Admob Link To Firebase not Showing in App Settings

Question

I logged into adMob and created an app then created a Banner Unit and an Interstitial Unit.

From there I went to:

Apps -> Select Your App -> App Settings and when I went to look for the Link to Firebase link it's not there. It shows User Metrics instead.

This is the what it should show:

I created 3 different apps and it's not appearing for any of them nor any of their ad units.

Where is the Link to Firebase now located because it isn’t in any of the left sidebar icons or anywhere on that site whatsoever?

Answer 1

The answer to this question is at this moment the link to firebase no longer exists but will be added back in the near future. Here is the the response from Firebase Support (it's also at the bottom of the convo)

There were recent changes in AdMob side where new accounts will be onboarded to User Metrics automatically. At the moment, it wouldn't be possible for new AdMob accounts to link Firebase, but will be likely available again after a few months. Also, AdMob is now working on updating their documentation to explain these changes.

The Firebase Link is optional, it isn't necessary to link to it to serve ads. Read here and it states: Firebase is recommended, but optional. The best way to use AdMob is with Firebase, but for those publishers who aren't ready to make the switch just yet, the Google Mobile Ads SDK can be used as a standalone SDK.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to follow the directions from this page and this page on what to add in your info.plist

Here is a flow of the convo between Firebase Support, AdMob SDK, and AdMob Help Center since I posted this question.

In the comments underneath the original question @DougStevenson suggested that I contact Firebase support which I did:

Subject: Admob Link To Firebase not Showing in App Settings (look in attachment)

FirebaseCore (6.2.2) Firebase/CoreOnly (6.8.0) FirebaseAnalytics (6.1.1) Firebase/AdMob (6.8.0) Xcode 10.2.1 Swift 5

I had an admob account under 1 email address with 3 apps tied to it. All the apps were using test ads and never went live. I decided to change my email address and signed up for another admob account with the new address. Unbeknownst to me you're not allowed to have 2 accounts and there isn't anywhere on any of the pages that said that. After I signed up for the new account and linked some new apps I got an email from the old account saying I cannot have 2 accounts and I needed to delete one of them. I immediately deleted the old account.

1. The first problem is my 3 old apps from the old admob account are still linked to the old account and I cannot unlink them because the account is deleted. There is no mention of them in my new account because I never added them to the new account.

2. I'm assuming because of this in my new admob account there isn't a "link to firebase" link anywhere. I've been looking around for hours and I have no way to link my new apps to my new account because the option is not anywhere to be found (look in attachment).

I went to the the old firebase and added my new email address as an "Owner" under "Users and Permissions" and then did the same thing with the new firebase account (linked the old email address as owner). On neither account do I have access to unlink the old projects and I still can't link my new projects to admob.

There seems to be a firebase bug that got confused with the old admob vs new admob

Here is the account info from the old admob account. These are the apps I want to unlink from admob:

email address [email protected] com.firstAccountCompanyName.appNameOne, -projectId: aaa com.firstAccountCompanyName.appNameTwo, -projectId: bbb com.firstAccountCompanyName.appNameThree, -projectId: ccc

This is the new admob account that doesn't give me the option to link my new apps to firebase admob:

email address [email protected] com.secondAccountCompanyName.appOne, -projectId: xxx com.secondAccountCompanyName.appTwo -projectId: yyy com.secondAccountCompanyName.appThree, -projectId: zzz

Thanks

This was their response:

Firebase Support

Hi Lance,

Apologies, but this seems to be an AdMob specific issue which is beyond our scope of support. Since linking of AdMob and Firebase is done in AdMob console, I would encourage you to use our help resources. You can find answers to most AdMob questions by visiting:

AdMob help center Inside AdMob blog Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers

You may also check this page for common Firebase linking errors. If you need more support, you can contact using one of the forms available in the help center.

Regards,

I then went to Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers and posted the same thing I sent to firebase to the the google groups message board and here is the convo. Pay attention to the second point he brought up (I highlighted it in bold):

Hi Lance,

1. You may visit this page to learn about AdMob's policy on multiple accounts. With that said, note that this forum is for us to assist you in your technical implementation of the AdMob SDK. I would thus recommend posting this particular concern over at the AdMob Help Center instead for further assistance, as the product specialists there will be able to provide better insights on this.

2. I can confirm that I could not see any mention of Firebase linking during my investigation as well. I will discuss this with the rest of the team, and get back to you on this as soon as possible.

Regards

My reponse to the team member:

Thank you for getting back to me, I really appreciate it. I sent a message to the Firebase team and their response was

"Apologies, but this seems to be an AdMob specific issue which is beyond our scope of support. Since linking of AdMob and Firebase is done in AdMob console, I would encourage you to use our help resources. You can find answers to most AdMob questions by visiting ..."

