Cubics Integrated Ads

Cubics is pleased to announce the launch of our Cubics Integrated Ads feature for all of our Facebook developers.

Cubics Integrated Ads are a means of providing you with greater control over the display of your ads. Developers are able to have the user’s browser pull down an ad from us and choose where to display the ad and how to style it. Check out this Flash below for a few samples of what you can do.


Ad display always involves a trade-off between screen real estate, user experience and ad revenue. More real estate generally means more revenue, but it doesn't always look pretty. Too many ads tend to ruin the user experience which in turn tends to make ads hard to monetize.

The Cubics Integrated Ads will allow you the developer more control over this trade-off.

So, the quick questions:

Why should I use Cubics Integrated Ads?

1. Complete control of the ad look, feel, size and location.


2. Complete flexibility in ad location and what is displayed (title, description, product name, etc) .


3. Ability to generate more income from your apps than you are today. They don’t have to interfere with existing ad units or rewards offers.
   

Will this influence my earnings?

Yes!

Of course, due to the very nature of Cubics Integrated Ads, your mileage will vary. We don't really have an "average CPM", because there is no "average ad unit".

I can tell you that our pilot developer increased revenue by 25% by adding an Integrated Ad to their existing app. But your implementation is likely to be different, so your results will differ.

How does this custom styling work?

The custom styling is implemented using client-side javascript. The javascript is all provided and the samples have self-populating div / span tags.

Once our ad code populates the HTML tags, we leave the styling up to you. You can use all of the normal client side features (CSS & Javascript) to make this ad integrate seamlessly with your app.

How does the reporting work?

When an ad is successfully requested and displayed, it registers an impression just like every other call. The channel is automatically set for these requests, so you can report on each placement with no additional work.

Where are the docs, where can I get help?

Here is the integration document.

However, you can also get your code directly from the Cubics Publisher Portal. Just log in, click on Place Ads and then select "Facebook-> Integrated Ads".




If you need help please contact us directly or leave a comment on the blog here. We understand that these integrated ads will require some extra work.

We have development and design staff available to help make these integrated ads work for your application. So if you would like screen mock-ups or ideas or just a hand making it work with your Javascript framework, please drop us a line.

Adknowledge Acquires Adonomics

A press release was put out this morning for the acquisition of Adonomics by Adknowledge (Cubics parent company).

From our GM Dwayne Lafleur:

We will continue to provide this data to the community in the same spirit as Adonomics has done in the past. Additionally, Adonomics will be able to provide the publisher community with additional tools and information as we look to merge this data within the Cubics platform.

The site has already been moved to our servers and you'll see small changes over the next couple of days. We have no plans on shutting the service down, in fact, we have lots of plans to expand the features of Adonomics to better serve the publisher community. We've already assigned some resources to building out several essential features, so expect better things from Adonomics in the future.

I can't go on about the list of plans we have, but I'd love to hear any questions / comments / ideas you have. So please post them in the comments below or contact us directly.

User feedback definitely influences the features that get added first.

New Facebook, new Ad size

The new Facebook profile re-design is well underway. Based on the information we have at this time, the new page width will be 760 pixels. This opens up the opportunity for a new popular ad format: the Leaderboard. Leaderboards are 728 x 90.


The leaderboard effectively takes up the width of the new canvas and adds a few more pixels of height. If you were using the Facebook Banner or the standard Banner, the Leaderboard is the ideal substitution for the new profile redesign.


If you're using our other supported platforms you're also encouraged to use the leaderboard. MySpace, Hi5 and Bebo also have similar page widths, so it's a good match.

Why change?

1. Appearance
   The Facebook Banner fills the page left to right, that format was launched because developers wanted to use this whole space.
   The Leaderboard will fill the same role after the re-design.


2. Popularity
   Big Advertisers really like the Leaderboard and they're willing to pay more for these ads. This format has been a highly requested feature for quite some time.

Why now?
Yes, MySpace and others have been able to support this size for quite some time. However the largest chunk of our traffic is still on Facebook. Too many ad sizes makes for too much advertiser work. We've held off on this change to ensure sufficient reach for our advertisers.


The Facebook redesign gives us the opportunity to benefit both our publishers and our advertisers, so we're launching this format.


How do I get these?
Get your new ad code by logging in to your Cubics Publisher account and clicking on the Place Ads button. Select your platform and you'll see the new size listed in step 4 (see image below).

While you're there, please take the time to track your apps. The Cubics system will optimize ad placements at the app level, we're also rolling out reporting at this level. If you're already updating your ad code, now is the easiest time to get your AppId in there as well.

New Ad Formats on Facebook

Hello Cubics Developers;

Over the past several weeks, Facebook has contacted all ad networks regarding the content and layout of advertisements displayed in Facebook applications. They have set forth guidelines for the displaying of ads that will allow for the continued monetization of applications while protecting the Facebook user experience.

Cubics has gone through great measures to comply with these regulations and will continue to work with Facebook as the platform continues to mature.

The regulations for ads displayed on Facebook that were provided to us are:

• No use of a Facebook style button, including the Facebook blue color and the arrow image.


• No use of generic calls to action including “continue” & “next”


• No “crush” style ads or ads that mislead users to think that a friend or other facebook user has completed an action or has an interest in them specifically.


• No ads with false statements such as “You just won an Ipod”.

Below is an excerpt from our correspondence with Facebook:

“Developers running these ads are in violation of Facebook Terms of Service, so we are asking all advertising networks running on the Facebook Platform to prohibit these ads immediately.…Where we continue to see these ads we'll need to approach developers directly and ask them not to run them, and in some cases, impose an enforcement step such as a moratorium on access to Facebook Platform functionality.”

If you see any ads running on Cubics that you feel violate the above guidelines or if you have any questions regarding the policies or the actions we have taken, please contact publisher support at cubicssupport@adknowledge.com

Thank you;
The Cubics Team