Mobile gaming has emerged as one of the hottest sectors in the smartphone industry. Mobile gaming apps have also reinvented advertising concepts and have managed to out-monetize even the best of well established publishers. There are several aspects that can help companies in promoting ads through mobile games which will be explained in the course of the article.
The first of these aspects is the fact that no sane human being enjoys banner ads. Companies lining up to place that little rectangle on the bottom of the screen should keep one thing in mind – any user will avoid that rectangular area on the screen where the banner ad is placed. Problem is that people won’t just click. Critics joke that the low percentage of clicks on these ads can be attributed to fat thumbs rather than cultivated consumer interest. Even developers are finding these banner ads irritating and many developers are quoting Bane’s famous dialogue form the Batman trilogy claiming that they are necessary evils. There is a more efficient way that can be employed to monetize an app instead of banner ads that users’ eyes have been trained to overlook.
Developers are striving to integrate advertising seamlessly into the user experience by employing native ad mechanics. This means the use of app discovery walls, product placement and inclusion of game characters subtly placed in the smartphone experience. These innovative methods are not only bound to get attention from users, they also create unconscious bonds with users, which pays rich dividends in the long run. Native ads have a performance rate 350% more than that of non-native ads in terms of consumer engagement.
The second aspect that developers could pay heed to is the fact that users prefer not to pay for apps anymore. Gaming companies should devise a model which makes money without charging consumers. The freemium business model, as it is better known, is based on in-app purchases by consumers. Purchasing rewards, power-ups, weapons and anything that improves the gaming experience can fall under freemium business model. Developers can also place an extra ad or two in the process of payment during the aforementioned purchases, which can improve developer earnings as well.
Consumers aren’t complaining about this routine, in fact, they seem to be accepting them more readily. This could be because consumers are able to see the financial benefit of advertiser-sponsored content, which is a win-win for both parties.
