Today sees the start of Microsoft’s BUILD 2012 conference in Redmond, Washington, USA – a place for developers to gather and experience everything Windows 8. Nokia has also been participating and has announced two new initiatives; Nokia Ad Exchange (NAX) and a new Nokia Premium Developer Program (NPDP).

When you look at an app store, you’ll often head to the free ones first. However, the developers behind that app have probably dedicated lots of time and/or money into making that app. A way of recouping cost, and making a profit, is to generate revenue from in-app advertising. That’s why developers will find Nokia Ad Exchange a very useful tool.

NAX is a new – and free – way for developers to quickly and easily monetise their apps using in-app advertising, via our partnership with inneractive.

By providing access to the top ad networks in the world via a single SDK, developers will have access to more than 120 advertising networks worldwide. This means that app users will more likely see content they’re interested in – and click the ad.

To maximise the amount of income you receive from in-app advertising, you can ensure that only relevant ads are delivered to the app. For example, if you’ve created a children’s game, you’d want ads that are similar to the game that’s being played, not a hack-and-slash game. This is done when filling out the app information when you create your API key.

Whatever ad campaign you want to run, you’re given the correct tools to track its progress. The campaign management dashboard shows detailed reports of impressions, click-through-rate (CTR) and total spend for each campaign.

Campaigns can be in the form of banners, full-screen ads, text, or hyper-local ads to really connect with people on a more local level. In coming months, NAX will provide access to a campaign management tool, where developers can use ad revenues to fund their own campaigns.

While NAX is being announced at Microsoft’s BUILD, it can also be used on other platforms than Windows Phone, including Series 40 and Symbian, in addition to non-Nokia platforms such as iOS, Android and Blackberry, to help developers build their business.

Nokia Premium Developer program

If you want help with creating high-performance apps for Nokia Lumia smartphone, then sign up for the Nokia Premium Developer Program. Nokia has put together this package of Windows Phone related tools and services specifically designed to help you create amazing looking apps or games.

Signing up costs $99 USD for an annual membership, and this membership gives you tools and services valued at up to $1,500 USD.

As with any membership, you’ll want to know what you’re signing up for before you do, right? Here’s what you get:

• One year membership in Microsoft Windows Phone Dev Center – membership is essential if you plan to submit apps to the Windows Phone Store.
• One license to Telerik RadControls for Windows Phone – these are designed to shorten your app’s time to market and help your app rank higher in the Windows Phone Store.
• 1 million API calls per calendar month with Buddy‘s cloud API offering – Buddy provides you with an easy-to-use cloud back end for Windows Phone apps, featuring APIs that deliver common app scenarios as a service.
• Two Nokia tech support tickets – Tickets are used to report issues or ask questions about certain topics related to app development for Nokia Lumia devices.

All of these services and tools are designed to help you, the developer, create, maintain and deliver premium-quality apps to the ecosystem.

Windows Phone Store currently offers more than 120,000 apps, with many exclusive and unique apps designed for Nokia Lumia, which differentiates us from the rest.

Windows Phone developers, what are you waiting for? Sign up for the NPDP and NAX today and make some truly amazing apps.