At Unite Europe 2016, a panel of mobile gaming experts joined Oscar Clark, Evangelist at Unity Technologies, to discuss how to get the best results when using video ads.
Joining him were:
- Jami Laes, CEO and co-founder of Futureplay Games,
- Saara Bergström, Head of Marketing and Communications at Next Games, and
- Marek Rabas, CEO and co-founder of Madfinger Games
Always changing
Laes started by talking about how "the world is unfinished" and keeps changing, saying that two years ago the mobile industry was adamant that you couldn't make money from ads.
But that isn't to say ads are taking over completely from IAPs. Bergström said that "a common misconception is that if you put ads in your game then people will not buy anything".
She added that Next Games had found that taking away ads completely actually leads to a reduction in IAPs, so the two methods should be used together to maximise monetisation potential.
Getting in their heads
In terms of the psychological aspect of ads, Bergström noted that showing media and exclusive clips from The Walking Dead in Next Game's The Walking Dead: No Man's Land made players more agreeable to video ads, as they were used to watching video content within the game.
Laes added that "they need to want to watch the ad", instead of feeling they have to watch an ad to continue.
As well as this, Rabas pointed out that developers should make the ad button attractive to players, possibly even animated, so that they will be more interested in interacting with it.
However, he was also adamant that monetisation shouldn't be the core of your game, and that developers should focus on the game first and foremost, saying "if the game sucks, it doesn't matter how ads are implemented."
