Adjusting Pubcenter ads with different Phone Screen Sizes

Question

I am developing a Windows Phone 8.1 Runtime Application (XAML but not Silverlight).

My issue is which PubCenter Ad size should I show in my application.

Currently, PubCenter for phone supports 4 different sizes:

1. 300 X 50
2. 320 X 50
3. 480 X 80
4. 640 X 100

My question is :

1. Is there a single size which I can use regardless of the device size (such that it can auto scale).
2. Or based on the users' device size should I set the Width , Height & AdUnitId in code behind. If this is the right option how to enable this.

(Basically, I don't want to waste any precious real estate on the users phone. Want to show the biggest ad based on the users screen size)

Thanks.

Answer 1

This article gives a good understanding of which format to use on Windows Phone 8.1 RT apps:

Use the Recommended AdUnit Format Size and AdControl Size

I was able to achieve this with the below piece of code. So for most Lumia phones it would take the 320 x 50 size as recommended in the msdn article. But for phones with bigger screens it would take the other sizes.

Few things to make sure :

1. The ad units are already defined in the pubcenter. Separate ad units for each size.

2. The adcontrol must be placed inside a container with sufficient size.

   #region Initialize Ad Control
       //var scaleFactor = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView().RawPixelsPerViewPixel;
       //Debug.WriteLine("The current resolution is {0}x{1}", Window.Current.Bounds.Width * scaleFactor, Window.Current.Bounds.Height * scaleFactor);
   
       double pageWidth = 0;
       //pageWidth = Window.Current.Bounds.Width * scaleFactor;
       pageWidth = Window.Current.Bounds.Width;
   
       AdUnit.ApplicationId = "abcdefgzzzz-zz-zz-z-zz";
       //AdUnit.ApplicationId = "test_client";
   
       if (pageWidth < 480) //Use 320
       {
           AdUnit.Height = 50;
           AdUnit.Width = 320;
           //AdUnit.AdUnitId = "Image320_50";
           AdUnit.AdUnitId = "320-ZZZZ";
       }
       else if (pageWidth >= 480 && pageWidth < 640) //Use 480
       {
           AdUnit.Height = 80;
           AdUnit.Width = 480;
           //AdUnit.AdUnitId = "Image480_80";
           AdUnit.AdUnitId = "480-ZZZZZ";
       }
       else if (pageWidth >= 640)
       {
           AdUnit.Height = 100;
           AdUnit.Width = 640;
           AdUnit.AdUnitId = "640-ZZZZ";
       }
       #endregion
   

Answer 2

Nop, i don't think you'll be able to change the ads according to the device size. As they have provided the only available sizes by default.

For more refer here:

Microsoft Ad SDK

Set up ads in Windows Phone 8

Hope it helps!