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Enable test ads

This guide explains how to enable test ads in your ads integration. It's important to enable test ads during development so that you can click them without charging Google advertisers. If you click too many ads without being in test mode, you risk your account being flagged for invalid activity.

There are two ways to get test ads:

  1. Use one of Google's demo ad units.
  2. Use your own ad unit and enable test devices.

Demo ad units

The quickest way to enable testing is to use Google-provided demo ad units. These ad units are not associated with your AdMob account, so there's no risk of your account generating invalid traffic when using these ad units.

Warning

Make sure you replace these IDs with your own ad unit ID before publishing your game.

Here are demo ad units that point to specific test creatives for each format:

Ad format Android demo ad unit ID iOS demo ad unit ID
App Open ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/9257395921 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5575463023
Adaptive Banner ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/9214589741 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2435281174
Fixed Size Banner ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/6300978111 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2934735716
Interstitial ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1033173712 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/4411468910
Rewarded Ads ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5224354917 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1712485313
Rewarded Interstitial ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/5354046379 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/6978759866
Native ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2247696110 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/3986624511
Native Video ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1044960115 ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/2521693316

Enable test devices

If you want to do more rigorous testing with production-looking ads, you can configure your device as a test device and use your own ad unit IDs that you've created in the AdMob UI. Test devices can either be added in the AdMob UI or programmatically using the plugin settings.

Follow the steps below to add your device as a test device.

Note

Android emulators and iOS simulators are automatically configured as test devices.

Add your test device in the AdMob UI

For a non-programmatic way to add a test device and test new or existing app builds, use the AdMob UI. Learn how.

Note

New test devices typically start serving test ads in your app within 15 minutes, but it can also take up to 24 hours.

Add your test device programmatically

To register your test device, complete the following steps:

  1. Run your game on a device of your choice (iOS or Android), and make an ad request.

  2. Check the log output of your device for a message similar to the following examples, which shows your device ID:

    • iOS: 

      <Google> To get test ads on this device, set:
GADMobileAds.sharedInstance.requestConfiguration.testDeviceIdentifiers =
@[ @"2077ef9a63d2b398840261c8221a0c9b" ];

    • Android: 

      I/Ads: Use RequestConfiguration.Builder.setTestDeviceIds(Arrays.asList("33BE2250B43518CCDA7DE426D04EE231")) 
to get test ads on this device.

  3. Copy your test device ID to your clipboard.

  4. Go to Project Settings > Plugins > Google AdMob and paste the copied device ID into the appropriate Test Device IDs array:

    Warning

    Be sure to disable "Enable Test Devices" fields before you release your game.

  5. Rebuild your project and run it again. If the ad is a Google ad, you'll see a Test mode label centered at the top of the ad (banner, interstitial, or rewarded ad):

Testing with mediation

Google's demo ad units only show Google ads. To test your mediation configuration, you must use the enable test devices approach.

Mediated ads do not render a Test mode label. You are responsible for ensuring that test mode is enabled for each of your mediation networks so that these networks don't flag your account for invalid activity. See each network's respective mediation guide for more information.

If you aren't sure whether a mediation ad network adapter provides a test mode, it is safest to avoid clicking on ads from that network during development. You can use the FGoogleAdMobResponseInfo::MediationAdapterClassName property on any of the ad formats to figure out which ad network served the current ad.