Cordova-plugin-admob-free showing black bar when testing is set to false

Ionic Framework ionic-v3
1

I have tried everything, but can’t get admob free to render a banner in my Ionic 4 app.

Notes:

  • Test ads are showing fine in both Android and iOS with isTesting = true. Great.
  • Google test bannerAdId works with the code as below (isTesting = false): ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/6300978111
  • Information in AdMob account is all filled in including payment method + address.
  • The app is not in the store yet, I wanted to check the ads work with their respective Ids first.
  • Swapping out isTesting for the ad Id causes:
  • Android: no banner at all
  • iOS: black bar where banner should be

Here’s how I’m showing the ad, being called in app.component.ts:

    this.platform.ready().then(() => {
      this.showBannerAd();
    });

Ad setup code (yes, each of my bannerId strings are definitely correct):

  showBannerAd() {      
    this._AdmobFree.banner.config(<AdMobFreeBannerConfig> {
      id: (this._UIService.isAndroid()) ? 
      this._ConfigurationService.googleAdMob_bannerId_android : 
      this._ConfigurationService.googleAdMob_bannerId_ios,
      isTesting: false,
      autoShow: false
    });
    
    this._AdmobFree.banner.prepare();
    
    try {
      this._AdmobFree.banner.show().catch(e => {
        this._EmailService.sendLogEmail(<Log> {
          error: JSON.stringify(e)
        });
      })
    }
    catch(e) {}
  }

Anyone had this problem before - maybe it’s something up with my AdMob account details?