How can I make my ads appear faster in my android app?

Question

I've put some ads into one of my android apps and I'm just testing it out on my device.

When I load up my app, it can take around 5-10 seconds for the ad to display. Realistically, the user would have moved onto another screen by then so would never see them.

Is there any way I can have the ad show instantly? If not, how can I ever get ads to display in time for the user to see them (and potentially click)?

I could add some thread delaying on the buttons to stop them doing anything until the ad shows, but that's incredibly dirty...

Answer 1

Add a splash screen on the application (ImageView over the layout of your main screen), and make it disappear when you receive an add (there's an ad listener on AdMob and most ad providers) or if there's no ad to show. As for the other screens, there's not much you can do other than showing a ProgressDialog until the ad shows, but your users won't like it.