This page has answers to some frequently asked questions about Prebid Mobile. If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, there are other ways to get help.
Compiled sizes:
Note: these sizes will go down as several assets will be pulled out into a CDN over the coming months.
The Prebid SDK has no localized UI components.
Most probably you will use an integration approach that doesn’t utilize UI component at all, as they are used only with the Rendering API.
No.
No.
Prebid SDK is always async. The completion handler for the main fetchDemand() method is called asynchronously when the bid response (or timeout, network error, etc.) is received. The app defines the desired timeout.
Prebid SDK does not support a limited bid cache like Prebid.js does. Which means it’s up to the app to build any kind of pre-fetch or bid-cache feature. Notes:
seatbid.bid.exp field for each bid, which is the expiration of the bid in seconds.Prebid does not support Unity directly and no one in the community has recent experience with it. We believe that it may be possible to call for bids using the [custom bidding integration(/prebid-mobile/modules/rendering/ios-sdk-integration-pb.html) approach.
Contributions from the community (whether code or documentation) would be welcome.
Prebid Mobile SDK is bundled with the Open Measurement (OM) SDK. If you will be using Prebid Mobile SDK to render ads, then the Open Measurement signals are available and are passed in the ad request. If you are using different SDK (e.g. GAM) to render ads, then the OM signals should be checked with the respective SDK (e.g. if there is OM SDK dependency there).
No, the Prebid SDK is currently not certified with the IAB. The open-source nature of the Prebid SDK means that app developers can modify the code, which means that publishers requiring certification need to reach out to the IAB and get their particular implementation of the Prebid + OM SDK dependency certified.
Advertisers can leverage 3rd party vendors of their choice when measuring viewability using OM SDK. Majority of the vendors are providing viewability scores for all types of the OM SDK integrations allowing advertisers to independently measure viewability across any publisher independently of their certifications. The only known exception currently is MOAT. This vendor is known to nullify the viewability scores if the integration is not certified. In this case, publishers can directly reach out to the IAB and get their own version of the Prebid SDK integration with OM SDK dependency certified.
More details available at:
No.
No. The Prebid SDK is itself a library open sourced under the Apache 2 license.
Yes - the app developer must have a Prebid Server at their disposal. This is open source software that they may run themselves, or they may contract with a Managed Service.
Yes. Its main job is to formulate requests to Prebid Server to obtain bids for ad units.
The frequency of HTTPS network calls is up to the app developer. It depends on whether and how frequently ad units are refreshed. The payload size will depend on how many ad units are present in the app and what kind of consent strings are present. For one ad unit, the size should be under 2KB, with each ad unit adding a couple hundred bytes.
It varies, but on average, it’s updated about once per month.
The open source repos have a list of releases:
The best way is to integrate SDK via dependency managers - CocoaPods (iOS) and Maven (Android). You can specify the particular version or point the dependency manager to the latest SDK version. In the second case, the new version of SDK will be added to the app as soon as released.
Please open a github issue:
Yes, you may monitor github issues and pull requests at the repositories noted above.
Yes.
If the developer calls certain functions, the SDK will store the results for future auctions. See the “Local Storage” section of https://docs.prebid.org/prebid-mobile/pbm-api/android/pbm-targeting-android.html
In all other cases SDK plays a transport role. It collects information from API (if it’s allowed by privacy settings) and sends it in the bid requests to the server. SDK uses the following datasources:
The Prebid SDK sends information provided by the publisher using the Targeting API. We recommend that publishers avoid targeting to personal information unless reviewed by their own legal teams.
The SDK will send IP address and device latitude/longitude information. Prebid Server will anonymize requests as required by regulations, including GDPR, COPPA, CCPA. See the Prebid Server privacy features for more details.
Yes - the SDK will forward TCF consent strings to Prebid Server where requests may be anonymized or restricted. It is up to the entity hosting Prebid Server to configure the server properly.
Also note that Prebid.org is committed to other privacy initiatives such as the IAB’s Global Privacy Platform, including US National Privacy and TCF-Canada.
SDK does’t commit any action on managing user data. Only publishers using SDK’s API can provide/store/remove user data.
No, because the Prebid SDK is an open-source SDK, that doesn’t have a single domain to send bid requests.
However, here is the list of items that the app developer can add to the application’s privacy manifest to cover Prebid SDK activity and data consumption:
NSPrivacyTracking - true. Because Prebid SDK collects IDFA.NSPrivacyTrackingDomains - the tracking domain for the PBS.Pay attention - if NSPrivacyTracking is true, the tracking domain is provided, and the user doesn’t allow the app to track him or her, iOS will block the bid requests. Prebid SDK doesn’t support tracking and non-tracking endpoints yet. Follow the issue for the details.
NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypes array should contain the following NSPrivacyCollectedDataType items: NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypePreciseLocation, NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeCoarseLocation,NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeDeviceID, NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeProductInteraction, NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeAdvertisingData.The values for NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeLinked and NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypeTracking in each entry depend on your demand partners, you should consult with them to provide proper info. Neither SDK nor Server uses these data for tracking or linking.
The NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypePurposes array should contain NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypePurposeThirdPartyAdvertising and/or other purposes your demand partners require.
NSPrivacyAccessedAPITypes array should contain the NSPrivacyAccessedAPICategoryUserDefaults item. The NSPrivacyAccessedAPITypeReasons for this item should contain CA92.1 value.The SDK will receive responses from Prebid Server in the background and call the application-defined callbacks.
The developer may set up auto-refresh for ad units. If in the background, Prebid SDK will not perform bid requests.
No. We’d welcome any community member to help us with requirements, code, and/or results.
Is not measured, but very fast. Because it makes only initialization of internal classes and optional health check calls to PBS. The result of the health check call does not influence the SDK behavior, so publishers may not wait for its result during the initialization.
The main difference is that with Original API, the Prebid demand is rendered by the Ad Server SDK (Google Mobile Ads SDK) using Prebid Universal Creative. But with Rendering API, Prebid SDK renders the winning bid in its own Web or Video views.
Yes. Prebid SDK is developed with latest Xcode version.
Yes - https://cocoapods.org/pods/PrebidMobile
Starting with 2.1.0: No
Yes.
Android API 32.
No.