I'm sort of in limbo as I've been googling around since yesterday and it seems to be a weird situation. Anyway again I appreciate the help and hopefully there is a resolution.

Cheers!

His response:

Hi Lance,

Thank you for your patience on this matter.

I've discussed your concern with the rest of the team, and we've come to the recommendation that you post this concern over at the AdMob Help Center as well, since the product specialists there will be able to assist you better on this non-technical concern. Don't forget to include the same screenshots as you've posted here to help in expediting assistance.

Regards,

I posted the same question to the AdMob Help Center and the response I got was from this person but I'm unsure if this an AdMob specialist or a regular person:

Jess Day

hi there, Confirm that you're using the same email address for both AdMob and Firebase. Confirm that the project you're linking to hasn't been deleted.

My response:

@JessDay, hello yes the email address for both are the same. The new email address is in the same browser for login on both platforms.

Both projects are still active but neither are live, they are both local to my cpu. I haven't deleted the old project because I still use it for testing.

That's pretty much where things are at the moment.

I did find another thread where someone else had the same problem so at least I know it's not something that I did wrong and isn't unique to me.

Update

Its been a week and nothing from anyone about this very frustrating ridiculous problem. I emailed the original person i spoke to at adMob and even though he admits there is a problem he says there is nothing he can do to help. He can't even email anyone over there. Horrible Horrible Horrible.

My follow up email:

Hello Ziv,

I still haven't heard from anyone about this odd issue. Is there anybody on your team who possibly knows someone over there who can find out what the issue is? If you look at this link https://support.google.com/admob/thread/12976824 you'll see that others are having the same issue and it seems more and more people are running into this problem. Even the adviser on the page Britonatona is perplexed about this issue. She basically passed the buck.

I've tried everything imaginable and the link does not exist. Maybe you can make a foo account and see for your self. The docs on this page https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9263723, under Enable User Metrics gives directions on how to enable User Metrics. The problem is the docs on this page https://support.google.com/admob/answer/6383165?hl=en literally give the same exact instructions on how to link to firebase following the same exact instructions from the first page. One of them of them is wrong. Someone on one team must've made a decision without consulting someone on another team because both sets of instructions are current but yet the link to firebase is no longer there. Also, on the main page where you can view all of your apps, there used to be a link to firebase on the right hand side of the page for each, it's no longer there, user metrics is now there (attachment).

I've linked Analytics and Google Ads via Firebase Database (attachment) but nothing helps. I'm actually launching an app this week and I'm stuck because I can't link the project to my account and there isn't anyone I can contact for assistance.

Please from one developer to another developer see what you can find out.

Thanks

His response:

Hi Lance,

Thank you for sharing the results of your extensive investigations on your side.

I did check the presence of any Firebase options in my own AdMob test account the first time you've shared this concern with us, and can confirm the lack of it on my end as well.

At this point, I must apologize for the back-and-forth discussion that we've been having; I would also, however, like to reiterate that this forum is for us to assist you on the technical implementation of the AdMob SDK. For non-technical matters, I would still recommend contacting the AdMob Help Center for further assistance. Regards, Ziv Yves Sanchez Mobile Ads SDK Team

My response with no response back:

Hi Ziv, Yes I remember you said you couldn't see it on your side. The thing is I'm not sure what type of problem this is. Is it a technical problem or a design change without updating the docs. That's where the problem lies, the docs say one thing but shows another.

I posted the issue to the forum but other people also posted the same issue and no one has gotten any results.

I have no idea what to do at this point. The only thing I can do is keep reposting the same issue.

This is crazy. How does someone in one part of a company acknowledge a problem on the company's end and instead of helping you they just say in but so many words "ehhh just go post that problem over there".

Update 9/27/19

It's been about 2 weeks now and still nothing. Someone else had the same problem and I added the below comment to their thread and an admin name Rodrigo F finally took notice and thankfully took action:

Here's a screen shot of the convo:

Update 10/08/19:

Rodrigo F

Here is the answer I received from the team:

In this case the pub can reach out to the Firebase support - https://firebase.google.com/support?category=troubleshooting&hl=en This may also happen due to the complexity of Firebase. Firebase can only be linked with the first email id that was used to create it. For example if the company has 2 employees and Firebase was created using the id of Emp1 then Emp2 cannot use his email id or company email id to relink Firebase (in the absence of Emp1).

My Response:

@RodrigoF Thanks for getting back to us.

