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Advertising in free-to-play games delivers up to $3,000 a day, says Kiloo's Simon Møller

Based on 250,000 DAUs

Advertising in free-to-play games delivers up to $3,000 a day, says Kiloo's Simon Møller

The monetisation of free releases may have increasingly shifted towards the freemium model, but Kiloo CCO Simon Møller believes dismissing in-app advertising is a mistake.The Danish studio uses advertising as a second revenue stream in its free releases, according to Møller, and from a base of between 100,000 and 250,000 daily active users (DAUs), it generates up to $3,000 a day.No complaints"Up until April 2011, direct user acquisition on iOS was dominated by Tapjoy with their incentivised installs," said Møller in a column on GamesBrief."Apple severely limited this practise last year. Chartboost, Playhaven, Flurry etc stepped up and filled the space."In 2011 and Q1 2012 we've generated significant revenue from primarily ChartBoost and secondarily AdColony in addition to IAP."Møller said that, while many believe users are adverse to in-app advertising, Kiloo can "count the number of complaints over the ads on one hand".If the game is good, he contests, and the userbase is solid, it can deliver vital additional revenue.Gaining controlBut not all platforms are equal.Møller said experiments with both AdMob, iAd and Nexage in the past delivered very limited effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM), with the developer having no control over ads that often have no relevance.Tapjoy, he claims, also now delivers very limited revenue as the incentivised model fell away on iOS.In contrast, ChartBoost and AdColony serve as stable bases that the like of Flurry and Playhaven can compliment.In all, working with the first two has enabled Kiloo to pick up anywhere between $500 and $3,000 a day from between 100,000 and 250,000 DAUs."We have been happy with ChartBoost and AdColony in combination in the past, and we will continue to use advertising as a secondary revenue stream as long as we feel our userbase is comfortable with the methods we apply," concluded Møller.You can read Kiloo's findings in full over on GamesBrief.


With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.