Today Microsoft Advertising released ‘house ads,’ a new capability that enables developers that have two or more Windows or Windows Phone apps in the Store, to promote one of the apps in the other apps, using the Microsoft Ad SDK.
For example, let’s say you have a car game, and an airplane game. Both apps use the Microsoft Ad SDK, and there are times when the Ad SDK can’t deliver an ad. You can use some of this ‘unfilled’ capacity to show an ad that promotes your other apps, so you can be promoting your car game within the airplane game, and the airplane game within the car game, without any changes to your code.
To take advantage of house ads, you must have at least two apps in the Store using the Microsoft Ad SDK, running either standalone or as part of Windows ad mediation.
To create a house ad, go to pubCenter, create an ad campaign, select ‘House’ in campaign type, and enter the app that you want to promote. You can start and stop the campaign any time you want. House ad campaigns have no time boundaries and are provided at no cost to you.
When choosing to use house ads, you will need to balance promotion vs revenue. Windows ad mediation helps deliver the highest fill rate possible, with revenue generating ad networks. Using house ads reduces the inventory of ads available to your app to monetize, shifting your advertising focus to app promotion.
Read more about house ads in the Microsoft Advertising blog. I recommend trying house ads if you have multiple apps in the Store, in addition to using Windows ad mediation to help increase your Windows Phone ad revenue.