With Amazon competing with Google on Google’s very own Android operating system on all fronts — devices, app store, and games — it was only a matter of time before Amazon released a developer API for Android ads, too. Amazon’s new Mobile Ads API lets devs put Amazon-served ads in their apps to replace or supplement other ads.
Amazon will serve ads to your app users on any Android phones and tablet including, but not limited to, the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. The ads will come from both Amazon and “brand advertisers,” although for now the ads will only appear to users in the US.
To entice you away from Google, Amazon promises “competitive CPMs” (cost per mille, or thousand), ads tailored to the user’s interests (presumably based on what users have browsed on Amazon), and revenue tracking through a single portal. Amazon is even offering a code sample that works first with Amazon’s mobile ads, before using Google’s AdMob network as a secondary option– ouch, Google.
Android apps can use the Amazon Mobile Ads API “as long as they are distributed through the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program” — in other words, developers need to include their apps in Amazon’s Android app store.
You can watch a short promotional video about Amazon Mobile Ads API here, and download the Amazon Mobile Ads API at developer.amazon.com/ads.
