A game's profitability can be increased significantly by integrating brand advertising and offer-based payments into its environment as these are effective retention and monetization tools, respectively. The integration of branded video advertising is a highly effective retention-boosting tool as it creates an optimal value exchange for the user¬ — supplying them with dynamic, targeted content and virtual currency. These engagement campaigns deliver extremely high completion rates— typically averaging over 90%. Since the experience is literally frictionless – users get rewarded simply for watching and occasionally interacting with ads in an embedded player – they also have far lower abandonment rates. This is a great way to “hook” users by allowing them to demo the game and is far more effective than “seeding.” This tactic increases user’s stickiness on two fronts — it keeps them logged into the game environment longer as they interact with advertising in the natural flow of gameplay and it keeps users logging into the game as they don’t want to “waste” the currency they’ve earned. Offer-based payments are a great way to convert users into direct payment customers because it exposes them to premium content without them having to open their wallets. Once the user has sampled virtual currency and/or items, they become more likely to also invest actual money and a large percentage convert to paying users. To further the effectiveness of offer-based payments users can be rewarded with virtual items for returning to the game through special promotional offers. This is a great way to ensure users are coming back after the initial re-engagement. For instance, if a user logs into a game a certain number of times or at a specific time, they would then be reward with additional currency or a special item. Additionally, these monetization and retention tactics not only are extremely effective with desktop games, but have also seen success on the mobile platform. In the saturated mobile app market, developers have not only been able to retain users, but increase the ARPU of users when user acquisition is at an all-time high. Specific examples of how to use advertising in games as an effective means of monetization and retention will also be presented, including strategies incorporated by publishers such as Digital Chocolate (social games), Bigpoint (online games) and Smeet (virtual world)

1. I pay!

2. ADVERTISER PUBLISHER
Agencies
Browser Games
Ad Networks
Casual Games
Affiliate Networks
Social Games
Video Networks
Mobile Games
…
…
BrandEngage
Offers
Offer Wall
Videos Ads
Offer Banners
Installs
Special Promos
Clicks on
Completes < < < < offer
offer
New
customer < < < User gets
<
for rewarded = Payout for
Advertiser Publisher

4. BrandEngage Video Ads

6. Offer Wall

9. We also do
mobile!
Monetization
Distribution

12. Success factors
Sound game economics
Different revenue streams
Intelligent integration
Localization of offers
Fraud management
Algorithm & technology

13. Positive 57% increase
feedback in in offer
online forums revenues

14. 30%
consistent
increase in
offer
revenues

15. 60% 21%
increase in conversion into
total offer paying
revenues customers

16. Offers make
1.5-2x more
revenues than
app purchases

17. I pay!
I pay!
I pay!

18. When do you join?
and many others…