Quarantine during the height of the pandemic wouldn’t have been the same without Candy Crush, Fruit Ninja, or Clash of Clans. The COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and stay-at-home lifestyles have driven massive growth in the app economy for traditional gamers and first-time gamers alike.
Mobile games, in particular, exploded in popularity, seeing over a 45% increase in game installations from 2019 to 2020, blooming into a $120b+ industry. As a result, in-game advertising has become much more sophisticated over the years, proving to be one of the most effective revenue channels for mobile apps today.
In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about in-game advertising including the benefits, formats, expert strategies, and more. 카지노사이트
What is in-game advertising?
In-game advertising sells ad space within mobile games as a monetization strategy. These ads come in multiple formats. They can be integrated directly into the game by rewarding users for watching video ads or the ads can show up like traditional banner ads at the bottom of your game screen. We’ll come back to different ad formats in a later section.
What are the benefits of in-game advertising?
In-game advertising provides a symbiotic relationship between publishers and advertisers. For advertisers, in-game ads are a highly interactive and engaging way to interact with users. For publishers, ads are an effective revenue driver and provide a gateway for users to spend more within the app. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Generate revenue – and lots of it
n a world where free-to-play dominates the marketplace, integrating advertising into your mobile game can generate scalable revenue. According to Venturebeat, in-game ad revenue is projected to reach $56b in 2024.
Increase in-app purchases with psychology
Rewarding players with in-game currency for interacting with ads can show users the value of in-app purchases without committing to anything besides watching an ad. Ultimately, it utilizes the foot-in-the-door technique, or getting a prospect to agree to do something small to increase the likelihood of getting them to accept a bigger task. In this case, spending money for in-game benefits.
Get your gamers to game some more
The most effective in-game ad strategy pairs good user experience with an effective rewarding system. Offering your players high-value rewards can keep them engaged for a longer period of time, incentivizing them to come back and continue playing your game. Feeding the reward loop is both an art and a science that requires testing.
Reach new audiences far and wide
Long gone are the days where you could only target young male teenage gamers. Surprisingly, the gender split for mobile game audiences is 51% female and 49% male. And against conventional wisdom, advertisers can now use gaming apps as an effective and diversified marketing channel instead as mobile game adoption continues to accelerate. While the demographic data skews to a younger audience, two-thirds of all internet users aged 55 to 64 play video games, and the number continues to climb by the day.
8 types of in-game advertising formats
Rewarded ads & rewarded video ads (RV)
Rewarded video ads offer users in-game bonuses in exchange for watching a full-screen ad. These ads range from 15 seconds to 1 minute and usually cannot be skipped. Rewarded ads provide a positive experience for both users and publishers, as users don’t have to pay for superior in-game content such as winning in-game currency, unlocking new levels, or receiving unique items. In return, publishers gain exposure and have incredible engagement rates.
Interstitial ads
Interstitial ads are full-screen and interactive advertisements that appear between in-game activities or levels. These ads provide high visibility, but due to their potentially disruptive nature, it’s important for advertisers to use interstitials sparingly and non-invasively. 안전한카지노사이트
Users are then prompted to do one of the following:
Watch through the entire ad
Engage with the ad and visit the promotional page
5-second delay before skipping the ad
Interstitials also typically end with a call to action to download the app. Interstitials are most effective in between stages without having to interrupt the flow of the game.
Display banners
The most common type of ad is the display banner. They’re often at the top or the bottom of your screen with rotating designs and creatives. However, due to banner blindness, performance on native banners is trending down. They have low viewability, recall, and oftentimes generate little to no revenue. On the other hand, ad placements are cheaper for advertisers who want to run a large-scale branding campaign.
Playable ads
Playable ads are interactive ads where users are prompted to play a quick demo of the game they’re advertising. According to SmartyAds, this gamified ad format performs 8x better than traditional interstitial ads. The ads come in three parts:
A quick explanation of game mechanics
Short, playable demo
A call to action to download the game
Offerwall
Similar to rewarded ads, offerwalls ask users to install other apps, fill out surveys, or play games in exchange for in-game rewards. 카지노사이트 추천
While payout for publishers were high, many ad networks have banned offerwalls due to low performance. In 2018, Apple began cracking down offerwalls as they deemed it to be a way to manipulate the App Store charts.
Coupon ads
Coupon ads provide users unique voucher codes to redeem prizes and discounts in the real world. This online-to-offline strategy targets advertisers focused on driving foot traffic with physical brick-and-mortar locations.
Cross-promotional ads
Cross-promotional advertising is the marketing strategy to promote a parent company’s apps on their own network of apps, especially when they notice a higher likelihood to churn. This strategy is a free way to promote their highest revenue-generating game at no cost besides the opportunity cost of not selling ad space to other advertisers. However, we recommend you exclude your highest spenders in cross-promotional ads to keep them spending on the games they already love.