Why it is so difficult to find a good Ads SDK for Windows Phone 7
This post try to address an issue with the Microsoft Advertising SDK, the main fact that today Microsoft is still refusing access to the Ad Center worldwide.
Yesterday they generously increase the number of free apps we can develop from 5 to 100. According to talks with other developers and the Windows Phone 7 team, I have the strong feeling the model of publishing free apps supported by apps is the right course to take today.
This probably why Microsoft has moved to a bigger figure.
Am I the only software shop concerns by the lack of support tools fro WP7 outside the US? I don't think so.
So currently I am trying to seek alternatives.
First AdDuplex. The name is abit misleading, this is more like a link exchange system and it works quite well. But it won't give me any revenue even if it increase the visibility of my apps.
Then one popular one is AdMob. However the lack of true WP7 Api make its implementation very difficult. A solution exist but it didn't work for me.
The one I had real hope was Smaato. True Api, easy to implement. Unfortunatly it's really buggy. If you need to use IsolationStorage in your app (who doesn't) this kit delete your keys without reasons. Smaato is aware of the bug but seems to be verys low on the answer department.
Finally by pure randomness, I found ZestAdz and they have released a native Api for WP7. However forget their support it's really too slow to get some answer to a basic question. At the moment I try the sample provided but no ads appears.
I have also no idea if Microsoft will approve an app with Google ads. It is not really difficult to code, but due to the lengthy approval process, I don't want to be the guinea pig in that domain.
So at the moment I am left with no real strong solutions. Smaato display the ads but with a slight delay and the ad look and feel is really poor.
If only they could fix their Api quickly it might be an intermediate solution until Microsoft finally push their borders to the world.