Developers must diversify monetization to survive

This article was written by Paige Cook, Deputy Editor for PocketGamer.biz

PocketGamer.biz: AdInMo recently released a new SDK that offers better ways for advertisers to scale in-game campaigns. Can you tell us a little about what’s new?

Kristan Rivers: AdInMo’s InGamePlay SDK is the first in the market to support both visual and audio in-game ad formats in a single SDK. In addition to display and video banners, for example, on billboards, developers can now also choose audio and rewarded formats, giving greater flexibility across game genres and art styles.

Our latest release also significantly enriches our ability to collect first-party behavioural and contextual data signals, ensuring the highest player/ad relevance.

For example, our proprietary metric, ‘PlayerEngagementScore’, measures and understands player affinity. This means advertisers can target players who are most likely to engage with their campaign, ensuring a better in-game experience for developers and players.

Thinking about how to engage players and value their time is part of a comprehensive, immersive in-game strategy to improve developer retention and monetisation and scale in-game campaigns.

PocketGamer.biz: How exactly can these additions be used to impact monetisation? And how important do you think it is to have a varied approach to ads at a time when UA is proving difficult and costly?

Kristan Rivers: A fundamental premise of advertising is the ability to reach the right person with the right message at the right time.

Immersive ads appeal to brand advertisers and automatically open new monetisation for developers, but the impact is much more than that. The ability to reach the right person drives higher CPMs.

But sometimes, the right message may be to show an ad for an in-app purchase to a player who needs help and is ready to convert to a payer. And the right time could be to show an ad for another game in your portfolio if they are about to churn out.

Developers must diversify monetisation to survive. AdInMo’s product roadmap supports our goal to not just be an Ad SDK for developers, but a monetisation partner.

Our next release is focused on building out AdInMo’s CrossPromo and IAPBoost products, providing tools to support an integrated UA and monetisation strategy.

PocketGamer.biz: What was the decision behind the addition of audio ads? How do you see these ads changing the space, and what should developers know about implementing them in their games? What data can be used to support when and where it is best to have these types of ads?

Kristan Rivers: Adding audio was a natural step in our multi-format toolkit. It’s about giving developers a choice and control about how best to monetise their in-game surfaces.

Implementation can be varied. For example, audio ads are great for fast-paced games where billboard viewability may be an issue. AdInMo can also combine visual and audio ads for high brand impact (and higher CPMs). Our PlayerDataInsights service gives developers optimisation tips to support when and where best to use them.

PocketGamer.biz: What do you think of Google’s announcement of moving into in-game advertising?

Kristan Rivers: It’s a key milestone for the in-game ads ecosystem and an endorsement that immersive formats are powering the next wave of game growth for Google.

I’ve long believed in the potential of mobile games to be a major media channel for brand advertisers, but it requires the scale of a larger ecosystem. Google’s announcement is timely and cements the market potential.

PocketGamer.biz: And what about future plans for AdInMo? Now you have an SDK that supports such a varied approach to advertising, what comes next?

Kristan Rivers: We believe we have a game-changing way to get players to engage with InGamePlay ads while retaining game immersion.

Our future plans involve supporting developers’ hybrid monetisation strategies in-game and continuing to advance our privacy-first approach to addressability.

Everyone agrees that immersive ads improve the player experience, but we understand that scale is required to fully wean developers off the disruptive ads that, until recently, reliably paid the bills.

We truly believe that in-game advertising will help tackle the challenges mobile game developers face, from soaring UA costs to platform & regulatory changes, and power the next growth cycle of free-to-play games.