants out of 7,000.
4. Google/Deloitte, Mobile App Ad Quality Study, USA, Germany, India, Vietnam, South Korea, n=7,000 mobile gamers, fieldwork completed 3/10/25 – 4/11/25. This claim is 72% of the total survey population, which is 5,040 participants out of 7,000.
5. Google/Deloitte, Mobile App Ad Quality Study, USA, Germany, India, Vietnam, South Korea, n=7,000 mobile gamers, fieldwork completed 3/10/25 – 4/11/25.This claim is 20% of survey population, which is 1,400 participants out of 7,000.
6. Toss reporting data 2025. Results data compares April 2024 vs. April 2025. Individual results may vary.
7. SensorTower App Revenue data, US, Non-Gaming Categories, 3 months ending March 31st 2026. n=427 Apps. Primary Platforms defined as apps only using one mediation platform or having 95% of ad impressions going through the corresponding Platform.
8. SensorTower App Revenue data, US, Non-Gaming Categories, 3 months ending March 31st 2026. n=427 Apps. Primary Platforms defined as apps only using one mediation platform or having 95% of ad impressions going through the corresponding Platform.
9. Kantar, Google Publisher Perceptions, US, 2025, n=367 digital publishing decision-makers who use a top app monetization platform and monetize an app or game (respondents aware of each platform), fieldwork completed November 6th through December 22nd, 2025. App monetization platforms included in the study: Google AdMob, AppLovin, ironSource / Unity LevelPlay, TopOn Mediation, Meta Audience Network, Pangle, inMobi, and Smaato.
10. Kantar, Google Publisher Perceptions, US, 2025, n=367 digital publishing decision-makers who use a top app monetization platform and monetize an app or game (respondents aware of each platform), fieldwork completed November 6th through December 22nd, 2025. App monetization platforms included in the study: Google AdMob, AppLovin, ironSource / Unity LevelPlay, TopOn Mediation, Meta Audience Network, Pangle, inMobi, and Smaato.
11. The majority of app developers (84%) report that Google AdMob makes it easy to monetize apps, rating it 1.5x higher than the competitor average. Source: Kantar, Google Publisher Perceptions, US, 2025, n=367 digital publishing decision-makers who use a top app monetization platform and monetize an app or game (respondents aware of each platform), fieldwork completed November 6th through December 22nd, 2025. App monetization platforms included in the study: Google AdMob, AppLovin, ironSource / Unity LevelPlay, TopOn Mediation, Meta Audience Network, Pangle, inMobi, and Smaato.

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