AdMob Banner Ad not Showing Swift 3

Question

I am working on a SpriteKit game and am implementing banner ads via AdMob (Google Firebase). I have followed Google's tutorials here and here on setting up your first ad request, but when I run the app on either the sim or my device (iPhone 6s), the banner does not show up. Per the tutorials, I implemented the banner view via the Storyboard and the rest was set up programmatically. Below is the code of my view controller.

Q: Why isn't my banner showing?

Follow-up Q: Is it possible to show the banner only on certain SKScenes?

import UIKit
import SpriteKit
import GoogleMobileAds

class GameViewController: UIViewController, GADBannerViewDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var bannerView: GADBannerView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        print("Google Mobile Ads SDK version: " + GADRequest.sdkVersion())
        bannerView.delegate = self
        bannerView.adUnitID = "ca-app-pub-9474695450721030/1823667708"
        bannerView.rootViewController = self
        let req = GADRequest()
        req.testDevices = ["91fbd46dff1179ce0a5e7226cea1ee0b", kGADSimulatorID]
        req.tag(forChildDirectedTreatment: true)
        bannerView.load(GADRequest())
        view.addSubview(bannerView)
        showBanner()
    }

    override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()

        if let skView = self.view as? SKView {
            if skView.scene == nil {

                let aspectRatio = view.bounds.size.height / view.bounds.size.width
                let scene = MenuScene(size: CGSize(width: 750, height: 750 * aspectRatio))

                scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
                skView.ignoresSiblingOrder = true

                if kDebug {
                    skView.showsFPS = true
                    skView.showsDrawCount = true
                    skView.showsNodeCount = true
                    skView.showsPhysics = true
                }

                let transition = SKTransition.fade(with: SKColor.black, duration: 0.5)

                skView.presentScene(scene, transition: transition)
            }
        }
    }

    func showBanner() {
        bannerView.isHidden = false
        let request = GADRequest()
        request.testDevices = ["2077ef9a63d2b398840261c8221a0c9b"]
        bannerView.load(request)
    }

    func hideBanner() {
        bannerView.isHidden = true
    }
}

Answer 1

First of all, you don't need to request a new banner every time you run showAd() . Simply unhide it. The ad you load on launch will remain for the whole lifecycle, and automatically refreshes.

Second, in your viewDidLoad code, you're initializing a banner ad, then loading a completely new one. Make sure that you're loading the same request that you were setting up.

As for calling functions inside your GameViewController from an SKScene, take a look at this: Call GameViewController function from SKScene

Answer 2

Just in case anyone is not seeing the ads after updating the SDK. From my end, I was able to resolve it after much investigation. It is worth noticing that the function name changes after updating the SDK.

The old function is

func adViewDidReceiveAd(_ bannerView: GADBannerView) 

The new function is

func bannerViewDidReceiveAd(_ bannerView: GADBannerView)