How to Target Ads Precisely While Protecting User Privacy - Huawei Developers

Background​
When using an app, if pop-up ads keep appearing when we browse app pages but we are not interested in the advertised content, not only will our browsing experience be negatively affected, but we will also quickly become tired of the advertised content. Unwanted ads are usually annoying. Aimless ad targeting and delivery will result in the wrong ads being sent to users and cause poor ad performance.
So, as publishers, how do we guarantee that we can deliver ads to audiences who will be interested in them and how can we decrease users' resistance to advertising? The answer is to collect information about the user requirements of your target audiences or to really know them, and to do so in a way that causes the least annoyance. But when a user is unwilling to share their personal data, such as age, gender, and interests, with my app, placing an ad based on the page that the user is browsing is a good alternative.
For example, a user is reading an article in a news app about the fast-paced development of electric vehicles, rapidly improving battery technology, and the expansion of charging stations in cities. If the targeted advertising mechanism understands the context of the article, when users continue to read news articles in the app, they may see native ads from nearby car dealerships for test driving electric vehicles or ads about special offers for purchasing electric vehicles of a certain brand. In this way, user interests can be accurately discovered, and publishers can perform advertising based on the keywords and other metadata included in the contextual information of the app page, or any other content users are reading or watching, without having to collect users' personal information.
But I can't integrate these features all by myself, so I started searching for tools to help me request and deliver ads based on the contextual information on an app page. That's when I had the great fortune to discover Ads Kit of HMS Core. Ads Kit supports personalized and non-personalized ads. Personalized ad requests require users to grant the app access to some of their personal information, which may not be palatable for some users. Non-personalized advertising, however, is not constrained by this requirement.
Non-personalized ads are not based on users' past behavior. Instead, they target audiences using contextual information. The contextual information includes the user's rough geographical location (such as city) authorized by the user, basic device information (such as the mobile phone model), and content of the current app or search keyword. When a user browses a piece of content in your app, or searches for a topic or keyword to express a specific interest, the contextual ad system scans a specific word or a combination of words, and pushes an ad based on the page content that the user is browsing.
Today, data security and personal privacy requirements are becoming more and more stringent. Many users are very hesitant to provide personal information, which means that precise ad delivery is becoming harder and harder to achieve. Luckily, Ads Kit requests ads based on contextual information, enabling publishers to perform ad delivery with a high degree of accuracy while protecting user privacy and information.
Now let's take a look at the simple steps we need to perform in order to quickly integrate Ads Kit and perform contextual advertising.
Integration Steps​
1. Ensure that the following prerequisites are met before you integrate the Ads Kit:
HMS Core (APK) 4.0.0.300 or later should be installed on devices. If the APK is not installed or an earlier version has been installed, you will not be able to call the APIs of the Ads Kit.
Before you begin the integration process, make sure that you have registered as a Huawei developer and completed identity verification on HUAWEI Developers.
Create a project and add an app to the project for later SDK integration.
2. Import the Ads SDK.
You can integrate the Ads SDK using the Maven repository.
That is, before you start developing an app, configure the Maven repository address for Ads SDK integration in your Android Studio project.
The procedure for configuring the Maven repository address in Android Studio is different for Gradle plugin versions earlier than 7.0, Gradle plugin 7.0, and Gradle plugin versions 7.1 and later. Configure the Maven repository address accordingly based on your Gadle plugin version.
3. Configure network permissions.
To allow apps to use cleartext HTTP and HTTPS traffic on devices with targetSdkVersion 28 or later, configure the following information in the AndroidManifest.xml file:
Code:
<application
...
android:usesCleartextTraffic="true"
>
...
</application>
4. Configure obfuscation scripts.
Before building the APK, configure the obfuscation configuration file to prevent the SDK from being obfuscated.
Open the obfuscation configuration file proguard-rules.pro in your app's module directory of your Android project, and add configurations to exclude the SDK from obfuscation.
Code:
-keep class com.huawei.openalliance.ad.** { *; }
-keep class com.huawei.hms.ads.** { *; }
5. Initialize the SDK.
You can initialize the SDK in the activity, or initialize the SDK by calling the HwAds.init(Context context) API in the AdSampleApplication class upon app launch. The latter method is recommended, but you have to implement the AdSampleApplication class by yourself.
6. Request ads based on contextual information.
The SDK provides the setContentBundle method in the AdParam.Builder class for you to pass contextual information in an ad request.
The sample code is as follows:
Code:
RewardAd rewardAd = new RewardAd(this, rewardId);
AdParam.Builder adParam = new AdParam.Builder();
String mediaContent = "{\"channelCategoryCode\":[\"TV series\"],\"title\":[\"Game of Thrones\"],\"tags\":[\"fantasy\"],\"relatedPeople\":[\"David Benioff\"],\"content\":[\"Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros.\"],\"contentID\":[\"123123\"],\"category\":[\"classics\"],\"subcategory\":[\"fantasy drama\"],\"thirdCategory\":[\"mystery\"]}\n";
adParam.setContentBundle(mediaContent);
rewardAd.loadAd(adParam.build(), new RewardAdLoadListener());
Conclusion​Nowadays, advertising is an important way for publishers to monetize their apps and content, and how to deliver the right ads to the right audiences has become a key focus point. In addition to creating high quality ads, significant efforts should be placed on ensuring precise ad delivery. As an app developer and publisher, I was always searching for methods to improve ad performance and content monetization in my app. In this article, I briefly introduced a useful tool, Ads Kit, which helps publishers request ads based on contextual information, without needing to collect users' personal information. What's more, the integration process is quick and easy and only involves a few simple steps. I'm sure you'll find it useful for improving your app's ad performance.
References​Development Guide of Ads Kit