Leveling Up Your App Economy | Ian Atkinson
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Delivered at Casual Connect Asia 2016. They installed your app...now what? Learn how the top mobile app publishers are engaging and retaining users longer while maximizing monetization and minimizing SDK bloat. Join us as we break down best practices, must-have features, and the apps that are doing it right.
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Leveling Up Your App Economy | Ian Atkinson
- 1. Casual Connect USA July 2016 Leveling Up Your App Monetization Ian Atkinson VP, Games Publishing
- 2. 2 Session Overview Strategic Rationale Ad Network Insight Align Your KPI’s In-Game Best Practices What we are going to talk about? Best Practices
- 3. Reasons for Video Ad Monetization 3 Diversifies & helps maximizes your revenue streams Monetizes more of your audience Doesn’t leave money on the table Provides capital for ongoing development Tool for incentivizing core game loops Strategic rational for video ad monetization
- 4. Important Things to Note Insights from an ad network viewpoint 4 Ad Networks are not ATM’s; Advertisers drive the business Advertisers want Reach, Users, LTV and ROI Publishers can influence their success; Users have value The first impressions are most important, and so are the rest Ad Networks want publishers to make the most possible
- 5. 5 Know Your Publisher KPI’s Daily Active Users 225K Use Rate / DUV 20% Frequency 3 per DUV KPI’s that Publishers control Impressions/ Day 500K
- 6. Know Your Ad Network KPI’s KPI’s that Ad Networks control Fill Rate Install Rate eCPM* 6 >90% 0.35% $7.00 * Global eCPM; eCPM vary by geographic region
- 7. 7 Know Your Publisher KPI’s KPI’s that Publisher and Ad Network care about Global ARPDUV $0.01 U.S. ARPDUV $0.03 ROW ARPDUV $0.004
- 8. 6 Steps to Leveling Up Video Monetization Guide to maximizing video ad revenue Design to monetize1 Offer multiple rewards2 Strategize ad placements3 Create seamless experience 4 5 Analyze and optimize6 8 Test early and often
- 9. #1 Design to Maximize Views Don’t wait until a game is launched to include video ads Forecast How can you best get X frequency per DAU? Plan What are your goals? How will you monetize? Strategize How can video enhance the gameplay experience? Commit Are Ads an piece of your economy? Has everyone bought in? 9
- 10. #2 Offer Multiple Reward Options Soft Currency Incentivize users without inflating the paid economy Consumables Boosters & features not otherwise available with IAP Content Gates Consider replacing virality features with gated content Hard Currency Ideal for introducing users to benefits of in-game store Variety in rewards reinforces value of reward video ads 10
- 11. #3 Strategize Ad Placements Prominent in Store Offers should be clear & prominent within the IAP store Clear Cues Leverage video and audio triggers to draw awareness Contextual Fit Support the spirit of the game & leverage characters if able Seamless In-Game Place triggers within gameplay instead of lost in a menu Be thoughtful on when, when and how often your users see ads 11
- 12. #3 Create Seamless Experience Visible Clearly depict value with graphics and special effects Immediate Entice users at the exact moment a reward is needed Engaging Encourage deeper interaction within the session Unique Rewards should not be available through other means Native video provides a positive and desired experience for your users 12
- 13. Benchmark against target KPI’s #5 Test Early & Often Work out issues before featured traffic hits Identify the true potential of the game Integrate early during beta or soft launch Forecast the impact on our ARPDAU Maximize expertise and long-term revenue potential by including in beta tests 13
- 14. #6 Analyze and Optimize DUV’s Focus on maximizing DAU & Use Rate Be serious about and actively manage ad monetization 14 Performance Manage ad zones, A/B Test, Remove bad zones Session Time Match AIPDUV to average session time Blacklist Monitor and optimize blacklists Geo's Know your geo’s for earnings potential
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- 17. Bonus Tips: Another Way to Use Video Ads 17 Videos can also influence other monetization methods Understand Users will know how they can use items Highlight Video highlights the cool and unique features Merchandise Use videos to merchandise your in- app purchases Experience Users get to experience the sight, sound and impact
- 18. 18
- 19. 19 Hungry Shark Evolution In-App Promotion HGE uses video to promote it’s cool power-ups
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- 21. Ask away! Q&A 21
- 22. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- For an Overview, AdColony is a mobile video platform and our main product is video, particularly Rewarded video, So my perspective and most of what I’m going to be discussing is referring to that I want to focus on best practices today. I’ve had a lot of conversations with studios and developers in the past months, to make me think it would be good to have a discussion on the business side of ad monetization as well as in game best practices Strategy and approach Measurements In-game For those considering or integrating, those that have just launched - hopefully some good advice those that are already monetizing, maybe some refreshers or new insights.
