Jakub Remiar

Subscription apps will need to switch a little bit more into what Duolingo is doing with ads because, with just subscriptions, you’re still not monetizing around 90% of your users.

You need to think about ad monetization in the pre-production stage, it should be part of the game design and you need to be familiar with the revenue share of IAP vs. Ads.

A big lever to increase Impressions/DAU is to increase the percentage of your DAU that actually interacts with at least 1 ad. A good baseline to reach for this engagement percentage is 60%. You can increase this baseline by spreading the ad placements throughout your game: you do want a core loop where users can watch ads at any time, but also dynamic placements (e.g. when the player runs out of something, or when the user fails, etc.). A more advanced solution is to add ads integrating in game events (e.g. seasonal content).

If it’s a midcore game and there is some kind of economy in it, dedicate a percentage of the economy going into the ads (i.e. game resources to be given through ads). This way you account (from the start) for players to watch ads as a way to progress in the game, so that you can have your player progression under control.

3 top ad placements app developers should start by testing (for an RPG-style game with some economy):

• Ad wheel or wheel of fortune with a big jackpot possibility (with a very small chance to get it)

• Monetizing fail states (if your core loop enables it)

• Some session limiter that you can put on top of ads (e.g. players run out of energy and can get more)

Dynamic conversion tries to adapt to each specific user to find the rewarded ad conversion sweet spot. Example: the reward is random (sometimes it doesn’t even open a pop-up and gives immediate rewards), the type of currency that you are given may be different and if you close the pop-up window then the next time the reward offered will be even better.

Sometimes a community plays a big role in the appearance of an ad placement. For example, this is how the game Bounty Hunter got to adding a re-roll window which gives the opportunity to change the number of contracts (quests) in exchange for an ad view. It does not give the user resources, but allows him to save time - it gives him convenience.

Jakub sometimes uses 25-30s cooldowns between static ads to reduce eCPM degradation.

The other important factor is whether or not an ad has economy (game) impact, whether or not it gives resources to the user. You need to properly budget that into your economy and have a balance with in-app purchases. Jakub advises 15-20% economic gains be from ads.

There are two parts of game monetization:

• External (outside of the game - not directly connected to the gameplay): eCPM (mediation management, country groups, bidding/waterfalls/direct deals)
• Internal (in the game): ads per daily active user, ads engagement, ads placements

Jakub recommends Archero as a masterpiece game in terms of ad integration into the core economy. One example here.

Rewarded ads should thematically fit your game. You should not just copy some placement from another game. Example: your character meets a master who gives you extra HP. You know that there's a long and difficult quest ahead - so you would be glad to take these extra HP. You need that.

Using a consecutive reward mechanism by building a chain of three ads that can be shown in a row (each time with a better reward) makes it psychologically easier for the user to view all three ads.

Implement a "Enable free access" toggle on your paywall to increase conversion rates.

Make sure that the static ads icon is visible during the core gameplay/loop (your prime advertising space): you don't want to hide this icon between some other screens and menus. Example here.

Add a difficult challenge that makes the user perceives viewing ads as a reward and be happy/excited about it. Example: Flying Piñata in Burrito Bison, where you need to catch the Piñata, which is not easy. Having caught the Piñata, the user sees the following screen with a reward (when watching the video).

It is a good practice to use rewards that do not affect the game economy but rather make the game easier or reduces time spent.