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How Miniclip doubled CPMs in Agar.io

Growth of playable ads

How Miniclip doubled CPMs in Agar.io

Miniclip's Agar.io was one of the viral app store hits of 2015.

The real work for Miniclip, however, has been turning those millions of active players into something it can monetise.

Part of the solution has come with the introduction of meta-play, including a currency system which feeds into customisation, levelling up and other value exchanges.

More recently, however, the company has been working with Twitter-owned MoPub to introduce playable ads into the mix.

MoPub points out that while playable ads have a lower click-thru rates (CTR) than static ads, they have much better engagement, so advertisers pay more to run playable campaigns.

On the up

And this has been proved by the results.

The CPMs for the playable ads are 2.1x higher than other fullscreen formats, while in March 2016, 41% of Miniclip's advertising revenue came from playable ads, up from 28% in February.

You can experience an example of the sort of playable ads here.

"Running playable via the MoPub Marketplaces doubled CPMs across other interstitial inventory within Agari.io, commented director of advertising Pieter Kooyman.

"This format accounts for a growing portion of the revenue we're able to generate across our apps, and was especially important for us during the quieter first half of the year."

And now Miniclip is running such ads across its entire portfolio of games.

You can read the full case study on the MoPub blog.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.