nativescript: Ads from Admob not working in production

Question

I'm using the nativescript firebase package which includes Admob. When testing in Android, I have my androidInterstitalId set to a test ID that is listed here by Google: https://developers.google.com/admob/android/test-ads . I also have testing flag set to true. This all works as expected. When I prep it production, I put in the value of my real interstital ad, set the testing flag to false and I made sure my AndroidManifest.xml has the following code:

    <meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.APPLICATION_ID"
            android:value="ca-app-pub-(MY ID)"/>

My app went live on production and the ad does not play. The interstitial video was created days ago so it's not new. Below is my code but I assume it's not the code since it's working locally -- just not on production.

mounted() {
   setTimeout(() => {
        this.showBanner();
   }, 2000);
},
methods: {
          showBanner: function() {
                firebase.admob.preloadInterstitial({
                     iosInterstitialId: "ca-app-pub-----",
                     androidInterstitialId: "ca-app-pub-(MY ID)",
                     testing: false,
                     iosTestDeviceIds: [],
                     onClosed: () => console.log("Interstitial closed"),
                     onClicked: () => console.log("Interstitial clicked"),
                     onOpened: () => console.log("Interstitial opened"),
                     onLeftApplication: () => console.log("Interstitial left application")
                }).then(() => {
                    firebase.admob.showInterstitial().then(
                      function () {
                        console.log("AdMob interstitial showing.");
                      },
                      function (errorMessage) {
                        dialogs.alert({
                          title: "AdMob error",
                          message: errorMessage,
                          okButtonText: "Hmmkay"
                        });
                      }
                  );
                })
            },

}