Google service Ads behaves differently than AdMob SDK while loading ads?

Question

I recently migrated my project from AdMob SDK to Google service Ads, however I got a tiny problem with the Google service Ads.

I have a banner ad view in the activity, and I would dynamically adjust the buttons in the layout depending on whether or not an ad is loaded. It worked fine when I used AdMob SDK, but now with Google service Ads, the banner is always reserved there with blank before the ad is loaded. And if the ad cannot be loaded (say without network), the blank view is there, which is rather ugly! This is also why I would like to adjust the layout dynamically...

Did I missed anything while I changed the code? Thank you for help!

Here is an excerpt of the java code and layout file:

Java:

import com.google.android.gms.ads.*;
...
public class MyActivity extends Activity {
...
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    ...
    AdView adView = (AdView)findViewById(R.id.ad);
    AdRequest adRequest = new AdRequest.Builder().build();
    adView.loadAd(adRequest);
}
}

Layout XML:

...
  <com.google.android.gms.ads.AdView
    android:id="@+id/ad"
    android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    ads:adUnitId="AD_PUB_ID"
    ads:adSize="BANNER"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

You can add an AdListener, and make the ad visible only when it receives an ad.

The code looks like this:

        final AdView ad = new AdView(context);
        ad.setAdUnitId(publisherId);
        ad.setAdSize(AdSize.SMART_BANNER);

        final AdListener listener = new AdListener() {
            @Override
            public void onAdLoaded() {
                ad.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                super.onAdLoaded();
            }
        };

        ad.setAdListener(listener);
        ad.setVisibility(View.GONE);

        adParent.addView(ad);
        ad.loadAd(new AdRequest.Builder().build());

Since there is/was an issue, that an AdMob ad generates an ANR, when it is destroyed when still loading. I normally also check on the visibility of the ad, before calling pause() or destroy().