A few things:

1. The link they gave us sends us to Firebase but the very first thing I did before I posted here was contact Firebase directly (at that exact link) about this issue and their response was to post over here:

"Firebase Support -Subject: Case 00010594

Hi Lance, Apologies, but this seems to be an AdMob specific issue which is beyond our scope of support. Since linking of AdMob and Firebase is done in AdMob console, I would encourage you to use our help resources. You can find answers to most AdMob questions by visiting: AdMob help center Inside AdMob blog Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers You may also check this page for common Firebase linking errors. If you need more support, you can contact using one of the forms available in the help center. Regards"

2. I followed their directions and posted the problem here https://groups.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/google-admob-ads-sdk/ios/2GvjpxbIzaU. I spoke with Ziv Yves Sanchez and when he tried on his end on his machine he also confirmed that the link was missing:

"I can confirm that I could not see any mention of Firebase linking during my investigation as well." "I did check the presence of any Firebase options in my own AdMob test account the first time you've shared this concern with us, and can confirm the lack of it on my end as well."

Ziv said to post the problem over here in the AdMob Help Center:

"Hi Lance, Thank you for your patience on this matter. I've discussed your concern with the rest of the team, and we've come to the recommendation that you post this concern over at the AdMob Help Center as well, since the product specialists there will be able to assist you better on this non-technical concern. Don't forget to include the same screenshots as you've posted here to help in expediting assistance."

3. I posted the question https://support.google.com/admob/thread/13983460?hl=en and got no response

4. I had my daughter create an account at AdMob from her gmail on her phone (I never accessed AdMob nor FB from her device before) and she had nothing in Firebase nor did she ever have an AdMob account before. After she created an app for AdMob the Firebase link was not anywhere to be found. How can they explain that? There were no other employees nor any other accounts nor anyone else.

5. In my situation I created an AdMob account under one email address, linked it to one Firebase account, then created another email address and linked to an entirely different Firebase Account. I got an email that said I needed to delete one of them because i was only allowed to have 1 account. I followed the email and deleted it. The thing is after following the directions I was given the Firebase link still didn't show.

6. The response the Firebase teammate gave seems to explain one problem but it doesn't give a solution. I doubt all the people in this thread created 2 accounts like me but more importantly the account my daughter made was completely brand new/fresh and the link didn't appear for her either. Ziv Yves Sanchez (an AdMob team member) also acknowledged the issue. This seems to be beyond 2 people with email addresses for 1 firebase account.

7. So now that the Firebase team member sent that response what should we do next? Can you please find out a solution because as i said earlier I already posted to them and they said to post it over here.

8. Have you tried to make a brand new test account just to see if the link appears for you?

The problem is Firebase Support said to post to Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers who said to post to the AdMob Help Center who said to post to Firebase Support.

Regards,

Update 10/09/19

As I stated in my earlier messages when I first ran into this problem I contacted Firebase Support and they told me to contact the AdMob SDK team who told me to contact the AdMob Help team who told us (everyone in the thread) to contact Firebase Support.

I reached back out to Firebase Support via the previous email communication we had about this issue and I also created a new ticket. In both messages to them I explained the way I was told to go back right to them and asked the rep to create a new AdMob account, look at the docs on how to add the Firebase Link, and he would see that the link has been removed. Here is his response below:

Hi Lance,

I'm sorry that you had to go all through these circular responses. I noticed that you opened a new ticket reporting the similar issue. I'll be closing the new ticket (#0015676) to avoid duplicate efforts and please refer to this ticket for my responses moving forward.

I tried creating a new account in AdMob and I can confirm that the option to link Firebase doesn't exists in AdMob console. It seems like there are changes in the front end of AdMob console for newly created accounts. Since the changes are from AdMob console, I can't guarantee that I could provide solutions but I'll do my best anyway. I'm currently discussing your issue with our gurus. I'll get back to you within a week or as soon as I have information to share.

Thanks, Richard

Update 10/10/19

I just got this message back from Richard a Firebase Support. The firebase link is no longer available. They have to update their docs to reflect that.

Thanks for your insights. It looks like it is currently an intended behavior. There were recent changes in AdMob side where new accounts will be onboarded to User Metrics automatically. At the moment, it wouldn't be possible for new AdMob accounts to link Firebase, but will be likely available again after a few months. Also, AdMob is now working on updating their documentation to explain these changes.

I asked will I be able to still serve ads with the App ID in the info.plist and the App Unit ID in the view controller and I'm waiting for his response. I'll update once I get it.

Last Update 10/14/19:

Here is a message from Kate at AdMob Help. The link to Firebase is not necessary to serve ads.

Here is the link from the image

Specifically: