When developing applications, we always want to make our investment profitable and maybe even make a little profit. With Windows Phone 7 (WP7) there are 2 methods to generate revenue: app purchase and ad display. This article focuses on the second method.
Creating a pubCenter account
First, you need to create an account on the Microsoft Advertising pubCenter. pubCenter is the hub for WP7 ads and Windows 8 apps. Very simple and easy to use, so I will omit the account creation details in this article.
Registering an application
In pubCenter, you must first register an application. This application must be unique per WP7 app. This allows better management of reports, performance, and revenue, but does not represent an ad unit itself, only the application.
You will then get an ID for your application:
Creating an ad unit
Next, you need to create an ad unit that will display the advertisements. This unit is independent of the applications and can be used multiple times in the same application and even in different applications.
Ad format
For WP7, there are 2 ad formats: X-Large (300x50) and XX-Large (480x80). I suggest the XX-Large format, as it takes the width of the screen and is more interesting in terms of user experience.
Categories
Categories allow you to target the ads that will be displayed, allowing you to have a unit with ads related to your app.
URL Exclusions
You can filter the ad URLs that will be displayed.
Inserting an ad into your application
To insert an ad unit into your app, you need to download the Microsoft Advertising SDK for WP7 for Visual Studio 2010. Then, you need to insert your control into your page.
Your XAML will look like this, where ApplicationId is the Guid of your application in pubCenter and AdUnitId is a 5-digit number designating the ad unit for this control.
<my:AdControl
ApplicationId="9E3BDC69-DD3D-4DAB-BC6E-26C525E5E1DF"
AdUnitId="99999"
/>
And an example inside the emulator in a minimal app.
Conclusion
It is faster to insert an ad unit into your application than the time it took you to read this article! A great way to generate some revenue to fund your next project!
Happy coding!