At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014, Patrick Pettay from IQzone gave a talk entitled 'The Challenge: Advertising - To Who, What Formats, and don't forget, Timing'
2. COMPARE MONETISATION OPTIONS
Display
Incentivised
Freemium
Model How What
Advertising
Incentivised / Offer Walls
In-app purchases
Access more features
Get more lives
Access more levels, etc.
Download apps = get credits
Banners
Rich media
Video
Native
Click on ad = get goods
3. AD FORMATS MONETIZE DIFFERENTLY
Video
CPM
Fill rate
< $1 $5 - $15
High Low
Global High US centric
Interstitial
$2 - $5
Medium
Medium
Banner
5. .. SO IS MOBILE VIDEO
15 second shorts are the most popular
6. MOBILE ADVERTISING SUPPLY SIDE
PLAYERS
Selection criteria
• Good self service platform
• Good client services function
• Average CPMs
• Global fill rates
• Support for RTB
• Support for mediation
• Open SDK
• Video supported
• Native supported
• Interstitials supported
• “Postitial” supported
8. Before App Session During App Session End Of App Session
TIMING IS KEY
• Interruption with ad = bad user experience
• User must be in right frame of mind
• Serve ads during natural breaks
One should design and operate for all three types
This goes with Strategy of Segmenting out your Users – Optimize for Each one.
90% plus will not do Freemium or Incentivised, so important to know how to do ads
What ad formats to use Depends on your Game, where users are located, etc.
Banner ads = long time around = most fill
Interstitials / Full screen = really developed nicely last two years
I will discuss best practices in a few slides,
Generally, this is how these preform. NATIVE goes across all these
Most Demand Partners (ad networks and Exchanges) can help you take in native ads. This will result in higher CTR
Chartboost one of the first to do for pure gamers
Video is now becoming more available
But still not as high a fill rate
Also if done too much or depending on your game, NOT a great User Experience so need to consider that
Every developer should use a SSP / Supply Side Platform
Bustly was great for gamers, but went away unfortunately, but other great companies out there
Some key BEST PRACTICES: Optimize demand partners on a country by country basis
Best Practices:
Be sure to set up your SSP to bring in solid ads
Use a mix of ad formats, including native and full screen ads
EACH of your games will be different, so spend time testing. It will pay off
TIMING IS KEY
Be sure to do at natural breaks (between levels and when the user is ending the app session).
NOT a fan of at the start, as if you have a high CTR, you are losing users before they play the game
Also do at the end of the game – respect that user’s time in the game with less ads, and at the end say “Thanks for playing”
IQZone works with many of the leading SSPs out there to help you do this so
IQzone works with may of the leading game companies
Includes: Zepto labs, OUtfit7, AI factory