While there are a few different ways to monetize games, advertising is one of the most popular methods, particularly for free-to-play mobile games. The more eyeballs you can get on your game and the more clicks you can encourage, the more money you can make as a developer. Only… that dynamic is shifting fast.
While other mediums execute advertising in an innocuous way, integrated with their experience, that is proving to be anything but for games. If you aren’t keeping up with recent trends, you risk losing your players, not reaching new ones, and foregoing a steady income from your games.
Here’s what you need to know.
Understand What You are Actually Doing
There are a few key facts every developer should know as they cling to crumbling monetization models. The first is that if you are using any clickable ad strategy, it removes your player from your game. Removing your player from the game in the hope of earning a few pennies per player is not worth the attrition rate…and this is attrition you are creating not your game.
Thankfully the industry is taking steps to stop this unnecessary practice. With Google’s ongoing removal of third-party cookies, IFDA restrictions, or GDPR, most developers are concerned about the impact of recent changes on user acquisition and monetization.
It’s hard enough to target and reach new paying users and acquire paying customers. So why any developer would implement an ad strategy that is obtrusive to the play experience is simply asking for trouble.
Advertising: The Old Model
While it might be true that advertising is quickly losing its value as a less viable marketing channel and monetization model, PPC advertising was never an efficient way to make money unless you were one of the big guys.
When trying to earn money on advertising, volume is critical. You must count on users opening your app repeatedly over the long haul, or you are inundating your players with constant ads to the point of them having enough and abandoning your game.
Is There a Viable Solution?
Whether you’re an independent developer or a larger app designer doesn’t matter. There is an alternative to advertising that scales not only with your business size but is also more profitable… by leaps and bounds.
That solution is gCommerce. A single gCommerce transaction through a platform like Scuti can generate as much as you can make in five months of ad serving.
Better yet, when combined with earned rewards, gCommerce will help retain users because users earn rewards every time they open the app and purchase a physical item. Also, you make money every time your players make an in-app purchase. And to top that, brand-sponsored rewards that players earn can also be redeemed to make in-game purchases. Now players can make in-game purchases fueled by the products they purchase daily.
The player wins big. They get to buy the sneakers they were looking for. They also receive up to 5% back in the form of rewards, and they can use those rewards to fuel their game experience. And for developers, you just made money from gCommerce; the ads served on the gCommerce platform, and from the redemption of those rewards for any digital items the player purchases. That’s a Trifecta!
Click here to learn more about SCUTI and how it can help you navigate the worrisome waters of advertising, evolve to meet the challenges, and better engage and retain your user base. Better monetization may only be a click away.
