Question

Any advice on how to get started setting up ads in an Android application? I don’t know what I need to know about ads in general.

I save admob being most frequently mentioned. Are there any other options?

Answer 1

I myself use Admob. Create an account, and create a key for your app here. Then download the library, add it to your project, and in your layout file, add something like this:

<com.google.ads.AdView
android:id="@+id/adView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
ads:adUnitId="@YOURKEY"
ads:adSize="BANNER"
ads:loadAdOnCreate="true"
android:layout_gravity="bottom|center_horizontal" />

Also, add this line at the top of the layout file:

xmlns:ads="http://schemas.android.com/apk/lib/com.google.ads"

Finally, you’ll need to add this to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
android:name="com.google.ads.AdActivity"
android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation" />

That is really all there is up to creating ads in your app. For more information, see this.