- Reality is...only 3 ways to monetize - Paid, IAP, Ads Paid and IAP are challenging Video ads are the main revenue stream for many developers (52%) - Unity Study Monetize More of Your Audience We all know that only 1-2% of users monetize through IAP, so it’s important to access more revenue streams Don’t Leave Money on the Table The fact is users want Reward Video Video Ads are the preferred way to pay for mobile games (71%) - Unity Players regularly watch video ads (61%) - Unity Fund Ongoing Development So maybe you’re monetization strategy and IAP’s are not as effective when you launch. Rather than bleed cash while you tune and optimize, you can use video ads as capital to fund that development Incentivize All Core Game Loops It’s best to think of Reward Video as a way to incent core game loops - engagement and retention Use Rewarded Video to trigger an action that increases those KPI’s Common Assumptions Why Not Users want to see video - Unity Developers don’t see a drop in retention (>10%); in fact most see retention rise (62%) IAP is not impacted by video ads (86% did not see impact) Mid-Core Games - Freeblade, World of Tanks Blitz, The Walking Dead
- Ad Networks are not ATM’s Ad Networks want to maximize your revenue, but they sole purpose isn’t just to give you money...The money comes from the advertisers and they are looking for a return on their spend Advertisers want ROI As a publisher your inventory as value which is reflected in your eCPM and that can vary by ad network, by region, by seasonality It’s like television, if you have a hit, advertisers want in If you have a hit game, advertisers will want in; if you have quality users, advertisers will want in Low eCPM/Net Earnings may be the Ad Network, or it can be you Note that the first 3 impressions drive the most value this is what we want but scale is important as well The net net, is this is not a plug and play and then you collect cash. As a publisher you need to be proactive in managing your users to ensure high impressions and eCPM, or earnings But we want to you make the most possible. It’s good for you and us.
- These are what our average and top performing publishers see w/r/t to the key metrics DAU is the total number of users that are available to see a video ad. Depending how you set up your SDK this may be the same as your game DAU or it could be a subset Use Rate is the total number of users that actually see a video ad divided by your Ad DAU Ad DAU is the number of users that actually see an add Frequency is the number of impressions each user sees Your Ad DAU x Use Rate x Frequency = Total Daily Impressions
- Fill Rate, the total Daily Impressions that get filled Install Rate (if applicable), the total of users that install the app after seeing the video ad eCPM, the value per thousand users that an advertiser places on your inventory This is eCPM is global and you will see higher eCPM’s in key regions like US, CA, AUS and UK However, the user base of most publishers is diversifying and we are seeing a lot more Rest of World inventory
- Some Things to Note eCPM is just a number and it would be important if you were only showing one impression. But think of like the stock market. The equity value of a company is the stock price times the number of shares outstanding...well eCPM is the stock price and the total daily impressions are the shares outstanding. Each alone is interesting, but only together do they have significance Work with the ad network to optimize and maximize earnings, it takes a week or so to test and optimize your audience; don’t keep switching ad networks Sometimes your inventory becomes stale to an ad network and it’s ok to switch. Then go back to an ad network after a period to refresh So the key monetization metric is ARPDUV which really reflects earnings and accounts for volume and pricing. This is a number you can combine with your IAP ARPU to quickly estimate your total revenue per DAU Note that ARPDUV fluctuates significantly between regions so your Global looks different than your U.S. than ROW. This matters because your audience geography has a significant impact on your earnings potential
- 6 STEPS TO LEVELING UP VIDEO MONETIZATION So now that we’ve discussed some best practices around strategy and target KPI’s, let’s explore ways to improve your video ad monetization
- Make ads an important component of your economy Create a dedicated ad experience Put ads front and center with dedication button Use rewarded video so users can opt-in/ don’t force the experience Start thinking about this early Challenge designers how can we get x views/ DAU
- Hard Currency Ideal for introducing users to benefits of in-game store Soft Currency Incentivize users without inflating the paid economy Consumables Boosters & features not otherwise available with IAP Content Gate Consider replacing virality features with gated content.
- Contextual Fit Support the spirit of the game & leverage characters if able Clear Cues Leverage video and audio triggers to draw awareness Seamless In-Game Place triggers within gameplay instead of lost in a menu Prominent in Store Offers should be clear & prominent within the IAP store
- Immediate Entice users at the exact moment a reward is needed Visible Clearly depict value with graphics and special effects Unique Rewards should not be available through other means Engaging Encourage deeper interaction within the session
- Have ad zones in place to test during beta and soft launch Just like any other aspect of testing, you want to get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t While not an exact forecast of the game due to traffic and geography limitations, the metrics should give you some insights into the potential performance. A/B test various concepts to maximize testing period
- Heavy focus DUV Use rate is key metric to maximize DUV Ad Zone Performance Add/Remove Ad Placement Increases DUV Increases Impression Improve Funnel to reduce clicks Video A/B test ad placements AIPDUV Session time Match ad zone with session time Understand average session time and know how many videos you can show Maximize the first 2-3 impressions more impression doesn’t equal more money adjust AIPDUV AND Total DUV Monitor and Manage Blacklisting Understand how much you are leaving on the table by Blacklisting Match segmentation to blacklist Open up blacklist during peak advertising periods Open up blacklist during periods where genres are in demand Under the geographic segmentation of your users determines earnings potential match ad network to your games core
- Great game that does an amazing job at integrating videos
- View before a race starts, the videos are presented “inside” the game and not just in menus outside of the active gameplay experience. Clear VISUAL change after watching the video. The slingshot looks more powerful and impressive Another clear VISUAL improvement - after watching the video you get an extra engine with added particle effects to really show the impact Again without the videos And again with the videos - clearly visible and improved gameplay experience.
- To date, very little focus on selling virtual goods Most stores are static image with descriptive text Consider how Amazon or [ ] sell products through sales, reviews, suggestions and...videos! Now publishers can show off their area of effect spells, hero buffs, and powerful weapons Video allows the user to experience the sight, sound and effect of the item
- Hungry Shark Evolution has been using IAP to demonstrate the real value of IAP [Results here]
- Hungry Shark used to just include icons text descriptions of their in-store items. - Coins earned in-game and via IAP and created an internal economy.